Pebbles from Parnassus Author:William J Fielding Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A PHILANTHROPIST As others see him He gives to causes far and wide? And does it all with solemn pride; He gives alike to men and God, To weary widows (gras... more »s and sod), To nameless orphans on the street, Whose mothers fell from ways discreet While children, toiling in his shop For meager wage?a wretched sop. He gives all o'er this sphere terrene From Kokomo to Palestine. He gives to Science, Church and Art With holy ardor, all his heart? A fund for vivisecting dogs, Still more for vaccinating hogs; An organ for a church in Rome, A gold communion set for Nome. He gives the public rare antiques, Old mummies, relics?ancient freaks, And priceless paintings, not a few. (Some clever pseudo-Masters, too!) He gives?his statements testify; But what, we ask, wherefore and why? He gives his surplus princely spoil? The golden fruits of others' toil, The misappropriated wage From labor's lowly peonage. He gives, forsooth, to circumvent A rising hostile sentiment; To leave a monumental name? Built on the sands of unearned fame. THE "REFORMER" He finds this world a crooked sphere, A place o'erbearingly austere. Corruption stalks on every hand, Officials wink at contraband, And share the profits, steeped in grime? Also the odor of the crime! He's highly shocked, he is, to see The ravages of poverty, And prostitution's hopeless wail Bespeaks to him a sordid tale, As souls drift down the crimson stream, The product of a brutal scheme? The System! He seeks to set the world aright, To resurrect it from its plight. He plans to stir things fore and aft, To stay the hand that takes the graft, Uplift the mob to heights sublime And put a crimp in boundless crime. He starts at once, by sage advice, To free the slums from rooted vice; To preach an ancient, dying creed To creatures gri...« less