Classic Poem

(Paris.) She . —

" Up and down, up and down,
From early eve to early day.
Life is quicker in the town;
When you've leisure anyway!

" Down and up, down and up!
O will no one stop and speak?
I am fain to eat and sup,
All my limbs are heavy and weak.

" What's my price, sirs? I'm no Jew.
If with me you wish to sleep,
'Tis five francs, sirs. Surely you,
Will admit that that is cheap? " H E . —

" Christ if you are not stone blind,
Stone deaf also, you know it is
Christian towns leave far behind
Sodom and those other cities.

" Bid your father strike this town,
Wipe it utterly away!
Weary, hungry, up and down
From early eve to early day?

" Magdalen knew nought like this;
She had food and roof above;
Seven devils, too, did she possess;
This poor soul had but one — love! T HE O THER . —

" No, Christ is not deaf nor blind;
He's but dust in Syrian ground,
And his Father has declined
To a parson's phrase, a sound.

" Not by such, then, but by us
These hell-wrongs must be redressed.
Take this morsel venomous;
Nourish it within your breast.

" You must live on, live and hate;
Conquer wrath, despair and pain;
For " we bid you hope" and wait
Till the Red Flag flies again:

" Till once more the People rise,
Once more, once and only once,
Blood-red hands and blazing eyes
Of the robbed and murdered ones! "