MARCHING FORTH TO WAR
Permission of the Chicago Examiner, Chicago
It was grand to be a soldier and go swinging down the street
With a crowd of cheering children throwing flowers at your feet,
While the girls along the sidewalk waved to you a fond good-by,
And the prettiest of them, maybe, had a tear drop in her eye.
Bands were playing, flags were waving, when the army marched away,
It was glorious and thrilling, but it's pretty grim to-day.
Down the streets you file at midnight, not a soul to see or hear,
Not a strain of martial music, not a flutter not a cheer.
No one there to breathe a blessing on the cause you go to fight,
Or to wish you all the glory of a battle for the right.
Gloom and silence all around you, gloom and silence on before.
Ah! it sure does take a hero thus to march away to war.
