Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/434

 The New Rome

(See page 367)

A thousand starve, a few are fed, Legions of robbers rack the poor, The rich man steals the widow's bread, And Lazarus dies at Dives' door; The Lawyer and the Priest adjust The claims of Luxury and Lust To seize the earth and hold the soil, To store the grain they never reap; Under their heels the white slaves toil, While children wail and women weep!— The gods are dead, but in their name Humanity is sold to shame, While (then as now!) the tinsel'd Priest Sitteth with robbers at the feast, Blesses the laden blood-stain'd board, Weaves garlands round the butcher's sword, And poureth freely (now as then) The sacramental blood of Men!

The Priest and the Devil

(The Russian realist, 1821-1881, wrote this little story upon the wall of his Silberian prison)

"Hello, you little fat father!" the devil said to the priest. "What made you lie so to those poor, misled people? What tortures of hell did you depict? Don't you know they are already suffering the tortures of