Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-12-27
BY HON. RoLLIN N. DAaaETr.


The winds cold from the southwest with incense
And the dying clouds grow darker they halt and fall
The valleys that reach the deserts the mountains that
Lie bare in the OF winter which the prudish night
The leane.s the hillside the willows low down
And the sentry rocks above US. have faded-all =
The fa Of the stamp grows fainter the voices of the
And spelled from labor the miner tolls home through
As sit alone in my chamber this last Of the dying
year,
Dim shades Of tine past surround Inc. and faint
Old tales OF the castles buiided under shelving rock
OF the bearded men, and stawart. greeted in Forty
The giants with hope audacious the giants with iron
limb:
The giants who iourneyed westward when the trails
The ants who ieiled the forests. made pathways
And planted the vine and hg-tree where the
Zauts erows;
Who swept down the mountain gorges, and painted
With their cabins, riidey fashioned. and their camp
Who huilded treat towns and cities. who swung back
49, the Golden Gate,
49, einn state
Who like flood of waters to thirsty desert
And wheri there had been no reapers grew valleys of
Nor wonder that this STRANGE music sweeps from the
silent past
And comes with the storm this evening" and blends its
strains with the blast,
Nor wonder that through the darkness should enter
And gather around my table with the old-time smile
For there, the wall before me- i'll frame of gilt and
brown.
With chain OF years suspended. old faces looking
Five hundred all grouped together-fve hundred old
Now LIST as raise the taper and the steps of
+l,,
His purse NE his heart. OPEN he struggles for
49, bread today.
To this one the iates cruel but he bore his bur-
And the flows bend in sorrow by the wayside where
he fell.
Great Iosss ana grief crazed this one great riches
turned this ones head;
And tai:. iless wrecked this one-he lives, but
Now. closer the hight this face twas wrinkied when
His torch drew footsteps westward; his name is on
Rich was he in lands and kindness. but the human
And let him at last. with nothing but death and
Twas kindly hand that grouped then-these faces OF
The rch an poor together the hopes and the smiles,
OF some OF the fearless hundreds-who went like the
The banner o; empire bearing. to the land of blue and
know, have done: " '
As deaf. touched their lips with silence have draped
ILL., seen Were the dark pumed ANGEL has mingled
The brows have Aecked with sable the living cloud
everywhere
Darker anu DARKER and darker these shadows will
As. clsns1nE, me bring us the bud and the
And soon-iet not invoke 1.-THE final prayer will he
And srangers viii write the record 1.-THE last of the
And t'enbut why stand here gazing? gathering
Is mocking the weeping tempest that pillows the mid
And, STRANGER stills it fancy? my senses daxed
ana wsaS.
The shacwy lips moving as if they would one and
And SEEN to hear low Whispers and catch the echo of
That ros from the golden gulches and followed the
Tn. y MOVING trains: ~, .,,o ,,u.
- rocky height,
The shallow graves by the roadside all have come
And the niltewad years. like stubble. 1 t-ampled
And DR. mt sran at the fountain when the wine of life
And Ind cnce more exalted where the white pine
. frets tine skies.
And dream IN the winding canyon where the twilight
Now the eyes o2h down in sadness; the pulse of the
The storm has been awed to silence the mu.ed hands
of the snow,
Like the n9seess feet of mourners. spreading
Der the breast Of dead December and glazing the
Hark the bells are Ginning midnight the storm bends
While the moon looks through the cloud riffs and
blessSs the new born year.
And now the faces smiling. What augury can it
be!
No matter; the hours in passing will fashion the years
Bar closely tire curtained window shut the light from
every pane;
While, tree from the worlds intrusion and curious
eyes profane,
take from its eathern casket dinted old cup of tim
More precious to me than silver. and blessing the
draught within, ~
drink alone and in silence to the Builders of the
West - ~
Long life to the hearts that beating and peace to
the hearts at rest"