St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1889-05-25

And babe him haste to leave the town,
Else he, too might be stricken down
He shook his head and softly said r,
The living must replace the dead
Brave hearted jim
Wenever questioned how he stood
Or If his Union card was good
1t mattered very little then
Great was our need, wanted men
And here was jim
His coat was frayed, his shoes were worn.
His shirt was soed, his hat was torn
Other men, deeds less brave have done
And everlasting laurels Won
Than did our Jim!
For who but he--when pale despafr
Walked hand in hand with bitter care
Across our hearts-made things seem right,
And worked ny gay and watched by night,
But faithful Jim?
He nursed the sick, worked at his case
With hopeful eyes and brave white face,
And, as the fever seized our men
He tried to do the work of ten
Hard working Jim,
The dead were borne adown the street
The living, languishing in the heat
And breaking hearts gave out the cry:
In pestilenCe oh, God we die ~
Not CHEEKY Jim.
He 1t was that praised the dead
Ana WORDS OF cuteF TO tlt llNlug SAID.
At length the summer passed away
And Hope resumed her WUnted sway
But what of jim,
He held out to the very last
Like shlpwrecked sailor to the mast.
When those he nursed We're getting well,
Sick with the fatal fever fell,
Poor, tired jim
It may not seem so sad to YOU
His lying there ; but then we knew
How steadfast was the soul he had
A mighty hero, poorly clad,
Was Printer Jim.
We know that at the golden gate
The angels did not make him we'll
But threw the shining portals wide
And felt a:thrlll of holy pride
To welcome jim! -
And on that morn we buried him
E en- ey es unused to tears grew dim,
We planted roses at his head
Shed tears upon his grave and said
Sleep well, brave Jim"
We knew him by no other name
Save that he gave the day he came
Upon the stone we carved the same,
And added Deathless was the fame
OF Printer jim"
Mrs. BentIys (of Donaldsonville) essay
was read by her husband and is as follows:
THE GENIE OF TO-DAY, AN ALLEGoRY
Once upon time many years ago. when
this gray old world was younger and
brighter and fresher than to-day, the earth
was ruled by imps and gnomes. who de-
cided mortal destinies, and against whose
fiat, for help or hinderance, acre was no
appeal. Even crowned heads bent in hon.
age to some wonderful ogre capable of
turning the most powerful scepter into a
beggar's staff, and happy indeed was the
ruler who was looked upon with lenient
eyes by the controlling spirit of the place.
Good and bad fairies contended for the mas
terry, swaving each wight by their potent
influences, and genii, those gigantic mon
sters, were invoked to earth, and made to
WELD their fearful power over mankind,
disappearing only at the command of the
terrible necromancer by whose magic they
sprang into eXistance.
In the calcium light which intelligence
throws on those far off days of yore, dim
with the mist of ages, we look doubtingly
upon the sweet traditions of the past and
scott at them as myths and idle tales. Once
having laid aside the garb of Lilliput we
let the struggle of the present, the noises
of commerce, the roar of trade, the vibrant
voice of progress, dull our senses to the
lovely beliefs of youth, when every little
stream possessed language of its own,
flowers nodded and whispered to each other
in sylvan converse and all nature broke =
forth in melodious expression, speaking d
thousand tongues untranslatable to man.
Foreseeing the rise of unbelievers, know
ing We thee wondrous insight into the
future that powers were at work revolu~>
tionizing the world-powers against whit )
even their arts would be unavailing-the
mystic beings in conclave assembled for
the purpose of selecting some one to whom
the others should yield their influence and
who, possessing the entire combination of
wonderful attributes, could withstand the
ravages of time and innovation, living for
ever monument to their pristine glory and
power.
Rhetoric would be called upon for her
most fowery and prismatic tributes to de-
pict the scene that ensued while the ballot
ing for candidate was in progress, and
long and loud were the arguments pro and
con, as the patterns were being marked out
in the web of fate. At last great giant
arose and laid before his audience the neces-
sity of selecting enc who would make their
names imperishable by some other than
oral history, immortalizing them so that
ages hence their memories would still ex-
ist, triumphing over oblivion.
AlTGAQY SlupI6 uloILdl, O udtAsO va
Mentz, Germany john Gutenberg by name,
had attracted the attention of the mystics,
being student of ''secret and wonderful
arts who sought in the seclusion of his
closet the perfection of a scheme by which
his constant companions, tradition, story
and legend might be perpetual forever.
Him they selected as the instrument
| through whose agency their object could
| be accomplished, and their powers for
good or evil handed down to unborn geper-A
atoms, detailing three of their most re-
nowned members, science, genius and
| invention to assist him in his labors
From stored East to frozen North, tfom
sea to sea, from mountain top to mountain
top, trooped all the inhabitants of the elm
realm, dwarf and giant, brownie and fay,
goblin and gnome, and swarming into the
secret workshop of the toiler in mysteries,
one by one yielded up their magical be-
| ings, until from the infusion of all these +,
wonderful elements there arose before the
triumphant Gutenberg crude but shapely
mass. the slave of the lamp of education,
the last the greatest, the most powerful
mystic of them all, that genie OF to-day
the printing press, the honor and prlde Oh
every land over which Intelligence relgns
supreme. III,
During the hundreds of years Whlcn
have elapsed since the birth of this emo,
bling art, practiced at first in secret anu anu
under great difficulties, we can steaouy
trace the influence of that triple slstefhooo
whose immortality has survived then
humble coadjutor, and in the newspaper,
that social balance wherein community
standing can be accurately weighed we
see the mystic power OF the pri"e'"i
| fa;rias aver disp1ayinp itself.