The idealist ...

I have a confession to make today: I'm not really a fan of Butte. While I can appreciate its history, to me the glory of the place is overshadowed by a legacy of social, economic, and environmental ills that are a poor example for us all ... and that Butte will likely never recover from.

Nonetheless, I know that a lot of fans of Montana are fairly taken by the place ... so here's a poem for you. This is the opening stanza of "The Idealist," written by a gentleman named Berton Braley probably in the first decade of the twentieth century.

She's ugly, you say, old Butte is,
And grimy and black and drear?
Why, partner, I never could see it,
And I've lived here many a year.
There's nothing pretty about her,
But somehow she's strong and free,
And big and rugged and -- well, comrade,
She looks pretty good to me.