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NZ Truth, Issue 253, 30 April 1910, Page 1

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THE FREEZE.

'(For "N.Z. Truth.") "To-day the back ranges are - covered with a liberal coating of snow. This is unprecedented for 'the time of year." — Daily paper. ; . Sing of your smiling tropics, chant of your summer seas, The gold of the trailing sunset, the drone of the noonday bees, The whisper of sighing myrtles,, the shadows of age-old trees— ; When it's hot you can sing about trees, If you please — The luxurious shade of the trees. . Sing of the wine of summer, drunk to the languid lees, Sing of the milkrwarm moonlight, a hammock-music of ease, Sing of the warm earth nursing' your head on her golden knees, Sing of the darned mosquito, and the midnight hop of the fleas ; ; Be sure and remember the fleas, If you please— . The little bush pub. and the fleas. Not of tile languid tropics will I raise ' my musical wheeze, . But this snap of the coming winter with A the mornings that bite' and freeze Like a razor stropped on an iceberg, provoking the largest of D's ; My chant shall be- all -of the-f^hrte^^y^. rhymes shall be tuned" to' a sneefle— ** If you please— The keen, frosty joy of a sneeze. —'Phone 000. • • • ; : ** AND THE £EA SHALL GIVE UP ITS DEAD." (For "N.Z. Truth.") OA lady while bathing at Caroline Bay, Timaru, lost her false teeth m- the sea.— Daily paper.) When the sad sea casts up whatut contains, / The marching up of men would ,be tremendous ; And I would rather not exert my brains, To find the items m the list stupendous . Fond fathers from their cheerful children riven, : Would rise again to chuck their chubby cheeks ; . '. ' : ' And love-lorn louts from their dear darlings driven Would do a drivel for a dozen weeks. Then would the surf-smacked sailor, reunited To saucy Sarah, raise a west-west wi«d, And sure the poet, sorrowful, softlbKghted, ' Would rise to show us where, we aVlhaye sinned : Soul'd rush to soul from Timbuctoo to Leith ; . . , And, more important, I'd get back mv teeth.. — W. Shakespeare, ,( Il Tx*th',s" London), a ♦ • A BALtAD OF CHARITY. Where smiling women thought it well To lnre . fox charity some dole, There passed (no wonder this to tell) Full many a right-forgotten soul. A weary wife with buxdened arms,, Life narrowed with her narrow purse, Trod the long way to save few pence— Small evil, gauged by many worse. Not hers to look for charity ; Her husband worked by sweater's graceg The sweater's daughters knew her not ; They rattled boxes m her face. There passed a foodless, woz&less man, Forspent, forlorn, starvation-shrunk ; ' A charity had frowned on him— \ The righteous deemed the tremjjier drunk. A dosser passed who drank indeedHad had, a glass that very week ; .A wealthy man-ofrcharrty Now stopped htm as he sought to spea£ : "Drunkards like you * » ». the nations curse ..." Swept out, by hearoa . „ * fair couatty mar ;" So' sp-luttered he, and threatened law,; Then spent an hour withm a bar.. A sweated girl saw box by box With holders gratified, serene ; She mused upon the dainty frocks — ! 3uessed hers for begging all too mean. And men and women came that way To whom ill luck, as ever, clung — Too old for smart employers' use, For meagre pension yet too young. All these there were ; and others yet, Though striving, striving, forced jfco earth. ; j*-"""'" How many helped by charity ? /- How' many helped to any worti O tiny tilt at towering ill ! j O women well-intent but blind I How hope with this and nothing \. To mend the wrongs of Bumankj Are man's oppressors of the \ve To buy their pardon m a daY And by a dole that you cajole\]~-\ s _ ix " To clear their crimes of soul I *^ No ; aid is truer benefit ; By word, by vote, by scorn of wrong, To make a place for mortals fit, To bring the age awaiting long. So may you see, and see full soon, i For all our land the gloried sight ; jNo slaves of careless charity, But heirs *of happy life' as right. I —Norman Liiley, ]