The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-05-04
THE WHITE CROSS OF SAVOY
An International Poem.
BY MRS. H. N. RALsToN.

BY MRS. H. N. RALsToN.
The following poem read at a meeting of
Veterans of the Italian Wars, held in Tammany
Hall, New York, April %, the occasion being the
presentation of magnificent gold-embroidered
silk banner, bearing the royal escutcheon and
the cross of Savoy, gift of King Humbert of |
Italy to the veterans. The date was also notable
as being the anniversary Of the marriage of
King Humbert to Margaret of Savoy. The poem
was written with the hearty approval of DR.. L. S.
Verdi, of this city, who is an Italian veterau and
who took it with him to New York when he went
to attend the meeting. After the speech of the
Italian Consul General, presenting the flag to the
veterans, Mrs. Ralstons poem was read by Miss
Teresa Muratori amid great enthusiasm, and it
was followed by the strains of the Italian national
anthem. Mrs. Ralston has received letters of
thanks for the poem from the Italian Consul
General and the Secretary of the Veterans AS
sociation. The lady also wrote THE Queens
Jewels" poem which was read at the reception
recently given at Wizards by the Woman's Ma
tional Press Association to the delegates to the
Pan-Amercan Congress.l
"Ho Comrade of what dreamest thou beside
this wave-washed shore?
And wherefore doth thy straining gaze scan yon
dark billows DER?
What coming ship with news from far in yon-
der ofiDg waits
A faYoring breeze TO sweep her sails within CO.
lumbia's RatesI"
'Good friend, dreamed but yesternight," the
grizZled veteran cries,
AZ dreamed, an! yes I'm dreaming yet of our
And OF snip that sailed away from dear
native land
To bear to you, my friend and me gift from
royal hand!'
Twas Beppo spake: "A dream, forsooth, and
yet how strange il seems
That visions ofttimes catch of truth some htful,
transient CLEANS
l, too, awoke ere yet twas dawn and hither bent
my way,
Lured by voice that whispered me- Thy ship
comes in today"
$50, while we watch the sails that speck the far
horizons rim,
Come sing with me an od-time song-Our glori-
GUS battle hymn;
AS resting from the march we cried: Italia shall
be free,
And unified from Alpine chain to Adriatic sea l''
They sang of fallen dynasties, of empires over
thrown;
While for the martyred patriot dead the sea made
With hands yet clasped, and revrent head, they
thanked the sovereign Lord
That from the bleeding forms of States sprang
Italy restored!
Then Nino unto Beppo thus "Comrade, re-
member'st thou
Where first we metz" ut was by Genoa's walls
/ trOw."
So Beppo spake: "Mazzlni called, and on the
high Ligurian sleeps,
Where from dark lakes descends the Pc will
And DER the grand Emilian Way that ancient
legions trod
Young Italy's wild cry was borne, The People
and their Godr
Then rushed our brave Sandman sons
To breast the shock of Austrian guns;
We fought on broad Novara's plain
And Watered il with crimson rain,
For we had sworn TO bare the sword
Against the savage Austrian horde.
That horde our noblest blood had shed,
And Piedmont wept her martyred dead
Their souls, white petals of that rose
That Dante's vision saw unclose
In fadeless beauty in the sky
Where souls ascend when patriots die !"