, 1889-11-21
How He Saved Oregon and Wash
ington to the Stars and
Stripes.
A Familiar and Thrilling Story
Embalmed in Verse by q
Noted Writer.
tWalla Wnlla Journal. |


States, which Whitman did by unfurl-
ing the flag Of the free over the open
Bible.
AN oPFN BIBLE MEATH THE FLAG.
"An empire to be lost or wonl"
And who four thousand miles will
ride
And climb to heaven the Great Divide,
And find the way to Washington,
Through mountain canyons, winter
SHOWS,
o'er, streams where free the north wind
blows?
Who, who will ride from Walla Walla,
-Four thousand miles, for Oregon?
can empire to be lost or won?
In youth to man gave my all,
And naught is yonder mountain wall;
If but the will of heaven be done,
1t is not mine to live or die,
Or count the mountains low or high,
Or count the miles from Walla Walla:
j, will ride for Oregon"
Twas thus that Whitman made reply.
An empire to be lost or wonp
Bring me my cayuse pony then,
And | will thread old ways again,
Beneath the gray skies crystal sun.
Twas on those altars of the air
| raised the flag, and saw below
The measureless Columbia flow;
The Bible opened, and bowed in prayer,
And gave myself to Col anew,
And felt my spirit newly born;
And to my mission I'll be true:
!, | will ride for Walla Walla,
I'll ride again for Oregon.
On, on and ON, the dumb beast pressed,
Uncertain and without n guide,
And found the mountain curves of rest
And sheltered ways Of the Divide.
His feet grew firm, he found the way
With storm-beat limbs and frozen
breath,
As keen his instincts to obey
As was his masters eye OF faith.
Still on and on, still ON and on
And far and far grew Walla Walla,
And far the fields Of Oregon,
And far and far that mighty Crag
Where ope'd the Bible meath the flag.
That spring, u man with frozen feet
Came to the marble halls of state,
And told his mission but to meet
The chill of scorn, the scoT of hate.
us Oregon worth savingp asked
The treaty -makers from the coast,
And him. keen lips with questions tasked
And said WHY did you leave your
post2'
Was it for this that he had braved
The warning storms of mount and sky?
Yes Yet that empire he had saved,
And to his post went back to die
Went back to die for others sake,
For that free Bible meath the flag
That ho had opened on the crag,
Above the mighty Puget sea;
Went back for great humanity,
Went back to die for Washington.
Went back to die for Walla Walla,
For Idaho and Oregon.
At Walla Walla one may see
The city of the Western North,
And near it graves unmarked there he
That cover souls OF royal worth
The flag waves o'er them in the sky,
Beneath whose stars are cities born,
And round them mountain-castlod lie
The hundred towns of Oregon.
hear the tread Of nations there,
The engines sbrieked where eagles
screamed,
And ring the silvery bells of prayer
Where voicelessthe Columbia cleaned.
| hear a thousand hammers beat
The march of cities meath the crag.
Halt, halt, oh hosts of hnrrying feet.
The eagles sweep celestial air,
Halt, give the password-let 1t be
The solitary riders word
That but the echoing mountains heard:
IAN open Bible meath the flag"
The future has its Walia Walla
And pcopled wales OF Oregon.
He disappeared as not his own.
lie heard the warning ice-winds sigh,
The smoking sun flames DER him shone
On whitcned affairs of the sky.
AS up the mountain sides he rose,
The wandering eagle round him
wheeled
The partridge fled, the gentle roes,.
Ana oit his cayuSe pony reeled
Upon some dizzy crag and gazed
Down cloudy chnsms, falling storms
While higher yet the peaks upraised
Against the wind their giant forms.
Hark! what is that the Indian said
AT shady night, Mt early morn,
"a horses hooi.n 1t clicked and sped,
And while he started it was gone.
On, on and OIL, past Idaho,
On past the mighty Saline sea,
His covering at night the snow,
His only sentinel tree.
On, past PortneuI's balsaltic heights
On, where the San Juan mountains lay,
Through sunless days and starless
nights,
Ger table lands Of slcet and hail,
Through pine-rooied gor2es, canyons
cold,
Now lording streams incased in mail
Of ice, like Alpine knights Of old.
"The open Bible meath tho flag
planted on the mountain crag,
While wheeled the eagles in the sun,
And I'll defend what have won,"
Ho said, and spurrpd his thin steed on,
Till fur behind lay Wnlia Walla
And tur the fieds of Oregon.
The winter dcepcned, sharper grew
The hail and slcct, the frost and snow,
Not cen the eagle DER him flew,
And scarce the pnrtridge's wing below.
The land became IL long white sea,
Aud then dccp with scarce coast
The stars refused their light, till he
Was Ia the wildering masses lost,
He dropped the rein. his stitiened hand
Was like a statues hand of clay.
"My trusty beast, tits the command
Go one leave to thee the way.
The open Bible meath the flag
set upon the mountain crag
While scr fNcd the eagles in the sun
l must defend what have won,
must 30 on, must go on,
Whatovcrlot may fall to me,
On, tits for others sake | ride,
For Others l may never see,
Aud dare thy clouds. o Great Divide
Not for myself o Walla Walla,
Not for myself . Washington;
Rnf fnr INV fntpra nragnp ~