^UARrZ 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 UPLANDS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE 
 ANTI-PESSIMI ST 
 SOCIETY 1905 
 
 PiermoDt, N. Y. 
 
 
Iwo Oapies jtewivoo 
 
 JOfV 
 
 copy B. 
 

 DEDICATED 
 
 TO THE 
 
 AMERICAN ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY 
 
COPYRIGHTED TSOS 
 BY ANTI-PESSIMIST SOCIETY 
 
^ARTZ from the UPLANDS 
 
 Who Say? "All songs have been sung; 
 All tales have been tolrl ; 
 Live tongues are stlll'd — 
 Worn smooth by precedent ! " 
 
 In the fullness of the soul 
 There lives— strong bound- 
 Only to be unloos'd by greater 
 
 deed and action ; 
 An unfathomable wealth 
 From which to draw forever— 
 Never to be wholly used. 
 
 Is it for you 
 
 To stand at the bier of the dead 
 
 past 
 Mute — to consent, that : 
 "All! has been sung and writ"? 
 
 No! Insistingly, Persistently beat 
 loud upon the temple door— steeled 
 well to hear the mock and din and 
 laughter and deriding, doubting 
 shouts of those within, 
 That you may full awake the throng- 
 without — 
 Those who sleep, work, hope and 
 pray. 
 
You must proclaim again, again, 
 
 This Truth ! 
 
 The multitude at last will stand 
 
 aghast, amazed, ashamed ; 
 Thj"^ liberty deny, 
 Yea, crucify. 
 
 To them : — What is, is ; and what is, 
 is to remain unchanged forever. 
 
 To learn the lesson, to equip and 
 grade thy purging tire ; 
 
 Go forth to some unfrequented 
 spot 
 
 And reason with thyself, compar- 
 ing notes with Nature. 
 
 See it. Feel it. Hear it. 
 The all-prevailing, pervading, constant, 
 ever changing. From Winter's 
 silence, breathing, sighing, 
 sleeping, creeping on to Spring 
 with sap, with slioot, with bud 
 and flower, hour on hour play- 
 ing, plying gentleness and 
 power for Summer's rest to 
 temper strength for birth in 
 Autumn, with crowning bril- 
 liancy and rich rewards un- 
 taxed to bird, to beast, to Insect 
 and to man, gift on gift for full 
 contentment, sustenance and 
 labor. 
 
 From this you will accumulate a 
 store so full, 
 
That everj' thoiight's a prayer ; 
 
 The simplest acts of things are niiracles- 
 
 The whole a revelation, 
 
 To guide thy way and being. 
 
 Kill not, dissect not, nor rend or tear, 
 But see and feel and hear. 
 
 The earth, the air and sea abound 
 With righteous living creatures, 
 Intent upon some full purpose ; — 
 Aside from man's estate, 
 Aside from his designing selfishness, 
 intensely useless g r a s p i n g; s, de- 
 struction, purposeless desire, 
 For his good use and keeping-. 
 The forest, field and sea 
 And all that lies beneath. 
 
 But if to be a "Bard Sublime ? "— 
 
 A prater. 
 
 Aspiring to soar 'midst lofty peaks 
 on painted scenes ; to catch with musty 
 mystery ; with empty schemes of praise; 
 with sheens of ai'tificial lightr-spread 
 o'er this prolonged night and sleep of 
 letters; or with palsied moonbeams 
 that miniature the day and blight 
 tart speech and full-ripe reason ; 
 
 To buoy vanity ; 
 
 To bid for foolish charlatan's esteem, 
 
 To live apart at ease and shirk, 
 
Good hard holy healthy work ; 
 To mingle not with clean mag- 
 netic dirt, 
 With healing, building sunshine, 
 air and rain. — 
 Then be a heralder of "New Thought" 
 Cite from thy store : 
 Great Deeds 
 
 And haughty interminglings ; 
 Praise, to have a share ; 
 Valor, in which words w^in ; 
 Chastisement, which you do not 
 
 feel; 
 Abnegation, with no self-denial. 
 
 Whatever thy saying, 
 Mark you full well 
 That all such machinations 
 Must and will be counted less 
 Than Brawn-Studies in great 
 Nature's realm. 
 
 If swept away from Nature's 
 
 gentle sway 
 Too weak to rise and understand 
 Thy full purpose, and the coming 
 
 day :— 
 Then feed, feed on thy kind and 
 
 and kith and kin 
 Plunge in, into the maelstrom ; 
 Amid'st the deaf 'ning roar. 
 
Swim 'midst molten masses, 
 Breast cataracts of seething-, living 
 
 action. 
 Tell of harnessing of power, 
 Of screech and scream, 
 Of whirr of av heels ; 
 Of lightning's use and speed ; 
 Of clank and bang and whisp and 
 
 twirl of rasp and plane and drill 
 
 on rock and wood and metal. 
 For therein lies a ripe, rich, unwrit 
 
 story ; 
 And place the credit where the 
 
 credit's due. 
 Use freely, and without fear thy 
 
 caustic pen. 
 Ruffle, ruthlessly pursue, dog and 
 
 undo 
 Proud spirited, designing men. 
 
 Spur the laggard. 
 
 Jeer at that part of press which 
 teems with misstatements, lies, 
 Inuendos — 
 
 Those who prod and sting ; 
 
 Excite the very life they claim to be. 
 
 For gain, 
 
 For great and greater power, cir- 
 culation. 
 
A song or story to go on, up, through 
 
 distant ages 
 Must be full told and strong with 
 
 facts : — 
 
 Tell of myriads of human beings. 
 Crushed, dwarfed, poisoned and 
 
 devoured, 
 By the arts and manufactures ; 
 Voices drown'd, subdued, smothered 
 
 amid the din. 
 
 Tell of the march of industry's deafen- 
 ing roar affecting a nation's reason- 
 ing and sealing its store of finest in- 
 stincts. 
 
 Tell of designing kings of trade 
 Who, on a free man's soil .' 
 So multiplied their wealth 
 That all their fellow-beings 
 Were their willing- slave — 
 Slaves living lives in imputrid 
 
 bodies — 
 Souls seasoned with sorrows and 
 
 blasted hopes ; 
 Of endless yesterdays, 
 Long looking and longing and 
 
 looking 
 For happiness, to come on some 
 
 to-morrow. 
 
 Tell of serfs, dumb. 
 
 Blind and starved by gTeed ; 
 
Ground 'twixt its own mill-stones ; 
 Prating prayers to God 
 While God looks on amazed 
 At supine strength 
 Behind these wills and souls in- 
 active. 
 
 Bound to an unjust cause ; 
 Held firm by statute and multiplying 
 laws. 
 
 Tell how they bound themselves : 
 For paltry bits of food — 
 For half-made clothes — 
 And shacks for shelter 
 For which they gave full rights to use 
 
 Man's Acre, 
 And all the treasures that lie beneath. 
 
 Tell of rampant selfishness run 
 
 riot; 
 Of countless serfs — 
 The earth's scum ; 
 Floating to this free land 
 To climb upon it and gorge on 
 
 gold galore ; 
 With inspirations only of eternal 
 
 happiness in idleness ; 
 Playing wanton parts ; 
 Dragging in their brazened gods 
 
 and images ; 
 Feeding on rotten greed ; 
 
Loaded with besotted vices 
 
 Practising stupid customs , 
 
 Tliese, all these — 
 
 With voice and vote, — 
 
 To sweep aside the well devised 
 
 purpose, 
 Built by patriarchs for equil rights 
 
 and honors. 
 
 They came, to make a Nation of all 
 
 nations — 
 But after all, no nation, 
 No man's land. 
 
 Tell of poisoned, delayed and decayed 
 food in transit. 
 
 Tell of the settlement of nations 
 
 differences 
 By " good offices " for peace, 
 With long — drawn — out, decrepit, 
 
 verbose, empty ceremony. 
 
 Of International Law — 
 The Will of Power. 
 
 Of nations, swearing by the "Prince 
 of Peace" 
 
 Continuing to fortify with great and 
 greater guns, 
 
 Mobilizing husbands to defeat hus- 
 bandry ; 
 
Bedecking them with gilt without, 
 Stuffing vanity and pompousness 
 witliin. 
 
 But, if you see through the roseate 
 
 glass. 
 Of swaggering optimism 
 Proclaim, that : — 
 "'God is working out His will'- 
 Too slow perhaps 
 For challengers of spotted vice ; 
 For those who seek for the 
 world's and the Nation's fail- 
 ings, inhuman sloth, stubborn- 
 ness and sin." 
 
 Whatever thy chronicle. 
 
 Let it not savor of a full stomach's 
 
 satisfaction 
 That feels content with ill-got gain 
 
 derived from tricks of trade. 
 
 Live amidst conditions on both 
 sides ; 
 
 Experience the chill and pinch 
 of poverty ; 
 
 Feel the cold steel bands about 
 an undeveloped soul ; 
 
 Want for tools and an oppor- 
 tunity to do some useful chosen 
 work, 
 
 Then will you write full well. 
 
"Write strong thy story, 
 Chronicling on golden pages ; 
 Infinite views, 
 To march to triumph with the 
 
 Truth of Truths ; 
 'Twill live on and up and 
 
 through 
 The distant ages. 
 
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