--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 16 number: 7 published: 1913-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations, "Poem," *Improvement Era* 16, no. 7 (May 1913): 676.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1607unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1607unse start_page: 676 end_page: 676 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1913-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1607unse publication_year: 1913 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1913, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Poem 676 IMPROVEMENT ERA My men grew mutinous day by day; My men grew ghastly wan and weak. The stout mate thought of home; a spray Of salt wave dashed his swarthy cheek. "What shall 1 say, brave Admiral, if We sight naught but the sea at dawn?" "Why, you shall say at break of day, Sail on! sail on! sail on! and on!'" They sailed and sailed, as winds might blow, Until at last the blanched mate said : "Why, now, not even God would know Should I and all my men fall dead. These very winds forget their way, For God from these dread seas is gone. Now speak, brave Admiral; speak and say — " He said: "Sail on! sail on! and on!" They sailed. They sailed. Then spoke the mate, ''This mad sea shows its teeth tonight. He curls his lip, he lies in wait, With lifted teeth, as if to bite! Brave Admiral, say but one good word: What shall we do when hope is gone?" The words leapt as a leaping sword: "Sail on! Sail on! Sail on! and on!" Then pale and worn, he kept his deck, And peered through darkness. Ah, that night Of all dark nights! and then a speck — A light! A light! A light! A light! It grew, a starlit flag unfurled! It grew to be Time's burst of dawn; He gained a world; he gave that world Its grandest lesson: "On! and on!" LOGAN, UTAH Upton Sinclair tells this story about a school address he once made. "It was a school of little boys," said Mr. Sinclair, "and I opened my address by laying a five-dollar bill upon the table. " T am going to talk to you boys about Socialism,' I said, 'and when I finish the boy who gives me the best reason for turning Socialist will get this five-dollar bill.' "Then I spoke for some twenty minutes. The boys were all converted at the end. I began to question them. "'You are a Socialist?' I said to the boy nearest me. " 'Yes, sir,' he replied. "'And why are you a Socialist?' I asked. "He pointed to the five-dollar bill. 'Because I need the money,' he said." — Ladies' Home Journal.