Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 132, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 June 1918 — THE RED CROSS SPIRIT SPEAKS [ARTICLE]

THE RED CROSS SPIRIT SPEAKS

By JOHN H. FINLEY.

I kneel behind the soldiers’ trench I walk with shambles’ smear and stench The dead I mourn. I bear the stretcher and I bend O’er Sammy, Pierre and Jack and mend What shells have torn. 1 go wherever men may dare, 1 go wherever woman's, care And love can live. Wherever strength and skill can bring - Surcease to human suffering Or solace give. I am your pennies and your pounds; 1 am your bodies on their rounds Of pain afar; 1 am you, doing what you would If you were only where you could—u Your avatar. The cross which on my arm 1 wear, * The flag which o’er my breast I bear, Of what you’d sacrifice for him Who suffers on the hellish rim Of war’s red line.