E-text prepared by Elaine Walker
and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders

VOICES FOR THE SPEECHLESS

SELECTIONS

FOR

SCHOOLS AND PRIVATE READING

BY

ABRAHAM FIRTH

SECRETARY OF THE AMERICAN HUMANE ASSOCIATION

—which "plead the cause
Of those dumb mouths that have no speech."

Longfellow

And I am recompensed, and deem the toils
Of poetry not lost, if verse of mine
May stand between an animal and woe,
And teach one tyrant pity for his drudge

Cowper

1883

PREFACE.

The compiler of this little book has often heard inquiries by teachers ofschools, for selections suitable for reading and recitations by theirscholars, in which the duty of kindness to animals should be distinctlytaught.

To meet such calls, three successive pamphlets were published, and a fourthconsisting of selections from the Poems of Mr. Longfellow. All werereceived with marked favor by the teachers to whom they became known.

This led to their collection afterwards in one volume for privatecirculation, and now the volume is republished for public sale, with a fewomissions and additions.

All who desire our children to be awakened in their schools to the claimsof the humbler creatures are invited to see that copies are put in schoollibraries, that they may be within the reach of all teachers. And this,not for the sake of the creatures only.

As Pope has said, "Nothing stands alone; the chain holds on, and where itends, unknown."

Many readers may be surprised to find how many of the great poets have beentouched by the sufferings of the "innocent animals," and how loftily theyhave pleaded their cause.

The poems in the collection are not all complete, because of their lengthin some cases, and, in others, because a part only of each was suited tothe end in view. A very few, however, like "Geist's Grave" and "Don," couldnot be divided satisfactorily.

To all who have aided in this humble undertaking, heartiest thanks aregiven, and especially to its publishers who have accorded to it theircoveted approval and the benefit of their large facilities for making thevolume widely known.

May the lessons of kindness and dependence here taught with so muchpoetical beauty and with such mingled justice, pathos and humor, find apermanent lodgment in the hearts of all who may read them!

A. F.

Boston, Mass., U. S. A., June, 1883.