The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1877-08-18
The poem Is as follows

he poem is rs lOllOWs
TO each and all assembled here
An earnest welcome and good cheer!
One year has fled since last we met
TO take each other by the hand
The time is brief, indeed. and yet
We miss the touch of many hand,
And many a face, so well we knew.
OF old time friend, so good and true.
We look for them, but look in vain,
A. mem'ries only they remain.
Full time the auspicious day affords
For courtcsies and friendly words
Old lOyers-in their lives complete
With still remembered pleasure meet.
Old rival.-now In better moods
Laugh o er their long forgotten ieuds.
Old ueighbors pass the hours away
With thrilling stories of their day.
While each to each accords his place,
With old time charity and grace,
In kindhess, now. they magnify
The virtues and the courtesy
OF those who in the church-yards lie.
Though rapidly the Old rccedcs,
Ils heroes and heroic deeds,
Its hopes and fears, its JOY and grief,
Combine to give it bold relief.
1t rises largely on the sight,
An old but ever new delight,
A monument with front sublime,
Wrapt in the rosc-tlush OF Its time,
Wherein are images so lair
Proclaiming through the years aiar
The prophecy Of rhdt "e are
Divining thus. the older sagcs
Forecast the fate of future ages
The Rude Heroic of their time,
Though half a monster in lts crime
Was given rs the basic plan
And model Of the future Man
In parting with the Old, OF course
We lost large amount of TOrCf,
Refined to weakness, took high places,
And ranked ourselves among the GraCcs,
Forgetting. suddenly, the friends
Through whom We thus attained our ends.
How can we dream of cabin glories
When marble fronts of seven stories
Rise up before us in their beauty
And claim our worship a. dutyg
How can we spare our concert evenings
To talk of linsey-woOlscy weaving,
While grand pianos in our room
Jsurp the honors of the loom:
How ddFe our strongest Hercules
Insult our modern OmphalCs
who neither spin nor pay the tax
With distaii and wisp of flax,
When pull-hacks aye 20 neat a III
That ladies have scarce room for wit?
Put those who linger with rs yet,
Who ira tie past, do they forget:
Some how / think the loom and wheel
Are livin: things that think and feel.
The idle loom in silence dreams
Ofher whose voice IL understood.
Whose hand-touch sanctifcd its beams
And sent thrill through all it's wood.
The ilaXcn threads orr mothers spun
In endless beauty ever run
Through all their livcs-the silver chains
Along whose lines. in pleading strains,
The music of the wheel complains.
No. no! our gTand-sircs love them yet.
'Twerc sacrilcgc Ia now forget
The humble means that made them great
And kept the honor of the Strf..
Their strength. their glory ana their pride,
The firm foundations. deep and wide,
OF civil life and social joy
ruin. TABOR, ccaselc,s easrGy,
PriCdiiOH, dGHqcr. ysg;idBce.
Broad views Of right aId-coH,moa sense.
We little heed and scarcely see
The uses of the hour,
While thew are making history
And move the world with magic power.
No divination can foretcll
The working Of the mystic spell
BY which a simple word or deed
Let fall. with neither will or heed
Through years of rapid movement hurled.
May shape an age or mould world.
Small things. unnOticcd in their day,
Familiar trincs in their way,
VIII grow IN greatness on Ourcycs
And. like implorinc spirits. ri-C.
Reach toward a. with their pleading hands
And all the power that love commands:
Ave sqH 10 ne IN words 20 dear
That every accent j. tear.
Whose smile IL like fond carr>s.
And every touch tender kiss.
The nine patch on our gran mas quilt,
Her name carved on q sword hilf.
The quaint old buckles ON her shoes.
Though duh with age aud worn with rsc,
The chair In which our grand ire lat,
His wig. his cane. his bcll-cr0wu hat.
Each one aud an. endowed with speech.
IN earnest walls uDr loy, he-ccch.
Did he who rcEpTeufIg ate
He meals upon = pewter plato
Imagine that hi dish would b.
\ shrine whore memory could kLecI
And worship with a love - leal
As anv dcvOfce can feel
Who stOops 10 kiss the H0ig GFrGr
How little could the tailor note
Who fashioned lsracl Putnam coat
\ buttons yalue-morc or less
Apart from all the hero'- dre~s
To him the value wa huf small.
II had its u-e. and that Wa an
But now that buttnl + a shrine,
4 sacred thing. alfnoS, divine.
The mirror Of an srr EHssod.
Wherein We see. ~ ia -lass.
It. heroes and heroic time.
The dccds tina; made iis a-e Sublime.