THE AVERAGE MAN.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 285, 7 May 1898, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE AVERAGE MAN.

♦ His hat looks worn, and his coat-sleeves shine. As I sec him step from his 'bus at nine ; His boots are pieced and his tic home-made, And his trousers patched where the edge was frayed. And his face is lined by the stress of life Where a man must fight for his bairns and wife. ' Whose that ?" I ask, as his face I scan. And the answer comes—"O, an average man. He has not got notes, he has not got gold, But his homely lunch, in his handbag old, Aud day by day, as tho seasons go, He follows his duty to and fro, And shadows follow him everywhere— Grim want, and worry, and dread are there, For life is not on a gorgeous plan— Far, far from it—to the average man. The banks, the rent, and the curtailed screw, The weekly bills, and the grasping Jew, The servant's wage and the doctor's fee, And the needful change by the breezy sea, And the pent-up hours at the desk which mean A man's brain changed to a mere machine, And a wife's tired eyes and the children wan, All press like lead on the average man. When tho blood is up 'tis a simple.thing To charge where the bombs and the bullets sing. But he is worthy a higher place Who fronts his foes with a smiling face, For the noblest strife iu our life to-day Is the humdrum fight iu the humdrum way. O, wealth and genius may lead tho van, But the hero is often an average man. —(i. E. Evans.