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Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 30, 25 July 1923, Page 13

Another Hickson story. The advent of the miracle ' man brought crowds around the cathedral, "aud provided the advent of the police. "Move on," said a constable to a loiterer. The loiterer moved on. The constable repeated the order to another bystander. But the big bystander didn't budge. "Move on," repeated the Limb stiffly. The other smiled, and laying his hands upon the limb's shoulder, said: "I'm Mr. Hickson." Whereat the Limb was less stiff, and was cured of its curiosity!

.t.C6n timing ttem p»ge 9") see those" endless serpents 'ereei)nig\ up So indolently as thougn surfe'red; with mangk-'t human fi-esh? From hundreds or wisitfows-, white bandages gleamed ,7. and dull glassy eyea-..stared? cut. Lying, crouching, on top of e&ch other, body tg, body, t_ey even Irving on to the" runivaig-boards like bloody bunches of grape*. ... I see the tracks, .and tie* and sones spattered with blood, shining m the .early morning light of a summer day —sign posts" pointing to the front. "THE FRONT!" Am I really thfe sick person. because I cannot alttr that word,, oi writG .it down, without my'''tongue growing coated from the intense haired I feel? Are not the otheis mad,' Avho look upon tnfs wholesale cripple -and—corpse Savory, with a MIXTURE OF RELIGIOUS DEVOTION, ROMANTIC LONGING. AND SHY SYMPATHY? Would it not be w'ser once for a change to exani.'aie tmse others fo 1 ' Mi 1& state of THEIR MIND? Suppose the ward "War" had rbver been Invented, and had never been hallowed through the ages, and eveked with gay trappings—who wouM dare to p>iimplement 'he deficient phrase, "Declaration of AVar," by the following speech? "After long, fruitless negotiations our emissary to the government of X. Lft to-day. From the window of his parlour car he raised his silk hat t 0 th 0 gentleman who had escorted him to ihe station and he- will not meet fhem with a friendly smile again, until YOU have made corpses of many hundreds of thousands of m.?n in the country of X." Up, then! Squeeze yourself into box-cars, uieant. for 0 horses or 2S men! Ride to meet them, those.other men! Knock them dead, hack off their liv© like wild beasts In damp excavations in tilth, overrun witli l-'cc, until avc. shall deem the time has come again for our emissary to take a seat In a parlour-car,, and lift his silk hat, and in ornate rooms politely and aristocratically dispute over th, e advantage's which our big merchants and manufacturers are to derive from-the slaughter.

Then as many of you as are not rotting under the ground, or hobbling on crutches and begging from door to door, may return to your half-starved famiT'.es. and . may—nay must!—tak k » up your work again . . .

so as to be able to pay in. sweat aud privation, for the shoes that you wore out in hundreds of -marches, and the clothes that decayed on your bod's*."'

. . . Wo used to speak, with horror of the tyrants of cterk ages, who threw helpless men and women to the lions and tigers . . . but, now, is there one of us who would nof mention them with respect, in comparison with the rulers who are at present directing the struggle between men and machines, as though it were a puppet; show at the end of telegraph vr'res. and who are animated by the delightful hope tbst OUR SUPPLY OF Ht'rJAN FLESH MAY OUTLAST TBE ENEMY'S SUPPLY OF STEEL AND IRON! # 'a * *

And now I am a "madman." You can read it; black on white, -on the placard at the head of my bead. They pat nio on the back soothingly. Vke a shying horse, when 1 flare up, and ask to be let oiu of this place, in which THE OTHERS SHOt'LD BE SHUT UP.

Bur the others arc free! From mv window I can look over the garden j wall into the street,-ami se e .lh*m; hurrying along, rais'ng their hats--j shaking hands —and crowding hi i front of the latest Bulletin! . . . Ij see the whole pack . . . Ihe scoundrels j who are protected by the masses . . . i wh 0 look up sanctimoniously to a! bogey of their own invention .. .. \

who hammer that bogey into the conscience of millions of good men until the mass has been forged, thai HAS NEITHER HEART NOB BRAIN, BUT * ONLY FURY AN! BLIND FAITH. ... I see the whole game proceeding madly in blood anc agony, and 1 am called a madman when I raise the window to call dowr to them, that the sons they have bori and bred—the men tht-y bav e luvett ar o being, chased like wild animalsbeing butchered like cattle. ... 1 staiul at my window, and between nn and the street He, piled high, th« bodies of the many I saw bleed-ng And I stand here powerless--- because the revolver that was given mc U SHOOT POOR HOMESICK DEVILS FORCED INTO A UNIFORM. Bi IRON NECESSITY, HAS BEEIS TAKEN FROM ME -OUT OF FEAII THAT I MIGHT DISLODGE A FEVv MASS. MURDERERS FROM ..THEM SECURITY, AND SEND.:THEM AS. A WARNING EXAMPLE DOWN TC THEIR VICTIMS. ... So I must stay here as a seer over the bliud-.— behind iron gratings. . And all. I can do is to consign these leaves io the day write it.; sill, down again, and keep scatterißg 'th» g*©4"&