Be Kind

Note: The last 6 lines of this poem are obscured in the Trove NLA archives, this record has attempted to interpret these lines below.

Mr. Foley, M.H.R., of Western Australia, would like to see the press discussing new politicians a little more kindly.

Speak kindly of us, friends. Why
    seek our failings?
Why be so cruel to the poor M.P.?
Why all these vile reproaches and
    these railings?
We are but human. Can't you let
    us be?

Supposing you were talking for a
    living,
Supposing every word was "taken
    down,"
As the policeman says when he is
    giving
Crude evidence against some bloke
    that's down;

Supposing every syllable you uttered
    Was rubbed and then embalmed
    for all mankind
With side remarks in case you
   slipped or stuttered—
Wouldn't you ask the pressmen to
    be kind?

Friends, be kind! you are not
    always speaking
To earn a livelihood; maybe you toil
    in some dim place, the sovs
    in silence seeking;
Maybe you earn a living from the
    soil;

But think you, friends, at no time
    are you troubled
By apathetic writers taking note;
Never are your silly faux pas
    doubled
And never, friends, have you to seek
    for votes.

So be kind! Be kind! You who in
    silence earning
Competence, are never criticised,
Don't stone the frogs: for, maybe,
    they are yearning
For stagnant pools, and oratory spurning.

Without rent there happy and 
unrecognised.