Poems (Howard)/Sympathy

by Hattie Howard

Sympathy.

So oft the telegraphic wire
 Repeats some startling, harrowing tale
Of crime and famine, flood and fire,
 Of bitter want or sorrow's wail,
That many a sympathetic soul
 Which once a touch of nature stirred
Indifferent grows, until the whole
 Is heard but as an idle word.

But cold indeed the heart must be
 That is not turned by pity's weight
To that lone city by the sea,
 In ashes sitting desolate;
Her hapless, homeless people fled,
 Or crouching low by ruined walls,
Unfed, unclad, uncomforted—
 A scene humanity appalls.

When proud Chicago writhed in flame—
 The glory of our great Northwest—
From Texas, Southern sister, came
 Relief surpassing all the rest;
When Pestilence o'erswept the land
 And Life and Hope were almost gone,
Benevolence the distance spanned
 And help went out from Galveston.

And when we strove in battle's heat
 And combated the nation's foe,
Some hearts there were that loyal beat
 Along the Gulf of Mexico;
So let these memories ever live
 And bind us like a golden chain,
Till by the aid that we shall give
 The sufferer revives attain.