Omaha daily bee., 1874-05-26
Written for the OMAHA Bee.
MILL RIVER-HAY, 1874.
BY z GOODWIN.

Early at morn on that terrible day,
As the golden beams Of the sun came down
Soft on the vale in lovely array,
Bathing the shrubs in purple and orowp,
And crimson and blue, and varying hue;
Recalling TO lite each sluggish town
That lay half en-nestled the valley side down.
Shrek after shrek!
From peak to peak,
Over the drowsy hamlets new!
Startling the birds
With its frenzied words
From mis- Ianguid rest, gave a loud 'tu-whoo.'
What tempest is loose on the earth this morn?
Wnat thunder thus rolls beneath a clear sky!
What frantic cry, louder than huntsman's
horn
What blood-curdling screams come floating
by?
The peasant starts from his porstrate spade
The shopman steps from the shade Of his door,
The wife hears th= v0ice-.he mother-;he
The child unslarmed plays on the floor.
Over the hills madmau sped,
His steed ike the wind and the waters few.
Chastity and gray as one from the dead,
But his cry was the scream OF the Wild Sea-
new.
"LoOk out-for the dam is broken" he cried
Look out Tor your lives. To the hill tops
His tones rang high 'bove the dam tide,
Tn men stood to Ihs.en while down from the
side
OF the ranging hills mad echo replied,
Fly, death Is at hand-hy,every one"
And stealing afar like the wall Of a nun,
Cadences murmur-fy eyerv onei
SPECIFICS they stand, appalrd at the sound,
Far up the valley around and around,
A mighty torrent leaps over the ground,
And timber and turf,
To the raging surf,
Is twisted and flung by its huge rebound.
Rumble, Rumble. Rumble,
Earth and air a7grumble,
Trees and houses tumble.
What monster desolator.
Rolling and seething,
Thund'ring and breathingl
With clash and clang,
And batter and bang,
Whiff1e and whirr,
And slush and slur.
And an awful stir,
The waters came down
Roaring and moaning,
Screaming and groanins,
Fiinging and ~fretting,
With fash and fare,
Glitter and glare,
Munching and crunching,
Mash ng and Crushing,
All things that are.
Dashed high in air,
Forests disarming.
Terribly fair
Horribly charming,
Loads OF drift, debris. and dune,
Spark and g~listened in that esening moon.
Herea1d there,
Thr ugh the night air,
Many a pallid corpse reposed;
HIther and thither,
No matter whittier,
Echoed a hundred tongues their woes.
What became of the r der, you say
His horse lay dead at the nearest town,
He mounts another,.-away, away,
Like 4 meteor's fash, the valley went Gown.
Loud is his cry,
But the vortex is nigh,
Oh God, what q death
In the space OF . breath,
His horse is strong hes q noble steed,
Sbu he falters ere ends his Willis tampeda.
prolonged scream the rid Z sends,
Then looks upon the unbridle1 hell; |
He watches its arms as it reeks and rends-
he notes each house that its fury contends,
He shakes his he d.,
For he pictures the dead,
And he turns his ewes away in dreal.
Where are the towns?
Go look in the valet
Ask of the mounds,
Their sorrowful tale,
hey1l tell of the woe.
Ask the bsreft-
All that are left
What loved ones their hearts bewail.
Early at morn on the after day,
As the golden beams of the sun shone down-
The buds all glittering with lingering spray.
The birds all singing a roundelay;
Houses aud factories swept away,
Leaving the signs of a giant fray
Golden hills calmly viewed the scene,
And thought no guilt in morals or law
Attach'd TO them, for the uad careen
OF Mill Fiyer-if they pr,perly saw.
They had one suggestion TO make, they said,
And this they would make to williamsburg
town;
as Mil river her current sea paid,
MIR. corporation should next come Town.