The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1865-03-03
WEST ST. PAUL OR THE DESERTED
VILLAGE,
THE AMERICAN GOLDSMITH.


On which staked and lost my beaver hat,
Fondly believing that thy lots would bring
Such prices as petrOleums poets sing;
Thy dim perspective in bird 's.eye view
Invokes the memories of the past anew,
And busy fancy on thy streets doth raise
The airy palaces of other days.
Yet poor the comfort that my thoughts derive
When bordering deep on fifty.four and five,
l sadly gaze on yonder vacant spot,
My first investment in q corner lot
And gaining wisdom from the doleful past,
Petition heaven that it may be nv last.
Twas then, unmindful of coming crash,
l bought the lot and paid my honest cash.
Purchased buggy and pacing mare,
A watch and chain and lOcket for some hair.
Smoked my cigars of fine Havana brand,
Drank curious drinks by Schiller's genius
planned,
And thus with sportive summer wings arrayed,
Gazed on my lot, and deemed my fortune made.
When, ferried DER the Mississippi's tide,
Idaily drove the mare loved 50 well
To where my lot renewed its magic spell,
Felt that each stake was in its place secure,
To make my proud assurance doubly sure,
Then laid me down in quietude, to dreams
vi Spanish castles bathed in sunny beams?
How shall l realize those pictures bright
Where West st. Paul arose upon INV sirht-
Receding avenues lined with mansions fair.
Cathedral spires uplifted in the air
Its newborn streets, with equipages CAV.
Its gardens fresh with all the flowers of Nav.
Its vast hotels, with busy crowds oerflown.
Its marble palaces and docks of stone
It's railroads stretching to the seas and poles
Its myriad steamboats,, and its million souls
But who the advancing tide of years can STAY
Or make Septem Der blossom like a Nav
In fifty-fve. what foresight could foretell
The awful crash that tifty-seven befel?
oh
Inquired, respondent, Have you heard the
news?"
And young ambition, pulverized to dust.
Touched by the words-Ohio Life and Trust
Alas! we all remember but too well
How banks suspended and how Erie" fell.
How Eastern profits, made for Western use
No longer furnished sauce to dress the goose
How emigration Stunned our Northern cline
How railaoad systems persisted in their prime
How paper cities vanished mid the gloom.
And corner lots prepared to meet their doom
Twas then, the victim of dark despair,
I CRASHED my teeth, and parted with my mare.
Sold my top-buggy-pawned my watch and
Smoked cheap cigars, and took my brandy
plain.
Sweet wesrSaint Paul. why paint thy further
woes,
As spring by spring the Mississippi rose
In rank rebellion, both its banks defied,
And down thy streets poured its exultant tide?
Where happy children tumbled in the grass,
The steamboats, on their daily journeys pass :
Where hens domestic pecked their usual corn,
The untamed duck Is on the wavelet borne:
Where pastoral cows did ruminate at ease,
The row-boat casts its anchor meath the trees :
Where stumps irregular caught the wondering
eyes a'
The lonely roofs of struggling houses rise; D.
ha S,h
Above the shipwreck of domestic peace.
What CONSERVATION seized the kitchen maid
When first the river entered on its raid:
Walked boldly in through each inviting door,
Spread itself out upon the sanded floor,
Extinguished fires within the cooking-stove,
And fiiled the kettles as they stood above -
Alas for Bridget on that evil day
when all her ire wood was swept away;
When desperate tea-cups floating on the wave
Mourned that their spoons had found watery
grave;