New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-08-11

STEPHEN: a WARTIME PORTRAIT

Find any better thing to do.
He took me up and down each day
In our old house he ran the lift;
I'd miss him if he went away
For even one short hours shift.
His face was young for one so old,
For he was well past thrty-nine;
Yet lightly the swift years had rolled.
And never left a single sign.
And so we named him Peter Pan
The boy eternal in him dwelt;
How we'll that ancient car he RAM
The Job was his for life, we felt.
lie loved to read; and every night
would discuss the news with him.
gave him books, both grave and bright
Dickens, and Riley, and lord jim"
But when that frghtful August came,
And the base Hun revealed his power,
Stephen gave up the fiction game,
And read the papers by the hour.
He used to say, in those first days
When Europe rocked with awful war,
His BRAIN like mine, in thick haze,
81 wonder what they're fighting forp
| tried to tell him of land
Gone mad with love Of greed and lust
He did not seem to understand,
And said he thought was unjust
Then came the time when we joined, too,
The mighty conflict Over There;
You heard men say, "What can dor"
And, Lord! I want to do my share"
held paper in my hand
That morning when I went downtown.
Steve looked al it. 81 understand
At last" he said; and took me down.
He didn't talk much after that;
The thing was getting him, knew;
Sometimes he failed to touch his hat
Not that I'd ever asked him to.
Oh, no! For Stephen our frend;N
He'd run that car for twenty years,
And knew the house from end to end
It's laughter, and its pain and tears.
The weeks rolled by CONSUMPTION came;
They called the fine lads out to die.
"Bv Jove" said Stephen. ats shame"
swell, what else could We do;" said l.
"You don't quite understand me, sir.
was just thinking. :" Nothing more:
The elevator gave stir,
And very soon I reached my floor.
II was in June that Stephen left;
missed our faithful Peter Pan.
The house seemed curously bereft
Without the quiet little man.
He never had been i'll day.
And so we asked about him. Then
We learned that he had gone away
To try to join the fighting men
II seems that when they called the draft
Stephen was in the foremost line.
GLOW old are you;" the General laughed.
"Why. sir, Tm-let's sce-twenty-nine
"The deuce YOU rer the General said,
you'll never see twice that againl
You're growing gray. We want instead
A million of the younger men"
aThe Younger men, Yes, Peter Pan,
To whom the years had been SO kind,
Was not boy now, but man;
And we who loved him had been blind
For Love is blind indeed. And yet
I'm glad it is; for who would see
The grief this war has grimly set
On faces dear to you and me?
Rejected! Peter Pan too old
To ioin the ranks and fight the fight!
His hair had lost its Brilliant gold,
His ewes their sparkle in night.
Rejected! Yes, they wanted boys,
They wanted only youth for this!
Mars wanted only radiant toys
To toss in Helrs metropolis!
Back TO our quiet house he came,
The young-old Stephen. could see
The vanished youth, the vanished fame,
And the new awful tragedy.
Yet is he not soldier, lit
With fire? Is not his cage trench
Wherein his spirit does its bit
For u.s. for England, and the French?
CHARLES HANSON
re were Secretary Baker we should walk up 10
Burleson and say, Good morning, Al" and the
clio Newt. / haven't seen you in some time
would say. 'Ive been terribly rushed, trying to
ernany, and one thing and another. And TIL
{ can count on your help" Newt" Mr.. Bur
gu know me. You can have anything I've got
Newt" well" Mr.. Baker would say, "wha
ii. l., trucks usPd in New