Gallipolis journal. [volume] (Gallipolis, Ohio) 1837-1919, 1869-11-04
Beautiful Snow.
As originally ,0ritten, December, 1853.

Beautiful snow beautiful snow
Falling SO lightly,
Daily and nightly
Alike round the dwellings of the lofty and low I;
Horses are prancing
Cheerily dancing.
Stirred with the spirit that comes with the snow.
Beautiful snow! beautiful snow.
Upat the day dawning,
In the cold morning.
Children uxult. though the winds hercely biow
Haling the snow flakes,
Falling as day breaks
Joyful they welcome the beautiful snow.
Beautiful snowl beautiful snow
ChiltlhoodS quick glances,
See the bright fancies,
Decking the window panes softly and slow
Forest and city,
Figure so pretty,
Left by the magical fingers of snow!
Beautiful snow beautiful snowl
Atmosphere chilling,
Carriage wheels stilling,
Warming the cold earth. and kindling the glow
OF Christian pity,
For the great city
Of wretched creatures who starve mid the snow !
Beautiful snow beautiful snowi
Fierce winds blowing,
Thickly tits showing:
Night gathers round us-how warm then the
glow
OF the fire so bright
On the cold winter night,
As we draw in the curtains to shut ont the snow
Beautiful snow beautiful snowI
Round ths dear fireside,
In the sweet eventide,
Closely we gather, though the keen winds blow
Safely defended,
Kindly belriended,
Pity the homeless, exposed to the cold icy snow
Beautiful snow! beautiful snowl
Filling the sky and the earth below;
Overthe house tops. over the street,
Over the heads Of the people you meet,
Dancing, flirting and skimming along;
Beautiful snow. oh, it can do no wrong
Flying to kiss the fair lady's cheek,
Clinging to lips in frollcsome freak;
Beautiful snow from the heaven above,
Pure as an angel, gentle as lovel
Beautiful snow beautiful snowl
How the fakes gather and laugh as they go
Whirling about in their maGdening fun;
Itplays in its glee with every one
Chasing laughing-hurrying all by;
ltlights on the face, and it sparkles the eye,
And the dogs with bark and bound,
Snap at the crystals that eddy around
The towuis alive and its heart aglow,
To welcome the coming Of the beautiful snow !
How wild the crowd goes swaying along,
al nth buu md
How the gay sleighs, like meteors flash by,
Bright for the moment, then lost to the eyel
Ringing swinging, dancing they go
Over the icy crest of the beautiful sHow:
Snow pure when it falls from the sky,
To be trampled in mud by the crowd passing
by,
To be trampled and tracked by thousands of
feet,
Tillitbiends with tine filth in the horrible street.
| Once she was pure rs the snow, but she fell
| Fell like the snown fakes from heaven to hell;
Fell to be trampled as filth in the street;
| Fell to be sconed at, to be spit on and beat;
Pleading and cursing-dreading to die;
| Selling her soul 10 whoever would buy;
Dealing in shame for morsel of bread
Hating the living. and fearing the dead:
| Merciful God has she fallen SO low?
| And yet she was once like the beautiful snow
Once she was fair as the beautiful snow,
With an eye like its crystal, heart like its
glow;
Flattered and sought for the charms of her
face!
Father andmother, brother, sister and all
God and herself, she lost by her fall.
/ The yilest wretch that goes shivering by
Makes a wide swoep, lest she wander too nigh ;
For all there was or about her, she knew
There was nothing so pure as the beautiful
snowl
How strange it is that the beautiful snow
Should fall on a sinner with nowhere to goi
Strange it would be, when the night comes
| again,
! If the snow and the ice strike her desperate
brain;
| Painting and dfreezing-dying all alone
Too wicked for prayer, too weak for moan
To be heard in the streets of the crazy town;
Gone mad in the joy of the snow coming down;
To lie there and die in her terrible woe,
| With her bed and shroud of the beautiful snow'
VIZ. AsDREw SIaouHxEY.
Iyr GLEN, Dec, 1853.