LINES ON THE BACK OF A CONFEDERATE NOTE Representing nothing on God's earth now, And naught in the waters below it, As the pledge of a nation that's dead and gone, Keep it, dear friends, and show it. Show it to those who will lend an ear To the tale that this trifle can tell, Of a liberty born of a patriot's dream, Of a storm-cradled nation that fell. Too poor to posses the precious ores, And too much of a stranger to borrow, We issued today our promise to pay And hoped to redeem on the morrow. The days rolled by and the weeks became years, But our coffers were empty still. Coin was so rare that the treasury'd quake If a dollar dropped into the till. But the faith that was in us was strong indeed, And our poverty well we discerned, And this little note represented the pay That our suffering veterans earned. They knew it had hardly a value in gold, Yet as gold each soldier received it. It gazed in our eyes with a promise to pay, And every true soldier believed it. But our boys thought little of price or of pay, Or of bills that were long past due; We knew if it brought us our bread today, 'Twas the best our poor country could do. Keep it; it tells all our history over, From the birth of the dream to its last: Modest and born of the Angel of Hope, Like our hope of success it has passed. -- Major Samuel Alroy Jonas, in "The Best Loved Poems of the American People," ed. Hazel Felleman/Doubleday/1936. Although 144,000 Irish served in the Union army in the American Civil War, 30,000 Irish also served in the Confederacy. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.701 / Virus Database: 458 - Release Date: 6/7/2004