The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1876-06-23
OUR CENTENNIAL.
BY II. NORMAN GUNSIsOH.

" hcL AicSuOH ueT nag uUIuFiSQ
Across the land which now is free,
And shook its bright folds to the world,
new born glory for the sea,
Her sons were faint, her ranks were few,
Feeble her power and weak her hand
The nursling up to manhood grew,
And strobe a giant DER the land
And now hundred years have fed
Since first that banner on the sky
It's glorious stars and stripes outspread,
A sign of hope and triumph nigh.
Its constellation, burning bright,
Has gained new stars from other spheres,
And caught the dawning of the light
Which flames along the endless years
Its sons have brought the lightning down,
And harnessed it to do their will;
It's forts in every harbor frown,
It's thunders sleep on every hill;
Its power is felt on land and sea,
Its commerce sweeps across the tide,
And millions of the brave and free
Nestle beneath its shelter wide
The weary centuries effete
Had grown through years of suffered wrong
Before the march of Freedoms feet
The Western world broke into song
Art reared her temples in the land,
The Christians cross, the tapered spire,
Rose 'Eeath the touch oflabor's hand,
And glimmered in the sunsets fire.
The desert waste garden grew
In prairie land in tangled fen;
The world, astonished, paused to view
The grand creative power of men.
Three millions saw tn edawning light
l. - \ .l- ! l G .
And forty millions hail the sight
That breaks upon our eyes to-day.
The Old World brings her tribute here
To lay before the New Worlds shrine
The tropics offering sincere
It's wealth of olives and of wine
ls laid before our feet to-day.
o happy omen, blessed sight
Where shone but dimly Freedoms raw,
The world transfgured lies in light
One hundred years of Freedoms reign
One hundred years of war and peace F.
A golden century again
Burgeons and blossoms with increase.
Swift as the wind our Courers fly
Across the land, from sea to sea
In northern air, on tropic sky,
Streams out the banner OF the free.
And nesting meath each stripe and star,
Atlantic waves, Pacific foam,
Viewing the nations from atar,
Shout to their coming Welcome home =
Welcome Columbias arms spread wide,
She stands beside each busy mart,
[pride
And, thrilled with JOY and touched with
She folds the whole world to her heart
No bond Of sect, no tie of creed,
Can make or mar her generous plan;
The only plea that all must plead
The common brotherhood Of man.
The diamond from Brazilian mines
Cleans here by Afric's wealth of gold,
And silver from the long inciines
Where Colorado's wealth is told.
And Asia lays her treasures down,
Japan and India appear,
Bearing their offerings to crown
The tulness of our hundredth year.
o Orient lands where through the palms
With ceaseless tone, from morn till night
The spicy breeze5 hymn their psalms,
God give to you our boon of light!
And make you free as we are free,
That, as the years shall disappear,
The West may reach across the sea
To join in your Centennial year.
Your hundred years of freedom past,
Your thousand years of peace to come
Unbroken by the warlike blast
Of trumpet, or the rolling drum.
0 land Centennial to-day
God guard thee until time shall cease
His blessings hover DER thy way,
And crown thee with His perfect peace
o blood bought land Thy rocks and hills
Are Freedoms birthplace; and the arch
OF heaven, that bends above thy rills,
Is vocal with Times grandest march.
For down the coming hundred years
Ahundred million unborn men
Close up each gap, where now appears
A vacant spot by hill or glen.
A hundred thousand homes shall rise,
With marts of trade, with lifted spires
And in the light of Freedoms eyes
Forever burn thy altar fires