Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 October 1916 — FORSAKEN [ARTICLE]

FORSAKEN

(By Walt Mason.) I go illy weary way alone, abhorred and shunned where'er I’n: known. No maidens smile when I draw near, but from my path they shrink with fear. For me there is no outstretched hand, no welcome smile in all the land. There is no lamp alight for me, no children climb upon my knee. Alone, alone, all, all alone! The gray world has a heart of stone, and pardon it will never give to its pariahs, while they live. I long to join the busy throng that moves in joyous haste along; I long to take my place again, and mingle with my fellowmen, but if I make a slight advance, I find the outcast has no chance, and Voices rise, with anger fraught, “Go, Ishmael, we want you not!” Perhaps when I am gone to rest, and grass is green above my breast, some pilgrim, bending o’er my tomb, will say, “We drove him to his doom! Though dark and wicked his offense, his punishment was too intense. We drove him from his kind away, for eating onions every day!’’