Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1874-06-11
THE RIDE OF COLLINS GRAVES.
AN INCIDENT OF THE yIooD IN MASSACHUSETTS,. MAY le
1874.

No song of soldier riding down
To the raging fight from Winchester town;
No song of time that shook the earth
With the nation . throe at a nations birth;
But the song Of brave man, free from fear
AS Sheridans self OF Paul REVERB
Who risked what they risked-fres 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;
The dew still clings to the trees and grass,
And the early toilers smiling pass.
As they glance aside at the white-walled homes.
Or up the valley, where merrily comes
The brook that sparkles 10 diamond rills
As the sun comes over the Hampshire hills.
What it that passed like an ominous breath,
Like shiver of fear or touch ofdeath'
What was it! The valley is peaceful still,
And the leaves are afire on top Of the hill.
Il was not sound, nor a thing OF sense;
But pain, IKE the pang of the short suspense
That wraps the being of those who
At their feet the gulf of Eternity
The air Of tn valley has felt the chill;
The workers pause at the door of the MILL
The housewife, keen to the shivering air,
Arrests her foot on the cOttage-stair.
Instructive taught by the motherloYe,
And thinks of the sleeping atovel
Why start the listnersl Why doer the course
ofthe mill stresm widen! Is 1t morse;
Hark to the sounds of his hoofs, they say;
That Aallops so wildly WiliamsbuIg-ways
God what was that ike human shrek
From the winding Valley win nobody speak,
win nobody answer those women who cry
As the awful warnings thunder byt
Whence come they' Listen! And how they hear
The sound of the galloping households near;
They watch the trend of the vale, and see
The rider who thun RS so menancingly,
With waving arms ana warning scream.
To the home filled banks Of the valley stream.
He draws rein, but he shakes the street
With shout and the ring OF the galloping feet,
And this the cry that he filings to the wind;
To the hills for your liUes! The food is behind!
He cries and is gone; but they know the worst
The treacherous Williamsburg dam has burst
The basin that nourished their happy homes
Is changed to q demon. 1t eomes it comes!
monster in aspect. with shaggy front
or shattered dwellings, TO take the brunt
OF the dwellings they shatter-white-nanned an'
hoarse,
The merciess terror fills the course
OF the narrow valley, and rushing raves,
With Death on the first of its Kissing waves,
Till cottage, and street, and crowded mill
Are crumbled and crushed
But onward still
In front of lie roaring food is heard
The galloping horse and the warning word
Thank God that the brave mans life is spared.
From Williamsburg town he nObly dared
To race with the flood, and to take the road
In front of the terrible swsth it moved.
For miles ii Numbered and crashed behind,
But he looked ahead with a steadfast mind;
They mast be todrnedP' was all he said,
As away on his 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 Curtius old;
lis deed, as the Romans, was brave and bold,
nd the tale can noble thrill awake,
For he CT fered his life for the peoples sake.
-[John Boyl 0'Reilly in the Boston Pilot