THE BITTER CRY OF THE OUTCAST POOR.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 402, 14 September 1889, Page 3

THE BITTER CRY OF THE OUTCAST POOR.

Alms'? Are we beggars? Nay. wo ask no dole Wrung from your bounty. The down-trodden > SOUI i Seeks Justice— not a , gift— Rights,- all her own,. Not a poor pittance in compassion thrown — A sop to Cerberus. Whence comes the claim That some should draw from lilo wealth, titles, ' fame, " ' Winning their game through fickle Fortune 1 * tricks, , ; Because her loaded dice give " double six "? Earth's 1 pampered ' darlings, .spoilt, caressed, refined. '.":>'* Lords of whate'er. may gladden heart or mind ; No s wish ungratified, no joys, unknown,. Whilst we— ah well We live. ' shall atone For this deep wrong called life ? To us it brings But hopeless toil, no tasto offbettcr things Falls to our share— 'tis weary endless toil In dreary mill or on the alien soil. Alien, yet why ? have wo not too the right To till God's earth and draw therie'e our delight? ' . * i-l^Xv , Must it be all another's, wall'd andtbarred By deeds and ancient muniments? HatfcJ* hard Our lot, who, only look at last to have*' J* ' Six feet of leasehold-tenure for a grave. Talk of your legal rights, your charters ilaunt ; J ustic.e is greater stiU. See'st how* wewant All— save the right to draw untaxed'ourljroath. And live a life whose only joy is death. ■ We too have rights, deny, them wlioso can, n'^H The, rights that centre in the naihc. of man, *,'JH The right to.labourfor our own! and home, To lay up store ere the dark days-Shall cdfue When strength and health' and skill depart, and - we ' i ' '' ' > Stand dim- ( e>ed, .gating D.'er-thoAvondrous sea That laves the shore whence nono who reach, return, „ ' > - - [ Death's stern, mysterious, anavoidad t}oarh"e. Oh, Earth, in all thy beauty, hetn-ioto p/ay t er, Bid its words Vibrate through 'th'd answering air, • " Touch the stern rule of life, and let now light Shine in the eyes of men topeo the right, That through the ranks of manhood there may rise A deeper love, wilh broader sympathies And yet the murmurous thunder grandly rolls Through the dark vault of heaven-; so o'er> our souls, ' ' '" Flashing new hopes, their, lightning gleams— a voice Reverberates in echoes that rejoice Our outcast lives, the fateful tones resound, - Far and ansar with no uncertain sound ; Freedom shall yet be ours ; arise 'r • '"' To claim our birthright, noath our natiye skies, Rights long denied be gained— a fullor lite Shine c'en for us, with larger powors rife. Awake, arise, in ranks divinely drawn, March onwards where with soft full flush of dawn The better' day upriseth in its might, When men shall recognise the force of right, And justice o'er the earth with power divine, Long lost and hidden, through the future shine. E. H. Gulliver.