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Hannah S. Batters
loved lady fair
Whom
they predict shall one day
Their heart and fortunes share.
Now sable night droops kindly
Into the arms of morn,
Who comes
to herald in the day
And nature's face adorn?
Heaven's soft grey
eastern portals
For her wide open fly,
As the grand sun's golden
chariot
Wheels proudly through the sky.
Night's gentle Queen and star gems
Withdraw their gracious sway,

As the sun in rose-hued splendour
Kisses to life the day.
Waters
like polished silver
Dotting the plain like shields,
Babble their
morning greeting
From golden, grain-crowned fields.
Then the glad light of morning
Trips joyful o'er the plain,
As the
angel horror stricken
Takes up her strain again,
Alas! those hosts
advancing
In hot haste from afar,
But yesternight so joyous,
Now
close in bloody war.
And, as ferocious tigers,
On tasting human blood,
Revel in greedy
madness
Amid the crimson flood,
So these fierce hostile warriors,

Now stained with human gore,
Grow unrestrained and reckless,

And fiercer than before.
The valley late so peaceful
Steams with the rage of strife,
Fast
down the gloated furrows
Flows the red stream of life.
Maddened to
rage and fury,
Th' opposing hosts contend,
And murder, ruin,
carnage, death,
Through the gorged plains extend.

What can be, cried the angel,
The meaning of such strife,
And how
dare man thus rashly
Trifle with human life?
Can all the so-called
glory,
That man to man can pay,
Outweigh the dire inheritance
Of
this unhallowed fray?
Are hearts thus drunk with life blood,
And hands thus steeped in gore,

Not calculated to become
More brutal than before?
And do not
youth and manhood
Deserve a better fate,
Than to be rashly
sacrificed
To jealous greed and hate?
Thousands of glittering lances
Cut through the startled air,
As
valiant chiefs and mighty men
The blood-red carnage share.
Flashes,
like sunlight splendour,
Gleam forth from brazen shields,
And
burnished arms dart back the light,
O'er the blood-gorged fields.
List! said the angel, sighing,
From many a ghastly mound
Deep
groans of torture mingle
With the battle din around.
What piteous
cries of anguish
Are those, who dying moan,
That they may never
more behold
Their dearly loved at home!
Some of earth's best and brightest,
'Mid prospects glad and gay,

Others to loved ones plighted
Slaughtered and bleeding lay!
Some,
sons of widowed mothers
Who had none else to cheer,
Some,
guardians of fond sisters,
Many to wives most dear!
Ah! who can tell the sorrow
Intailed by war's foul breath,
Or gauge
the dire inheritance
Of all this murderous death!
The sinew of their
country,
The hope of years to come,

Cut down in prime of manhood,

Buried in stranger tomb!
O sages, statesmen, rulers,
Bestir yourselves and teach
The nation's
misled millions
A higher goal to reach;
Exchange for greed and
murder,
A reign of peace divine;
Thus, elevate earth's children
To
brotherhood sublime!

Thus spake the gentle angel
As, gathering each fond prayer,
She
wreathed them into garlands,
Of flowerets rich and rare
For
Sardanapolis to plant,
Where they shall ever bloom,
In the eternal
gardens
Beyond the silent tomb.

IN MEMORIAM.
CHARLES OLIVES BAYLIS, M.D., M.R.C.S.,
_Late Medical Officer of Health for West Kent, and formerly of
Birkenhead_.
DIED DECEMBER 12TH, 1884.
Broken the silver cord! the harp unstrung!
And kindred hearts with
grief and anguish wrung,
For a beloved one from the earth hath flown

Leaving his dear ones desolate and lone.
Cheerless, deserted now each empty place,
So lately filled by him
with radiant grace;
Sad memories in each lone corner dwell,
Vocal
of him our torn hearts loved so well.
To feelings sympathetic and refined,
He joined a well-stored, richly
cultured mind,
Where holy reason held her peerless sway,
Dictating
all he had to do and say.
Self-discipline in action, thought and deed,
Was his uncompromising,
glorious creed;
To do to others as he would that they
Should do to
him, his crystal rule each day.
Dark superstition never gained his ear,
Or led to slavish and debasing
fear;
A hater of hypocrisy in all
The varied forms by which it doth
enthrall.
His logical and comprehensive mind,
Was marvellously gentle,

loving, kind,
Which gave him with his patients wonderous power,

And served them well in many a trying hour.
A man of penetration, forethought, tact,
Loving to solve, elucidate
each fact;
He firmly held to truth with friend and foe,
And ne'er was
known to act from greed or show.
A safe and trusted counsellor was he,
And helpful, sweet companion
as could be,
Of such calm, chastened thought, that all he said
Was
fraught with wisdom, and by justice led.
His sense of duty formed the crucial test
By which to rule his actions,
work and rest.
And his well-regulated heart and mind
Were full of
charity towards all mankind.
A zealous public worker in the cause
Of sanitation, based on nature's
laws;
For fifteen years in Birkenhead and Kent,
To this great end he
his rare knowledge lent.
He loved his work and duties, as some love
Their pleasures, and with
earnest purpose strove,
To prove that each right action surely brought

Its blessing, as all evil misery wrought.
Entheal concord, where 'twas possible,
And truth and justice made it
feasible,
The armour his peace-loving spirit wore,
The
love-crowned banner which aloft he bore.
The beautiful in nature and in art,
Charmed and delighted his devoted
heart,
A gorgeous sunset, and a moonlit sky,
Ne'er failed to
captivate both mind and eye.
As circlets made by weights flung in the deep,
Clear multiplying
forms concentric
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