The Portland daily press., 1875-03-20
The Proud Lady Of StavOren.

The following, from the Boston Advertiser,
will be of interest to many Portland people:
The first thing in the new sumber of Serb.
ner's Monthly is a fine legendary poem by
Elizabeth Akers Allen, entitled The Proud
Lady of Stayoren. The story relates that FIVE
Zuyder Zee of the Netherlands prosperous
city where dweIt proud, rich lady, whose
fleets went over every sea. She was proud OF
many things, but chiefly of the magnificent
enter tainments she provided tor guests. One
day she entertained a traveller stranger, who
came to behold her splendor, having heard of
it from afar. She rade him welcome, but he
did not praise her feast. AT last she asked
him If he was pleased:
%only,' he said, "in the halls Of kings,
Never richer feast than this,
Or greater grandeur and Righteousness;
Yet here in your regal banquet-hall
You lack the thing that,i best of ALL"
He drained the cup TO the latest sip,
Then wiped the stain from his bearded lip,
And rising, bowed with a smile benign,
As he had ended both words and wine;
But his speech was gall to the Proud Lady
In her palace in fair Stavoren.
What this best thing was he would not say,
and the proud lady despatched her ships
through the world, instructng the captains to
spare no pains to find it,
Up and down in their puzzling quest
Sailed her gaeots east and west,
Till once it happened, by fortunes freak,
The AdmiraPs vessel sprung aleak,
And all the reof their wheaton flour
Was soaked by the water and spoiled and sour;
All things else had escaped the brne,-
Meat and oil, and cheese and wine;
Fruits and sweeimeats the table spread.
But how they suffered and longed for breadi
The plainest, commonest food on earth
Gained, by its absence, a priceless worth,
And they envied the poorest child on land
The hard brown crust in his dngy hand.
The Admiral pondered-and slowly srought
Out of his musings brilliant thought;
His doubts departed, his vision cleared,
And straight to Baltic port he steered
Purchased cargo of finest wheat,
And sailed away with his clumsy fleet
To fair Stavoren'S strong sea-wall;
Then sought the Lady's audience hall,
Thinking to set her mind at rest,
And happily end her weary quest.
He told of the hungry sailors pain,
The ruined -four and the purchased grain.
''Not man of us ALL - said he,
"But would have emptied into the sea
All the dainties we ha in store
For thing we never had priced before,
Who dimes on sweets may be richly fed,
But nothing can take the place of bread,
The food most precious is that no Doubt
We find it hardest to do Without
And chance sometimes to our notice brings
The unguessed qalue of common things.
Gracious Lady," the Admiral said,
1.-THE one best thing in the world is bread"
Dumb with amaze sat the Proud Lady
In the ill-starred town Stavoren.
''The Proud Lady," in her anger, ordered the
wheat to he thrown into the sea at the mouth
of the harbOr; but it sprouted under the sea
and grew, and all kinds of drift were entan-
gled with it until bar was formed, upon
which all her ships were wrecked, and at last
the raging sea broke down the dyke and Sta
voren and its famous lady were overwhelmed.
1t is a charming poem.