DEPARTURE OF THE INNOCENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 117, 12 July 1873, Page 9

DEPARTURE OF THE INNOCENTS.

fjFEOM AH THE YEAR BOUND.] Tate them away ! Take them away! Out of the gutter, the ooze and slime, Where the littje vermin paddle and crawl Till they sfrow and ripen into crime. Take them away from the jaws of Death. And the coils of evil that swaddle them round. And stifle their souls in every breath They draw on the foul and fetid ground. Take them away! away ! away ! The bountiful Earth is wide and free, The New shall repair the wrongs of the Old— Take them away o'er the rolling sea! Take them away ! Take them away ! The boys from the gallows, the girls from worse j They'll prove a blessing to other lands, Here if they linger they'll prove a curse ; The law's despair—the State's reproach From the mother's breast to the sheltering grave; One in a thousand too many to hang, Ten in a dozen too few to save ! Take them away! away ! away ! Plant them anew upon wholesome soil, Till their hearts grow fresh in the purer air, And their hands grow hard with honest toil. Take them away ! Take them away ! To con the lesson they never knew, And can never learn mid the reek and rot Of the sweltering garbage where they grew; The lesson that Work is the gift of Heaven A blessing to lighten all human ill, And that the generous Earth affords Work and reward to all who will. Take them away! away! away ! Out of the misery and the scorn, Out of the guilt and the shame that traok them, Out of the Midnight into the Morn! Take them away! Take them away ! The seeds are good while they are new, And will grow in time to lordly trees. On the favoring soil, in the fattening dew. Why should they perish beneath our feet, Trodden to death by the hurrying crowd, Or cast aside, as of no account, By the rich, the careless, and the proud ? Take them awav ! away ! away ! The bountiful Earth is wide and free, The new shall repair the wrongs of the Old—■ God be with them over the sea!