The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1908-04-25
THE Banker DREAM.

Well pleased with his balance sheet,
He closed higseyes and sought repose
On the doWny pillows sweet;
All day he had toiled and planned for
pelf
And, piled up the earthly dross-
Had earnestly wrought for temporal
Nor thought of eternal loss.
Now soon in bed he was fast asleep
But his thought became oppressed,
A shadow of pain oerspread his face
And deep sigh heaved his breast;
The rich man dreamt' Of a bankrupt's
fate
And writhed on his silken bed.
But worse was to come, more horrors
still,
For he dreamt that he was dead.
And he saw his own form. cold and
pale
While the taper lights burned low
St1lled was the pulse of a busy life
But his soul was 10th to go;
His spirit sat with the watchers there,
He noted their silent tread,
He saw them drape In funeral folds
The couch of the silent dead.
He followed slow with a sense of pain
The mourners behind his bier,
And he saw the orphan children weep
Though his spirit shed no tear;
His past like a phantom Of shadows
grim
Must ever around him roll.
It's evil deeds and their just reward
Encompassed and Knocked his soul.
The darkest stain on a prosperous life,
Injustice against the weak,
Came now to haunt with resistless
power
And its awful vengeance Wreak;
His dying father he clearly heard, ,
"All equally now divide,
The estate though small is large
enough
That I may for all provide"
With pompous greed he had claimed
the whole
And division neer was made;
He saw a sister in pain and want,
"A brother refusing aid;
Her children must homeless roam the
earth
Whilst his amidst wealth were born,
Now Retribution seemed to shrek
That his own should be forlorn!
AS he sowed in life his soul must
reap
For aye in the fields of pain,
Too late-for now he might not re-
Too late was the pasts refrain;
His dream flew on and a bankrupt's
home
With poverty's hopeless dread
Next met his gaze, and he felt it all,
But he know that he was dead.
He saw his fatherless children weep
In pitiful, dismal woe ="
Did ever a soul condemned and lost
A bitterer anguish know
He, powerless now to .sympathize,
Must see themo struggle in vain
Beneath the .merciless Jaggeranut-
That idol Of greedy gain. i
"Een as We have measured to others
So shall it be meted to you,'
Sharply the scourging Of conscience
Brought wickedness' righteous due;
Before him treasures held dear In
life
His Golfers of yellow dust
Were swept away by the hand Of
Greed
And he thought of "moth and rust"
Ee saw his wife in refined distress,
And Lorene, his daughter fair,
Go forth to battle with daily toll
':Sainst poverty's grewsome care:
The beautiful home they, once so loved
Had gone like a f1eeting breath,
For lll~gaired opulence woe had come
TO blight since the bankers death.
The mans soul shrank from their
pi;eous fall,
Remembering the worldly fame
He :nce .enjoyed-a hypocrite meath
The cloak OF a Christians name!
Once widows and orphans were His
-. prey, !!
Now his own had come to, this
For a few short years of LIES success
He barteree eternal bliss.
.Soulsick, he next sought his dimpled
babe,
His own peerless darling pure,
Then he knew what fiends of deepest
hell ~. ,
i, Eternally must endure;
Her costly laces had turned to rags,
The roses of health had fed,
Lonely and sad she waits the day long
For mother must earn her bread.
More pitiless grew the awful dream
AS his loved ones fate more drear,
Yet powerless now forevermore
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