Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/709

 The Reserved Section

(At the time of the great anthracite coal strike of 1902, George F. Baer, head of the coal trust, was quoted as declaring: "The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for, not by labor and agitation, but by the Christian men to whom God in his infinite wisdom has given control of the property interests of this country")

In the prehistoric ages, when the world was a ball of mist— A seething swirl of something unknown in the planet list; When the earth was vague with vapor, and formless and dark and void— The sport of the wayward comet—the jibe of the asteroid— Then the singing stars of morning chanted soft: "Keep out of there! Keep off that spot which is sizzling hot—it is making coal for Baer!"

When the pterodactyl ambled, or fluttered, or swam, or jumped, And the plesiosaurus rambled, all careless of what he bumped, And the other old time monsters that thrived on the land and sea, And did not know what their names were, any more than today do we—