Anonymous, 'Louis Tikas, Ludlow Martyr'

[duathir.livejournal.com]

Louis Tikas, Ludlow Martyr

Who knows what deeds in ancient days
Gave impulse, yearnings, tendencies?
Who knows what blood flowed in his veins?
Perhaps the blood of Pericles.

He braved the assailants' iron might,
Their brutal hate, unbridled, wild;
His trust, the miners' naked home;
His care, the mother and her child.

And men in stress of coming days
Shall win by strength his spirit gives;
Who so for justice yield his life,
He, dying, yet, immortal lives.

Oh, Louis Tikas, gallant soul,
Defender of the helpless, weak;
Knight of humanity, you were
More than American or Greek.

Heroic spirits of all time
Attest your manhood's strong avail;
Extend warm hand-clasps as they cry:
"Good brother, noble comrade, hail!"

Anonymous, United Mine Workers, 1914

Ludlow Massacre, April 20, 1914