The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-06-26
THE PRESS THE PIONEER.
DY HESKY T. STANTON.


And neither reach is free:
| Toward the East, toward the W est,
On either side, n sea:
1t gleameth like an Arab tent
Upon desert plain
A whited isle, continent
Uplifted from the main.
Here, link by link, the mountains run,
And wide fats intervene;
Here Autumn's yellow WORK IS done,
And Spring endureth green:
There. sharp-defned, the white caps stand
Outlining all the West;
There, eastward, surf abrades the land,
And neither seas at rest.
On either sea go bouyant ships.
That in grey distance fade
Go downward, as the water dips,
To lesser isles outlaid:
Strong ships, that seek the breaking dawn;
Strong ships. that seek the night;
And some will take the shadow on,
And some reflect the light;
And isle and ocean make the sphere,
And keep the Masters plan;
And seas afar, and seas a-near,
Are sOclate to man.
The world no longer seemeth wide,
With ships at either hcE =
With continents and seas allied
BY ligameltS OF sand.
In quest of truth by steady way,
0bservant men have sped;
They bring thick darkness up to day,
They animate the dead.
They challenge stubborn Earth to yield.
And lay its treasures bars;
They wrest its secret from the field
That brings the harvest fair.
Nor rock. nor tree, nor shooting blade,
Nor any things that be,
Beyond the touch of man is laid,
In continent or sea.
He delves the mine, he probes the deep.
And in his crystal cur,
From where the under-currents sleep.
lie bringeth glOries up.
Beneath the massy waters drear,
Through lucent, silent smiles,
He gOeth where the pOlypS rear
Their iTidescert piles.
There is no thing but hath its worth,
But yieldCth full its share
The merest atem of the earth,
The mOnad of the air.
As, age by age, the polyp plies
His cunning mason hand,
Till mighty weights of seas uprise
10 germinate the land
So man. the greater zoophyte.
Is bringing from the sea
His Obelisk of Truth to light
For all eternity.
Untiring mani There is no dearth
Of good that he may learn;
BE bringeth all things of the earth
To ashes in hrs urn:
He goeth on, nor stops TO spare
The splendors of the day,
Though fallen bud and blossom fair
Be ira upl- d in his way.
Jet science keepeth in its dawn,
And ell its world appears
With scarce a mark where men have gone
Across the grass of years.
With uDcrHshed bloom that lies a-bed,
By blades that bend with dew,
Its morning field breaks fresh ahead
For feet TO burtle through.
The novel way that none have sought
Is fitted for the shOon
OF such AZ see the sun-woof wrought
Beyond the afternoon.
The palmer path, ii such there be.
A coming mass may ind
1t trends where Silence will not see
Where Genius wonders blind.
An 1 days and years go on and on,
And all the ages pass,
And still moves Science in its dawn
Across the paSture-ETEss;
And ploddiDg millions take the trail
OF scattered bloom and spray,
Till constant dropping feet avail
To make the beaten way
And what were Science if it went
The newer way to find,
Without this coming legi IN tent
Upon its trace behind?
SO scan some long surviving oak,
And it may chance to be
1t bears De SotO's blazing stroke
On primal Tennessee.
Twill serve to illustrate with force,
And make the truth appear,
That millions fol .ow in his course
Who acts the pioneer:
That forests fall and cities rise
And sparkle ia the day,
Behind the man W hose steady eyes
Are on the nswer way.
He leaves his mark who moves beyond.
However light his tread
A bruised leaf, a broken fl "a,
A calyx early shed!
The faintest trace the feot can make
Is that apparent track,
That all the world, anon, will take,
To gather ut his back.
To careful eyes all nature brings
Great truth in perfect zone,
As on the severed oak in rings
The saps of years are shown.
And suns may rise, and suns may set,
And Truth will still appear
To him whose steady course is set
To act the pioneer.
Let US, who represent the Press,
As yet within in its youth,
Leave sign that we are none the less
Brave seekers after Truth.
Let coming millions know our might,
And all who come agree.
That, like the buried zOophyte,
We lifted up the sea!