WHAT HE SAW.

Taranaki Daily News, 16 October 1915, Page 9

WHAT HE SAW.

(By Ella Wheeler Wilcox). Sad man, sad man, tell me, pray, What did you see to-day?

I saw the unloved and unhappy old waining for slow, delinquent death to come; Pale little children toiling for the rich, in rooms where sunlight is ashamed to go; The awful almshouses, where the living dead rot slowly in their hideous, open graves. And there were shameful things: Soldiers and fori.'!, and industries of death, and devil-ships, and loudwinged devil-birds, All bent on slaughter and destruction. These and yet more shameful things mine eyes beheld: Old men upon lascivious conquest bent, and young men living with no thought of God, And half-clothed women puffing at a weed, aping the vices of the underworld, Engrossed in shallow pleasures, and intent on being barren wives. These things I saw. (How God must loathe His earth!) Glad man, glad man, tell me, pray, What did you see to-day?

I saw an aged couple in whose eyes Shone that deep light of mingled love and faith Which makes the earth one room of paradise And leaves no sting in deitli. I saw vast regiments of children pour, Rank after rank, out of the schoolroom door,\ By Progress mobilised. They seemed to say: "Let ignorance make way. We are heralds of a better day." ' I saw the college and the church that stood For all things sane and good. I saw God's helpers in the shop and slum Blazing a path for health and hope to come, And True Regilion, from the grave of creeds, Springing to meet man's needs.

I saw* great Science reverently stand And listen for a sound from Borderland, No longer arrogant with unjbelief. Holding itselt aloof, But dfawing near and searching high and low # For that complete and all-con-vincing proof Which shall permit its voice to com- , fort grief, Saying, "We know." I saw fair women in their radiance rise And trample old traditions in the dust, Looking in their clear eyes, I seemed to hear these words as from the skies, '•He who would father our sweet children must Be worthy of the trust." Against the rosy dawn, I saw unfurled The banner of the race we usher in— The super-men and women of the world, Who make no code of sex to cover sin.

Before they till the soil of parenthood, They look to it that seed and soil are good. And I saw, too, that old, old sight, and best— I'ure mothers with dear babies at tlve breast. These things I saw. (How God must love His earth)! , —Cosmopolitan.