Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-07-23
POETRY.
THE TWO IxCENDIARfEs.
BY REV. JOHN pIERPoNT.

THE TWO INCENDIARfES.
BY REV. JOHN PIERPoNT.
The fire alarm = the cry of f"Firer'
Swells the night wind higher. higher,
Touched by the lightning. every bell
Swings in its tower, the tale 10 tell.
Forth rush hremen, one and all.
At duty's or at dangers call,
The peril and the praise to share;
The engines rush, their torches fare;
The light OF the devouring fire.
Reflects from the churches spire,
Piercing the clouds with ruddy glow,
Tells of the ruin wrought below,
Why sound the midnight tocsin dresde
Why towers that column black and red,
That, leaning two the leeward, shows
The way that the destroyer goes?
Let yocr Imagination strtch,
And you shall see bastard wretch
SkuIking away from human sight,
and wrapped up In the cloak of night,
Putting locofoco match
Where be is sure the flames will catch,
That when the crown is thither drawn,
He may, before the 'peer of dawn"
With his fingers force loan,
From other pockets TO his own.
What are to him the larum bell,
The biazing roof. the fearful yell
or horses roasting in their stalls.
OF fremen crushed by falling wall?
What TO him are the crash and din
OF states and rafters falling in:
The shrieks of houseless woman flying,
The feeble gasps of infants dying,
And the loud wsiling of despair,
That loads the suffocating air?
What are all these things to him? His turn
By them is served :-let others burnt
What is all this to him ?-why, sir,
He wakes up people and they stir;
And IL they catch the william, he
Is tried, and hanged-or used to be;
Law may, but justice does not alter;
He escapes, though he deserves the halter;
And were he doomed to it again,
The people would all cry "AmenI"
And yet, how cody; let's inquire
What does the william sit on fire?
Boards, shingles, Underwood, nay,
A vapor. that is seen day,
Or hour, "then vanish away
That s all. The incendiary felon
Does nothing more we need TO tell on.
But he VI no fills his neighbor'sc
With livid fire, is burning up,
No edifice framed of wood,
Nor princely mansions, fair and goo1,
But that for which such mansions rise;
The heir apparent Of the skies;
Man: who from heaven derives his birth,
Man-God's vicegerent here on earth,
A house that only God can buil1.
A temple with his spirit Oiled;
A tenement indeed of clay,
That holds its dweiler for his Gay;
A house that fails, in time. in dust,
AS other earthly dwellings must;
But one that holds-if not burnt down,
The heir of an immortal crown.
But let the fire that fills the cup,
Be, in that house, well kindled up,
And strength, and peace. and pure desire,
And manly purpose feel the fire;
And reason stumbles on and gropes
barking, mid smothered joys and hops.
And faith, and every upward aim,
And heavenward, impulse feeds the fame.
And Virtue falls, and Courage flags.
And childhood roams in tattered rags,
And haggard Want makes earth his bed.
And homeless Hunger begs his bread
And scottish Dizziness mopes along.
Aod Maniac Mirth bawls o2t his song,
And Frenzy stands with vacant stare,
And Madness rends his matted hair,
And Murder siabs his weeping bride.
Taen dies himself suicide.
And yet, what is all to him
Who fills up to his sparkling brim,
The glowing blass of liquid fire,
Drowned in whose poisonous de pths expire
Wit, wisdom, common manhood, even,
All earthly joy; all hope of heaven;
"Aye." to his inmost self, says he,
"What is the consequence to me?
v hat is, to me, the depth OF woe
That follows where my liquors flow,
So long as I the match can get,
So long as 1 the fire may set,
So long as can have my way,
So long as those who drink cal pay,
SO long as they can serve my turn,
What is't TO me how much they burn?"
These two incesdiares stand
Before you, neighbors, torch in hand;
Both ply their tra1e.-both fill their purses;
Tell me-whch of the two, the worst, is?