Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1870-06-29
ANNUAL POEM DELIVERED BEFORE THE EDI-
ToRIAL ASSOCIATION AT PRAIRIE DU CHEN.
JUNE 21sT.

ALI IN lIfe's great race to bless
Catering to mans highest need
Who with patience day and night
| Work to shed a broader light
W ORR ga1nst Wrong and for the Right
WORK Tor manhood's noblest need
| Glad are we once more to meet you.
| In fraternal gathering greet you
| With the warm and earnest hand -clasp
Palm to palm in hearty friendship
| Made such by the bond of union
| Ever drawing near together
| Those who seek the same endeayor-
| Glad this fourteenth annual gathering
| OF our Press Association,
Finds so few among number,
Since the last we met together
Gone before us Ger the liver,
| Where discOrdant cries for "copy''
Ne'er are heard from lips Satantic-
Glad to see your pleasant faces
Redolent of health and comfort
yelling from peaceful conscience
free from guile, and hate, and malice
Glad your patrons" oped their purses
(Ihough reluctantly it may be,
And with air most 'patron'' -izinp)
Dohng out your long I'd greenbacks
To release you with brief respite
From the treadmill round of duties
That so bind you to your sanctams,-
Glad to meet you by these waters
Mignty-rolling "Father of Waters"
Aqueous highway of the Nation
Meet you on this plain historic
Once the home of the Oiibewas
Proudest tribe of the Algonquins;
Here, where erst in times quite olden
Near two hundred years have passed sincel
Hennepin, the bold adventurer,
First upon't set eyes Caucasian:
Here, where four decades thereafter
| Pressed Dame Cardinell's foot the green sward
First white woman the Prairie:
Where she lived an hundred summers,
And was TO her fathers gathered
With centurys years and thirty
Marked upon the faded milestones
OF her hte's eventful journey.
Mark now the transformation
When the cowled and shaven iesuits
Hennepfn, Marquette and Joliet
| First descended the Wisconsin
And deserted this mighty river
With joy wildly exultant,
| None but savage hands had ever
Launched upon its placid bosom
| t1oatlhg craft of human fashioning:
| Only the light bark canoe had
| Ever cleaved its darksome waters
Now, against its rolling current,
! With might almost resistless
/ STaada the proud. majestic STE
Born OF modern civilization
On Its thousand-leagued voyage,
| Freighted with nations riches
Then upon this lovely prairie
| OFT was seen the council fire,
And was heard the war-whoop's echo
Now we mark the crowded city's
| Busy mart and gilded spire-
Gone these dusky forest children:
Gone the wigwams, chiefs and warriors
! Gone the wild unlettered hunter;
| Gone the shaggy-coated bison,
And the antler'd deer he hunted:
| Gone the hunters trail that threaded
The dark forest where they sported
| In its place the track of iron
| Winds along o'er plain and valley
Ard the laundering train comes rushing
| Ilke jubilating demon
| Shrieking its wild note of propress
Then the courier fieet-footed
BraWn OF limb and ample chested,
With symbolic belt of wampum
| Or with bark uncouthly pictured
| Many waxing moons, and waning,
| Passed in weary, toilsome Journey
Through the forest, the river,
/ Gross the plain, and DER the mountain,
tateful message to deliver.
Now in ambient air suspended.
| Or beneath the mighty water
| Magic wires that once were Voiceiess,
| Pulse with lambent life electric
| Pulse and thrill with glad emotion
| AS the sentent flash OF lightning
Thought conveys from sea to ocean,
| Of the wondering world engrdles,
| AS we mark this wondrous contrast
| Of the old time with the present
| In the history of this city,
| Ia the history of the nation,
we must wonder, we must query,
What has wro't this transformation?
| Who W s the occult magician?
What the magic wand he welded,
| Thus the world to metamorphose
| With power almost creative?
Clear, hattie and sonorous,
! Up along the line of ages
Comes in cheering tones the answer,
'''Tis the PRINTING PRESS has done It'll"
Then paean of joy to the PRESS be sung;
An 10 ITtunlphe from heart and from tongue;
| Tis the fulcrum and lever of Archimedean power
That moves the great world in this life-stirring
hour;
And the warmest enthusiast that chants forth It's
| praise,
Can scarce be too ardent in framing his lays.
But let the newspaper press to this hour belong,
And make 1t We therefore the theme of our song,
For OF all the great Priesthood that rules the To-day
No member exerts more powerful sway.
AS a mOlder of public opinion and life,
! \ promoter OF earnest and vigorous strife
fis power we never can thoroughly know,
For in silent though still overwhelming flow,
| Its influence reaches the lowliest mind
And in some degree finds 1t responsive In kind.
'Tis not mere mirror in which people may see
| themselves and each other as they happen to be,
Or the world as it leisurely jogs aleng
Often careless of right and regardless OF wrong;
Not merely tell-tale of human events
Thrown together IN haste without reason or sense;
| Not simply an Informer of moral misdoings,
| Or a carp1ng reporter of social outgoings;
| 1t is a reformer of positive mold
| Unobtrusivey enters the family fold,
| The countlng-room, warehouse, the workshop and
The market, the study with it's treasures of lore.
| To the hard-handed toiler speaks words of good
cheer,
AS he hopefully Iabors on year after year.
To the rich and the Iearned-men of elegant lei
sure,
The live daily journals indispensable pleasure
The Statesman looks to it for guide and direction
And finds therein for suggestive reflection,
All kinds, all conditions, all classes of mind,
In its thought1aden pages an influence find
That silently leads in the way it suggests,
And obedience secures to its gentle behests
| Tis the conserver of Freedom, the abettor of law
Best preacher of morals the world ever saw,
Tho 1t be as sequence deduced from the facts
Setforth IN its record of criminal acts
Tis the still small voice. that the world viii heed
While rushing along in its eager greed
For power and peace and the pride of wealth.
Then LONG LIVE THE PRESS To it peans be sung
| An 70 9~1lcmphe from heart and from tongue!
| 'Tis the fulcrum and lever of Archimedian power
That move the great world in this lfe-stirrng hour
And the warmest enthusiast that chants forth il
praise,
| Can scarce be too ardent in tuning his LAYS