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 Why? by Robert William Service 
						He was our leader and our guide;He was our saviour and our star.
 We walked in friendship by his side,
 Yet set him where our heroes are.
 
 He taught disdain of fame and wealth;
 With courage he inspired our youth;
 He preached the purity of health,
 And held aloft the torch of truth.
 
 He bade us battle for the Right,
 And led us in the carnage grim;
 He was to us a living light,
 And like a God we worshiped him.
 
 He raised us from the grievous gloom,
 And brimmed our hearts with radiant cheer;
 And then he climbed up to his room,
 And . . . cut his throat from ear to ear.
 
 Let us not judge his seeming lapse;
 His secret soul we could not see;
 He smiled and left us, and perhaps
 Death was his crowning victory.
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