Happy Birthday, Robert

Robert W. Service was born today in Preston, England, in 1874. At the age of 23 he moved to Canada, which become his home (though he died in France at the age of 84). And, no; I'm not going to give you a bunch of the boys whooping it up in the Malemute Saloon - you can find that anywhere. Instead, here's one of his Rhymes of a Red Cross Man, written during his stint as an ambulance driver in WWI:

The Stretcher Bearer

My stretcher is one scarlet stain,
And as I tries to scrape it clean,
I tell you wot -- I'm sick with pain
For all I've 'eard, for all I've seen;
Around me is the 'ellish night,
And as the war's red rim I trace,
I wonder if in 'Eaven's height,
Our God don't turn away 'Is Face.

   I don't care 'oose the Crime may be;
   I 'olds no brief for kin or clan;
   I 'ymns no 'ate: I only see
   As man destroys his brother man;
   I waves no flag: I only know,
   As 'ere beside the dead I wait,
   A million 'earts is weighed with woe,
   A million 'omes is desolate.

In drippin' darkness, far and near,
All night I've sought them woeful ones.
Dawn shudders up and still I 'ear
The crimson chorus of the guns.
Look! like a ball of blood the sun
'Angs o'er the scene of wrath and wrong. . . .
"Quick! Stretcher-bearers on the run!"
O PRINCE OF PEACE! 'OW LONG, 'OW LONG?

all his works