Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-03-07


An old man walks our quiet streets,
His form is bent with care,
He teebly grasps his oaken staff,
Aud wanders here aud there:
He gazes calmly on the strife
That man is plunging through,
And then at times there comes a wish,
That he might start anew.
AT times the lusty fire of youth
Will brighthen up his eye,
He'll wish again for youth to come;
The wish brings but sigh
One day | asked the good old man
To tell his tale of life;
lie told bis story, sadly true;
A tale Of bitter strife.
A Christian mother bent his thoughts,
Toward channels good aud true;
Her loving heart kept for her son,
Good lessons e'er in view.
His happy childhood grew to youth,
A Christian life he led
The youth had grown to manhood soon,
And time more quickly sped
He felt the heart-strin2s loosen when
He left his native shore
When he left his kind. good mother,
To see her face no more
But life was sad where he had lived
And Oft his heart had bled,
TO feel how all mus! toll SO hard,
To get their daily bread.
And oftentimes the scanty fare
Was quite Il ltouched by him,
Because his mother needed food;
Her life was growing dim.
At last II chance had come one day,
To reach foreign cline,
Where work was plenty, and where he
Could save full many dime.
He left the sect es of childhood,
The place where be was born,
He went aboard the stately ship,
One clea-, bright, sunny mora.
Some natures seem to hold by fate,
A Ii e OF toll aud grief;
1t matters not where er they are,
Their happiness seems brief.
Their pathway strewn with worrying
lhorns,
Their lives life of woe,
A ceaseess flow of grief and care
Hard knocks where er they go.
And such = fate our hero bore;
Was like book OF endless trife,
With grim and ootted page.
The ship which bore him from the land,
seeming steady craft,
When out at sea had tossed about,
More like a schooboy's raft.
Although she'd sailed the seas before,
Aud weathered many a gale,
4 storm arose that strained the hulk,
And stripped her OF her sail.
The timbers started from their place,
The sea came rushing through,
And all who left the ship alive,
Were FIVE OF that whole crew.
They beat about on ocean waste,
For one long night aud day,
And then q vessel picked them up,
And took them on their way.
They reached eur great metropolis,
And first sought needed rest;
Then each made choice of place at once:
Our here chose :he est
A nature his to roam about,
He went from place to place,
His stock o muscle always good
model OF his race.
rolling stone will have no moss,
"A rowing man no Sold
But rowing men will have their wives,
A tale SO often told,
And this man, too, was like the rest;
A brown-eyed lass be met,
He touched the meshes which she wove;
Was tangled in the net
Bat twas IA sweet captivity,
He would not break away;
And all was JOY for one short month,
Then came a teatfui day.
The yellow fever spread its wings
Of death across the land
The rich and poor alike were smote
BY this impartial hand.
The young wife, 100, was stricken down,
Zen like an autumn leaf;
The season Of their happiness
Was sweet aud sad aud brief.
He LETT the scenes OF sorrow then,
To tread on Badger ground
Wisconsin had place for him,
A home at last he found:
But such home as vain despair,
Drives men to seek at last,
When all he world Is cold to them,
And hunger cannot fast.
Old age has crept upon him now,
A paupel's life is his,
Disdained by well fed people now:
d, what world is this!
The tale of sorrow which he told,
Al through his life was sad;
gave the old man words of cheer.
hich made his hear, feel glad.
He took my hand in his and said:
"God bless ycu where you DWELL"
/ lefi him standing quite alone.
And waved kind farewell.
CALIFORNIA CRops.-Crop reports
rom the interior are to the effect that
throughout the Sacramento vallev
md the northern portion of the
State, also in Napa and Sono.