Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1859-01-07
The Weekly Free Press.

Will bring streaming, flashing joy,
Which swept them like a mighty flood
Lifted them clear Of all annoy,
And bore them high DER care and strife,
Those shoals and sand-bars Of our life.
year Of note i, gathered to its sircs,
year, whose great events shall glow
On Times long track like mighty signal fires
To light the nations onward as they 90.
The Ocean cable through the waters strung
The Comets fiery lance through Heaven flung,
The Great @oyiylrs wondrous swelling tido,-
Japan, long scalci by treaty opened wide,-
Lecoinpton scotchel,a nd Kansas freed again.
That horri Writ .cr,el on the Free Press men ;
OF great events like these it needs but ono
To make year to future ages known;
But all Of them the kind award of Fate
Has placed within tho bounds Of fifty Eisht
oh what n stir that Cable made
When first We foun it hal been laid,
Invading though it did the deep
Where sea-spritcs their dark rcycls keep,
The first electric thrill which went
From shore to shore, vita thought-speed sent.
CoaToying words of greeting free,
Stirred the firm land more than the sen
lac solid Continent, from base to gable,
h'cked with the hrst vibration Of the Cable.
The Cables laid The Cables laid
Twas all folks thought and all they said.
No other talk at mart or table
But this about the OCEAN Cable.
The thing they saw was practi-oa1ic,
To doubt il was most icsr-cablc,
And full success prognosti-cablo
by signs most unmista- -kabe.
John Bull couldn't stay impla-cable
While Jonathan was ami-cabe;
The nations hands together struck,
Queen Vie sent greeting to Old Buck;
Tho bonfires lit the archcd sky,
The checrines rent the weliin high;
Gotham betrayed it's elevation
BY joys and gh's intoNication.
And made grand Illumination;
and bound to have it something "tall.'
They lit and burnt their City Hall.
Cyrus, who took tie credit due
For putting the said cable through,
Was toasted round till all were blue.
Twas so from Florida TO Maine,
Fen sober dwelcrs on Champlain.
Joined in joy and jolity,
Burned out no end Of spcrmaceti
And, not to be behind the nation,
Gave Mr.. Field grand ovation.
Alas that all this joy and cheer
Should quite so quickly disappear
OF mice and men the best laid scheme
Will sometimes vanish like dream
And, as it seems, the best laid cable
To great mishaps is Liable.
While these proceedings, on the land,
We're all the 60 on every hand,
The ocean-dwellers, 'eainst the wire
Were plotting Vaccinations dire.
Porch ncc they felt Themselves irsulted,
Beoluse they hadn't been consulted
At any rate they thought they'd know
What that long rope amounted to;
And on investigation bent,
With enc accord they at i, went.
The Saw-f sawed it with bis saw,
The Sea-lion cawed it with lis claw,
The Grampu. huGged it with his paw,
The sperm-whalc gave it many chaw,
The merrnaids from their coral homes
Came out and rasped it with their combs,
| The Kraken crushed it with his weight,
7 he Shark took some of it for bait,
The "Thresher' thrashcd it with his fail,
And the Sea-Serpent with his tail
Hooked on to half league or more,
And snaked it over Oceans floor.
Of course such assiduity
Soon brok Q the "contnuity;"
The operators tried in vain
To get or send word again;
And all their efforts, ,as they found,
Just ran things deeper in the ground,
For every particle of news,
Stuck fast amid tn Atlantic ooze;
Tho people cursed the poor De Sauty,
And called him every thing that's naughty,
Who sat and scratched his wooden head
And could not e'or be drove or led
10 give this great inquiring nation
particle Of information;
md so, you see, in course of time
The thing passed nearly out Of mind,
And Browns been heard to say to Smith
lie thought De sauty was myth,
And that the whole about the cablo
Vas merely an old womans fable.
But now and then from out the deep
he wire gives feeble peep,-
Perhaps it still may come to be
news the pathway through the sea,
it won't work, then bye-and bye
o lay another we must try;
he great achievement so begun
ont be abandoned till it's done
oncernins politics, It's hard to tell five
al better now be groaning or be Joking;
Ut one things clear as anything can be,
nd that is everywhere that"things is working.
nose who supposed year or more agone,
neyd learned Old Bucks specific gravity.
ave found their calculations wrong;
iey mad not fathomed his deprayity.
Sill has Kept on sinking day by day
here heaviest plummot cannot find its vav.
pd still his miry downward road he keeps,
>wn and still downward to tho lower deeps.
II let him go,-the people reused at length,
70 gathering in their unimagined strength;
late elections writing on the wall,
fetslls to tyranny and wrong a fall
have paid our tribute too,
his year to the mighty Sea;
at monster whose voracious NAV
iungers increasingly,
d heavy tribute twas
)h what crushing weight
grief it laid upon our hearts
he Austria's fearful fate
|0ble Ship and strong,
Yell built to sweep the Sea,
b sides Of iron and ribs Of steel,
nd stout ships company,
pilot stood at the wboel
nd her lookout on the bow
Captain stood on tho quarter deck
ut Death stood on the prov.