The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1897-09-15
A VISION OF LOST ATLANTIS.


AS she rose from out the deep.
l could see her cleaning rivers
Down the winding valleys run.
Where the olive groves and vineyards
Drank the kisses of the sun.
l could see vast mountain ranges
On her skies their glories trace.
Winters wrapped around their shoulder
Summers blooming at their base.
In the measure of heart beat,
In the twinkling Of an eye,
I beheld her mighty cities
Lift their battlements on high,
And her strong, triumphant armies.
Which the very gods def1ed,
Marching to the field of battle
In their arrogance and pride.
Oh, the princes Of that kingdom
How they ruled on land and sea!
How they spurned the god of justie
AIlu 10 baal Dent the knee!
And they reared a golden image
In the grandest of their marts,
And the incense that ascended
Rose from ruined homes and hearts.
And the one word that the image
Uttered day and night was "Give!"
Till the people only answered,
Grant us work that we may live"
But the rulers babbled, Business"
AS they reveled at their ease,
And they locked up natures storehouse
And to thieves consigned the keys.
And the wolves of want went prowline
Round the cabins of the poor,
While the toilers starved and perish ed
On the highway and the moor,
For the few claimed all the increase
From the ocean, soil and air
Precious stones and gems and metals,
Bishops feasted at the palace,
Christ sat hungry at the gate,
Mammon held the sway of Haman
In the halls of court and state,
Priest and scholar bowed in homage
To the one malign control
That in church and school demanded
Prostitution of the soul.
Still the multitude paid tribute
To the miser in his den,
Still the Shylock knife was sharpened
For the flesh and blood of men;
Crafty minds, like human spiders,
Weaving traps for human flies,
Yelled with webs of legal pretense-
Things that all men knew were lies.
And the victims fell by millions
Under land and chattel bend,
Driven from Gods soil like lepers
By the usurer's magic wand,
Till the army of the homeless
Gathered like rising flood,
And the cry went up at mlunight,
"Give us bread or give us blood"
And the gathering food climbed higher
Till 1t struck the palace door
And awoke the royal sleepers
With its wild, devouring roar.
There are tigers in the jungle
That delight In human prey,
But fercer tiger crouches
In starving man at bay.
And the rulers and the robbers,
Though they quailed with inward
dread,
Answered back in bold derision,
"Give them blood instead of bread!"
And l saw the moon blush crimson,
And beneath the weird eclipse
Sat and rode scarlet woman,
With a sneer upon her lips.
There was gathering Of the legions
At the mandate of their queen,
And the flashing of million
Blades lit up the awful scene,
And million starving toilers
Fell like blighted stalks Of grain
In that horrid midnight harvest,
By their sons and brothers slain.
There are crimes that stir with horror
Saints and angels round the throne,
And whose judgments can be meted
BY the courts of God alone.
And l saw the kingdom sinking
At the scarlet womans feet,
And her splendid cities plunging
Like a tempest foundered fleet.
Mountain ranges met and melted,
And above the fiery tomb
Two great oceans swung together
Like the closing gates Of doom.
And heard a voice proclaiming
Down the solemn aisles of space.
HE who slays a starving brother
Smites his Maker In the face"
james G.. Clark