, 1870-12-30

When childhood and age were not both unknown,
When girls and boys had a time to grow,
And learn in their childhood a thing or so =
When boys from their cradles were never known
To spring out at a bound on the world full grown.
With a swagger and swell, and a ~braggart air,
With a fiery nose and a fired cigar
Or baby girls, from their mothers arms,
Step forth mature in all womanly charms,
Hoped, chalked, and painted, and ready quite
To Hutter and faunt for the worlds DELIGHT:
But infancy, childhood, and youth, had each
Appropriate manners, appropriate speech;
And each, when its season was fully past,
Gave to manhood and womanhood place at last
I love to think of that good old time
When u man at sixty was in his prime;
With a healthful face and a hopeful air,
And the world was proud of his dear white hair:
When grand-mothers, too, had a place on earth
With their pure affections and womanly worth
When the farm chair stood by each chimney side.
A thing of beauty, a thing of pride
And its gray-haired occupant sat serene,
The browning charm of the freside scene.
Then, too, in that olden time they saw.
Ere the Church by prory had learned to pray,
Or innovation made all things new,
Good men could be pious the whole week through
Not Sundays alone, in their cushioned pews.
Dreaming of politics, trade, and news;
While the preacher stood, or the preacher bowed.
And prayed long prayers for the sleepy crowd
While the p~raeticed choir, with fiddle and flute.
Sang anthems of praises while they sat mute.
Not thus, did our forefathers worship Him
In whose presence the glory of earth is dim =
But the lowly cot or the humble fame.
Grove, mountain, or desert, or field, or nloin.
The barren heath, or the fowery sod,
Was to them meet temple to worship God
Where rich and poor might with one accord
Kneel and worship creations Lord.
Then, character was not all 0utSide.r
A thing of glitter, and glare, and pride;
And humanity sought to be something higher
Than q s%trutting showcase for fools to admire.
Then, a true brave heart, in a-41anIy breast,
OFT throbbed meath the folds of a leathern vest;
And an honest purpose and high intent
With the poor day-laborer often vents
Bent over the anvil, or showed the plane,
Or gathered the sheaves Of the summer grain
And worth, though poor, had a right to claim.
In spite OF his poverty, place and name.
But men and a0Omen have passed away,
And ladies and gentlemen rule the day.
The former, a creature of singular grace,
Mysteriously fashioned of feathers and lace,
Ot cotton and cOrdage, of brass and brocade,
Pomatum and powder, with rouge overIaid :.
Curls furnished to order, and teeth that have grown
Under the hands of the dentist alone.
The latter, an object the tailor has made,
And the barber improved, by his ~barbarouS trade
A beautiful pet, whose appropriate place
Is to sit in a cage and exhibit his face.
Then, women were h~eaIthful, Industrious, true,
Of vigorous bodies and intellects too;
Walking up bravely to hree-score-and-ten,
And sitting down calm in the sweet sunset then.
Noa0, they are feeble, cadaverous, pale,
Shrinking aghast from the breath Of the gale,
lettering feebly to womanhoods years,
The prey of diease, disappointment, and tears
And then, when their sun in its zenith is high,
In infantile weakness they falter and die.