Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-03-07
SONG OF THE DAIRY.
BY LAURA BRIGHAM BoYcE.

by LAURA bhItHAm boftE
Tread al the Dairvnsen's meeting at BurHn0tonl
Since the days of old Homer each calow young poet,
To the muses. a captive. makes haste to show it
Feels TIL aatus divine quickly mounts his Pegasus
Never guessing how rough the sleeps of Parnassus
| One sings of the valor of old Trojan heroes;
One sings Of the goddess who out of the sea rose
All perfect In form and peerless in feature,
The goddess of love and of beauty. fair creature
This learn from the fable take but the trouble,
That love is but sea foam. and beauty's bubble;
One sings of the goddess of flowers. lovely Flora,
Small wonder that poets of all times adore her.
One sings of the wise and the stately Minerva.
The goddess of wisdom-he who would deserve her
Assistance and aid must strive hard for her favor
Wisdom must be sought If any would have her;
But we Join not the throng of grand poets and
Whose lyrics have come to us down thro the ages
Our is more humble and Of compliments chary,
We sing the fair 10, goddess of the dairy.
Thou you search all the books of mythology over
doubt If you anywhere there will discover
That tn ancents Though of gods they generous
UerV)
Ever thought it worth while to give one to the dairy
Though those wise old Egyptians did worship the COW
An some of our dairymen seem to do now
You have all heard the tale of the fair priestess To-
Whose beauty caused Juno full often to sigh, 80,
How nconstant are gods to their love and their duty
Ensnared by smile and pretense of beauty!"
Tho the thunders of Jove made Olympus to tremble
The lust wrath of Juno made hin, shake and dis
semble
He changed the fair 10, to a white COW she grew.
Then he vowed that to Juno he'd ever been true.
Did Juno believe him WELL she seemed to believe
But she begged that she might as present receive
That lovely white COW and Jove dared not deny her.
| Though he trembed for 10. Juno had her desire.
Alas for poor 10 she roamed the world over
Some where lone place of retreat to discover
From the gadhy's fierce sting, sent TO Road and 70
tease her,
For Juno's wrath burned and great Jove couldn't ap
pease her.
At last in far Egypt the tortured COW rested.
| There with her own form was fair 10 invested
And tn Egyptians who sheltered her worshipped
| her, too,
| 10 was their Isis if the old tale is true
Then why should not 10 DER the dairy preside
As 10 or Isis or whate'er name beside?
We live in an age of most wondrous invention,
Each day some discovery claims attention.
We marvel and gaze, we examine and wonder
What next we shall see this old canopy under?
In new theories, too are the times most prolific
| That are argued and weighed and pronounced sci
| entifc.
SO what poor common folks do but receive them,
Though we own that sometimes 1t is hard to believe
| them.
But we swallow them bravely until we discover
| Necer theories proved tip the others all over.
But for theories multiplied give us the dairy;
And sometimes it seems to us wonderful, very.
That our grandmothers e'er could turn cream to
butter
For they didn't know thing, not word could they
| utter
bout currents in milk that set the cream rising
But in spite of this lack, the fact is surprising
That they strained the milk, set it the shell
Then just let it alone, and the cream rose ITSELF!
This fact will add-truth is stranger than fiction
That they never had heard, It's my honest conviction
About butter globules casein in the butter,
That soon turns it rancid and fit for the gutter,
Or of animal odors, that our theorists find
Such thorn in the flesh, such weight for the mind
1t didn't trouble them what they could not discern,
they turnrd to butter in the old dash churn
: Still more primitive mode than our grandmothers
knew,
Is vogue in the they declare this is true
If Ben Hassan wants butter to eat with his curry.
y The family donkey's got out in hurry
And big leathern BOTTLE then the cream is put in it,
2 And thrown DER the back of the beast to begin it,
Then this primitive churn gins to caper and amble.
Down the wales, up the hills he nimby will scramble
Not bray of complaint DER the toll does he utter,
| AS the donkey comes home and with him the butter.
But what grade of butter is produced in that churn
| Deponent saith not, nor would taste it to learn
What rich field of labor for some of the clan,
I That country presents for the patent churn man!
We could spare them few of these lights of the dairy
| Or more than few if it seemed necessary
To enlighten the darkness of race SO benighed,
IT'S then that their LABOR would best be requted.
Though zoe hail every aid that invention is giving
To help us make butter and cheese and living.
Science has done wonders to help us, tits true;
1t has given us oleomargarine too.
Well, we're glad that we live in of progression
In land where inquiry and thought hold possession
Where theories old and all theories new
Are weighed and compared to prove which are true
If in bold light of science old theories crumble,
Fact is stronger than theory, and truth howe'er
humble,
Is sure to assert itself sometime in some pdV.
Though false systems flourish their brief little day.
The command to prove all things and hold fast the
| better"
1t were wise to obey both in spirit and letter.
And as wise in things temporal things of the spirit
It's error shuns light, the truth need not fear it.