Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1879-05-22
TIE HERALD.
THE MYTH OF BRADDOCKs
GOLD.
From az advance Proc

From az advance Proof
By FRANK cowAs
In lonely wood, two brothers stood
Between two ragged rocks.
Where, in the mould lay Braddock's gold,
IL rusty iron box.
Their clothes were worn with toll, and torn.
Their boards were grizzled and thin,
Their cheeks we're gaunt as the jaws OF Want,
And their eyes we're the souIless Of Gin.
For gra.dsire, sire, and had they,
For hundred years and more,
Searched in the night, in stealth aud alright,
To find the secret store.
Till all were gone. save the two alone
| Opposing breast TO breast
With the wealth untold Of Braddocks gold
At their feet Ia iron chest
Save the two alone, of skin and bone.
In secrecy and stealth,
But to bend the back aad firm hold take,
And rise from want 20 wealth
When. lest they false to each other prove,
Each knowing the others sins,
With an iron chain, good faith to maintain,
They bound together their shins
But they bent in vain, again and again,
! To lift the weight OF their wealth;
For work and waHt their strength had spent
In secrecy and stealth
Bat what Of a box of metal base
That doth but the treasure holdf
! Aye what o. crust Of iron rust
When all within is gold
With heavy sIedge and an iron wedge,
| The brothers broke the locks
When the sledge fell again and the wedge went aman
And opened the lid Of the box
When the younger BROTHER who guided the wedge
Thrust his hand through the opening crack;
In his greed to enrage him that welded the sled
Above his brothers back
With flash of fire from the elders eve.
And curse with his gasping breath
Down came the sledge!-but not on the wedge,
And the younger lay in death
Hal ha hs ha the elder laughed,
Till the woods around did ring
As if the gold of Braddock untold
Had made him Of earth the kngI
He dropped the sedge, and, close to the wedge,
He thrust his hands 10 trice;
When, with crack, the wedge few back,
And he was held in wise
Aud he held in an iron wise
While, plain to the touch of his greedy clutch,
He fell the gold in the chest
Was the sooth OF the ScripturaI saw
More plaiuly shown upon earth,
That, from sire TO son, the sin shall run,
To the third generation and forth.
When the hands shall be held in an iron wise.
Which the sinner alone can tell,
With his end attained-in his sinful hand,
Aud his soul for aye in hell!
Behold this wretch of the wretched, the rich.
With his gold within his grasp,
Grim, grizzed aud gaunt, with work and want,
And fast in his Golfers clasp
BEHOLD this Cain, with an iron chain.
To Abel bound perforoe,
Till he crayed as food tie flesh aud blood
OF the sinking, rotten corset
While the fly into the open month";
Aud its eggs into masgots grown,
That quick ened afre.h the murdered fesh,-
I'LL nothing appeared but bonel
When 10 hungry crow flaw down
Upon the mnrdsreris head
Where cooking its eyes his hands in the vise
! Upon his eyeballs fed
/ When into their sockets the ssh fly went,
And it's eggs into maggots were grown,
That quickened afresh the murderers hesh,-
| Till nothing app cared but oonel
| Till nothing appeared but bone and bone
Bound together with a chain,
heavy sledge, and on iron wedge,
! And the gold in the grasp of Gain.
Till nothing appeared, as the years sped by,
But iron rust and meld -
The stain of blood in a haunted wood,
And the myth of Braddocks gold
myth, forsooth, but withal truth
To be told to young and old,
That the greed of Gain, with the curse of Cain,
May remain with Braddock's gold