Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1886-04-15
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.


bristling hair,
His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at
ease,
HIS lack of all we prize as debonair.
OF power or will to shine, of art to
please;
You, whose smart pen backed up the
pencils laugh,
Judging each step as though the way
were plain;
Reckless, so it could point it paragraph,
Of chief s perplexity or peoples pain.
Beside this corpse, that bears for wind>
ing sheet
The Stars and Stripes he lived to rear
anew,
Between the mourners at his head and
feet,
Say, scurrile jester, is there room for
YOU?
Yes; he had lived to shame me from my
sneer,
To lame my pencil and confute my pen;
To make me own this hind of princes
peer,
This rail-splitter, true born king of
H6h.
My shallow judgment 1 had learned to
rue,
Noting how to occasions height he
rose;
seem more true,
How, iron-like, his temper grew by
blows.
How humble, yet how hopeful he could
be
How, in good fortune and in ill, the
same;
Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he,
Thirsty for gold,nor feyerish for fame.
He went about his work-such work as
Ever had laid on head and heart and
hand,-
to do
Mans honest will must Heavens good
grace command;
Who trusts the strength will with the
burden grow,
That God makes instruments to work
If but that will we can arrive to know,
Nor tamper with the weights of good
and i'll.
So he went forth to battle on the side
That ne felt clear was Liberty's and
Rights;
As in his peasant boyhood he had piled
His warfare with rude Natures
thwarting nights; e.-
The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil,
The iron bark, that turns the lumber
er's ak,
The rapid, that o'erbears the bOatman's
toll,
The prairie, hiding the mazed wan
derer's tracks,
The ambushed Indian and the prowling
bear;
Such were the deeds that helped his
youth to train.
Rough culture; but such trees large fruit
may bear,
If but their stalks be of right girth
and grain.
So he grew up destined to do,
And lived to do it; four long, suffering
years,
III ill feeling.ill report lived through,
And then he heard the misses change
to cheers.
The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise.
And took both with the same unwav-
ering mood;
Till, as be came on light, from darkling
days,
And seemed to touch the goal from
where he stood,
A felen hand, between the goal and him,
Reached from behind his back, trig.
ger prest,
And those perplexed and patient eyes
we're dim,
Those gaunt, oDg-laboring limbs were
laid to rest.
The words Of mercy we're upon his lips,
Forgiveness in his heart and on his
pen,
When this vile murderer brought swift
eclipse
To thoughts of peace on earth, good
will to men.
The Old World and the New, from sea
to sea,
Utter one voice of sympathy and
shame:
Sore heart, so stepped when it at last
beat high;
Sad life, cut short just as its triumph
camel
A deed accurstI Strokes lave been
atruck hefOra
By the assassin's hand, whereof men
doubt
If more of honor or disgrace they bore;
But thy foul crime, like Gains, stands
darkly out.
Vile hand, that braDdest murder on a
strife,
Whate'er its grounds, stoutly and no
bly, striven;
And with the martyrs crown crewnest
life
With much to praise, little to be for
given. Tom Tayler.