30

Close Up the Ranks.

Tune — "Awake, Lady, Awake!"

The trumpet is sounding the call to the fray,
To meet our oppressors in battle array;
From the farms and the workshops we're gathering today,
To close up the ranks, for 'tis death to delay.

CHORUS.—
Let us close up the ranks, if we would be free,
Stand shoulder to shoulder till the vict'ry we see;
Then close up the ranks and we shall be free;
Fling down the usurper, proclaim Liberty!

There are wrongs to be righted whatever the cost;
Then get ready for action or the nation is lost!
Our rulers are praising the gods of gold,
While they banquet and bum like Belshazzar of old.

The strife between sections is passing away,
And fraternal, kind greetings are exchanging each day,
While the old party bosses are having their say.
Since we've learned that we're brethren — the Blue and the Gray.

United, contend we for justice to all,
And we've heard of the hand writing traced on the wall,
By the finger of fate at the banqueting hall;
We have weighed you, old bummers, and you're no good at all.

CHORUS (to last verse.)
Let us close up the ranks if we would be free;
Stand shoulder to shoulder till the vict'ry we see!
Then close up the ranks and we shall be free;
Smoke out the old bummers! Sound the glad jubilee.

S. P. Reed.