Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1870-12-02
EMANCIPATION.



The shades lie heavy over earth and drip
Their mOuldy damps against the window
The eerie winds shrek round the chin
That stand just family outlined in the
And tiien go sobbing through the forest
AS though asalgh the gray-linbed treeswere pity
But -aa-ffii'in vain. The forests liquid heart
Lies in earth's treast asleep and wakens
save for the wooing Of the summer sun.
sit with dreaming eyes before the CRATE
And watch the ashes crust the Goals with
And watch the ghsstly games the shadows
with little slender struggling tongues Of
That gieam moment and then pale in
The g-1e Wondrous shadows now they nit away
As noiseless as the ghosts that walk By
Then sather in dim corners. nod and beck,
And laugh the Wraith-like laughs no ear
And then come trooping out along the
And form a living. moving picture there.
Look at this picture; it Is strangely real,
50 pitiful that cen the Wa1l1ng winds
Cry yet more sadly through the onter
Yet men have looked unmoved on just such
1 wonder now God did not strike them
Eor sf@eling thus the hearts that H made
Yes, men have looked, Americans have
Upon such scenes, forgot the blood that
within the veins of Natures noblemen
And let a craven love of shameful peace
Keep back their hands from striking for
the right
see four human forms: portIy man
Well dressed, with grand and naughty
Who might Hash Jewels from his riding
A granite face though very smoothly earv-
smile upon the lip as though some
Were being crowned at last with full sue
Two others clad in officers array,
Hard-yisaged with their cunning eyes half
And mouths that years have tutOred to for
To qaiver at the sight of pain and woe;
Within their hands they hold two manacles
Is needed not, their victim is so gtIlI
Upon man, a slave with ebon skin
And thiekly curling hair. With tattered
That have been brier-torn, that have been
By hastening through forests, have been
By swimming over streams, that have been
By midnight walks through fields of grow
And lying in the marshes through the
/ A sad worn face Those DAYS ofhorrid fear
And nights of hurried travel, scanty food
| And little sleep, and that mockery,
Have wasted till we grieve to look on it.
/ WcannOt tell you what is on that face:
| A hungry, hopeless, bitter awful look.
That slave has dreamed of freedom ever
The years when bondage first began to gall;
Has thought and planned and striven till
| the boon
Was Just beyond his eager grasp and now
caught, bound, and hurried back to slav-
He hears the bay Of bloodhounds in his
And feels the stinging whip-lash at his
And listens to the auction hammers click,
| And carries in his heart the dreary ache
That pays the second price Of bartered souls
It is as though some lost, lost soul had
The yawning gulf that lies twixt hell and
And Satan met him there and dragged him
back.
,Tis eoneI One tiny yellow tongue of flame
Hovers along the smouIderfng heap of Goals
And quick the shadows break in waving
Waiver a moment and then glide away
AS noiseless as the ghosts that walk by
Then gather in dim corners, nod, and beck
And laugh the wraith-lilze laughs no eal
can catch,
And then come trooping out along tn,
walls
And form another living picture there.
A pleasant home-Iike room. a tiny. bed,
And resting ,mong the pillows coziiy
A little ebon head with curly hair,
And bendin over him his mother stands
With just such love light in her dusky eye;
As shone in our while mothers as they
Beside their babies in the eventide
She holds one wee black hand within hel
And nusing smiles the while she fondles it
There are some strange, broad marks upon
some letter marks that show below the
ofher neat dress. Her boy win never bea1
The shameful weight ofiron manacles.
Upon her shoulders are some long, ligh
| scars
That tell as never words can hope to tell,
The bitter, bitter tale of slavery.
| Her child viii not be herded like a brute
| With other slaves, and driven to the field
To waste his strength in unrequited toll.
He will not shrink beneath the stinginG
And feel the burning shame man ever feel
| To own q master other than his God.
| Her boy is free She drops upon her knee.
And clasps her tawny hands, ambush
Make now a voice for those exuItant lips.
THANK God for freedom and thank God
Who set The bondman free" While higher
A score of curling shadows shape them
Into a face we know. A grave, dark face
That careless Nature left unfinished, rough
And God with his own finger glorihed;
For from the deep-set eyes Out-lOoks sou
l
The Master Artisan whose name is Love.
But a II is gone. A tiny tongue of flame
Hovers along the smouldering heap O.
And quick the shadows break in waving
Hover moment and then glide away
As noiSeless as the ghosts that walk by
Then gather in dim corners, nod, and beck
And laugh the Wra1th-iike laughs no eal
And then come trooping out along tn,
And form another living picture there.
A shining river ripping to, the sea
And singing as it flows a witching song
About the silver spring from whence i
About lis windings through the broad greer
The broTn-eyed COWS that stand so dream
f And tiny flowers that ope their starry
Among the moses, veIveting its banks
Many mile above. The twfnkling stars
Send out their pale, clear, silver light afar
Draw up their creamy petals sleepily.
A pretty scene, so dark one cannot see
The filth that lies upon the rivers edge,
Behind the tall and tOttering tenement
voice
And the faint cries ofIfttIe children. come
The eerie winds forever giving sound
To images the dusky shadows make.
Upon broad, fat rock that pushes out
A slender girl with large, dark, WiStfu
eyes
In which to read her JoyIess history.
No mother, oh how sad! and friendles
quite
In all that city full of human life;
Her home bare, black room in that ole
house
That echoes with coarse jests. inebriate
laughs
And din and strife and hungry chiIdrent
= 4 seFying-girI who toillng constantly
May hope to earn little daily bread
And eating her crust in silence, moistenine
it
With salty tears that scorch her blanehine
cheek,
And drag through weary days her living
death.
Poor child no hope for herI a score o.
ways
To gather blessings lie within the reach
OF every earnest man a bit of gold
Drops in his hand each night that seems
almost
A fortune to the wanting, half-paid girl
A chance to rise is his, to scatter out
The mental wealth that God has granted
him
And make five talents ten; to earn, tho
Door,
A DIace haSide fba bipbest IN, the land