The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1886-07-31
POETRY.
Written for the Lake Charles Echo.
Requiem to Oliver Perry.

1.-THE other day as l was looking oVel
some papers of "Lang Syne" | came across
the Requiem to Oliver Perry and the Phocior
of Vermilion.
Oliver Perry was the brother of Gen. Rob
ert Perry he was one of the first to enlist fol
the army and died at Manassas, aged IL.
The Requiem was published at the time
but as the General was also in the army and
even remained several years in captivity,
| am sure he never saw the verses this Is the
reason l wish them republished.
Gen. Robert Perry is figure that belongs
to the history of Louisiana anything per
tanning to him becomes interesting to the
| public.
The Phocion of Vermilion has no merit but
its subject; it is the copy of ,panegyric pro-
| nounced by a young girl in her fathers
house, before Messrs. Tucker (the sarcastic
old lawyer of Franklin), Adolphe Olivier, W.
Mouton, and others.
No name was mentioned but, slmulta-
niouslY, at the close of the grafton, the gen
tlemen arose and named Robert Perry.
In 1868 Adolphe Bailey wrote to me from
the Capitol, Our next member to Congress
will be one Phocion; II can do anything for
him, will do it he deserves the nomination.
Honest to fault, Robert Perry, as a law
yer, refused many lucrative fee, as a SOL
dier he preferred dungeon to the oath of
allegiance, as Democrat, through some
honorable and disinterested motive he with
drew his name as a nominee for Congress.
Truly the words of Plutarch, There lived
in Athens, ETC., come to our lips
MRS. MARIE EUGENE READ.
Grand Cheniere, La, July II, 1885,
The pride of our sons from Vermilion's own
ground
On the threshold of manhood, ltfe's morn
ing of hope,
His horizon cleaning with bliss all around,
And no clouding of woe on his bright
horoscope.
Surrounded by friends and a family dear,
And enjoying life without care or turmoil;
He sees now the foes Of our country appear,
And he rushes on those who cucumber our
soil.
He calamity faces the cannon's broad mouth,
And he shFinks not away from its thunder
in dread,
But manfully charges the foes of the South ),
Until the last bigot in terror has fed.
But bark On the breeze from Manassas
heights drear
A loud wailing of woe now comes floating
along,
And listen again, its a knell that we hear
That SO mournfully peals to deaths funeral
song.
The angel of death with his long sombre
wings,
And his visage all clotted and dripping
with gore,
Descends DER our plains, and dark misery
brings
Around hearts that may never know hap
piness more.
We wall DER our loss in keen anguish of heart,
In conducting our brother and friend to the
tomb,
And kneel o'er his grave as his ashes depart,
With no dawning of hope DER the night of
our gloom,
We know that our destIny's like great
wheel,
In revolving 1t erushes some one in Its
course
But not till friend is struck down do we feel
The sure presence of fate and its unerrlng
force.
The mariner tossed on the oceans broad
breast
May descend through Its depths, the earth's
surface to scan;
Yet the mysteries of God, and his awful
behest
Are beyond the dull view of ephemeral man.
DR.. HENRY o. READ.
AbbeVille, parish of Vermilion, La, July,
1861.