Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1885-06-25
REUNION POEM.

REUNION POEM.
Twas five and twenty years ago
The nations heart was numb with woe
Homeswere divided. and each breast
Was filed with terror or unrest
Then strong the voice OF loyal men
Spoke freely, bravely out again.
Awake, arise; our country stands
In need OF work from trusty hands"
And swift from schools and work shops, farms
And villages, you sprang to arms.
In morn Of youth, in midday prime
And strength of m inhood's even time.
Four tagging years crept by, Of death,
And pain, and battles stirling BREATH
Ofprison horrors and OF scars,
And peril to the stripes and stars.
And then the smoke OF battle cleared
And dangers passed that you had feared,
And all the land from wars release
Lay in the silent arms OF peace.
But some who trod the southern plain
With you came never home again
They fell, with faces forward turned,
Where thickest battle ragged and burned.
SOHle, wounded. waited Tor tnclr death.
Some, scorched with pestilential breath
or tropic fevers, stald not long,
But joined deaths unreturning throng.
And those escaped from deadly harm
Had lost, perchance, strong right arm,
A stalwart limb, or rugged health.
More priced than glory, fame or wealth
Some remnants of that vast array
Have gathered on this summer day;
The scattered of that broken band
To feel the grasp of comrades hand.
Iou live once more the olden pain,
The olden glory thrills again,
And in this camphre's peaceful glow
Youlivc the life Of long ago.
You see, down yistas OF the past,
Whose decades wrought their changes vast
Low dropping clouds hang over all,
Like gloomy shadows OF the pail.
1t is the dusk OF battle smoke,
Where cannon thunders loudly spoke;
You hear their phantom voices yet
Like echoes OF souls regret
Across the years the mufIled roar
ofghostly musketry doth pour;
The light OF midday breaks athwart
The sands OF carnage, bare aud swart.
The history of every land
Il etched by wars incisiye hand.
His sinewy strength has paved the way
To blessings we enjoy to-day
OF dew crowned hills where harvest lies
Beneath the tender summer skies.
or gardens nudisturhed and iawus
In peace, asleep meath rosy dawns:
OF dpened fruit and fragrant flowers.
Unbroken homes and tranquil hours,
Years filled with poetry and art,
From warning elements apart.
And We who won FOR us this day,
May ali your clouds have rolled away.
May Fate strew blossoms on your path
With Autumns richest aftermath.
And when the recall sounds at last
Deaths melancholy bugle blast,
May Peace enfold you with its wings
While Hope her sweetest anthem sings.
After more singing, came the Grafton
by Hon. W. T. Price. This was able
and eloquent, his telling points. so
forcibly made, calling forth frequent
cheers from his hearers. According to
the published programme, dinner was
next in order, but the boys wanted more
of the same kind, so called out Coy.
Rusk, DIR. Byers, Rev Webster and
Rev. Clough, each responding in neat
appropriate speech. The last gentle
man was specially applauded, as he is
an orator in every sense of the word,
and his happy style of relating army
incidents and sketches of camp life
showed the old boys that he had shared
with them the perils and privations of
the war.
After dinner came the business meet
ing at the court house. The first thing
in order was fixing the time and place
for the next reunion, which elected con-
siderable discussion. Finally Mineral