Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1871-06-22
POEM


Delivered before the Wisconsin Editors and
Publishers Association. bv II. b. Philleo,
at Green Bay, on Tuesday tn, 2oth inst;
.Ont of the Depths" where stubborn Ignor'
Ha,h bound tn, ough centuries with CALLING
chain
Tn, golden thought. the thinking brain
Hath bound aud cruc6ed, yea trod
IN blood the right bega, OF God.
"out of the depths" as though 'twere born
A coronet TO deck the morn
That follows the long lingering night
Where truth hath burst the bonds Of might,
Rises in raiment bright
The Genius of Progression.
Not Phoenix like from its own ashes,
But like the Holy Man of Galilee
Who bore the living hope that makes man
free,
Arrayed in scars of scourges, stripes and
lashes
So walks to-day the genius of progression,
That holy principle baptised in blood
And born again TO make men good,
Covv4! with creation.
No trumpet heralis its advance,
No flaunting oanner gemmed with gold,
InOuIu cTfbT slduuViu "
As in historic DAYS Of DID,
When first the morning stars together sang
When cold Arcturus in the northern sky
Sent flashing to the Southern Cross
The immortal truths that never die.
God spake, and ont OF Chaos sprung
Immortal germs whose hlossoming
Hath made earth glow with an immortal
/ light,
Whose shafts Of fame iluming errors night
Shew str, VIII along the tortuous stream ol
tiUe
Shattered soul wrecks, mid stalk ing ghosts
| of c,ime.-
Revealing corpses hijeous though they be,
Just symbols OF curs'd cetormity
When the years were young, in the oldeu
| In parallels spake God to man,
And when years were merged in the stately
| rhyme
| OF centuries, spake God again
| In fables, and both were iraught
With us glorious truths as ever were taught
| So Brothers of the Pres with your permis
| sion
! oarabl eize an aged Editors Vision
What he saw in dream in his Sanctun
Sanctornm
| Whittier perfumes of roses and sweeter ma
j"rum
Brealhed in at his window, those angels o.
flowers
Transporting the soul from this black world
Of ours
To a world that is holier, purer aud brighter
Where hopes are no less though the bur
dens be lighter.
An aged editor sat in his rickety chair
Before him pile Of exchanges,
His scissors were clipping hrst here, and ther
there,
A paragraph now. nov joke light as air.
Aud he looked the " old patriarch" radiant,
| rare,
With the sunlight Of God streaming dowr
on his hair
A gossam er shroud Ger the burrows o.
! care
That told how the ploughshare Of time
had been there,
Still he sat in his rickety Office chair
Dissectiug his office exchanges
The hours fitted by as on unseen wings,
And still in the work nf dissr cti'n
The old Editor sat as King amid Kings
Anatomn,izing 'h' joints aud springs
or journal lie--the hidden strings
That move the Body Polite-',i! the drows,
wings
OF slerp famed out all sublunary things
And stopped the work Of dissection.
The silvereJ head loppei down on the table
Gas matter Of course, to make pcrfeci ou'
iable,)
Aud off of his nose fcll the gold mounted
qnizzors,
And free from his grasp fell the tale"tec
| scissors,
While the veteran Of letters suceumhed te
the poppy
And totally ignored the Devils shoutings fo
copy"
Oh swe,r were his slumbers, for " Nature
Resforer
| Had stolen the soul, and left h m a-snorer
While the spirit went roaming those brgh
fields Elysian
With angels who showed 1t this beaatifu
vision,