The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1901-12-26
"a SONG OF THE BoERs.H
BY H. S. CANFIELD.


Copyright, 1901, by W. R. Hearst)
The land is ours. No sOphistries can hide
that fact. We wrestSd it
From sand and thorn ana savage, from
wild beast and from drOuth;
We gashed it with our eager spades we
worried 1t, and bested it.
We stamped our seal upon t when we
trekled from out the south.
Trans vaal-acrOSS the TiVer-acrOSs the
veldt we wandered on.
Strong-limbed and sturdy, steady as the
steady polar star;
Our breasts against the hilsides, we
cneered our Afrikanders on
And said at last: We rest, friends, for
here no English are!'
Then set the stock against the cheek and
softly, kindly nestle it
And let the clear eye shine along the
barrel round and brown,
For foot to foot and hip to hip, on our
own soil Wen wreStle it
We freemen of the country facing slave
men of the town.
Our women tainted by the way; our child
Ten cried aloud to US;
Our Old men died in dozens underneath
a molten sun;
Yet sternly still we struggled on and still
our headmen vowed to us
Wed build us other temples when the
long hard march was done
Our oxen strained against the yokes
there was no water in the land;
We slew six thousand lions as we
fought our way afar;
And when We came to stand upon the
dun and weary barren Rand
We said. The desert is our friend for
here no English arei'
Then let the powder kiss the lead and
hearken to the shril of it,
And listen to it gnaw the air above the
grasses brown;
Again they come. and now Wen let them
have their bellies fill of it
We freemen Of the country facing slave
men of the town.
No dirty shilling ever crossed our palms
TO buy our strength of us,
No pipeclay makes of us a smeared and
hectored band of sheep;
Free blood, free air, free sunshine are in
the breadth and length of US,
Free right to love, free right to pray
and so. at last, to sleep.
! Red coats upon the veldt againi We hear
the rolling of their drums,
We see their campfires glistening be-
meath yon placid star,
! And so We call: Once more, o friends,
the Man of Blood and Murder
comes.
/ Once more upon our hard-wOn ground
the cruel English are"
Stand steady while the chaplain praysl
! Jehovah watches over us;
/ Within the hollow Of his hand we are
/ handled up and down
/ As our fond mothers dandIe babes, his
mantle stiil shall cover us
J We freemen of the country facing
] slave-men Of the town.
/ In lust of gold and lust Of blood the
/ Crimson RObber strides along
And on his tran naught is save fire and
death and wOmen's tears;
I The roar of guns, the clash of steel, tbs
hein0us far-resOunding wrong
OF rapine and of lechery come changing
down the years.
/ But here he checks, Against this wall oil
open bOsoms he shall beat
] in vain. Our legions breast this swell
ing ruddy tide OF war;
/ And though it lave us to the chin we ye
shall hear the hymning sweet:
/ CLASP hands o friends for here ono,
more no sCoundrcl English are
/ Then set the stock against the cheek and
softly, kindly nestle it
And let the clear eye shine along th'
barrel round and brown.
| For, foot 10 foot and hip to nip, on on
own soil Wei wrestie it.
/ We freemen of the country facinl
slavemen Of the town.