The hydraulic press. (North San Juan, Nev. Co., Cal.) 1858-18??, 1859-01-08

@ A r r I E r
6poranlif Dress.

DUAuutu PA~00'
JANUARY 4, 1859.
do not come to tell the story
Of all the dead years shame and glory
To crowd twelve-month's history
Within a rhymed epitome,
Or in my humble strain prolong
The echo of a finished song.
The mournful task l do not crave,
Of sprnkling flowers Ger the grave
That now holds all the grief and tears,
The withered hopes, the cankering fears,
The joys, the toll, the bold Intent,
Each petty act and great event,
With sorrow crowned or with delight
Which filled the year deceased last right.
Like fitful visions they are sped;
Then :. let the dead past bury its dead"
living theme employs my lay -
The scene We call our home to-day;
A scene that future years may fill
With much Of good or much of i'll.
know our hearts are sad to-day,
And travelling DER the distant way
Our heavy footsteps may not go;
That even those cleaning peaks OF Stow
Are still meIaentos of the scene
Now covered with as pure sheen
Whose well-known hills, and pleasant wales,
And level fields and shaded dales,
And trees and streamlets used to be
Companions of our infancy.
But while such memories can start
A warm emotion in the heart,
A stealing tear, q pensive sigh,-
Above us smiles a fairer sky
Than ever curtained in the spot
Where sta nds our distant native cot;
This mountain air is fulI of health
And teens the earth with boarded wealth,
Which waits but labor's stroke to gush
As erst did living waters rush
When Moses smote the fiinty stone
And slaked the thirst of Heavens own.
Here is the true Aladdin's cave,
And what the widest yearnings crave
Of worldly good and worldly pelf,
Each one may gather for himself.
But nobler is the priceless gift
Of independence, which doth lift
The soul above mere sordid toll,
And gives to Californa's soil
A beauty that is not in gold,
A wealth that is not bought and sold.
Here ''wealth is but the guinea's stamp"
AS often found in tented camp
Of mining industry as where
The halls of commerce rise in air;
Here each pursues his chosen plan,
And man is equal unto man.
This chief we prize this makes us feel
OOUlcnlGu, Wien we else might kUeel
And weep in anguish DER the urn
OF dead hopes that may not return.
Now let a rapid glance be cast
Upon the short eventful past;-
Behold the land a solitude
Where latent forces calmly brood;
Then destiny, by process strange,
Accomplish swift a magic change.
A few years since, and on the spot
Where stands this village never cot
Of civilized or Christian man
Had reared its roof The Wild deer ran
As fearlessly as here we sit;
There was no foe to friglten it.
A band of pines together stood
Amongst their brethren of the wood,
And like the ocean roared the breeze,
Or moaned, among the swaying trees.
In blissful ignorance the child
Of constant nature roamed the wild:
Nor fell disease, nor fatal drink
Had led him tC the dreadful brink
Where dying nations see their doom,
Then sink into oblivion's gloom.
Unnumbered years had wrinkled deep,
With gulches dark and canons steep,
The face of nature where she lay
All listless through the summer day
That makes our climate Thus she slept,
And time crept on as he had crept
A change came DER the sleeping land
When Labor raised his potent hand.
Instinct with busy life the scene
Awoke-as erst the sleeping Queen
Obedent to the ardent lips
Of enterprise The thnnsand shi rs
Of commerce whitened on the seas,
And standards mingled on the breeze
In peaceful strife, as scarce before
They'd mingled but in bloody war.
A startling tale had gone abroad,
That here were riches. hoard on hoard,
Which only asked the willing arm,
Without the aid of muttered charm,
To realize the dream of such
As long had craved the Midas touch.
And lured by gold, an eager brood
Of f0rtune-hunters sought the wood:
Came all the arts of eastern life.
With all its crimes andall its strife;
Came, too, come traces of its joys,
Its lovely women, girls, and boys!
God bless the your gsters! They have brought
Sweet hopes to nerve US. They have wrought
transformation in the wild,
Which doffs its sternness to child;
For where the step ofchildhood goes
The desert blossoms like the rose.
We hear them, in their merry moods,
Pirate youthful English through the woods,
And where their laughing voices ring
The very birds refuse to sing;
We see them romping through the grass,
And bless them always as they pass.
We dread to watch them where they sit,
like fairy forms about to fit,
On dizzy verge of pits by toll
Deep followed in the yellow soil;
But fcarlessly they gaze below,
Enraptured with the tiny bow
That dances in prismatic beams
Where'er the flashing water streams,
Or dashes from the bank away
In shining mist and silver spray.
These are our truest wealth. IT'S they
Who are the dawning of the day
That yet shall rise upon our sight
And battle this country in its light.
These shall remove the hated stain
Fixed on our State by lust of gain;
Shall herald in the better time
When virtue will not bow to crime
Shall be each one pioneer
To usher in glad New Yearl