Class 
 Book. 
 
 Copyright^ . 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
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By-Products of Idle Hours 
 
 By 
 
 Joseph B. Strauss 
 
 
 

 
 Copyright 1921 
 
 by 
 
 Joseph B. Strauss 
 
 SEP 17 1921 
 
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 1921 
 
INDEX 
 
 Page 
 A Farewell Tribute .... ..... 7 
 
 Before the Dawn 9 
 
 Reverie ' 1 
 
 A Night in Michigan..... . 16 
 
 Album Autograph 17 
 
 A Christmas Greeting 18 
 
 The Forest Songster ..... 19 
 
 Chicago . 20 
 
 As the Troops Pass 21 
 
 Our Answer.. 23 
 
 Germany,Thy Hour Has Struck! 24 
 
 The Fighting Yank 25 
 
 To My Mother 26 
 
 They Ask Your Giving 27 
 
 The Engineer 28 
 
 Lo! I Am Truth ..... 29 
 
 Birthday Greeting to Richard 31 
 
 Toronto. : 32 
 
 A Christmas Message 33 
 
 In Memoriam 34 
 
 California... 35 
 
 The Issues 36 
 
 Republic and Republican 37 
 
 Welcome to the Port Convention 38 
 
 Harding, Our New Chief . 39 
 
 Grand Canyon 40 
 
 The Boy Scouts' Creed 41 
 
 I Whisper to the World, Good-Bye .. 42 
 
A FAREWELL TRIBUTE 
 
 Sensations strange do fill the heart 
 And doubts and fears unbidden start ; 
 
 Our heaving bosoms thrill; 
 What can this dull oppression be? 
 Alas, it is too clear to me, 
 
 The Fates — they augur ill. 
 
 For they decree, the best of friends 
 Life now relentless from us sends, 
 
 To far off Western shore ; 
 A friend, than whom none truer is, 
 Such thoughtful, kindly care as his, 
 
 We ne'er can hope for more. 
 
 Well may we grieve to 'ose our guide. 
 Our counselor and help beside. 
 
 For these and more thou be ; 
 How hard to part, to cut the bands, 
 So o< rongly drawn by thine own hands, 
 
 Between thy charge and thee. 
 
 Tis true, thou wert sometimes severe, 
 Thy thunder oft inspired with fear 
 
 The hapless youth at bay ; 
 When through his muddled brain no light 
 Could penetrate Eygptian night, 
 
 And he was told to "stay." 
 
 Or when thou laidst on us the yoke, 
 That took away the right to stoke 
 
 The feeble fires of lore ; 
 Or flattered us upon our wit 
 Whose flame, thou saidst, our faces lit 
 
 And testimony bore ? 
 
 But since such incidents hold rule 
 In each well-regulated school, 
 
 All this we will forget; 
 Unlocking now another door 
 And take from an abundant store 
 
 The brighter gems there set. 
 
Thus we shall find, thou wert the key, 
 To ope the gates that left us free 
 
 To walk in Learning's bower; 
 Where mathematic symmetry, 
 And astronomic mystery, 
 
 Detained us by the hour. 
 
 We find thee too as one who taught 
 Why Learning must be fairly bought, 
 
 How knowledge mankind sways; 
 As one who knew that boys are boys, 
 And saw midst all our tricks and toys 
 
 The man of future days. 
 
 Therefore, I say with my adieu, 
 May kindly Heaven bliss thee anew 
 
 And grant deserved Success; 
 May Fortune smile on thee indeed, 
 And may to thee this be decreed : 
 
 Long life and happiness. 
 
 And I would say this too, at last, 
 That when thy lot with those is cast 
 
 There at the Golden Gate, 
 That thou look back across the land, 
 And think of those last from thy hand 
 
 The Class of Eighty-Eight. 
 
 Cincinnati 
 
 Delivered at Dinner 
 
 to 
 
 Professor Jacob H. Bromwel 
 
 on behalf of the 
 
 '88 Astronomy Class 
 
 Hughes High School 
 
BEFORE THE DAWN 
 
 Before the dawn I sudden wake, 
 
 And in the gloom lie still; 
 Lest I perchance should wanton break 
 
 A calm that saints might will. 
 
 Lest I should turn in hasty flight 
 
 The thoughts that come to mind, 
 
 Like bounding waves of welcome light 
 To eyes that have been blind 
 
 The half-formed plans of busy day 
 
 The problems left undone ; 
 The doubts that undisturbed held sway, 
 
 The questions oft begun ; 
 
 Appear again before me now, 
 
 All pliant to my will, 
 As to the keenly sharpened plow, 
 
 The hardened earth we till. 
 
 Then follow daring dreams of pride, 
 Tumultuous hopes of youth ; 
 
 The future opens fast and wide, 
 The past is past in truth. 
 
 I see the goals well won and held; 
 
 Success become my own ; 
 Fame by my name and deeds excelled, 
 
 My toil to genius grown, 
 
 The minds of men I mold and move, 
 
 I do what mankind would ; 
 Out from the deep'ning time-worn groove, 
 
 I lift the world to good. 
 
 The light of morning softly breaks, 
 
 Yet I, entranced, lie still; 
 For evry hope me now forsakes, 
 
 And heart and pride as well. 
 
 Undone by timid, first-born ray, 
 My humble, hopeless sphere ; 
 
 Far fade my cherished goals away 
 And leave me longing here. 
 
 Cincinnati 
 January, 1890 
 
REVERIE 
 
 In village belfry, slow, successive, swings 
 The iron tongue to twelve ; while sweeter rings 
 Accomp'niment from nearer neighbored tower, 
 Of chimes heraldic of the midnight hour. 
 Save these, a sacred silence binds the earth ; 
 The sounds of daily sorrow, those of mirth, 
 Are hushed ; the tired folk are fast in bed, 
 And grateful slumber soothes each weary head ; 
 I only wake, in quiet deep 
 I dream, but not the dreams of sleep. 
 
 I feel how softly there about me breathes 
 The lightest zephyr, that scarce stirs the trees 
 Whose shadows weirdly fall upon the graves 
 They silent guard ; from far come gentle waves 
 Of sweet perfume and faint repeated sound 
 Of ans'ring bay from restless hound to hound; 
 While crickets' chirp from moss-concealed abodes 
 Assails the stillness of the lonely country roads, 
 Which outward now, then inward wind, 
 And go from me to all Mankind. 
 
 The moon, companion to nocturnal thought, 
 Pours out her light of mirrored sunbeams wrought, 
 Maternal spreads her robes of mellow white 
 Far over lowland plain and rugged height; 
 Dims, by her nearer splendor, yonder host, 
 Whose multicolored orbs do seem almost 
 Like flick' ring beacon lamps, that silent burn 
 On distant shores, round which they bend and turn 
 In straggling lines of warning light, 
 That flash their signals through the night. 
 
 1G 
 
Among those myriad millions hung in space, 
 
 Finds, too, this tiny world of ours a place ; 
 
 From it, tonight, how small a part I see 
 
 Of its known stellar fellowship; to me 
 
 They bring the consciousness of those unknown, 
 
 Whose light our skies can never hope to own; 
 
 Whose course is laid where eye nor mind can reach 
 
 Where trains of regal courtiers follow each, 
 
 In systems vast, with centers yet 
 
 Far deeper in creation set. 
 
 Might not, on satellite of yon bright star, 
 Whose light of past years shows but now afar; 
 Or on that ruddy globe, by first cause spun 
 Nearest to us of all swayed by the sun, 
 Strange forms of life thick people hill and dale; 
 Bound round, as we, by that mysterious veil 
 That hides from flesh the truth; and, as we still 
 The rugged planetary surface till, 
 Or seek in rock, long buried there, 
 The same hope that a Darwin dare 7 
 
 Or do alone in all this rule we live; 
 
 With those grand spectacles the star-spheres give, 
 
 Beheld by none beside ; we only formed 
 
 Exceptional, and with a mind adorned 
 
 Them to enjoy; inanimate the rest, 
 
 But for one force, whose presence all attest 
 
 In universal motion; trembling we, 
 
 Left in a loneliness like this, where be 
 
 But the Creator and the man, 
 
 And nothing more since time began 7 
 
 Will yon far worlds to me the answer tell? 
 Else I shall force their secret, break the spell 
 Of silence, kept so stubborn and so stout, 
 Despite the searchers all their realms about, 
 Yet how can I approach infinity? 
 Can finite realize divinity? 
 In vain attempt and never-ending search 
 He battles on in school, in state, in church 
 To learn at length, that mortal's range 
 Its narrow limits ne'er can change. 
 
Aye, different from attempted flight, mind's course; 
 
 Earth brooks not, from herself, the soul's divorce 
 
 Except in death; from high presumptive quest 
 
 Of purpose in the cosmos manifest, 
 
 She brings us down, in her broad lap to find 
 
 Enough of mystery to puzzle mind ; 
 
 In polar climes, or else in tropic zone; 
 
 In heaving crust, whose changes part are shown 
 
 In broken record, still unread, 
 
 Though countless centuries are fled. 
 
 Around us ceaseless, changeless, endless roll 
 
 The mighty agencies beyond control 
 
 Of things material; vain, still, the hope 
 
 To understand them or intent and scope 
 
 Of humbler nature; lo, not yet have ceased, 
 
 Of fauna and of flora, e'en the least 
 
 Us to astound; our limits to out-climb, 
 
 Or fearful death to grow less feared with time, 
 
 Or life, with fewer doubts, to gloom 
 
 Our fretted passage to the tomb. 
 
 What awesome rule o'er mankind's path extends, 
 
 How to our boasts it quick confusion sends ! 
 
 Denies the final of the ages won ; 
 
 Time omens of man's evolution done, 
 
 Humanity extinct or sunk below 
 
 The organisms after years may grow; 
 
 To whose new light our triumphs will be brought, 
 
 But not, as fondly cherished by our thought, 
 
 Successful claimants of the crown 
 
 Destined for future's last renown. 
 
 Can, till this restless planet grow inert, 
 And giant strength its shrinking mass exert 
 No more, the climax of its living forms 
 Obtain? Do gradual change and tempest storms 
 And throbbing sea, on plastic land now trace 
 Transition to succeeding age and race? 
 Can sage ascribe the beating world's loud groan, 
 The fiercer strife, each for his envied own, 
 To struggle of a waning type ; 
 To era almost over-ripe ? 
 
 12 
 
Poor tortured man, whom hard, relentless fate 
 
 Impels to ceaseless war; uneasy wait 
 
 You for each dawn to bring its train of good, 
 
 From which must come your share, your livelihood 
 
 Unhappy roused, each morn to meet the day, 
 
 To face the foe in silent, grim array. 
 
 To battle wealth and poverty; at length 
 
 To yield to master minds, whose larger strength 
 
 Absorbs the vital share of wealth, 
 
 Vain sought by feebler brain and health. 
 
 See then, a reason for each varied phase, 
 
 That yonder vale presents to wand' ring gaze; 
 
 The cottage low, on which the light scarce falls; 
 
 The nearby terraced mansion walls; 
 
 The over-rich amidst most hopeless want; 
 
 The shrines which beauty, grace and fashion haunt, 
 
 The dingy room where but the hapless reign, 
 
 Where scenes of joy make way for those of shame; 
 
 The intermingled good and bad, 
 
 The bright and dark, the gay and sad. 
 
 Note, too, where plenty lavish store displays, 
 Where wealth the progress of the lowly stays, 
 And there, where indigence half-hidden lurks, 
 Our social state its own destruction works; 
 Compelling all, decrepit, adult, youth, 
 To live opposed to ways of happy truth; 
 To win their bread in life of fev'rish gain; 
 To bear full weight of sorrow and of pain; 
 To sell, for meager grant of gold, 
 The peace a lifetime can enfold. 
 
 The novice, who with hesitating heart, 
 
 Begins, unknown, his triumph in the mart; 
 
 Successful leader, who in dotage feels 
 
 His curbed humanity revive and steals 
 
 A few late years for good ; the humbler mean, 
 
 To whom the end of drudgery's unseen ; 
 
 The self-taught lad, whose steps find vaunted goal 
 
 The student, whom scholastic arts control ; 
 
 Unequal toil, but equal bear 
 
 For every joy, a double care. 
 
 13 
 
Through storm-rocked souls unchecked misfortunes plow, 
 
 And leave their furrows on the wrinkled brow; 
 
 From thousand avenues, alluring sin 
 
 On opulence and penury creeps in; 
 
 Cloaked in a thousand mantles, subtle crime 
 
 Accomp'nies men in eager, rapid climb, 
 
 To elevations of their highest fame, 
 
 Or down the darker roads the fallen claim 
 
 Now leads by folly, now by hate, 
 
 Bv love, or wants inordinate. 
 
 And wilful leads for want of better guide, 
 While evolution follows by its side 
 In devious path, that back and forward trails, 
 And wilder grows, while all its comfort fails; 
 Where mankind creeps, forgetting to look back, 
 And plan its progress from the traveled track ; 
 But, stubborn, holds the tortous way ordained ; 
 Thinks wrong and poverty foreer contained 
 In all of life; makes pain a creed, 
 And accepts sorrow as a need. 
 
 Drawn half the social misery and grime 
 
 From institutions hoary most with time ; 
 
 By them men fast succeeding tyrants rear 
 
 To warp the right and force the burning tear; 
 
 By them create the idler and the slave, 
 
 And wanton waste of what the needy crave; 
 
 Through them pour out their gold in well-filled hands, 
 
 And drive the thousands to the pauper bands; 
 
 With them the sight of eager eyes 
 
 Destroy, and progress make with sighs. 
 
 But as the patient tossing in disease 
 Feels sharpest pain precede a spell of ease; 
 And as the soldier sees, through battle smoke, 
 The cause most dark before the master stroke; 
 So sweating mortal, toiling under lash, 
 E'en now hears mutt'rings of impending crash; 
 Whose advent brings the juster social state, 
 Where higher laws will mortals dominate, 
 And aims industrial of today 
 Will sink to lesser, feebler play. 
 
 14 
 
Aye, high ideals do still far higher bring; 
 
 And late crops oft in greatest plenty spring ; 
 
 The blackest coal holds richest store of light; 
 
 And half-grown earth (whose chief, whose saddest blight 
 
 Is from its own weak offspring, that neglect 
 
 Its laws immutable, and blind elect 
 
 To legislate against its truth), is mine 
 
 Of wondrous treasures full, whose glories shine 
 
 But dimly now, yet do presage 
 
 For coming man a happier age. 
 
 In peace then sleep, poor troubled vale, and dream 
 Not of my visions dark; away they stream, 
 While blessings shine on ev'ry hand; proclaim 
 All safe the charm of home, and love's bright flame 
 That burns for all, and sympathy and song, 
 And mind's grand play, so great and strong; 
 Before advancing steps of glorious dawn, 
 The mist, distorter of my sight, is gone, 
 And life shows bright'ning through the cloud 
 A halo now, before, a shroud. 
 
 Cincinnati, 1892 
 
 Class Poem— Class of 1892 
 University of Cincinnati 
 
A NIGHT IN MICHIGAN 
 
 The twilight fades away in deepening gloom, 
 The chorus of the night sweet song resume ; 
 
 No sense of loneliness annoys ; 
 The lighted lamp through lifted window shines; 
 The toiler his now irksome task resigns, 
 
 And hurries home to evening joys. 
 
 The moonlight creeps across the sleeping bay, 
 And through the fruiting forests finds its way, 
 
 And o'er the hills on distant shore; 
 Transformed, the world beneath the soft, white gleam, 
 The wooded vales like silvered dreamland seem, 
 
 The hills, like castle-keeps of yore. 
 
 On ship becalmed, 'neath idle sails all set, 
 That shifting shadows on the deck beget, 
 
 The sailors careless, resting, lie; 
 And sweetly blended, dreamily in song, 
 Their voices float the waters still along, 
 
 And on the shore in echoes die. 
 
 Back from the beach shine hundred twinkling lights; 
 Out from beneath the trees that crown the heights, 
 
 Where from half hidden festal hall, 
 Come swinging, stirring, captivating strains 
 Of merry waltz, that down the darkened lanes 
 
 In soft and mellow accents fall. 
 
 E'en as I speak, belated ship before abortive breeze 
 Sails on ; the dancers seek their needed ease, 
 
 And all is still ; creation feels 
 The sacred majesty of night; regretfully depart 
 The life and passion of the world, and o'er the heart 
 
 The calm and peace of Nature steals. 
 
 Omena, Mich. 
 Oct. 26, 1892 
 
 16 
 
ALBUM AUTOGRAPH 
 
 The album rhymster is a scourge ; 
 Yet when fair ladies press and urge 
 
 Prosaic men to vent regards in verse, 
 Then they to rhyme heroic bend 
 To testify they be your friend; 
 
 And I, like they, have done the same, or worse. 
 
 Philadelphia 
 1893 
 
 iZ 
 
A CHRISTMAS GREETING 
 
 Accompanying the Joint Gift of a Lamp 
 to our Landlady 
 
 In this we put our Christmas Greeting; 
 And trust in time, and by entreating, 
 
 That it may win in your regard; 
 We know full well its value's light, 
 But counted here that bright was right ; 
 
 So thought it worthy of its ward. 
 
 On this, and coming Christmas days, 
 We trust that 'neath its genial rays, 
 
 All happy you may meet ; 
 With us in memory you will be, 
 Beneath the lamp as Christmas tree, 
 
 With blessings at your feet. 
 
 Trenton, N. J. 
 1893 
 
 18 
 
THE FOREST SONGSTER 
 
 Like sirens' song of ancient days 
 That lured the passing from their ways 
 By music more than half divine; 
 So too those glorious notes of thine, 
 O forest songster, swell and roll 
 And sweep entranced, enraptured soul 
 Into thy fairy woodland home, 
 God's great green temple, all thine own. 
 
 Chicago 
 
 December 
 
 1905 
 
 19 
 
CHICAGO 
 
 Chicago the peerless, the wonder of earth, 
 Arrayed in the splendor that crowned her rebirth ; 
 The Queen of the Inland, with realm spreading wide, 
 From Lakes to the Gulfland, to far mountain side; 
 Imperial she reigns o'er her rich dowered lands 
 That ceaseless their tribute pour into her hands; 
 Unbounded the treasure that floats to her shores, 
 That streams through the highways stretched out 
 
 from her doors ; 
 A kingdom of plenty, great, glorious and fair, 
 Her crest the rare badge only world-leaders wear ; 
 Chicago the regal, the magical grown, 
 Chicago triumphant, Americas own. 
 
 Dedicated to the 
 
 City of Chicago Chicago 
 
 1912 
 
 20 
 
AS THE TROOPS PASS 
 
 When I hear the tense surging to battle, 
 And the swift preparation for war, 
 
 And the bright-flashing musketry rattle 
 In the uniformed ranks reaching far; 
 
 Then my heart, leaping wild in its beating, 
 Gives its answer to drum tap without; 
 
 While the blood in my veins swift is heating 
 In the fire of passion about. 
 
 Now I turn from this scene to another, 
 Framed in memory time overgrown, 
 
 The death watch of the Volunteer's Mother, 
 In the war-border hamlet back home. 
 
 All alone through the killing and fighting, 
 And with no one to comfort or save, 
 
 She lived on through the ruin and blighting, 
 But to pray for the son that she gave. 
 
 And each day when the skies were still darkened, 
 She returned to her lodge in the street, 
 
 And there silently waited and harkened 
 
 For the tramp of the homecomer's feet. 
 
 And when all the battles had ended, 
 
 And crushed peace reasserted her sway, 
 
 When the blood and the treasure expended 
 Had ordained that the Union should stay ; 
 
 When the sorrow and suffering were waning, 
 And the world once again smiled in joy, 
 
 Still she stood at her post uncomplaining, 
 And in silence awaited her boy. 
 
 And so year after year she stood waiting, 
 As the city's full torrents swept on ; 
 
 Each long year after year consecrating 
 Her lone life to the life that was gone. 
 
 And at last when grim fate had relented, 
 
 And pronounced her long vigil complete, 
 
 There they found her still waiting, contented, 
 In the calmness of death on the street. 
 
 21 
 
And so when all the Nation is throbbing 
 At grave menace, or insult or raid, 
 
 I think back to her soul and its robbing 
 
 To help pay the dread debt that was paid. 
 
 And I think of the ties that were shattered, 
 Of the waifs, of the helpless, the old ; 
 
 Of the homes that were broken and scattered, 
 Like was this in the tale I have told. 
 
 But I turn to the flag silent waving, 
 
 And remember the price that they gave 
 
 To maintain it unsullied and saving, 
 
 The great glorified badge of the brave. 
 
 Then forget I the horror attending 
 
 Whene'er peace flees the land it has blessed, 
 And see man with his wars ever-ending 
 
 Greater evils naught else had suppressed. 
 
 And I join in the call of the Nation, 
 
 That the Nation assert its vast might, 
 
 In defense, for the good of creation, 
 
 Of the standards that ever serve Right. 
 
 So I thrill as the ranks pass me swinging 
 With our honor, our all in their care, 
 
 And I hear the sharp bugle notes ringing 
 With a reverent heart and a prayer. 
 
 Chicago 
 1916 
 
 Founded on a True Story 
 of the Civil War 
 
 22 
 
OUR ANSWER 
 
 The Nations call; their millions call; 
 
 From World aflame a terror call ; 
 
 Out o'er the seething, blood-drenched coasts, 
 
 Out o'er the silent war-slain hosts, 
 
 Out o'er the grandeur ground to dust ■ 
 
 And ghastly wake of power lust ; 
 
 Out o'er the oceans' lanes of death, 
 
 Marked by the reeking poison breath 
 
 Of maddened king, goes forth a call, 
 
 Straight to the hearts of freemen all. 
 
 Our answer; lo, with magic wand 
 Columbia's fighting Liberty Bond; 
 Our answer; all our heart and hand 
 And every resource of the land ; 
 Our answer ; ominous thunder tramp 
 Of mighty hosts in field and camp, 
 That sweeping swift across the globe 
 Shall strip from fiend his royal robe, 
 Drag down his blood-flags wide unfurled 
 And for all ages free the world. 
 
 Chicago 
 June 1, 191! 
 
 23 
 
GERMANY, THY HOUR HAS STRUCK! 
 
 Germany, thy hour has struck ! 
 North and South and East and West ! 
 Death is clawing at thy breast ; 
 In the Balkans, Bulgar breaks; 
 In the Eastland Russia wakes; 
 On the dripping fields of France 
 Shattered lies thy battle lance; 
 On the plains of Nazareth 
 Heaped lie thy minions, cold in death ; 
 Backward go thy murder bands, 
 Forward to thy cowering lands 
 Ceaseless surge the hosts of Right; 
 Doomed thy terror reign of Might ; 
 Doomed thy emperor and thy courts; 
 Doomed thy temples and thy forts; 
 North and South and East and West 
 Death is clawing at thy breast ; 
 Germany, thy hour has struck ! 
 
 Chicago 
 
 September 
 
 1918 
 
 24 
 
THE FIGHTING YANK 
 
 Who stayed the Prussian Eagle's flight? 
 Who broke the German armies' might? 
 Who met the death horde as "it came, 
 In poison cloud, with sheet of flame? 
 Who changed to flight its swift advance? 
 Who hurled it back from bleeding France? 
 And who stands guard upon Rhine bank 
 While all Earth rests 1 — The Fighting Yank 
 
 Who cut the ring of German steel, 
 
 And battered through at St. Mihiel? 
 
 Who stormed the forest of Argonne, 
 
 And decimated battled on^ 
 
 Who sent reply that halt command 
 
 His men would never understand, 
 
 Then plunging on with gaping rank 
 
 Brought fiend to bay?— The Fighting Yank 
 
 They're heroes all, who faced that hell, 
 Who by the millions fought and fell; 
 The fearless, splendid, Great Poilu, 
 The Briton, Anzac, Cannuck, too, 
 Italian, Serb, and Belgium's son, 
 All glorious in the Great Deed done ; 
 But none like him whose saber clank 
 Set free the world— The Fighting Yank! 
 
 Chicago 
 January 6 
 
 Dedicated to "ReiHy's Bucks" 1919 
 
 25 
 
TO MY MOTHER 
 
 Here we have brought you, Mother, 
 Where follow one by one; 
 
 Here where the low mounds cover 
 The hosts whose travail's done. 
 
 Here where the zephyrs sighing 
 Steal gently o'er your bed; 
 
 Here where the songsters flying 
 Chant softly o'er your head. 
 
 Here where your quiet sleeping 
 
 Is sleep that knows no dreams; 
 
 Here in the Court of Weeping, 
 
 Where Earth her own redeems. 
 
 Here where your mate has bided 
 From weary year to year ; 
 
 Here where the roads divided 
 Part us, we leave you, dear. 
 
 But oh ! the pain of leaving 
 All that we loved to share, 
 
 Our common joys and grieving 
 Here we renounce fore'er. 
 
 Chicago 
 
 January 27 
 
 1919 
 
 Dedicated to the Memory of 
 
 My Beloved Mother 
 Who Died January 10, 1919 
 
 26 
 
THEY ASK YOUR GIVING 
 
 They ask your giving, those that bled, 
 Our Martyred Living and our Dead ! 
 They ask for those who peaceful sleep 
 On slopes they stormed to win and keep ; 
 They ask in name of the Marine 
 And Chateau Thierry's gory scene; 
 They ask for those that gave their all 
 That conquering enemy might fall ; 
 They ask for those who guarding stand 
 In grim array on foeman's land; 
 They ask for blind and maimed and rent 
 The naked, starving and the spent; 
 They ask in name of God and Right, 
 In name of World redeemed from blight; 
 In name of World rebuilt, restored, 
 Its peoples, Nations in accord; 
 What greater -duty than we give 
 The loan they ask that Peace shall live. 
 
 _ ,. Chicago 
 
 Dedicated to April 21 191 Q 
 
 The Victory Liberty Loan 
 
 27 
 
THE ENGINEER 
 
 In this age of transition a giant appears 
 
 An old force that's grown mighty, the World's Engineers. 
 
 Upon them falls the work that advances mankind 
 
 And their duty, our comfort and safety to find. 
 
 Throughout the Earth's progress, through all the years gone 
 
 Tis the Engineer's torch gave the light that led on. 
 
 When nations reached out to new shores all unknown 
 When they cut through the Tropics or sought Arctic Zone, 
 When they crossed o'er the desert or circled the Horn, 
 Through all dangers and sorrows, in sunshine and storm 
 In the battle with Nature's wild moods everywhere 
 'Twas the Engineer's standard they found flying there. 
 
 When the war clouds low-hung at last broke o'er the world 
 And the legions of death their black war flags unfurled 
 'Twas the Engineers' Corps that was first in the field, 
 And the Engineers first forced invader to yield ; 
 Where are bold enough fighters who'd claim to be peers 
 Of the bridge-building brigade, our own Engineers. 
 
 And then back of the lines, all those others that fought, 
 Silent groping to find the great help the world sought ; 
 They released hidden force, gave command of the air, 
 And they conquered the brute in his submarine lair; 
 Every gun they kept hot, while our Allies they fed, 
 And across fearsome seas safe our armies they sped. 
 
 And so all that we have and so all that we hold 
 
 And most all the world's story which we must leave untold 
 
 Our contentment in peace, our protection from strife, 
 
 Our best hopes for the future of civilized life, 
 
 Our true glories, our triumphs, our wealth, all that cheers, 
 
 Are the debts that we owe to the World's Engineers. 
 
 Dedicated to the 
 
 Western Society of Engineers Fiftieth Chicago 
 
 Anniversary Membership October 8 
 Campaign 1919 
 
 28 
 
LO! I AM TRUTH 
 
 Lo ! I am Truth — you know me not, 
 By my own will you were begot, 
 And from my own your soul is cast; 
 All that you have from my hands passed ; 
 Beware how you that gift employ, 
 For what Truth made she can destroy. 
 
 I reign o'er all, Earth, Church and State; 
 Not creeds or tenets rule your fate; 
 Your struggles, terrors, hates and fears, 
 Avail you naught, nor prayers, nor tears; 
 I, Truth alone, forget it not, 
 Have power to save what I begot. 
 
 Aye then, rage not o'er wounded pride; 
 Nor, vengeful, Mercy thrust aside; 
 If wrongs you meet by other wrongs, 
 Or Faith you crush by lash and thongs, 
 Beware, lest Truth condone it not, 
 Lest Truth undo what she begot. 
 
 Should egotism grasp the reigns, 
 And drive the right from human brains; 
 Should cold ambition take command 
 And you who rule dare stake you land ; 
 Beware, that you forget me not, 
 Truth can blot out what she begot. 
 
 When rights of others you abuse, 
 When Leaders honor path refuse, 
 When Labor seeks to cloud its way, 
 And slighting work, force treble pay; 
 Beware, lest truth forgive it not, 
 Lest Truth should crush what she begot. 
 
 If class seeks vantage over class, 
 While thousands suffer till feuds pass; 
 And strikes become like bandits' deed 
 The vicious blow of brigand creed ; 
 Beware, that you forget it not, 
 That Truth may break what she begot. 
 
 29 
 
Do Wealth or Power fail to give, 
 To those they rule fair right to live : 
 When law and decency and right 
 Are cast aside by brutal might ; 
 Beware, beware, forget me not, 
 For Truth may end what she begot. 
 
 If mortals fail to make of Earth 
 A home for all ; when greed takes birth, 
 And men conceive the world their own 
 And leave all else a prayer or groan ; 
 Beware of Truth — forget her not 
 Lest Truth cut down what she begot. 
 
 So hark to Truth — forget her not 
 In love and peace you were begot; 
 So shall you live as God's like should 
 By Golden Rule, for common good 
 Else hear to Truth, live you shall not, 
 Truth shall destroy what she begot. 
 
 Chicago 
 
 October 1 2. 
 
 1919 
 
 3d 
 
BIRTHDAY GREETINGS TO RICHARD 
 
 Unto Richard, my Richard, keen, sturdy and neat 
 
 From the top of his head to the soles of his feet, 
 
 I indite these few lines to distinguish this day 
 
 By a message of love which has this it would say : 
 
 That today you are twelve and fast growing apace, 
 
 While the World sits and waits, as she smiles in your face, 
 
 Till you reach the proud hour when out rings the command, 
 
 That assigns you your place in the ranks of the land. 
 
 And hark, Richard, my Richard, to do your part well 
 
 You'll remember, my boy, there's a magical spell 
 
 In the smile that lies ready to flash from the eye, 
 
 In a warm sunny heart, in the courage to try; 
 
 Though the World may be harsh, be you helpful and kind, 
 
 Be steadfast of soul and straightcut of mind; 
 
 Let this be the sole goal for which ever you play 
 
 And you always shall have — A very Happy Birthday. 
 
 Affectionately Dedicated to 
 Richard K. Strauss 
 on the Occasion of His Twelfth Chicago . 
 
 Birthday by his Daddy October 13, 1919 
 
 31 
 
TORONTO 
 
 Blow, let herald bugle blow, 
 Loud and long for Toronto ; 
 Let their swelling notes proclaim, 
 Princess of the North Domain ! 
 Glorious in her growing might, 
 Splendid in her winning fight, 
 For the wealth now at her feet; 
 For her speeding merchant fleet ; 
 For the workshops at her doors ; 
 Smiling gardens on her shores; 
 Hers a tale of great deeds done, 
 Courage, progress, hard goals won: 
 Magic City of the Don, 
 Ever may thy light lead on ; 
 And fore'er may bugles blow 
 In thy name, Great Toronto! 
 
 Dedicated to the 
 City of Toronto 
 
 Chicago 
 
 December 
 
 1919 
 
 12 
 
A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE 
 
 To thee this Christmas Day 
 
 These greetings we submit; 
 By we, I mean to say 
 
 All three of us, to wit: 
 The boys and I, whose wish 
 
 To give a useful gift 
 Took form in this, a dish ; 
 
 Pray, as you guarded lift 
 It from its Christmas case, 
 
 We beg of you to see 
 Within its shining face, 
 
 This message meant for thee 
 
 We love thee when you're cross 
 
 We love thee when you're gay 
 We love thee when storms toss 
 
 Our little bark ; and yea, 
 We love thee for that smile, 
 
 Deep in thy blue-gray eye, 
 We love thee all the while 
 
 Thy voice breaks in a sigh. 
 So let this trifle be 
 
 What we have said above 
 Upon the Christmas tree, 
 
 A token of our love. 
 
 Dedicated to Mother by _. . 
 
 Daddy. Ralph and Ch icago 
 
 Richard December 25, 1919 
 
 33 
 
IN MEMORIAM 
 
 I am Memorial of their name, 
 
 That sleep on fields of deathless fame ; 
 
 The rounded pillar of my form 
 
 Will stand through time and stand through storm, 
 
 A beacon shaft of gleaming white ; 
 
 Lift high its head into the light, 
 
 And through the ages and fore'er, 
 
 To those that died, mute tribute bear. 
 
 Chicago 
 May 31, 1^20 
 
 Dedicated to the 
 
 First Division Memorial 
 
 to be Erected in Arlington Cemetery 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
 34 
 
CALIFORNIA 
 
 California, land of wonders; 
 Land where the Pacific thunders, 
 Where white Shasta seeks the skies, 
 Home of mighty Thamalpais ; 
 Land of fabled treasure-trove, 
 Fragrant sunkist orange grove; 
 Giant sequoias' lifted heads, 
 Miles of golden poppy-beds; 
 Land of the Yosemite, 
 Cuirassed palm and olive tree; 
 Land where summer zephyrs blow, 
 'Neath the winter peaks of snow; 
 Land of orange-blossom scent, 
 Garden of the Continent; 
 There, where the Pacific thunders, 
 California, land of wonders. 
 
 Los Angeles 
 April 15, 1920 
 
 35 
 
THE ISSUES 
 
 The issues, aye, what may they be 1 
 
 Come, citizens, your answer give; 
 What may they be for you and me, 
 
 And this great realm wherein we live? 
 
 Shall old ideals be cast aside, 
 
 And all the future left a prey, 
 To rule conceived in headstrong pride, 
 
 That adds new burdens day by day? 
 
 Shall those who bred the profiteer, 
 
 In capital and labor clan, 
 Continue in their mad career, 
 
 While spread the wrongs that they began? 
 
 Shall egotists with iron will, 
 
 And zealots drunk with State control, 
 
 Dictate the sphere all else shall fill 
 
 And make their wish the Nation's goal ? 
 
 How long shall thrive the clash of class, 
 
 And waste and brazen boast and dream? 
 
 How long before false Gods shall pass 
 And honor code restored, redeem 1 
 
 Have we shirked aught that helped mankind ? 
 
 Our aid the whole world still commands, 
 But who would dare forever bind, 
 
 His country's flag to foreign lands ? 
 
 These are the issues, mark them well, 
 All ye who love your Country best; 
 
 Shall Democrat in power dwell, 
 And Nation ever be oppressed, 
 
 With systemless and hopeless reign, 
 
 That year by year has bolder grown ? 
 
 Or shall our foothold we regain, 
 
 And soulless partisans dethrone^ 
 
 Dedicated to the Republican Party Chicago 
 
 Campaign of 1920 June, 1920 
 
 36 
 
REPUBLIC AND REPUBLICAN 
 
 Republic and Republican, 
 
 Shall they together lead? 
 Our Country and Our Countryman, 
 
 Is their cause ours to plead? 
 
 One hundred million thunder, yes, 
 And pledge their hearts, their all, 
 
 To end a Nation's great distress 
 And peace and calm recall. 
 
 In swelling ranks the Legions wait; 
 
 Their leader sits his steed ; 
 His Reveille, the call of Fate, 
 
 His spur, the Nation's need. 
 
 v A Leader come as Lincoln came, 
 With chivalry of soul, 
 To heal and bind the scars of flame, 
 To make us strong and whole. 
 
 His task to clear the festering nests 
 
 Where madmen undermine, 
 Replace the soul in human breasts, 
 
 Permit the light to shine. 
 
 The race for greed he shall destroy, 
 
 Install a saner school 
 That teaches simpler, cleaner joy, 
 
 And honors Golden Rule 
 
 Invincible, this savior host, 
 
 Resistless in its might; 
 In gathered clans from coast to coast, 
 
 Behold the League of Right. 
 
 And so while world props bend and sway, 
 
 The silent squadrons form, 
 To guard the birth of that new day, 
 
 When pass our stress and storm. 
 
 Mass then thy hosts, Republican; 
 
 Await the tense command ; 
 Strike swift and hard, American, 
 
 Strike and redeem the land. 
 
 Dedicated to the Republican Party Chic f§9n 
 
 Campaign of 1920 June, 1920 
 
 37 
 
WELCOME TO THE PORT CONVENTION 
 
 Ports of the Lakes and Coast 
 Chicago as your host 
 
 Extends her welcome; 
 Our pulsing, throbbing life, 
 Our splendor born of strife, 
 
 Await your coming. 
 
 Her^ have we gathered stores 
 From hundred distant shores 
 
 To spread before you ; 
 Here 'neath our sunlit skies 
 Would we form mighty ties 
 
 To speed Earth's fullness. 
 
 Bide then our sister ports 
 Within our wide-flung courts 
 
 That speak their greeting ; 
 Here, where the East meets West, 
 Here we would bid you rest 
 
 In Autumn glory. 
 
 Dedicated to Chicago 
 
 The Convention of the American . September 30, 1920 
 
 Association of Port Authorities 
 
 5b 
 
HARDING, OUR NEW CHIEF 
 
 From million throats a welcome rings, 
 As flashing wire glad tiding brings, 
 
 Of Harding, our new Chief; 
 He lovingly shall lead us now 
 Back to the desk, the shop, the plow, 
 
 To Peace and world relief. 
 
 Aye, our own heart beats in his breast, 
 He stands for that which we love best, 
 
 For all that we hold dear; 
 America, thou shalt endure, 
 Thy heritage is made secure, 
 
 Thy way is straight and clear ! 
 
 Let flags unfurl and cannon boom 
 And glad bells ring; gone is the gloom 
 
 That hid the radiant sun ; 
 The Nation's hosts have chosen well, 
 Rejoicing in the land doth dwell, 
 
 Our new day is begun. 
 
 Written Election Eve 
 November 2, 1920 
 Chicago 
 
 39 
 
GRAND CANYON 
 
 As I stand at thy brink, Grand Canyon, 
 
 And all thy beauty feel, 
 As I gaze in thy age-old caverns 
 
 And sense what they reveal ; 
 As I rest 'neath thy mighty ramparts, 
 
 That seem like temple walls, 
 And seek where, in thy terraced gorges, 
 
 The Colorado crawls ; 
 
 Then I still seem to see the Titans, 
 
 That in the long ago 
 Playful fashioned thy heights and chasms 
 
 And bid thy glory grow ; 
 And I still seem to hear the tumult 
 
 That marked thy years of birth, 
 When they graved on thy rocks forever 
 
 The history of the Earth. 
 
 Oh, majestic in truth Niagara 
 
 And masterful her roar; 
 And as splendid the ocean's battling 
 
 Along the crouching shore; 
 And the beautiful coral islet, 
 
 Surf-circled, palmed and green, 
 And the white-mantled peak that towers 
 
 O'er verdant vales between. 
 
 Nor forget I the Mississippi 
 
 Nor wondrous Yellowstone, 
 Nor the fjords of the mystical Northland, 
 
 With grandeur all their own ; 
 But the marvels of all together 
 
 Are commonplace to me, 
 When I stand at thy brink, Grand Canyon, 
 
 And dream thy dreams with thee. 
 
 For thine is the Kingdom of Silence, 
 
 Thy splendor is divine, 
 And thy glory and thrill are* sacred, 
 
 God's majesty is thine; 
 In the shaft of the sunlight dancing, 
 
 Upon thy sculptured walls, 
 Is the spirit of the Almighty; 
 
 He dwells within thy halls. 
 
 
 Grand Canyon. Arizona 
 March, 1919 
 
 40 
 
THE BOY SCOUT'S CREED 
 
 A Scout I am; this is my creed : 
 
 For every day a worthy deed ; 
 
 And this my faith : the love of right 
 
 And truth and peace; the strength to fight 
 
 For those in need ; the will to be 
 
 My brother's prop; his trust in me 
 
 To keep and mine in heart of man ; 
 
 Than this there is no nobler plan. 
 
 A Scout I am ; in every land 
 Beneath the sun my colors stand 
 For Honor's cause; my hands are bound 
 With million hands the world around 
 To service that bespeaks the strong, 
 To do the things that conquer wrong, 
 And did we search until Time's end, 
 No braver task could Fortune send. 
 
 A Scout I am ; and proud am I , 
 As troop on troop goes marching by 
 To march with them; to feel the thrill 
 Of comradeship and stanch good will ; 
 To know what message to the world 
 We bring, where'er our flag's unfurled, 
 To know that all the Earth throughout 
 None rank superior to the Scout. 
 
 Dedicated to the , ^ hi cago 
 
 Boy Scouts Jan. IV, ivai 
 
 41 
 
I WHISPER TO THE WORLD, GOOD-BYE 
 
 Low burns the flame on sputt'ring wick, 
 The road grows rough, the gloom is thick; 
 Fast ebbs the strength of driving will, 
 And hope and courage faster still ; 
 The forward press of eager feet 
 Transforms to slow and dull retreat; 
 The happy call of daily task 
 No longer thrills, nay, all I ask 
 Is peace, oblivion and sleep; 
 And so, as stealthy shadows creep 
 Across the sunset evening sky, 
 I whisper to the world, Good-bye. 
 
 Now pass from me the surging throng, 
 And die away their sobs and song ; 
 Now fade the fruiting fields in flower, 
 And all the glories of Earth's dower; 
 Now vanish treasured hopes and dreams, 
 My labored plans, my studied themes; 
 I leave the waiting tasks undone, 
 Ambitious efforts just begun; 
 The gift of life, still sweet and fair 
 And ties of love, all pass fore'er; 
 And so, as night veils evening sky, 
 I whisper to the world, Good-bye 
 
 Chicago 
 
 Novembei 
 
 1920 
 
 42 
 
fS 3537 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 0000H4335EA «