River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1893-05-11
ARABS OF THE AIR.
wild Geese and Their Wonderfully Su
tanned Flights.

tanned Flights.
The annual migratory flight of wild
geese is spectacle to inspire the mind
and imagination of every beholder.
Byron thus apostrophizes:
Natures noblest gift my gray goose quill
Slave of my tho'ts, obedient 10 my will,
Torn from thy parent bird 10 form pen,
hat mighty instrument of little men.
But he says nothing of that noble
bird. the goose itself. Not the tame
and ignoble barn-yard fowl, but the
wild goose of vast and inaccessible soli-
tudes-tto ishmaelite of the feathered
tribe the incarnation of wild
ness and the antipodes of civil
ization. What is the flight of
the American cagle--that bird of
Jove. and the reputed king of the skies,
i'm comparison to the sustained fight of
this wintry wanderer. who carries the
season on his prov? 1t is not for the
eagle to cross wintry oceans-trackless
deserts and boundless continents, cleav-
ing the vaulted palace of the skies at
an acute angle. in line drawn by in
scrutable instinct through the frma-
ment. And see with what ease, steadi-
ness and precision they move on their
way, and how undertaking is their
course to the sunny south.
And the cry of the wild goose-how it
stirs the imagination and reminds one
of Longfellow's hymn: las loud that
clarion voice exclaims excelsior" 1t
has some peculiar quality of nearness
and remoteness-a penetrating power
beyond the influence of distance and
space. Something clear, cold and in
cisive in its melody that seems not of
earth.
The apparent boundlessness and I'M
certainty of their excursion and des-
tination add another element of facina-
ton to their flight. which is bold and
forth on. leaving no track behind" As
one gazes upon them as they grow dim
in the distance he feels that men arc in
deed but a kneaded clod-decidedlv of
the earth earthly.
Were man entirely destitute of i'm
agination and aspiration--had he
Never a thought Ger the boundary fying
Never thought as the clouds swing by
the clarion cry of the wild geese would
not strike like an Eollian harp an an
swering cord 20 something kindred in
his own nature.
And then to think of the tireless and
sustained energy of their fight. God
has been called eternal energy. and
much of this quality seems to enter
into this Arab of the desert of the air.
AS the poet Bryant sings:
All day thy wings have famed
At that far height the cold. thin atmosphere,
Yet stoop not, weary 10 the welcome land
Tho the dark night is near.
Although so inspiring theme might
be supposed to have awakened song in
many poets, yet comparatively few have
written upon it. Longfellow, in poem
called THE Birds of Killingsworth,
makes this allusion:
Across the sound.the birds Of passage sailed.
Speaking some unknown language strange and
sweet.
OF tropic isles remote and passing hailed.
The village with cheers OF all their feet.
Itwould seem that the language ofthe
sweet singer of Israel in the Psalms
might most appropriately be applied to
this tracl1less and tireless wanderer of
the air:
He did fly upon the wings OF the wind; yea.
he who made darkness his secret place. and his
pavilion around about him were dark waters
and thick clouds OF the skies
Chicago Tribune.