The Brown Man's Burden

By Henry Labouchère

Truth (London); reprinted in Literary Digest 18 (Feb. 25, 1899). 

Pile on the brown man's burden
 To gratify your greed; 
Go, clear away the "niggers" 
Who progress would impede;
Be very stern, for truly 
'Tis useless to be mild 
With new-caught, sullen peoples, 
Half devil and half child. 

Pile on the brown man's burden; 
And, if ye rouse his hate, 
Meet his old-fashioned reasons 
With Maxims up to date. 
With shells and dumdum bullets 
A hundred times made plain 
The brown man's loss must ever 
Imply the white man's gain. 

Pile on the brown man's burden, 
compel him to be free; 
Let all your manifestoes 
Reek with philanthropy. 
And if with heathen folly 
He dares your will dispute, 
Then, in the name of freedom, 
Don't hesitate to shoot. 

Pile on the brown man's burden, 
And if his cry be sore, 
That surely need not irk you-- 
Ye've driven slaves before. 
Seize on his ports and pastures, 
The fields his people tread; 
Go make from them your living, 
And mark them with his dead. 

Pile on the brown man's burden, 
And through the world proclaim 
That ye are Freedom's agent-- 
There's no more paying game! 
And, should your own past history 
Straight in your teeth be thrown, 
Retort that independence 
Is good for whites alone.