Italicized text excerpted from A Measuring Rod, 1920
realizing that the text-books in history and literature
which the children of the South are now studying
realizing children now
are studying
the history of the South
that the history of children in
the South is a realizing of
the history of the South
that the literature of the children
will be the history
of the South
that the South is the children
realizing that the history
has dead children in it
and even the ones from which many of their parents studied before them, are in many respects unjust to the South and her institutions
even the parents are unjust to
the institutions of study
before them
the South studies the South
her institutions are many of their parents
and before them, their parents
from which and from before
them, her institutions, even the ones
in the South, are unjust
from her, their parents respect
the South; from her, their parents before them
respect the South
and that a far greater injustice and danger is threatening the South today from the late histories which are being published, guilty not only of misrepresentations but of gross omissions
which are omissions of gross injustice
which are omissions of gross danger
which are omissions of gross threat
a late history of far greater
misrepresentation is threatening the South:
injustice, danger
a gross guilt, late but not only
late, misrepresented by the
South, threatened by the South
the South a far greater injustice than history,
history, misrepresented, a far greater danger than
the omissions of the South
refusing to give the South credit for what she has accomplished, as Historian of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and one vitally interested in all that pertains to the South, I have prepared, as it were, a testing or measuring rod
I, the South, vitally interested in the
United Confederacy, as Historian, have prepared
to give the South credit
for what the Daughters have prepared,
a measuring rod for one
to give credit
a Historian vitally testing
the Daughters of the South
for what has been accomplished
the South refusing to test her
Daughters with the rod, I, Historian, am vitally interested in
all that pertains to what I have prepared
committees appointed by Boards of Education or heads of private institutions and their teachers can apply this test when books are presented for adoption, so that none who really desire the truth need be hampered in their recommendation for acceptance or rejection of such books.
this test of the truth is
hampered by Boards of Education,
none can accept it
who need be hampered
by teachers or the truth when
accepting books for Education?
the adoption of desire
by private institutions hampered
the acceptance of truth
such truth desires
books, such truth desires
teachers
absolute fairness to the North and South is stressed as only Truth is History Mildred Lewis Rutherford.
Mildred Lewis Rutherford is stressed
as only fairness
stresses the South
History is the North
and South under absolute
stress for Truth
and as Truth is fairness, Truth is
not History or Mildred Lewis
Rutherford
as History is only told by Mildred Lewis Rutherford
Truth is absolute for Mildred Lewis Rutherford
we all learn our History as Truth from Mildred Lewis Rutherford in
absolute fairness, in absolute South, in absolute
death to the children. finding no absolution. no rod.
no confederacy, only ghosts.
Truth wearing absolute
murder, calculation,
Truth wearing white sheets, carrying around
History and Mildred Lewis Rutherford’s head.
Casey Zella Andrews is a high school English teacher in Boston, MA. She has a BA from Hampshire College, MAT from Simmons College, and an MA in Critical and Creative Thinking from UMass Boston. Her most recent work is published in Juked, Open Minds Quarterly, and Beech Street Review. She has never lost a push-up competition to a student.