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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 IBs 
 
 Labor Rhymes, 
 
 ^/ 
 
 ISAAC KIN LEY. 
 
 ANOKLKS, CAL. 
 1886. 
 
 
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 coocooooooooooooooo 
 
 LABOR RHYMES 
 
 BY 
 
 ISAAC KIN LEY. 
 
 Upward still, in mighty cycles, 
 Slowly moves the multitude, 
 To the final culmination, 
 
 Each man s right is all men s good. 
 
 B. S. PARKEK. 
 Los ANGELES, CAL., April 16, 1886.
 
 TS 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Ifi^ N GIVING these little poems to the public, I am not 
 ^j|l foolish enough to pretend indifference to their recep 
 tion. 
 
 " O wad some power the giftie gie us " to look on the 
 bairns of our brains with the eye of the unbiased critic. 
 Not only " It wad frae ruonie a faut and blunder free us," but 
 save our friends, too, from the infliction of many a foolish 
 book perhaps mine. 
 
 I. K.
 
 TJHE IDAWJMIN DAY. 
 
 0! There be hearts that ache to see 
 The day-dawn of our victory: 
 Eyes full of heart-break with us plead, 
 And watchers weep and martyrs bleed: 
 0! Who would not a champion be 
 In Labor s lordlier chivalry? 
 
 Work, brothers mine; work hand and brain; 
 We ll win the golden age again: 
 And love s milennial morn shall rise 
 In happy hearts and blessed eyes. 
 Hurrah! Hurrah! True knights are we 
 In Labor s lordlier chivalry. 
 
 GERALD MASSEY. 
 
 I sing the dawning of a brightness 
 
 Falling on a sleeping world: 
 Behold upon the eastern mountain, 
 
 Bright the flag of morn unfurled.
 
 8 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 I sing of light dispelling darkness 
 Light dispelling fog and mist; 
 
 I sing the splendors and the glories 
 Of our earth by day-beams kissed. 
 
 I sing the earth, an orb of beauty 
 
 Fair reposing in the day; 
 With all its darkness and its coldness 
 
 Driven by the light away. 
 
 I sing its valleys and its mountains, 
 And its food-producing soil; 
 
 I sing its cities and its hamlets 
 Builded by the hand of toil. 
 
 I sing of man and sister woman, 
 Freed alike from woe and thrall; 
 
 For day that in the east is dawning 
 Shines with equal light for all. 
 
 1 sing the time of peace and plenty 
 All mankind a brotherhood 
 
 No mad ambition war is waging 
 Fields of carnage dyed in blood. 
 
 Brighter shinef the dawning glories 
 Of this welcome, breaking day; 
 
 How rejoice the toiling millions 
 As the clouds and mist give way!
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 Alike for all this day resplendent 
 
 Shall on land and ocean glow; 
 And man himself grow truer, nobler, 
 
 For the light his eyes shall know. 
 
 Not for the few shall then the many 
 
 Drudge, and trudge, and sweat, and moil, 
 
 And of the wealth produced by labor 
 None shall rob them or despoil. 
 
 The earth shall man s be in its fulness, 
 They shall reap alone who sow, 
 
 Nor shall they the toiling millions 
 Hunger in their homes of woe. 
 
 Fair Nature spreads her shining treasures- 
 Light and air and sea and soil 
 
 And comes she with her crown of glory, 
 Binds it on the brow of toil. 
 
 No more shall labor crouch a craven, 
 Begging for the freeman s right; 
 
 But bravely facing unto all men 
 Take its own by right and might. 
 
 For Right and Might shall stand together 
 Married, and the twain be one, 
 
 And Right give Might a constant blessing 
 For each noble deed that s done.
 
 10 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 For on the side of Right shall numbers 
 
 Bravely stand in field or fray; 
 And from before their forward marching 
 
 Shall the hosts of Wrong give way. 
 
 United at the public ballot 
 
 They shall speak with freedom s voice, 
 And after, with the will of freemen, 
 
 Execute the freemen s choice. 
 
 And knowledge then shall come with blessing, 
 
 Labor learn to think and know; 
 The soul exalted by this knowing 
 
 Into higher beauty grow. 
 
 Taught in school of hard endeavor, 
 Toiling hand and thinking brain, 
 
 Shall toilers learn from wrongs they ve suffered- 
 Know their rights and dare maintain. 
 
 Then shall the workers be the thinkers, 
 
 Workers be the ones of worth, 
 And plenteous fall in lap of labor 
 
 Choicest blessins ol the earth. 
 
 
 No more shall Labor then be crouching, 
 
 Begging for permit to toil; 
 But Labor be its own employer, 
 
 Labor own the sea and soil.
 
 LABOR RHYMKS. 11 
 
 No more shall crime be running riot, 
 Mad and drunk with lust and sin; 
 
 But crime that s lawful or unlawful 
 Known shall be as thingflj that s been. 
 
 And looking forward through the vista 
 
 To the speedy coming time, 
 No pen shall lend its storied pages 
 
 To ennoble sin and crime. 
 
 No inhuman, human butcher, 
 
 Blood-stained fiend of Macedon, 
 Shall loud be praised in song or story 
 
 For crimes untold and realms undone. 
 
 No more shall man delight in slaughter, 
 Nor honored be for blood he s spilt; 
 
 No more shall honors due to virtue 
 Guerdon he that s paid to guilt. 
 
 No more shall greatness be in granite- 
 Polished pile on pile that s laid 
 
 But wealth that s been from labor plundered, 
 Back returned to those who made. 
 
 No more be seen the reeling, drunken. 
 
 Hideous making day and night; 
 No more the greedy sons of Mammon 
 
 Curse the earth with sin and blight.
 
 [ 2 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 And no more man shall wrong his neighbor. 
 Kneeling base at shrine of Hate; 
 
 Swei?t Charity the soul elating 
 ( }o()d for evil compensate. 
 
 And everywhere shall honest Labor 
 Learn to work with manly pride; 
 
 And all the earth with plenty filling, 
 Love and joy be multiplied. 
 
 Whate er of good in age called golden, 
 
 Whate er of beauty poets sing, 
 Yet more than these, with all their blessings , 
 
 Shall the day that s dawning bring. 
 
 / 
 
 Then honored be, shall all who labor 
 All who toil with head or hand 
 
 And proud shall Labor s sons and daughters 
 Equal with the highest stand. 
 
 See yonder rise the gorgeous palace, 
 
 Of the millions the despoil; 
 One night within its halls carousing 
 
 ( osts ten thousand days of toil. 
 
 See! round about it are the hungry, 
 Want and woe and wan despair, 
 
 What for the weeping and the wailing 
 Cares the beast that burrows there?
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 13 
 
 In all the land the toiling, plundered 
 
 Victims of his lust and greed 
 From early dawn till night they re toiling 
 
 This remorseless wolf to feed. 
 
 Not always thus shall be the noble 
 
 Toiling bondsmen to the base; 
 Not always thus this bestial gorging 
 
 In the life-blood of the race. 
 
 Look to the east the day is dawning 
 
 Grandly comes the Orient glow; 
 If thus tis beauteous in its twilight, 
 
 What joy the day s full tide to know! 
 
 The earth itself shall put on brightness, 
 
 Brighter be the land and main; 
 And wilderness and desert blooming 
 
 Guerdon be of brawn and brain. 
 
 And fairer then shall bloom the garden. 
 
 Sweeter fruits the orchard yield; 
 And for this dawning, greater harvests 
 
 Co-me from off the well-tilled field. 
 
 About you look and see the glories 
 
 Labor from the earth has won; 
 Of truth I know that Labor s holy, 
 
 Noble each good deed that s done.
 
 14 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 Henceforth, when rise the stately mansions, 
 
 None shall be the price of sin; 
 But honest work of honest workers 
 
 Those who build shall enter in. 
 
 And brighter still shall come the dawning 
 It shall come the perfect day 
 
 See! Higher waves the flag of morning, 
 Brighter are the beams that play. 
 
 Twill be a time of toil and struggle; 
 
 But of toil unmixed with strife; 
 And from the toiling and the struggling 
 
 All shall grow to higher life. 
 
 The noble acts of self-denial, 
 
 < Jenerous deeds for others done 
 
 To house of woe to carry blessings 
 These the proudest laurels won. 
 
 Then each shall find his bliss the greater 
 
 For the blessing that he gives; 
 And man himself shall grow the nobler 
 
 For the noble life he lives. 
 
 ( )h ! Would you hasten on the coming 
 ( )f this bright and beauteous day, 
 
 Would you lift your brother, sister, 
 Up from out the mire and clay?
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 15 
 
 If you would mould them to the beauty 
 Which their constant souls aspire, 
 
 If you would snatch them from the burning, 
 Out from the consuming fire; 
 
 Then forward is the place of duty; 
 
 Stand a hero at the front, 
 And bravely in the hour of struggle, 
 
 Of its dangers bear the brunt. 
 
 And should you find your brothers, sisters, 
 
 Tired and fainting on the road, 
 Aweary of the toilsome journey, 
 
 Weary of the heavy load, 
 
 Reach out to them the hand of helping, 
 
 Speak unto them words of cheer, 
 And point them to the light that s dawning 
 
 With its glories coming near. 
 
 For we should learn to aid each other 
 
 In the turmoil and the strife 
 Should learn to bear each other s burdens 
 
 On the toilsome march of life. 
 
 Should learn to bear life s burdens equal, 
 
 Not to shrink from touch of toil, 
 And gather of the fruits of labor 
 
 From the air and sea and soil.
 
 16 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 Or should you find your brother, sister, 
 Erring on life s downward way, 
 
 Point them to the beauteous dawning 
 Gorgeous with the coming day. 
 
 Tis yours to teach of virtue, duty, 
 Teach of peace, and love, and truth ; 
 
 To teach of upright men and women, 
 Teach of pure and stainless youth. 
 
 For in this time of dawning brightness 
 
 Sin and shame shall flee away, 
 And love, and peace, and truth, and beauty. 
 
 Grandly glorify the day. 
 
 For God will bless the hand of toiling, 
 God will bless the soul that s true; 
 
 Then faithful in the work we re doing 
 Let us walk our journey through. 
 
 We dare not silence thoughts we cherish 
 Virtue, beauty, truth and good 
 
 Though we should find that the baptismal 
 Font should be a font of blood. 
 
 Tis thus the day I sing is dawning, 
 With each truth that s bravely told, 
 
 Still come the day-beams brighter, brighter. 
 Bringing blessings manifold.
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 17 
 
 And in this day we ll walk together, 
 Walk with Truth alone our guide; 
 
 And in our better, nobler living, 
 He the All-Father glorified.
 
 (aOOE) J^IQjHT. 
 
 Good night, good night: each mutual friend, 
 The members of our faithful band, 
 
 Our blessings, each with each, we send, 
 As give we each the parting hand. 
 
 On what is good we ll ponder well, 
 Of all we ve seen and heard to-night; 
 
 And bound in Friendship s holy spell, 
 We ll drink its cup of sweet delight. 
 
 We ll keep our pledges faithful, true, 
 And help along the generous plan; 
 
 We ll honest be in all we do 
 
 And " help each other all we can." 
 
 Nor shall we stop and idly wait 
 
 For chance to do a noble deed; 
 No grudging hand shall hesitate 
 
 When brothers, sisters are in need.
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 Nor shall we hide our light within 
 Our toiling, faithful, noble band, 
 
 Hut others to our order win 
 
 And spread its blessings through the land. 
 
 And upward shall our souls aspire 
 
 Unto the purer, nobler love; 
 And kindle in our souls the fire 
 
 Whose light is of the Light above. 
 
 Good night, good night; each mutual friend, 
 The members of our faithful band; 
 
 Our blessings, each with each, we send, 
 As give we each the parting hand.
 
 When hard-hearted Interest first began 
 
 To poison Earth, Astnea left the plain; 
 Guile, violence and murder seized on man, 
 And for soft, milky streams, in blood the riv 
 ers ran. 
 
 THOMPSON. 
 
 Oh ! Why should tears of sadness fall, 
 
 And sorrow s mourning shroud the heart? 
 
 Why Avarice spread his deathful pall, 
 And make for gold fair Truth a mart? 
 
 The heavens spread their lights on high, 
 Our earth s aglow with loveliness; 
 
 Then why not beaming from the eye, 
 And brother s love a brother bless? 
 
 It e en was so in times of eld, 
 
 In fair Astraea s golden reign; 
 Then man each man a brother held, 
 
 And face that smiled met smile again.
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 21 
 
 Then virtue reigned, each mutual face, 
 
 As joy it met did joy impart; 
 The bliss of each to each we trace, 
 
 As heart in kindness spoke to heart. 
 
 Ah! Sweet it was, I ween, to see 
 
 The peace and love that friends endear; 
 
 The look, the deed of charity 
 
 The mutual smile, the mutual tear. 
 
 Then speech was truth, and guileless thought, 
 And none fair Truth did false construe; 
 
 Hypocrisy there then was nought, 
 
 And love, oh bliss! on earth was true. 
 
 Ne tongue of slander then assailed 
 
 With poisonous breath a brother s fame; 
 
 If meed of praise for one prevailed, 
 The rival generous owned the flame. 
 
 Ne children dug beneath the soil, 
 
 Nor famished mother starved for bread; 
 
 Ne stalwart brother begged to toil, 
 Nor martyrs then for ju$a& bled. 
 
 And in the early, primal day, 
 No need the justice courts impart; 
 
 No need of legal rules the sway, 
 For thine, O virtue! was the heart.
 
 22 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 The bounteous Earth in vernal climes, 
 O man, her plenty spread for thee; 
 
 Ah! Woe it is in latter times, 
 
 We moil and hunger, thirst and dree. 
 
 Astrsea, woe it is, thy reign 
 
 Should lose o er earth and man its sway; 
 Wilt ne er resume thy rule again, 
 
 Of peace to glad this latter day? 
 
 We ne er may drink the cup of life 
 Filled up with sweetness to the brim. 
 
 While peace on earth gives place to strife, 
 And lust for gold the heart cloth dim. 
 
 While man and woman slavish toil 
 That they may reap who do not sow, 
 
 Must sweat of labor curse the soil 
 On which sustaining food must grow. 
 
 J pour my scorn, I set my foot 
 Upon the low-born lust for gold 
 
 It drags to earth the aspiring thought, 
 It drags to hell the aspiring soul. 
 
 I would not have within my breast 
 The soul corrupt the miser feels, 
 
 For all the wealth of Inda blest, 
 
 For all the mines this earth conceals.
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 I would not yield the free-born will 
 And bow to lustful Mammon s spell, 
 
 For all the wealth the coffers fill 
 Of all the millionaires of hell. 
 
 For what s the gewgaw, glittering gold, 
 That man should sell his soul to buy? 
 
 Exchange the soul, of worth untold, 
 For dust that in the earth doth lie. 
 
 With groveling thoughts, hell-born he dijrs. 
 
 In hell-born thoughts his being lives; 
 With baseness, falsehood, low intrigues. 
 
 The miser for his treasure strives. 
 
 Ah! what to him that brother bleeds, 
 Or widow s aching heart is wrung? 
 
 Ah ! what to him are ruthless deeds 
 Of bloody crime or perjured tongue? 
 
 Ah! what to him that tyrant wields 
 The lash upon the toiling slave, 
 
 If but the grudging cotton-fields 
 The lucre yield his soul doth crave? 
 
 Ah! what to him that virgins sell 
 Their virgin fame for sister s bread? 
 
 Ah! what to him but nought? Till hell 
 Shall yield its damned dead,
 
 24 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 Shall he ne er feel for others woe, 
 
 Nor warm his heart with pity s ruth; 
 
 Nor shall his rayless soul e er know 
 The bliss affliction s sigh to soothe. 
 
 ( )h ! when shall earth the brightness see, 
 
 It saw in early primal day? 
 Oh ! when shall gladness fill the ee 
 
 And Love on earth regain its sway? 
 
 Not while the soul can worship dust, 
 Or wealth with blood its coffers fill; 
 
 Not while the low-born, sensual lust 
 
 Shall spread o er earth its cankering ill. 
 
 Not while the base-born lust of gold 
 Shall reason hold subordinate; 
 
 And pure emotions of the soul 
 By passions low be subjugate. 
 
 A fairer day shall come I trow, 
 
 Its light shall fall on land and main: 
 
 When none shall reap who do not sow, 
 And peace on earth resume her reign. 
 
 I give, Astnea, homage thee, 
 
 My dreams have oft thy light beheld 
 Oh! Shall our earth again e er see 
 
 The happy days, the days of old?
 
 TO EUROPE. 
 
 Hail! Ye friends beyond the waters, 
 Struggling for dear Freedom s right; 
 
 Take our hand all men are brothers- 
 More we pledge you, freemen s might. 
 
 Bear aloft your freeman s banner, 
 To the eyes of toil unfurled: 
 
 Blazon there the noble motto: 
 
 RIGHT AND FREEDOM FOR THE WOULD. 
 
 Never more to priest or despot 
 
 Man shall crouch a creeping slave; 
 
 Proudly shall he live a freeman, 
 Dying fill a freeman. s grave. 
 
 Bowing meekly to the tyrant 
 
 Only makes his chains more tight; 
 
 Never can to masters fawning 
 
 Gain for slave the freeman s right.
 
 26 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 Rally round your chosen leaders, 
 
 Strive with sword, and tongue, and pen 
 This shall be your gathering slogan: 
 
 DOWN WITH TYRANTS, UP WITH MEN. 
 
 Tell oppressors, tell them boldly, 
 
 Freedom s sword that s now unsheathed 
 
 Never more shall know its scabbard 
 While God s air by slave is breathed. 
 
 Tell the tyrants, tell them truly, 
 Freedom s banner now unfurled 
 
 (Joes from conquest on to conquer, 
 Proudly waving round the world. 
 
 Tell the despots make them hear you 
 
 Rights belong to all alike; 
 For the wrongs that they have done you, 
 
 You ve the power and will to strike. 
 
 By the exiles and their sorrows. 
 By the tears of loved ones shed, 
 
 By the blood of freedom s martyrs, 
 
 They shall bleed for those who ve bled. 
 
 Not in anger, but in sorrow, 
 
 Hold we out the bitter cup 
 Wrong must needs find retribution 
 
 They must drink and drink it up.
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 27 
 
 Truth once spoken s truth for ever, 
 
 Victor battling with the lie; 
 Right of all to equal freedom 
 
 Not can earth nor hell deny. 
 
 
 
 Forward is the marching order, 
 
 Wrong and falsehood must give way; 
 
 As the sun at break of morning 
 Brings triumphant perfect day. 
 
 Ask ye not if slavery s hoary, 
 
 Ask not who his minions be; 
 Truth shall be protecting ^Egis 
 
 Bravely strike ye for the free. 
 
 For your help at our young struggle 
 When fair Freedom s war was won, 
 
 Glows the spirit of the father 
 Grateful living in the son. 
 
 For the ties of blood that bind us, 
 
 For the kin of blood we trace, 
 For the blood in veins of all men, 
 
 Here s for freedom and the race. 
 
 Hail, ye brothers! Hail, ye sisters! 
 
 Struggling for dear Freedom s right! 
 Take our hand all men are brothers 
 
 More we pledge you FREEMEN S MIGHT.
 
 YOU 
 
 God has robed the world in beauty, 
 Robed the land, the sea, the sky; 
 Bound are we in love and duty 
 You and I, you and I. 
 
 God commands to love each other 
 
 As our work we daily ply; 
 Here s my hand, my sister, brother 
 You and I, you and I. 
 
 We shall live and toil together, 
 And our daily wants supply; 
 But we ll spurn the lightest tether 
 You and I, you and I. 
 
 Freedom s banner, all-enfolding, 
 
 Freedom s rights to glorify, 
 Hold we up to all beholding 
 You and I, you and I.
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 29 
 
 Blessed is the lot of labor 
 
 When its strokes in love we ply; 
 Each is every other s neighbor 
 You and I, you and I.
 
 IsEGjHER BAbDWIN. 
 
 It may be asked why this poem is found among " Labor 
 Rhymes." The subject of it, in addition to his beastliness, 
 is the employer of three hundred coolies. It is well that 
 other monopolists know in whose company they muster. 
 
 Besides, I think it better in morals as well as in manli 
 ness, to publish while its author may be made responsible, 
 than to leave it to be some time hence given out posthu 
 mously. 
 
 My curse upon thee, " Lucky " man 
 Thy crime too foul for tongue to name; 
 
 For ever be thou under ban, 
 
 The deep damnation of thy shame. 
 
 Right glad we seek in vain to find, 
 
 In human story, thing so base 
 Thou miscreate that mocks our kind 
 
 With biped semblance of the race! 
 
 I ve named thee man; thou art not such; 
 
 Twould libel beasts to call thee beast; 
 The reptiles vile in filth that slutch, 
 
 Would nauseate turn from thy foul feast.
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 31 
 
 ( )f all the things that creep or crawl 
 
 Upon their bellies on the earth 
 ( )f vipers, scorpions, adders all 
 
 Thou art than they of lower worth. 
 
 Our mother tongue has never heard 
 
 For thing so foul as thee a name; 
 Let Lecher Baldwin be that word 
 
 To synonym thy crime and shame. 
 
 Tis Lecher Baldwin, while there lives 
 
 On earth, as thou, so foul a blot; 
 When none of thee or thine survives, 
 
 Be it and thou alike forgot. 
 
 I pity thee, poor miscreate 
 
 With soul so shriveled, dwarfed and vile, 
 So low that no thing animate 
 
 Can touch thy hand without defile. 
 
 As man, henceforth, we know thee not, 
 
 Go wallow in thy slimy den; 
 As lecher vile, thou art boycott 
 
 In all the walks and ways of men. 
 
 For all thy foul, unnamed crimes, 
 For all thy words and. ways obscene, 
 
 As lepers were in olden times, 
 
 We bid, begone! Unclean! Unclean!
 
 32 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 Thou worst abort of woman born, 
 Henceforth a by- word and a hiss; 
 
 The cat-o -nine-tails of our scorn 
 Shall be thy venging Nemesis.
 
 WOf^K ON, )HOpE EVER. 
 
 A bright day is coming 
 In sunshine and beauty 
 
 The day for the toiling 
 
 To bless them forever. 
 
 When honor shall come as 
 The guerdon of duty 
 Work on, hope ever. 
 
 But let not your thoughts be 
 
 An idle bewailing 
 A fruitless imploring 
 Your fetters to sever; 
 But stand ye for freedom 
 
 With spirit unquailing 
 Work on, hope ever. 
 
 For never can conquer 
 
 The Right, but by trying- 
 Unyielding must be our 
 Unchanging endeavor:
 
 34 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 The truth be proclaiming 
 And error defying 
 
 Work on, hope ever. 
 
 For not can conviction 
 
 Be carried by pleading 
 Nor stony hearts melted 
 When wooed as a lover 
 Come on in your numbers 
 Where Honor is leading 
 Work on, hope ever. 
 
 The day that is coming 
 
 Is glory to labor, 
 With justice unswerving 
 A ruler for ever, 
 When kindness and love shall 
 
 Own each as a neighbor 
 Work on, hope ever. 
 
 The flag of the fathers 
 Shall wave in its glory, 
 
 And freedom be real 
 
 A blessing for ever 
 
 And all shall rejoice as 
 
 They re learning the story 
 Work on, hope ever.
 
 TjHE BETTER fOR TJHE DOINS. 
 
 Droop not! though shame, sin and anguish are 
 
 round thee! 
 Bravely fling off the cold chain that hath bound 
 
 thee! 
 Look to the pure heaven smiling beyond thee ! 
 
 Rest not content in thy darkness a clod ! 
 Work for some good, be it ever so slowly! 
 Cherish some flower, be it ever so lowly ! 
 Labor! all labor is noble and holy! 
 
 Let thy great deed be thy prayer to thy God ! 
 
 FRANCIS S. OSGOOD. 
 
 Through the dim twilight of the ages 
 
 From cycles, long ago, of time- 
 Still come the voices of the sages; 
 And written on historic pages 
 
 Are names of men of deed sublime.
 
 IW LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 The world doth joy, the world doth glory 
 In its great names of long ago 
 
 The demigods of ancient story, 
 
 Who waked mankind from sin and woe 
 Whose deeds it is our school to know. 
 
 Arouse thee, O my laggard spirit, 
 Let deed of greatness then be thine, 
 
 And bless the world that shall inherit 
 Thy name, thy fame, thy great design 
 In word, or deed, or living line. 
 
 If on thy name wouldst have no blackness, 
 No spot of foulness mar thy fame, 
 
 Then in thy work must be no slackness; 
 Thy soul must glow, a living flame, 
 Undimmed by aught of sin or shame. 
 
 Think st thou there is no living Hydra? 
 
 No monster in thy path to-day? 
 Ah! cleanse thou yon Augean stable, 
 And yon Procrustean tyrant slay 
 
 Where all must walk, make clear the way. 
 
 Seest Mammon s sons at their devotions? 
 Before their sordid god they fall; 
 
 They know not pity s pure emotions, 
 
 Nor thought above the things that crawl 
 But human reptiles are they all.
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 61 
 
 Seest thou the wrong vile Mammon s doing- 
 Debasing Labor to a slave 
 
 The work the fathers did undoing 
 Despoiling all the gifts they gave, 
 And dragging Freedom to the grave? 
 
 Throughout the years have maundered, driveled 
 These Mammon s greedy devotees 
 
 These sightless souls so dwarfed and shriveled 
 Like things called animalcules 
 That eye microscopic sees. 
 
 See yonder banner won by freemen- 
 Shall it o er aught than freemen wave? 
 
 Shall pale its stars in sight of heaven ? 
 Wilt spurn the gifts the fathers gave 
 And own thyself a cringing slave? 
 
 Or wilt thou yield, a crawling, creeping 
 A craven, over-burdened drudge? 
 
 Is this the harvest for our reaping? 
 Know, who for masters willing trudge 
 Shall wallow in the dirt and sludge. 
 
 Strike down the power all enslaving, 
 Hold up the banner of the free, 
 
 O er land of Freedom proudly waving; 
 And Freedom s land it e er shall be, 
 Where none to tyrant bows the knee.
 
 do LABOR EHYMES. 
 
 What is the reason dost thou ask me, 
 laggard spirit of my life, 
 
 Why to thy utmost strength I task thee 
 Why struggle in the scenes of strife, 
 With turmoil, toil and danger rife? 
 
 I answer that thou art a human 
 With soul to dare and hand to do; 
 
 For who aspires to be a true man, 
 Must labor on his journey through 
 And bid to ease and sloth adieu. 
 
 Thou might st beneath the weeping willow 
 On flowery beds of ease recline, 
 
 And idly dream upon thy pillow 
 Ot goblets red with flowing wine 
 Thy hours to useless ease resign. 
 
 Thou might st, I grant, with little labor, 
 Contrive to know what others know, 
 
 As wise become as is thy neighbor, 
 And do, perchance, as others do! 
 With idlesse all the journey through. 
 
 Doth love of man or hope of heaven 
 My laggard spirit e er inspire? 
 
 For every talent God has given, 
 Know, ten will be of thee require, 
 All cleansed and purified by fire.
 
 LABOR RHYMES. 39 
 
 Tis work that strength the toiler gives, 
 For all he does, he gains the more; 
 
 And struggling on each day he lives 
 Is better for the day before, 
 And wiser for its garnered lore. 
 
 It is the law of human growing, 
 
 We stronger are for what we do; 
 And whether brain or brawn bestowing, 
 
 The power that s spent doth power renew 
 
 We truer grow for being true. 
 
 From day to day the strength grows stronger, 
 Is greatened by the work that s done, 
 
 And life itself, protracted longer, 
 Is youthful to its setting sun, 
 And cheerful for its triumphs won. 
 
 The sailor on the wide, wild ocean, 
 As oft by storm-fiend haply spared 
 
 The soldier used to war s commotion, 
 Who fields of death has bravely shared, 
 More daring is for dangers dared. 
 
 And he who watches the careering 
 
 Of planets through the realms on high, 
 
 But sees the farther for this peering 
 Of his heaven-searching eye, 
 To solve the problems of the sky.
 
 40 LABOR RHYMES. 
 
 The mind is greatened by its thinking, 
 With better fiber builds the brain; 
 
 The thought-pulse quickens by this linking 
 Of truth to truth, an endless chain 
 Uniting Reason s wide domain. 
 
 And so is, too, the power of loving 
 We better love for love we bear, 
 
 And every deed of heart-felt kindness 
 But lifts us up where angels are, 
 The sweetness of their peace to share. 
 
 If in each work that s worth the doing, 
 
 To well do be the golden rule, 
 In the vocation we re pursuing, 
 
 We ll find life s labor is a school 
 
 To higher life the vestibule. 
 
 And praising God for work that s given 
 From morning dawn to set of sun, 
 
 The stronger be that we have striven, 
 The better for the work that s done 
 And greater for the glories won. 
 
 All noble thought and noble feeling 
 Must ever make the soul more pure, 
 
 And each day s toil the truth s revealing 
 That God doth bless the noble doer 
 And on to greater works allure.
 
 LAl .OK RHVMKS. 41 
 
 Then hail! my brother! hail! my sister! 
 
 Toiling on life s rugged way; 
 For ye shall reap in the hereafter 
 
 Rich blessings for the toils to-day.
 
 4155.
 
 51TY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 AT 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 A 000 876 853 3