inews of steel,
Sits singing his terrible lay:
Strike! Strike! Strike!
Let the bright wheels of Industry rust:
Let us earn in our shame
A pauper's name,
Or eat of a criminal crust.

And while the dark workhouse gate
Is besieged by a famishing crowd,
Forge, hammer, and mine, with their mission divine,
Lie dumb, like a corpse in a shroud.
And Plenty, with beckon and smile,
Points up at the golden rain
That is ready to fall to beautify all,
But is checked by the dread refrain:
Strike! Strike! Strike!
Let the bright wheels of Industry rust:
Let us earn in our shame
A pauper's name,
Or eat of a criminal crust.

Alas! That a spirit so brave,
That a heart so loyal and true,
Should crouch in the dust with a sightless trust
At the nod of a selfish few.
Alas! That the olden ties--
The links binding Master and Man-- (_a_)
Should be broken in twain, and this ghostly refrain
Cloud all with its shadowy ban:
Strike! Strike! Strike!
Let the bright wheels of Industry rust:
Let us earn in our shame
A pauper's name,
Or eat of a criminal crust.

(_a_) In a recent address to his workmen, Mr. Robert Crawshay, the
extensive ironmaster, of Cyfarthfa Castle, said: "The happy time has
passed, and black times have come. You threw your old master
overboard, and took to strangers, and broke the tie between yourselves
and me. When the deputation came up to me at the Castle, and I asked
them to give me a fortnight to work off an old order of rails, and they
refused, I then told them the old tie was broken; and from that day to
this it has."

NATURE'S HEROES.

DEDICATED TO THE WELSH MINERS WHO BRAVELY
RESCUED THEIR FELLOWS AT THE INUNDATION
OF THE TYNEWYDD COLLIERY.

FRIDAY, APRIL 20TH, 1877. (_a_)

Hero from instinct, and by nature brave,
Is he who risks his life a life to save;
Who sees no peril, be it e'er so great,
Where helpless human lives for succour wait;
Who looks on death with selfless disregard;
Whose sense of duty brings its own reward.
Such are the Braves who now inspire my pen:
Pride of the gods--and heroes among men.
The warrior who, on glorious battle plain,
Falls bravely fighting--dies to live again
In fame hereafter: this he, falling, knows;
And painless he