The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-12-24
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The play is done, the curtain drops,
Slow falling to the prompter's bell;
A moment yet the actor stops,
And looks around to say farewell
It is On irksome word and task;
And when he's laughed and said his say,
He shows, Is he removes the mask,
A face that's anything but gay.
One word ere yet the evening cnds,-
Let's close it with o parting rhyme;
And pledge O hand to oil young friends,
AS fits the merry Christmas time;
On life's wide scene you, too, have parts
That fate ere long shall bid you play;
Good night--with honest, gentle hearts
A kindly greeting go alway.
Good night.-Td say the griefs, the joys,
Just limited in this mimic page
The triumphs and defeat Of boys
Are but repeated in our age;
I'd say your woes were not less keen,
Your hopes more vain than those of men;
Your pangs " pleasures of fifteen
At forty-five played DER again.
I'd say we suffer and we strive
Not less nor more as men than boys;
With grizzled boards at forty five,
As erst at twelve in corduroys;
And II, in time of sacred youth,
We learned at home to love and pray,
Pray Heaven that early love and truth
May never wholly pass away.
And in the world as in the school,
Id say how fate may change and shift
The prize be sometimes with the fool,
The race not always to the swift;
The strong may yield, the good may fall,
The great man be q vulgar clown
The knave be lifted over all,
The kind cast pitilessly down.
Who knows the inscrutable designe
Blessed be He who took and gavel
Why should your mother, Charles, not mine,
Be weeping at her darlng's graveH
We bow to Heaven that willed it so,
That darkly rules the fate of all,
That sends the respite or the blow,
That's free to give or to recall.
This crowns his feast with vino and wit.
Who brought him to that mirth and statai
His betters, see, below him sit,
Or hunger hopeless at the gate.
Who bale the mud from Dives wheel
To spurn the rags of Lazarus2
Come, brother, in that dust we'll kneel,
Confessing Heaven, that ruled it thus
So each shall mourn; In life advance.
Dear hopes, dear friends. untimely killed;
Shall grieve for many q forfeit chance
And longing passion unfulflled.
Amen!-whatever fate be sent,
Pray God the heart may kindly glow,
Although the head with cares be bent
And whitened with the winter snow.
Come wealth or want come good or III,
Let old and young accept their part,
And bow before the awful will,
And hear it with an honest heart.
Who misses, or who wins the prize,
Go, lose or conquer, as you CAM
But il you fail, or If you rise
Be each, pray God. o gentleman.
A gentleman, or old or youngl
Bear kindly with my humble laysl
The sacred chorus first was sung
Upon the first of Christmas days;
The shepherds heard it overhead,
The joyful angels raised it then:
Glory to Heaven on high, it said,
And peace on earth to gentle men.
Ny song, save this, is little worth;
lay the weary pen aside,
And wish you health, and love and mirth,
AS fits the solemn Christmastide,-
As fits the holy Christmas birth.
Be this, good friends, our carol still
BE- peace on earth, bo peace on earth.
To lnon Of gentle will.
WILLIAM MAKEPEACE TRAcKERAE.