Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1921-06-08
GIVE ME- THREE GRAINS OF
CORN, MOTHER.
(By Miss Edwards

This poem was suggested by one of
the many painful incidents of the
memorable Irish famine of 1916.
| The title was the last request of an
Irish lad to his mother as he was dy-
| ing of starvation. She found three
| grains in a corner of his ragged
| jacket, and gave them to him. The
whole family were perishing from
| famine.
! Give me three grains of corn, mother,
Only three grains of corn;
| 1t will keep the little life l have
Till the coming of the morn.
/ am dying of hunger and cold, mother,
Dying of hunger and cold,
And half the agony of such a death
My lips have never told.
1t has gnawed like a wolf at my heart,
mother,
A wolf that is fierce for blood
All the livelong day and the night be-
side,
Gnawing for lack of food.
l dreamed of bread in my sleep,
mother
And the sight was heaven to see;
l awoke with an eager. furnishing lip,
But you had no bread for me.
How could l look to you. mother.
How could l look to you
For bread to give to your starving boy
When you are starving. too?
For l read the famine in your cheek
And in your eye so wild,
And l felt it in your bony hand
AS you laid it on your child.
Hba lop nd
The queen has lands and gold,
While you are forced to your empty
breast
A skeleton babe to hold,
A babe that is dying of want, mother,
AS am dying now,
With a CHASTITY look in it's sunken eye
And famine upon it's brow.
What has poor Ireland done, mother,
What has poor Ireland done
That the world looks on and sees us
starve,
Perishing one by one?
| Do the men of England care not,
mother,
The great men and the high,
For the suffering sons of Erin's Isle,
Whether they live or die?
Come quickly to my side mother
| Come quickly to my side
And kiss me fondly, as you did
My father, when he died.
! Quick for / cannot see you. mother,
| My breath is almost gone,
But mother give me ere l die,
Give me three grains of corn.
| Dear M. B. Friends:
The following letter explains the
reprinting of the above poem:
/ Dear Aunt Madge:
l will send these old verses. Proba-
bly, they are familiar to many of your
| readers, but they seem appropriate on
account of the distress in Ireland. l
have had them many years. Some of
| the lines are missing, but l remember
! them.
/ Sadie"
While it might not be becoming
for those who have so recently come
| into the equal rights of citizen
| ship. to criticise adversely the doings
J of the legislative bodies in their
( respective states, there can be no OBJ
lection to copying views that are pre-
sented on these acts, by the public
press. The following is part of an
| editorial in the New England Home
stead, published in Springfield, Mass.
| BIG MEN IN LITTLE BUSINESS.
| Evidently the Massachusetts legis-
! lature is making the most of it's last
| opportunity to meet annually and
| squander the peoples money discuss
ing ill-advised legislation. Wasting
| time on talk of licensing cats and re-
| curing all horse-drawn vehicles to be
| registered was bad enough. Now
comes bill to prohibit the manu-
facture or sale of shoes with heels
| more than one and one-half inches
/ high. Perhaps too many women do
wear too high -heeled shoes but the
proper remedy is in education, not
! legislation.
This bill did not become a law, but
the remedy" suggested is worthy of
| attention.
In a Maine daily. published May
80, we find the following:
Except on the back lots there was no
| baseball in Maine to-day. a law passed
at the Legislature last winter, forbid
ding all out of door amusements where
admission is charged or collection is
| taken. The prohibition does not ex-
tend to entertainments held in doors
so that theatres and boxing exhibitions
got the benefit of the holiday crowds.
Boxing bouts or baseball Which
would you prefer? 1t is a higher
standard of citizenship and public
spirit. that is the great need of our
country to-day. We are getting to
be "slackers" in the demand for
cleaner living and a higher grade of
moral character, in honest work and
in personal responsibility.
Instead of questioning, will the