Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1876-07-13

But the dark night that round them lay
Cleaned with some promise OF the day,
When Burgoyne's host laid down their arms
And scattered were Brandt's savage swarms.
Boosting of conquest, sailed forth
The invaders from the distant North.
Full gayly marched the scarlet ranks,
And swarming on their front and TANKS
Danced in the breeze the plumed scalplocks,
Flashed scalping knives and tomahawks.
The host swept on its conquering way,
But found, as day succeeded day,
Thick woods, wide swamps and brawling fords
Were deadlier foes than guns and swords.
And toiling through the wilderness,
Full many Briton, many Hess,
Who sank and died by the long way
Uncoffined in the dark swamp lay.
Before the wasting Britons rose
host of new and eager foes.
Came on New England's yeoman ranks,
And farmers flom the HudsOn's banks
From Mohawk and Oswcgo came
Full many bordcrman, whose aim
Failed never On his conquering track
The Briton now was driven back.
Overwhelmed and crippled by defeat,
Too late, he thinks him of retreat.
On front and rank the rifles flash,
Behind him close the cannon crash
Borne down in fight, no chance of flight,
The truce-notes loud his bnglcs blow,
And soon, their useless arms laid low,
And furled their banners gaudy show,
March out the humbled captive foe.
The day which showed its earliest light
When closed was Saratogas fight,
At Yorktown in full splendor broke,
When cleared away the battle smoke.
There proud CORVALLIS, ranging free
Before, from mountain to the sea,
Surprised found himself inhemmed
By foes the naughty lord condemned,
While roaring siege guns round him flashed,
And blazing shells about him crashed
And closer still, on every side
Pressed on the leaguering lines allied;
And day by day he saw advance
The gallant sons of sunny France;
New England's men were pressing near,
And the Virginia mountaineer
Still nearer to the bastions crept,
And with his fire the portfolios swept.
Then once again the truce-notes blew.
Above the works the white flags flew.
Between the yictors double ranks,
Like scarlet tide between its banks,
Zone fair and decked with lilies gold,
The other rock bound, rough and bold)
From the black ruins slowly file
The captive hosts of Britain's isle,
And ground the arms they nevermore
Shall bear upon Columbia's shore.
'Tis done! let Freedoms sons rejoice
Der all the world with one glad voice!
In deed as erst in word I is done,
And Independence has been wont
We gather here to-day to celebrate
proclamation bold and true and great.
Grand words were they, by grander deeds mad
good,
BY years Of hardship, darkness, death and, blood
Our hearts are moved by tales of that old time,
Yet we, to-day, in this new age and cline,
With peopled leagues and crowded years between
Can scarce connect ii with the home-like scene
Not only here we celebrate the word
That on this day century since was heard,
But strive to link the hundred years gone by
With the familiar scenes that round us lie.
Strobe the red hunter or theiwarrior band
With twanging bow and whirling tomahawk
Warred the fierce Winnebgo and the Sank.
The Anglo-Saxon's colonizing tide
Had halted in Kentucky's forests wide,
And there the woodsman's AK or rifles sound
Rang sharply DER the Dark and Bloody Ground
True sons ofFreedom were these woodsmen bold
The thunder of the distant war-storm rolled
They heard, and built another Lexington,
n memory of the spot where Freedoms war begun
Not so the few rude settlers at Green Bay.
Through all the war they owned the British sway
Twas in the year that formal peace was made,
When, for adventure and for Indian trade
There came some hardy Gallo pioneers,
OF Empires westward march tn advance courier
And once more on the Prairie OF the Dog,
They built the cabins of the unhewn log,
And each provided with dusky spouse,
And rifles, fish lines, traps and wooden plows,
Engaged in farming, hunting, Indian trade.
But british soldiers manned the near stockade,
And here one might have heard at set of sun
The faint far booming of their evening gun;
For five years passed from YorktOwn's gloriou
day
Before this region passed from British sway
Then from the West the red cross flag withdrew
md DER the Prairie Fort the starry banner flew
Decades rolled on; the soldiers dress parade
By none but brave and trader was surveyed.
But not by these the waiting germs were sown
Whence all our fair communities have grown.
The first half of the century passed away,
I'm al; & fair i'm
But 10. the eager miners come,
Armed with the pick and spade,
And for the Empire at their backs
The first broad highways made.
In steamboats, painting DER the lakes
And struggling up the streams
In white-topped wagons DER the land,
Behind the slow ox-teams,
Lured by the CLEAN of the dark bright ore.
From far the crowds come in,
From Pennsylvania mines of coal
And Cornwals mines of tin.
The wild Missourians come in crowds,
Mixed with Ohio's men:
They scare the gray wolf in his lair,
The rattlcsnake in his den
Like an invading army swarm
The soldiers of the Lead Brigade,
The ocher stain their uniform,
Their arms the pick and spade.
On many a wild and rock-ribbed hill,
In many deep ravinc,
The miners cabin, built of logs
And chinkcd with earth, ia seen.
The streams that once like crystal ran
Run thick with muddy stain,
For, toiling through the wash-dirt fumes,
The ocher's hue they gain.
And creaking meath the heavy tub,
The windlass makes its rounds,
And nothing many hillside green
Rise up the yellow mounds.
Beneath its volumed sulphurous smoke,
The fiery furnace roars
And from its glowing stony throat
The molten metal pours.
Hemmed in by thickly pitted hills
Springs up the mart Of gain,
And DER its stony valley streets
Rolls the lead burdencd vain
But on the prairies fair and broad
The wild grass still is green.
No trace of human hand is there,
The wild flowers bloom unseen.
The delivers in the rock yet leave
The prairie sod unturned,
Its wealth, far passing that of mines,
Is overlooked and spurned.
Decades pass on; the century's close
Displays another scene.
Gone are the wild grass and the flowers
The prairie still is green,
But with wealth of diverse grain,
And not the prairie sod;
And scores of fleecy fiocks now Craze
Where the lone wild deer trod
And where the coyote dug his hole