Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-05-09
Written for the RECoRD-UNIoN.l
i1IPERIUM In IMPERIO.

Old grown in art, in science far advanced
Where equal freeman see their joys enhanced,
Columbia, land of never setting bliss,
million prayers to-day thy greatness bless!
Tho young IN years, in wisdom born to rule
The tutOred minds of many an older school,
Thy name a synonym of wealth and power,
Whose fame is sung from every bower
Thy virtues proclaim with endless pride:
But now another theme my muse must ride.
When blushing Eve her shameful nudeness
saw
The sad defect of Natures simple law
She sought at once to mend the faulty plan
And introduced q style unknown to man.
The craze like magic seized the female heart,
And Natures wants were met by skllful art.
In later years when Time had older grown,
The hapless Eve behelA the fruit thus sown;
Improvement grew to science great and old.
Till Nature scarce could boast she had mold;
Deficiency in form and lOyeliness
Was amply filed by art and charming dress.
Thus grew the skill of human Grtifce
Till Nature biushed to view her rude device,
And man, half daZed by artificial fire,
Could hate the woman, but the form admire.
The rage long lived to royal spheres confined,
proxy for superior birth and mind;
What Nature failed in greatness to bestow
Was meant to be supplied by outer show:
Ere long frail man, with initiating pains,
Found too that show could take the place of
brains:
royal Ounce in royal costume shaped
Might sit with lords whose mOckery heaped,
Whose learning might be deemed Of Wond'r
weight
So long as sense ne had to hold his pirate.
But twas not meant such convenient gauze
Should only hide from view the royal flaws.
When the brave Pilgrims crossed the neutral
They wisely brought with them their Sons and
daughters.
And safely landed on Liberty's strand
Each separate one of that joyous band
BethOught him 4 king or prince, as might be,
And hailed themselves members Of one family,
Mindful that royalty was only name
Existing on u visionary fame.
In order their announcement to impress
Each Wed with the other in living and dress
Long years of strife, to set the lines apart,
Have perfected the breach, but not the art.
Each foreign craft that lands upon our shore
Adds to ogr school of fools AT least a score,
Aud eV ~ fool must have & silly craze
Which finds convenient soil these modern DAYS:
While evry vessel from the shore of France
Makes wives and daughters wild and husbands
dance:
For woe to her whose dress or head array
Is out of style Il week, or cen a day.
But hold Why should such thoughts our mind
engage?
Such fcllies are but customs the age,
Whose votaries we should pity, not dcspise,
Since they multitude of faults disguise.
The belle who loses prestige Ia mode
Must shun society's prescriptive road.
While costly crest may resUrrect the head
Which moral code has reckoned with the dead;
The giddy dame may 'scape the cutting lance
BY one short trip year to sunny France,
Nay spend in worship-if her dress is sleek.
The brainless wight with wiser heads may cope,
If but the prater purse will freely ope.
a golden ass may wear statesmans sheen,
And brassy lore may shine with dazzling Inen
! What grander art could searching genius find,
Or dolts conceive-to elevate the mind?"
Religion even thrives from this sharp ruse-
The latest fashions occupy the foremost pews:
And even sermons dressed in faultlesS clothes
Are found most soothing to temporal woes!
This Beecher found or made IL appear,
And claimed his mission worth ten thousand q
year
But Henry served his congregation we'll
To save their souls he cen abolished hell.
And should his pension grow year or two,
To calm their fears he'll kill the devil too.
His pulpit, then. without piOus passion,
May turn to whom it seTycS-the god of fashion.
Minerva hast thou not, with patient pride,
Beheld what feeter steeds thy piniOns guide
| In foreign lands, where learning seems to soar
10 higher lights than on its native shore?
How blunted minds with magic pace advance
Beneath the skies of Germany or France?
And true it seems love rides heeter car
! Round the dome Of Yale, Harvard or Nassar.
The Ounce at home-one of the dullest class
Returns in one short year polished ass
| The maid, at home fit prey for ridicule,
A princess is when back from boarding school"
She may not zen retain the rule of three
1t matters not; she's met the grand decree.
1t was not so in days of long ago,
But times have changed, and so have people
too.
lime Was-When America was young
Each humble home alike her tributes sung;
For man light labor spread her wholesome
store"
Just gave what life required, but gave no more;
His best companions, happiness and health;
His dearest riches ignorance of wealth.
But fashion now usurps the law of birth
And noble skill must bow to gilded worth.
The customs loved 50 much in days of yoIe
To-day would shock society's every core.
The President could wear a homespun coat,
Or none at all, and yet the danes of note
Who nodded social laws in those prime days
Would not as now, dispute his homely ways.
The husband, wife, or maid with good intent
Could then religion find however sent.
The youthful mind unwonted yet to roam,
Congcnial found the climate of his home.
But stop It's useless further to extend
The varied list that runs without an end.
While fools and vanity beset our land
The god of fashion yields a royal wand
And should the vanguard charge that later or
soon,
Each follower must tour the sun or moon,
Or wear plume from out the crest of Mars,
The air would feed on swift celestial cars.
The mandate stern, atonement sterner still,
The greater must subdue the weaker Will.
AS streams must trace the paths their surges
made,
So fools must serve the god their pride por
tTayed.
Is. NJ. Norton.