Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1873-05-03
uow he SAVED ST. MIcHAELs.


& Won beg for story. my darling-my
prUmn von Alice. with face like morning,
and curling locks of gold;
rbon come, II you will, and listen-atahd
close beside my knee
IN tale of the Southern city, proud
~ Charleston by the sea.
II was long ago, my children, ere ever the
signal gun -,
ayakened the north as one;
Long ere the Wohuroun piiif VI D"'''e
u.i naked where the unclaimed millions
marched on to their hearts desire.
an the roofs and the giittering turrets, that
night as the sun went down,
Tho mellow glow Of the twilight s.hone
like a jeweled crown,
And bathed iu the living glory, as the
They Psop saw the pride Of the city, the spire of
St Michaela, rise.
High DER the lesser steeples, tipped with
Thai hung like a radient planet caught in
its earthwar1 ialli
first glimpse OF home TO the sailor VINO
made the harbor-round,
And last slow fading vision dear to the
outward bound.
The gently gathering shadows shut out the
waning light;
The children prayed at their bedsideH, as
YOU will pray tonight;
The noise of buyer and seller from the busy
mart was gone. -, .
And in dreams Of peaceful morrow the
city slumhefed on.
But another light than sunrise aroused the
sleeping street,
Far "A cry was heard at midnight, and the
rush Of tramplug feet;
Men stared in each other faces through
mingled fire and smoke,
While the frantic bells went clashing CLAN
OIoua stroke on stroke!
By the glare Of her blazing roof-tree the
houseless mother fed,
With the babe she pressed 10 her bosom
skrieking in naneless dread
while the fre-king's wild batallions scaled
wall and cap-st0ne high,
And planted their faring banners against
All inky sky.
From the death that ragged behind them
and the crash OF ruin loud,
To the great square Of the city were driven
the surging crowd,
where vet ilrm in ali the tumult, unscathed
by the fiery Hood,
Win its heavenw ard pointing finger, the
church Of st. Michael stood.
sudden wall,
A Crs OF horror blended with the roaring ol
OF the gale,
on whose scorched wings updriven, single
flaming brand
Aloit on the towering steeple clung like q
bloody hand.
.win IT fade?" The whisper tremblet
from thousand whitening lips;
Far out on the lurid harbor they watched Il
from the ships
haleful CLEAN that brighter ana eFel
brighter shune, . ..
Like a nickering. trembling wilr-o'-WisI
TO a steady beacon grown.
"Uncounted gold shall be given to the mar
whose brave right hand,
For the love of the periled city. pluck
down yon burning brandt
So cried the Mayor Of Charleston that al
the people heard,
But they looked each one at his fellow, ant
no man spoke word.
Who is it leans from the belfry, with fact
upturncd to the sky
Clings to column and measures the dizll
spire with his eye9
VIII he dare it. the hero undaunted, tina
terrible, sickening height?
or will the hot blood ot his courage tieel
in his veins at the sishte
But see he has stepped on the railing, b.
climbs with his feet nud his hands, .
Aud firm ON narrow projection with tn
belfry beneath him he stauus
Now once, and once only, they cheer him
single, temPestuous breath
And there falls on the multitude gazing
hush like the stiffness Of death.
slow, steadily mounting unheeding augh
save the goal Of the fire,
Sul higher and higher, an atom, he move
on the face of the spire,
Ne stops viii he fall2 Lol for answer,
CLEAN like a meteOr's track,
AID hurled on the stones Of the pavement
the red brand lies shattered and black