Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-04-09
Our Country in Rhymes.

u NhlIEh III I1C AfNlCJfLLG CAcfEcf udS
resuscltated rare old book, entitled, a
Rhyming Geography, or Poetic Descrip-
ZION Of tie United States Of Ameraca, by
Vlctorianus Clark, which was published
at Hartford, Conn, in 1919. 1t was the
authors design that the rhymes be COM
mitted to memory by children, on the the
ory that verse is more easily remembered
than prose. 1t opens with general sum-
mary Of the United States and more dis
tinguishing features of the country. La
1t is the following description Of the Ohio
River:
- Boats throughout all the year may ride
To Pittsburgh on its azure tide;
And in the spring, when murmuring rilIs
Bear tribute from the snowy hills,
The stream is always very deep,
AffJrdlng vessels twenty feet"
Lake Erie
ever is described
As dangerous on every side;
Here rocks project in to the lake;
There floats The fatal water snake
The author had warm admiration for
his native land, New England, which he
quantity expressed by the standards:
/. OF the climate
" The climates healthy through the year,
From smiling spring to winter dre4r;
| s. speaks the plaintive village bell,
" hIch mourns the dead with solemn knell. ="
.. OF intelligence
- There's no spot on this earthly ball
| Where common people, one and all,
| Of male and female population,
| Can boast OF equal education"
8. OF official worth
g By talents and by worth alone,
Are candidates tor Office known,
And be who asks to be elected
! Is very sure to be rejected
The people of Vermont were worthy
sons Of this favored land
. hesc mountaineers are hardy, rough,
Good nature and good sense enough:
Their bravery is proverblal;
Religion, Congregational.
But in Rhode island, alas that Roger
Williams should have wrought such mis-.
chief:
1" All Christians here support religion
! By voluntary contri button;
! For contracts have no binding force,
Made with the clergy, and OF course
Reduced to every low condition
Are morals, virtue, and religion.
West of the Bay moral waste
Unknown t. improvement, science, taste;
The people there are dIssolute,
, OF every privilege destitute"
, The Brandon we'll in Vermont is muct
talked about to day. La the poets day
there vas another we'll, concerning whicl
wonderful stories were told:
Some men employed to sink well
In Burlington, the curious tell,
: Four fathoms deep, frogs torpid found,
Like stones imbedded in the ground;
{ The fr> gs, rejoiced to see tue day,
3 Began to leap about and play
/ Too quick transition to the light,
p They died and sunk IN second night"
Southern traits do not seem to have in
: pressed the poet very tavorably, for b
tells US that:
Keutuckys laws make no provision
For the supporting of religion;
, And as it had it's population
FROM almost every foreign nation,
n OF manners We can only tell
. That each mans his own parallel.
Like the wild Arabs without home,
> The poorer sort the forest roam;
- Sometimes little hut they build,
, Sometimes a little land they till,
. But chiefly upon game depend,
From the wide wood and mountain den /;
. And when they've eaten up the range,
: This Tor thicker wild they changed"
3 In Virginia
d Whole counties here no house affords.
v No altar sacred to the Lord;
Ie For this States law made no provision
ID For the supporting OF religion.
rs Here are two classes and no more,
to The very rich and very poor
re On their plantation separate,
is The planters 1--we in princely state