The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-09-29
That Swamp Of Death.
A CITY BALLAD.

That Swamp Of Death.
CITY BALLAD. ..
Yes It's straight and true good preacher evory word
that you have said: ....t I..
Do not think these tears unmanly- they're the first
that have she'd ..H ...
But they kind of pressed and pounded OF, INV acbn,
heart and brain,
And they would not be lot 20 of. ana they rave me
extra pain.
I'm an ignorant day-worker- for food and rags
and sleep
And hardly know the object of the life We slave to
keep;
But Lnowwhel, days arc checrs. or my heart is
made of lead;
know sorrow whey see it-and know my child is
dead.
No. she isn't much to look at, jus painish bit OF
clay,
OF the sort of perished children seeing every
day;
And how she could break life mp you'd be slow to
understands
But she held mine. Mr.. Preacher. in that little
withered hand.
am just laboring- man. sir. Of the kind that digs
and delves,
But I've learned that human natures cannot stay in
by themselves
They will wander out for some ng, be 1t good or be
it bad,
And my heart with tcrs had sett cd and the girl was
all l had
There are lots of pretty children, with form and
face more fine
Let their parents love and pet them-but tbs little
one was mine.
There was 10 one else to cling to when we two
cut apart,
Of the heart!
Ts consong, Mr.. Preacher, anil it's maybe as you've
said
God loves children while .heyre living, and adopts
them when they're dead;
p,t NV Lrain won't quit contrving, do the very best
can,
That twas not Gods mercy took her, but the selfish
ness Of man.
Why, she lay here, faint anil gasping moaning for a
bit Of air,
choked and strangled by the foul breath of the
chimneys over there;
For it climbed through every window, and 1t crept
beneath the door,
And tried to bar against It, and she only choked the
more.
She would lie here with the old look that poor
children somehow get;
She had learned TO her patience and she did not
cry or fret
But would lift her pale pinched face up full of early
grief and care,
And would Whisper 81 am dying for little breath
Of air."
If she'd gone out with the zepbyrs. 'twoudnt have
seemed so hard to me,
oramong the cool fresh brcezes that come rushing
from the sea-
But it's nothing less than murder when my darling
every breath
Chokes and strangles with the poison from that
cursed swamp of death.
ground we tread,
And the shelter that we crouch in, and the tools
that earn our bread;
They must put their blotted mortgage the air and
on the sky,
And shut out our little heaven till children pine
and die
Yes, we wear the cheapest clothing and our meals
are scant and brief
and perhaps those fellows fancy there's a cheaper
grade of grief;
But the people all around here, losing children,
friends and mates,
Can inform them that afiiction hasn't any under
rates.
Oh the air is pure and wholesome where some babies
crow and rest, 80 --'.- -
And they trim em out with ribbons, and they feed
'eIn with the best;
But the love they gets insult to the God of love
on high, ..-
If to earn those children's living some one else's
child must die. ..-.
I'm no grumbler at the rulers Of this free and
happy land"
And don't go round explaining things do not
understand;
But there must be something treacherous in the
steering ofthe law
Wien zee get dose Of poison out Of erery breath ,ce
draio.
Ihave talked too much good preacher and hope
you won't be Yexed,
But I'm going to make a sermon. with that white
face for a text;
And III preach it, and I'll preach it, till set our
people wild
'Ganst the heartless, reckless grasping of the men
Uho Killed my chiM. ..--.
-lNH Carleton, IN Hdipe1's IPeeky