6 APRIL 1895, Page 16

TO THE FREEDMAN.

FRIEND of the dusky visage, whereupon,

When all things else have yielded to the light, Abides the cleaving shadow of a night The darker for the noonday's fiercer sun : Among earth's kindred nations nearer, none Than thine and mine. Thou stoodest in the fight, A slave beside a master for whose right Thine arm, with his uplifted, lost or won.

Nay ; now the victor vanquished, when the foe Exulting in a land of bondage free, Flung out the signal, "Smite the smiter !" lo, Thou wouldst not ; but with new-wed Liberty Wentest thy way,—nor yet as glad to go, But oft in tears that all the world might see.

JOHN B. TARR.