The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1874-06-09
THE RIDE OF COLLINS GRAVES.
An Incident Of the Food in Massachusetts,, %
May l6, 1874.
BY JoHs BOYLE o'pEfLLY

No song Of soldier riding down
From tho raging fight from Winchester town
No song Of time that shook the earth
With the nations throe at Nations birth;
But the song Of brave man, free from fear
As Sherdan's self or Paul Revere,
Who risked what they risked, free from strife
And Its promise Of glorious pay-his life.
The peaceful valley has walked and stirred,
And the answering echoes Of life are heard;
Tho dew still clings to the trees and grass,
And the early toilers smiling pass,
As they glance aside at the white-waled homes
Or up the valley, where merrily comes
The brook that sparkles in diamond rills
As the sun comes over the Hampshire hills.
What was it, that passed like nn ominous breath
Like shivcr of fear or touch of DEATH
What was ~ The valley /, peaceful still,
And the leaves are afre on top of tho hill.
1t was not a sound, nor a thing Of SENSE
But pain, like the pang of the short suspense
That wraps the being of those who SEQ
AT their feet the gulf Of Eternity!
The air of the valley has felt the chill;
The workers pause at tho door of the mill;
The housewife, keen to tho shivering air,
Arrests her foot on the cottage stair,
Instructive taught by the mother-love,
And thinks of the sleeping ones above!
Why start tho listeners? why does the course
vi tno mlll-hfeam Wluen III Is nOrse,
Hark to tho sounds Of his hoofs, they say,
That galops 80 wildly Williamsburg way,
God What was that, like human shrek
From the winding valley? Will nobody speak,
Will nobody answer those women who CRY
As the awful warnings thunder by?
Whence come they Listen And, now they hear
The sound Of the galloping horse -hoofs near;
They watch the tread of the VALE and see
nr;lo ,~ho tt,,rl
With waving arms md warning scream
To the home-fled banks Of the valley stream.
He draws no roin, but he shakes the street
With shout and the ring of the galloping feot.
And this is the cry that he nings to the wind
"Io the hills for your iuest The food is bshind''
IIo cries and is gone: but thoy know the worst
The treachcrous william sburg dam has burst
The basin that nourished their happy homes
Has changed TO a demon-It comes, II comes,
monster in aspect, with shaggy front
Of shattered dwellings, to take the brunt
OF the dwellings they shatter-white-msned and
hoarso.
The mcrciloss terror fills tho course
OF tho narrow valley and rushing raves,
With Death on the first of its kissing wavel,
Till cottage and street and crowded mill
Are crumbed and crushed.
Bat onward still
In front of tho roaring food is heard
Tho galloping horse and tho warning word.
Thank God, That the bravo mans life Ia spared
From Williamsburg town no nobly dared
To race with the food and to take the road
In front of tho terrible swath 1t moved.
For miles 1t Numbered and crashed behind,
But he looked ahead with steadfast mind
"They must be warned'" was all he said
Al away on bis terrible ride he sped
When heroes are called for, bring the crown
To this Yankee rider send him down
On the stream Of time with the Curtus old
His deed as the Romans was brave and bold,
And tho tale can as noble thrill awake,
For he offered his life for the peoples sake.
--Rostoa P.l.t.