How are You, Sanitary?

Down the picket-guarded lane     Rolled the comfort-laden wain,     Cheered by shouts that shook the plain,     Soldier-like and merry:     Phrases such as camps may teach,     Sabre-cuts of Saxon speech,     Such as Bully! Thems the peach!     Wade in, Sanitary!     Right and left the caissons drew     As the car went lumbering through,     Quick succeeding in review     Squadrons military;     Sunburnt men with beards like frieze,     Smooth-faced boys, and cries like these,     U. S. San. Com. Thats the cheese!     Pass in, Sanitary!     In such cheer it struggled on     Till the battle front was won:     Then the car, its journey done,     Lo! was stationary;     And where bullets whistling fly     Came the sadder, fainter cry,     Help us, brothers, ere we die,     Save us, Sanitary!     Such the work. The phantom flies,     Wrapped in battle clouds that rise:     But the brave whose dying eyes,     Veiled and visionary,     See the jasper gates swung wide,     See the parted throng outside     Hears the voice to those who ride:     Pass in, Sanitary!