Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-11-29
To Henry Frank Singer

HENRY, they said you had wasted your
IL youth,
Because you were not confined wltnin II
business or profession.
They begrudged you your little patrimony,
Since 1t enabled you to read books, and
scorn the seeking of wealth
But you gave your life for an ideal,
And that was a deed unbelievable by your
detractors.
Who Is there to stand in judgment and say
That another misspends his life?
who is there now to decry you?
Who dare boast Of his virtues as he thinks
of your new.digged grave? .
You did not faunt your patriotism
And let your rcighbor give up his life.blood.
Restless, and spurTed on by passion for
justice,
Hecdng the cries across the distant At
antic
Eleven times you sought enlistment.
And finally the draft board passed you.
You did not seek the front because of a
love of adventure,
You were not prey of barbarous instincts
become atavistic within you.
uENRY, if ever a man unselfishly yielded
IL his life. you did.
You died for an idea no less than Socrates
and Bruno.
Youth, health. love- happiness, life were
before you,
And you freely forwsnt them.
Prosperity may forget you,
But it will reap the blessings you gave 1t.
TT is so hard to believe you are dead,
Henry.
1t is hard to believe that your neat
little figure
Carrying your gloves in your Lands,
VIII never again go trotting down Chest
nut street.
| see you again. your blue eyes lit up with
mschievous .mle
I watch you puff your cigarette,
AS you tell your little joke.
Henry, you were so human and hail
fellow well met
Intellect and wealth made you not bit
less democratic.
Your eye for pretty girl was no less sure
Than your taste for n good boo,
And you were a handsome fellow, Henry.
AND then came the single newspaper
"A line under KILLED.
Henry +. Singer. 3SO9 Locust street, Phla-
delphia."
Soon appeared your picture and a few
lines of obituary:
Graduate of the University Of Pennsyl.
vania,"
And Collector of a library on the drama:
There were the W 1s descriptive of you
But / had seen .the divine fire flash in
your eye
And knew that words uld not portray
your spirit.
They say brave men lived before Agamen.
non;
Yes and today as well as ever
You were hero and never knew IT,
And never went after .he honors;
You were made of the stuff Of martyrs
| And yet never shouted about your duty.
And now your so-called wasted life
More fruitful than that of the creator of
wealth,
More noble than that of the preacher of
sermons,
More beautiful than that of the dreamer
of poems,
| Has conferred untold advantages upon us;
Has proved itself a poem and a sermon.
WHEN on that memorable morning of
w November the eleventh.
The glad tidings of peace were tolled by
the whistles and sirens,
thought of you as one Of the spectral
.,irits,
Sending forth the joyous music,
And speeding the cheerful melodies to
carol about in the raw morning,
When l read of the flight of rulers and
the birth of republics,
| said here were results you had accom-
plshed.
But you will never gather the rich har.
vest of your sowing,
You will. never exult in your splendid
achievement,
And a Homer to make you immortal is
lacking.
7 SEND you my humble tribute,
], who sought the heroic in the cettage
instead OF on the field of action
! Who hated wars because of the slaughter
Of thousands of innocents,
| To punish few maefactors.
And when ] think you died for me,
Literally and not metIphorically,
feel a miserable wretch
Who is drawing his breath only because
you ceased you: !.
God bless you, Henry, and your wasted
| youth.
| ALBERT MoRDELL.
Humanity is often very upgrateful to its
greatest benefactors. We don't ever
know the name OF the man who invented
ham and eggs with hashed brown on this
side