The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-09-27
POETRY.
Rhymes for the Laboring Man.
BY Z. W. LOCKE.

I've a few words to say to the laborlng man.
And I'll make them as few aud as plain as l can;
For brother in toll have been so years,
ANA what little I've learned / would give to my
peers.
There's restless condition in workshop and mill
There is sullen eye service and lack of good will;
There plenty work, if job strikes them right
But they're reader far their employer to fight.
In the quarries and mines there are mutterngs deem:
There are passwords and grips and dread secrets to
But they all have one purpose by threats to coerce
The employer who aids them by foresight and purse.
Who have tunnelled the mountains and opened the
mines,
And set millions to work on the shafts and incnes?
Who've made roads to the praries, and cheap homes
And brought city and farm within neighborly call?
Who have seized steam and lightning, as well as the
And compelled them to serve US, like disciplined
teams?
Who have bridged the broad oceans and eirdled he
With pulsating nerve and a thought-speaking
girth?
Just the men whom the rabble select for abuse.
Have converted the forces of nature to use;
And. though often malgned, as if heather or Tuck?
Are the toier's best friends, for they find him in
work.
Have the men who have wealth never helped you
dime?-
Never added comfort or day of pastime?
lave they brought you no dainties, from countries
In the swift gliding ship or the wind-vying carp
Think of cofees and spices and long lists of teas.
And the fruits of all climates your palate to please.
Rnq thousand cheap luxures brought to your door
by tne merchant with money, who trades to make
more.
Ifyou're helpful to bin, he is helpful to you,
And y0nr fellowship ought to be loyalty true;
It is likely that less than score years ago
He was clerk on small pay for some Stewart & Co.
But the road he has travelled to reach his estate
Is not entered, in stealth, by privileged gate
But is open to you: yet this maxim please learn:
To succeed you must spend something less than you
earn.
All, my laboriug friend, 'tis fearful mistake
To be stirring up strife for the workiDgman's sake;
Let us earn what we can, while we never forget
There's but one course to take for the worker to
thrive
Like the bee he must gather each day for his hive
He must lessen expense if his income is small,
And for anything useless spend nothing at ALL
When lad cut wood at three shillings cord.
For the same helped turn over an acre of swaId:
And gave lit tie thought to the good or bad times,
But just kept at my work and looked out for the
dimes.
Then our "strikes' were with axes and hammer and
And our unions" quiltings, fruit parings and
Dalls;
And the young folks got married, when husbands
and wives
Went to work to be useful the rest of their lives
But mankind is improving. the wiseacres say,
Yet true thrift is not greatly in fashion to-day;
We run headlong in debt. to get out as we can,
And complain how the rich crush the laborng man.
I've bootstitcher friend by the name of Jim Pease
VINO can earn twenty dollars week at his ease,
Though he stuck to his seat for at least twenty
years,
And but four to support, he is still in arrears.
Then know of another who on half of Jim's paw,
With all needful expenses as much every way,
Has Just purchased cottage and paid the cash
down.
That is thriftless Jim Pease, this is thrifty Joe
Brown.
These two types of mankind you can view at your
ease;
You can copy Joe Brown or the spendthrift Jim
Pease,
We complain of the times but they will mend,
TIL we live to the rule to earn more than we spend.
Boston Herald.