Page:The cry for justice - an anthology of the literature of social protest. - (IA cryforjusticea00sinc).pdf/718

 his feelings, to his self-respect; it is something he will not do if he can get anybody else to do it for him."

"Then, in America," said the Altrurian, "it is not offensive to the feelings of a gentleman to let another do for him what he would not do for himself?"

"Certainly not."

"Ah," he returned, "then we understand something altogether different by the word gentleman in Altruria."

Song of the Lower Classes

(Chartist leader and poet, 1819-1869; sentenced in 1848 to two years imprisonment)

We plow and sow, we're so very, very low, That we delve in the dirty clay; Till we bless the plain with the golden grain, And the vale with the fragrant hay. Our place we know, we're so very, very low, 'Tis down at the landlord's feet; We're not too low the grain to grow, But too low the bread to eat.

Down, down we go, we're so very, very low, To the hell of the deep-sunk mines; But we gather the proudest gems that glow, When the crown of the despot shines; And when'er he lacks, upon our backs Fresh loads he deigns to lay; We're far too low to vote the tax, But not too low to pay.