AN IMPERIAL RESCRIPT

Now this is the tale of the Council the German Kaiser decreed,

To ease the strong of their burden, to help the weak in their need

He sent a word to the peoples, who struggle, and pant, and sweat,

That the straw might be counted fairly and the tally of bricks be set.

The Lords of Their Hands assembled; from the East and the West they drew—

Baltimore, Lille, and Essen, Brummagem, Clyde, and Crewe.

And some were black from the furnace, and some

were brown from the soil,

And some were blue from the dye-vat; but all were

wearied of toil.

And the young King said 'I have found it, the road to the rest ye seek

'The strong shall wait for the weary, the hale shall halt for the weak;

'With the even tramp of an army where no man breaks from the line,

'Ye shall march to peace and plenty in the bond of brotherhood-sign!'

The paper lay on the table, the strong heads bowed thereby,

And a wail went up from the peoples: 'Ay, sign— give rest, for we die!'

A hand was stretched to the goose-quill, a fist was cramped to scrawl,

When the laugh of a blue-eyed maiden ran clear through the council-hall.

And each one heard Her laughing as each one saw Her plain

Saidie, Mimi, or Olga, Gretchen, or Mary Jane.

And the Spirit of Man that is in Him to the light

of the vision woke;

And the men drew back from the paper, as a Yankee delegate spoke :—

'There's a girl in Jersey City who works on the

telephone;

'We're going to hitch our horses and dig for a house of our own,

'With gas and water connections, and steam-heat through to the top;

'And, W. Hohenzollern, I guess I shall work till I drop.'

And an English delegate thundered: "The weak an' the lame be blowed!

'I've a berth in the Sou'-West workshops, a home in the Wandsworth Road;

'And till the 'sociation has footed my buryin' bill, 'I work for the kids an' the missus.

be damned if I will!'

Pull up! I'll

And over the German benches the bearded whisper

ran:

'Lager, der girls und der dollars, dey makes or dey

breaks a man.

'If Schmitt haf collared der dollars, he collars der

girl deremit;

'But if Schmitt bust in der pizness, we collars der

girl from Schmitt.'

They passed one resolution: 'Your sub-committee

believe

'You can lighten the curse of Adam when you've lightened the curse of Eve.

'But till we are built like angels—with hammer and chisel and pen,

'We will work for ourself and a woman, for ever and

Now this is the tale of the Council the German

Kaiser held

The day that they razored the Grindstone, the day that the Cat was belled,

The day of the Figs from Thistles, the day of the Twisted Sands,

The day that the laugh of a maiden made light of the Lords of Their Hands.

TOMLINSON

Now Tomlinson gave up the ghost in his house in Berkeley Square,

And a Spirit came to his bedside and gripped him by the hair

A Spirit gripped him by the hair and carried him

far away,

Till he heard as the roar of a rain-fed ford the roar

of the Milky Way,

Till he heard the roar of the Milky Way die down and drone and cease,

And they came to the Gate within the Wall where Peter holds the keys.

'Stand up, stand up now, Tomlinson, and answer loud and high

'The good that ye did for the sake of men or ever ye came to die—

"The good that ye did for the sake of men in little

earth so lone!'