, when you receive a fare,

Punch in the presence of the passenjare!
A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare,
A buff trip slip for a six-cent fare,
A pink trip slip for a three-cent fare.
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!

CHORUS
Punch, brothers! Punch with care!
Punch in the presence of the passenjare!

It was printed, and street-car poetry became popular. Different papers
had a turn at it, and each usually preceded its own effort with all
other examples, as far as perpetrated. Clemens discovered the lines, and
on one of their walks recited them to Twichell. "A Literary Nightmare"
was written a few days later. In it the author tells how the jingle
took instant and entire possession of him and went waltzing through his
brain; how, when he had finished his breakfast, he couldn't tell whether
he had eaten anything or not; and how, when he went to finish the novel
he was writing, and took up his pen, he could only get it to say:

Punch in the presence of the passenjare.

He found relief at last in telling it to his reverend friend, that is,
Twichell, upon whom he unloaded it with sad results.

It was an amusing and timely skit, and is worth reading to-day. Its
publication in the Atlantic had the effect of waking up horse-car poetry
all over the world. Howells, going to dine at Ernest Longfellow's the
day following its appearance, heard his host and Tom Appleton urging
each other to "Punch with care." The Longfellow ladies had it by heart.
Boston was devastated by it. At home, Howells's children recited it
to him in chorus. The streets were full of it; in Harvard it became an
epidemic.

It was transformed into other tongues. Even Swinburne, the musical, is
said to have done a French version for the 'Revue des deux mondes'*.
A St. Louis magazine, The Western, found relief in a Latin anthem with
this chorus:

Pungite, fratres, pungite, Pungite cum amore, Pungite pro vectore,
Diligentissime pungite.

* LE CHANT DU CONDUCTEUR

Ayant ete paye, le conducteur
Percera en pleine vue du voyageur,
Quand il regoit trois sous un coupon vert,
Un coupon jaune pour six sous c'est l'affaire,
Et pour huit sous c'est un coupon couleur
De rose, en pleine vue du voyageur.

CHOEUR
Donc, percez soigneusement, mes freres
Tout en pleine vue des voyageurs, etc.