Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-07-04
"MSanesota.n the Poem.


"MSanesota." the Poem.
At the conclusion of the address the
Seventh Regiment Band played an appro-
pirate selection, and Gen. Sibley then IN
troduced the poet of the day. Mr.. A. P. Mil
Ter of the Worthington Ad0ance, who read
his poem, entitled Minnesota" as follows.
Down these great rocks the mighty river
poured,
And like an endless tempest beat and roared.
Ages on ages of uncounted years,
Before its thunder fell on human ears;
In one great song that made the woods rejoice,
Praising its maker with oeaseless voice!
Then the Mound Builders came, with awkward
toll
And built their mounds and titled the barbaf-
ous soil,
Yoked the wild bison to some uncouth plow,
And cleaved the rivers with birchen PROV.
How long ago? Perhaps ere Tubal Gain
Began to build his cities on the plain,
Perhaps ere Eve and Adam, hand in hand,
Went out from home to tame the wage land.
Then came the Red Man, stoical and brave,
Of whom no power on earth can make slave
True to the true and good toward the good,
And, like his Christian brother, spill,ng blood.
Human as we, whate'er his savage arts.
For veins of gold run through his heart OF
quartz?
Here round the Falls he built his rude tepee,
Made love and danced and fought and die9 as
And centuries went by, and then there came,
For love of Mother Church and France and
fame.
The man who gave the Falls their sanity mama.
o Priests! destined to pierce the wilderness,
Yours to explore and ours to possess,
Yours to uplift the cross by every stream,
And ours to build and realize Your dream.
Anon the Saxon came, whose iron hand
Has one strong finger laid on every land,
Who through his loom runs all the threads Of
race,
And leaves grander Saxon in his place.
The doughty Dutchman from his dykes es-
capped,
With wives and ships to one plump model
shaped,
Spreads round the Hudson in phiegmatic ease,
And smokes his pipe and trades to every breezey
The gifted Frenchman, painting to be free,
And smit with love of fame and liberty.
Kisses Columbia on her river mouth.
And builds his New World Paris in the south.
The swarthy Spaniard plants his homes and
vines
Where down the coast the yellow metal shines,
And counts his beads and tells his herds and
hocks.
Till at his door the sturdy Saxon knocks;
But build where'er they may, they build IN
The land is not for Holland, France nor Spain;
The all-absorbing Saxon, east or west,
Like Aaron's serpent, swallows down the rest
His tongue and faith, his name and laws be
leaves
On every soil his conq' ring plow-share cleaves,
Yet, blood-stsined Saxon! storming round
the world,
With battle-ax and bloody flag unfurled,
CIeaving the skull of every weaker race,
Shall not Gods lightning smite you on the
face?
Bewarei for though the Bed Man finds no Ged
To keep his waning race above the sod,
Yet every wrong to white or black or red,
Falls back at last upon the culDrits head.
For every Black Man killed iu Slavery's name,
Two white men perished when the crisis came,
And twice the wealth amassed by unpaid toll,
Went down in wars grim waste and. debt and
spoil!
And is the Bed Man. though foredoomed to fall,
Less dear to Him who made and loves US all?
Now came the time (so near it seems to
stand
That one might almost reach it with his hand,l
When the great human tide rolled up the strand,
And bird and beast and savage fed the landI
And 10! the infant Lowell of the West,
Lay like Eondhng on the prairie's breast!
To-day the child, to stalwart manhood grown,
Has won name that round the world is known
see the sow'ring stack that cleaves the air,
The pond rous engine-st the furnace glare,
And hear the roar of trade, the whirr of wheels,
The buzz of saws, the ham of giant mills.
On every wind is heard the signal scream
OF iron charists made alive by steam,
While, like great shuttles, flashing to and fro
And ever in and ont, they come and go,
As in this warp they weave the woof of wealth,
And through our commerce pour the blood of
health.
Forth from this mart, through empires near and
far,
Flies the iron chariot and the thund'ring car,
Like some great Dragon from the Furies hurled,
Yoked to Juggernaut to crush the worldi
Fleet as the arrow fIom the Bed Mans bow.
Down through the wales aad up the sleeps they
go,
Dive through the hills and bursting forth again,
Shout to the busy towns and shake the plain!
'Tis fit that we should meet to celebrate,
Here at the heart of this great Summit State,
Which, like mountain summit rsised on high,
Bathes her pure head in the azure sky,
Whence all the streams, "a from q mountain
crest
Flow down to south and north, to east and
west,
All ways lead downward from her upland
height,
All ways ieao up 10 net lueAi slte.
The Pivot Statef ON which shall turn and ress
The balanced continent, when East and West
And North and South shall teem with human
hands
As thick as those that toll in Asian lands;
For up to as, SO Nature has decreed,
From every point the Water Highways lead.
The Water State! that to her bosom takes,
In mother love. ten thousand crystal lakes!
Mbtaer of Mighty Waters, who gives birth
To the two Giant Rivers of the earth!
Grandmother of the Watera, mighty damel
CosstSnMed an Eyfth Pege,