Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1877-08-23
Ave Maria.
4 BRENroN LEGENp.

In the ares OF faith before the day
When men too proud 10 weep or pray,
There stood in "A ret-roofed Brenton town,
snugly nestled twixt sea and down,
chapel or simple souls TO meet
Nightly, and sing with voices sweet,
There was AN idiot, palsied, heared,
With unkempt locks, and matted beard,
Iunched from the cradle, vacani-eyed,
And whose head kept rolling from side to sidc
And who when the sunset glow grew dim,
Ave Maria.
But when they up got and wcndcd home,
Those up the hillside, these tn the foam,
He hobbled along in the narrowing dusk,
Like thing that is only hull and hnsk
On as he hobbled. chanting still
Now To himself, now loud and shrill,
Ave Maria.
When morning smiled on the smiling deep,
Aud the fisherman woke from dreamless sleep,
And ran up his sail, and trimmed his craft,
While his little ones leapet on the snc ana iaughcc
The senseless cripple would stand and stare,
Then suddenly holloa his wonted prayer,
Ave Maria.
Others NIGH; plow, and reap, and SOW,
Delve In the sunshine, spin i'm the snow,
Make sweet love in a shelter sweet,
or trundIe theirslead in winding-sheet;
But he, through rapture, and pain, and wrong,
Ave Maria.
When thunder growled from the raveled wrack,
And ocean TO welkin beloved back,
And the lightning sprang from the clOndy sheath,
And tore through the forest with Jagged teeth,
Then leaped and laughed DER the havoc wreaked,
The idio. clapped with his hands, and shrieked,
Ave Maria.
Children Knocked, and mimicked his feet,
as he siOuchcd or sidled along the street,
Maidens shrank he passed them by,
And mothers with child eschewed his eye;
Apd half in pity, halt scorn, the folk
Christened him, from The words he spoke,
Ave Maria.
One year when the harvest feasts were done,
And the mending of tatiered nets begun,
And the kifriwake's scream took weirder key
From the wailing wind and the moaning sea,
lie was foHnd, al morn, on the fresh strewn snow,
Frozen, and faint, and crooninglow,
They stirred up the ashes between the dogs,
And warmed his limbs by the blazing logs,
Chaffed his puckered and bloodlsss skin,
And strove to quiet his clustering chin;
But ebbing with unrcturning tide
he kept on murmuring till he died,
Idiot, souless, brute from BIRTH
lie could not be buried i'm sacrei earth,
80 they laid him afar, apart, alone,
Without cross, a turf, or stone,
Senseless clay unto senseiess clay.
To which none ever came nigh ia say, ~
Ave Maria.
hen the meads grew saffron, the hawfhornes white
And the lark bore his music out of sixhf :
And the swallow out-raced the racing wavc.
Upfrom the lonely, outcast grave
Sprouied lily. straight and high, 81
Such a. she bears TO whom men cry.
Ave Maria.
None had planted II, no one knew
How IL had come there. why IL grew:
Grew mp strong, Till its stately stem
Was Crowned with snow white diadcm--
One pui. llly, round which, behold,
Was written by God in veins ol gold
Ave Maria:
Over the lily they bum shrine.
Where are mingled the mystic bread and wine.
shrine you may ia the little town
Ihat II snugly nestled fwixt deep and down
Through the Brenton land il hain wondrous fame.
And II hears the unshriyen IDIOTS name.
Ave Maria,
hunchba ,ked, gbbcring, biear-eyei halt.
From forehead 10 footsiep one foul fault
Crazy, contorted, mndess-born.
The gentle's pity, the crucl's scorn
Who shall bar you the gates OF Day.
20 you have simple faith 10 say
Ave Maria?
-Iotnhal Hagdxins