"NEVER OR NOW."
[To THE EDITOR Or THE " SPECTATOE:] SIR,—The frequent references in your articles to incidents of the American Civil War, and the singularly appropriate illustrations from speeches and published verse as applicable to our present circumstances, prompt an additional selection On the appeal of President Lincoln for a further army in 1S62 a stirring ballad—written during an evening walk— appeared in the New York Evening Post, which was a fitting response. The following is the opening stanza :— " We are coming Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more, From Mississippi's winding stream and from New England's shore,
We leave our ploughs and workshops, our wives and children dear, With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear ; We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before: We are coming Father Abraham, three hundred thousand more!"
The collection of American War Ballads, published in two small volumes, includes many pieces of real poetic quality as well as of historic interest. It is desirable that the means should be adopted—as the voluntary Committee considered necessary in the United States—to inform and arouse the
people by issuing broadcast leaflets and inspiring ballads. A. striking example of the latter is the well-known "Never or Now," by Oliver Wendell Holmes. A few stanzas may be worth repeating
"NEVER OR NOW.
Listen, young heroes! your Country is calling! Time strikes the hour for the brave and the true? Now, while the foremost are fighting and falling, Fill up the ranks that have opened for you!
You whom the fathers made free and defended, Stain not the scroll that emblazons their fame! You whose fair heritage spotless descended, Leave not your children a birthright of shame!
Stay not for questions while Freedom stands gasping! Wait not till Honour lies wrapped in his pall! Brief the lips' meeting be, swift the hands clasping ; ' Off for the war !' is enough for them all.
• • • From the hot plains where they perish outnumbered, Furrowed and ridged by the battle-fields' plough, Comes the loud summons; too long you have slumbered, Hear the last Angel-trump—Never or Now!
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