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Show THE WAR LORD'S PRAYER. Amid the tenseness which exists over the seemingly inevitable war between be-tween Italy and Ethiopia, and the fear which gr'ps Europe, over the possibility of another world conflict, an almost forgotten piece by Mark Twain is being republished. Mark Twain was a delightful humorist, hu-morist, but there is no humor in this bitter piece of writing, called the "War Lord's Prayer," which follows: "O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended un-friended through wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sport the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with, travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it for our sakes, who adore Thee. Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lived, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!" |