The Portland daily press., 1877-01-29

S'soo
like. at times. to hear the steepIes' chimes
With sober thoughts impressively that minge;
To hear the music OF the sleigh bells jingle.
like full we'll the deep resounding swell
Of mighty symphonies with chords inwoven;
But sometimes, too a song of Burns DON'T you?
After stormy chorus OF Beethoven.
Good to the heels the well-worn slipper feels
When the tired player shuties off the buskin:
A page of Hood may do fellow good
After scolding from Carlyle OF Ruskin.
Some works find Say Watts upon the Mind
No matter though at first they seemed amusing,
Not quite the same, but just little tame
Alter some five or six times reperusing,
So, too, at times when melancholy rhymes
Or solemn speeches sober down dinner,
I've seen, it's true, quite often,-havent you?
The best-fed guests perceptibly grow thinner.
Better some Jest dn proper terms expresseO
Or story (strictly mora) even II musty,
Or song we sung when these old threats young,
Something to keep our souls from getting rusty
Comes like an heirloom from a dear dead MOTHER
Hush! there's tear that has no business here,
half-formed sigh that ere its birth we smother.
We cry, we laugh, ali, life is half and half
r, Now bright and Joyous as a song Of Herrck's,
Then chill and bare as funeral minded Blair;
AS tickle as female in Mysteries.
If I could make you cry wouldn't try;
III you have hidden smiles I'd like to find them,
And that although, as well ought to know,
The lips Of laughter have skull behind them.
Yet when think we may be on the brink
~ having Freedoms banner to dispose Of
All crimson-hued, because the Nation would
Insist on cutting its own precious nose of,
feel indeed as II we rather need
A sermon such as preachers tie a text on,
III Freedom dies becaus0 a ballot lies.
She earns her grave; tits time to call the sexton
But If a fight can make the matter right,
Here are we, classmates thirty men Of mettle;
We're strong and tough, we've lived nigh long
What If the Nation gave it us to settle?
The tale would read like that illustrious deed
Thus "Five-score years good friends, it appears,
At last the people split on Hayes and Tilden.
sOne-half cried, 'Seel the cho ice Is S. j. T.p
And one-half swore as stoutly as twas other;
But drew the knife to save the Nations life
By wholesale vivisection Of each other.
"Then rose, in mass that monumental Glass;
Hold holdr they cried, give us, give us the
'Contenti contentp exclaimed with one consent
The gaunt ex-rebels and the carpeJ. baggers.
Fifteen each side, the combat ants divide
30 nicely balanced are there predictions;
And first of all q tear drop each let's fall,
tribute TO their obsolete affections.
Man facing man, the sanguine strife began,
Jack, Jim and Joe against Tom, Dick and Harry,
Each several pair its own account to square,
Till both were down or one stood solitary.
"And the great fight ragged furious all the night
Till every integer was made a traction;
Reader, wouldst know what history has to show
AS net result Of the above transaction.
"Whole coat-tails, four; stray fragments, several
A heap of spectacles: a deaf mans trumpet!
Six lawyers briefs; seven ocket-handkerchiefs;
Twelve canes wherewith the owners had to stump
it.
"Old rubber.shoes; old gloves Of different hues;
Tax-bills, UNPAID, and several empty purses;
And, saved from harm by some protecting charm,
printed page OF Smiths immortal verses;
"Trifes that claim no very special NAME
Some useful, others chiefly ornamental;
Pins, buttons, rings and other trivial things
With various wrecks, capillary and dental.
"Also one fag,-'twas nothing but a rag.
And what device it bore it little matters;
Red, white and blue, but rent all through anC
Union forever torn to shreds and tatters
"They fought SO well not one was lett to tell
Which got the largest share of cuts and slashes;
Wien heroes meet, both sides are bound to beat;
They telescoped like cars in railroad smashes.
$50 the great split that batfled human wit
A a might nave t cost the lives Of twenty Millions
Was settled just as well by these civilians.
"As well. inst so. Not worse, not better. No,
Next morning found the Nation still divided;
Since all were slain the inference is plain
They LETT the point they fought tor undecided"
If not quite true, as have told it YOU
This tale of mutual determination,
To minds perplexed with threats of what comes
next,
Perhaps may furnish food for contemplation
To cut mems threats to help them count their votes
Is asinine-nay worse-ascidian folly;
Blindness like that would scare the mole and bat
And make the Hvelest monkey melancholy.
say once more, as have said before,
If voting for our Tildens and our Hayses
Means only fight, then, Liberty, good night!
Pack up your ballot box and go to blazes.
Unfurl your blood-red flags, you murderous hays,
You Petr0teuses Of Paris. fierce and foamy,
Wen sell our stock in Plymouth's blasted rock
Pull up our stakes and migrate to Dahomey!
Atlantic Monthly.