JUST ONE SIGNAL.

And he fell to the deck, hard hit.

They signalled: "The first man struck." As before The admiral answered it:

"Keep on."

The sun came over the hills

As wishing a world-wide weal.

And the guns were fired with the aim that kills,
And steel pierced the heart of steel.

And the line of shore was the fringe of hell,
And the centre of hell was the sea,

And the woe was the woe no tongue may tell,
And no eye view tearlessly,

And over that crater of bomb and shell
The signal continued to be:

"Keep on."

O Lawrence, whose passing cry

Grows ever the more sublime,

And thou, O Nile king, whose words shall die
When we learn of the death of time,

We send you the third of a glorious three;
We send you a battle shout

That echoes up from the blood-thick sea

And up from the wreck and rout

And down from the staff on the high cross-tree Where the flag is signalling out:

The warpath is true and straight,

It knoweth no left nor right;

Mars loves not the man who would deviate, —

For the way to fight is to fight.

CUBA LIBRE.

Cuba Libre.

COMES a cry from Cuban water,

From the warm, dusk Antilles,
From the lost Atlanta's daughter,
Drowned in blood as drowned in seas;
Comes a cry of purpled anguish,—
See her struggles, hear her cries!
Shall she live, or shall she languish?
Shall she sink, or shall she rise?

She shall rise, by all that's holy!
She shall live and she shall last;
Rise as we, when crushed and lowly
From the blackness of the past.
Bid her strike! Lo, it is written
Blood for blood and life for life.

Bid her smite, as she is smitten;

Stars and stripes were born of strife.

Once we flashed her lights of freedom,
Lights that dazzled her dark eyes
Till she could but yearning heed them,
Reach her hands and try to rise.

Then they stabbed her, choked her, drowned her
Till we scarce could hear a note.

Ah! these rusting chains that bound her!
Oh! these robbers at her throat!

And the kind who forged these fetters?
Ask five hundred years for news.
Stake and thumbscrew for their betters!
Inquisitions! Banished Jews!
Chains and slavery! What reminder
Of one red man in that land?
Why, these very chains that bind her
Bound Columbus, foot and hand!

She shall rise as rose Columbus,

-

From his chains, from shame and wrong, Rise as Morning, matchless, wondrous,

Rise as some rich morning song,

Rise a ringing song and story,

Valor, Love personified.

Stars and stripes espouse her glory,
Love and Liberty allied.

THE SONG OF DEWEY'S GUNS.

The Song of Dewey's Guns.

WHAT is this thunder music from the other side

of the world,

That pulses through the severing seas and 'round

the planet runs?

'Tis the death-song of old Spain floating from the Asian main;

There's a tale of crumbling empire in the song of

Dewey's guns!

The hand that held the sceptre once of all the great world seas,

And paved the march with dead men's bones 'neath

all the circling suns,

Grew faint with deadly fear when that thunder-song drew near,

For the dirge of Spain was sounded by the song of Dewey's guns!

There is music in a cannon yet for all sons of peace, Yea, the port-hole's belching anthem is soft music

to her sons

When the iron thunder-song sings the death of ancient wrong,

And a dying wrong was chanted by the song of

Dewey's guns.

Sam Walter Foss.