A COLUMN OF WANTEDS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2358, 4 May 1899, Page 54

A COLUMN OF WANTEDS.

By H. A. Cobbijidick. In two parts. — Part I.

Wanted, Patience! Ah! what is life but waiting for its ending, The dull monotony of sameness ever mending 7 At least it is, when patient expectation Develops the hope that braves humiliation— The hope that gazes ever on the scene, All brightness! All unruffled, calm, serene, Unfettered by the clouds that ride between ; If past experience the truth may teach, All this and more waits in the future out of leach Whilst the present scarce encourages to wait Patiently .... Wanted, Patience! Wanted, Courage! Wanted, Moral Courage! ;' The true vitality of righteousness, Of honesty and conscienticmsness — Ihe strength of faith and hope and charity, the worth, integrity of frail mortality Is moral courage! 2nTo victory without a struggle here, No character of indolence and fear Beset a lifetime, harass a probation. Of toil and fighting for the exultation, "Vouchsafed to the wise and good, Reserved for worth Alone! All dross consumed in earth to earthl Against the foes that line the upward way, Is it so hard to battle day by day And merit life's reward? . . .... Alas! how needed the vitality Of courage for poor, weak mortality 1 To conceal the tears, the bitterness, To hide the wounds and wretchedness, When sickness, dire misfortune, "loss, defeat, Seem good enough for Honesty, while thrive* Deceit. Alas! the courage, strong in weakness, Girt with truth and love and patient meekness. For the battle of life, - That ignores the sham For the real, That mixtures manliness in man, That smiles at poverty and laughs at all Temptation ; That quick obeys when duty calls — Is seldom found, and ever wanted! Wanted, Money! t ■> Sigh the starving poor, enslaved to Want; Pray the dying poor, who fear the gaunt And hideous skeleton, who live in dread Of death : " Give us this day our daily bread." Wanted, for a brave existence wanted! Their prayers are unavailing, nought is granted. Wealth ignores their cry; the gilded State .Reluctantly its gift bestows — too late! And buries all unfortunates, whose Tight To live, denied by Poverty and Might, Is trampled as the pauper 'neath the sod Is sacrificed to greed and gain. The Money god Accept each sacrifice, and all his worshippers Console themselves with luxuries and prayers And meekly whine: ' "It is no fault of ours if woverty and crime Want money!"

Wanted, Eeform! The false and selfish of our constitution (Tho' Traceable to custom, superstition) Abolish' Advocate all wisdom would With generous mind, and with the true and good, The pure, the honourable, set up a fabric feure, Destined to stand to-day and evermore! A worthy tribute of the ancestors Content to sleep, whilst ancient history Records Buch favours to their own posterity, Who, with old Father Time, surveys with prid« The progress of a civilisation wide Bequeathed the yet unborn, A worthy race! Of their fathers' long-e::pectcd paracliso Methinks a, step within the right direction Is marriage reform, ..,».. 'Twould lessen criminal offence and many others, And keep impulsive sisters with their brothers,, Beneath the supervision of their mothers. If the " shoxild be sacred tie of matrimony, With reason were compulsory Soon infidelity and incapacity — No longer marketable commodity. — Would cease to ornament society. Young men and maidens, it seems to me, Would never foolish, reckless, heartless be, And each would be a prize, and win a prize In life's great lottery!

Wanted, Individuality! I often wonder why the majority. In matters social, political, religious, So seldom think for themselves ; who willingly Forfeit to others a right and a privilege That once obtained from Freedom, the pledgo Of Liberty for each and all of us! The reason of this weakness seems to me Traceable to the lack of sympathy Between the elements of unity — So called, alas! The atoms of indifference, With nonentities of indolence, Too oft combine to disfigure the whole. Eagerly they follow the wake of one poor soul, Who legislates questions momentous, At the expense of the compos mentos. Who never think for themselves, who leave The questions for their weal or woe To be analysed by So-and-so — The abler Mr So-and-so! Who always advocates what they believe, Because their dulled intelligence Must needs bu-t- swear allegiance To wealth and vanity, When plain, unbiassed, sanity, Voiced by despised humanity, Each thinking for himself, Each acting for himself, Would aid in the alleviation Of much distressing to the nation — Wanted, Individuality I

— The deer does really weep, its eyes being provided -.with lachrymal glands.