The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-11-25

He plunged through forest SPLIT mesas wide.
Leaped the rivers and scaled the side
or hill upon hill; he shaved the peaks
That bristled as beard on the mountains cheeks;
Up, up, and he whisked the ice ana snow
In the face of the sunny world below
Nor long he paused, nor long he stlove
AT the ponderous battlements strong above.
Builded of old In the forges OF Joye.
lie split the walls OF rock asunder;
HI pierced the mountains through and under:
Their bowels Toared with awi VI thunder.
Ihrou n, out TO the T III OF rock and there
II e whirled on his web of the clouds in air.
Weighed from his eyrie aioft on the rim
To the worlds away in the distance dim.
And away, Ike a frantic satellite,
Away ike fury in mad dei!ht!
The birds of Jove in dazed alright
DArted as bolts from their cragsy height
The eagles-he passed them in his flight
Like meteor Snou from the bow of hight.
The land by his onward cleavtng cleft,
Parting before him from right to left.
The track a-roar with his coming thunder
stopped TO his belly and shot from under
With his heart of fire and his breath OF steam,
On. on. like bolt by lightning sent.
Till his riders awake from little dream
On the farther end of the continent.
on, wonderful horse is the iron horse!
His stomach knows never TO tire.
HIS frame is a compact OF greed and force,
And his heart Is furnace OF fire.
He driuketh the streams of the valleys low.
He drlnketh the streams OF the mountains high
lie drinks. and he drinks them dry.
And the people cry out in sad dismay,
As he scorch Til the land in bis fiery sway:
lis there no river so much can HGw
His ravenous greed to stay"
In the heart OF a blooming contluent;
The cares that early beseI his track
We chterfully bore on the nations back,
TIL, grown to a giant of wealth and power,
He mocSeth the friends of DIS feeble hour;
Like the serpent OF fable, with venom rife,
He btteth the bosom that warmed To life.
Conceived of Genius and horn OF Toll,
He bleedeth ms parents for prey and spoil.
Ii g leadeth the weak with a g1ided string.
He muddieS the nat onS political spring,
He weideth A ring within ring
And re1gnS In the halls OF council king.
lie iaugheth at courts and the chains of law
lie ureaketh as cords of route str tw.s
Strong In the walls OF his golden pelf,
He standeth law unto himself.
Oh wonderful horse is this iron horse
That rideth the land to-day!
What power snail guide his onward courseY
What power his greed shall stay
Enough. enough-more than a feast!
Choke. choke the horse, we pray,
Ere 1t costeth more to ride the beast
Than TO walk in the good old way.
Has any poet ever 81 defined the beauty
of Califoraia's peculiar seasons, or the
gladness OF the coming RAIN?
FOGGY.
"Fog'' growled tourist aad blew his nose;
"Fog" and closer he buttoned his clothes;
"Fogr' and the fur of his overCoat
He muffied around his whepzy throlt
He came from the land OF the eighty mile breezss
From the Eastern slope where the mercury freezes
And his limbs were stiff and his visage blue,
For he wasn't vet thawed entirely through
And he wheezed and he sneezed,
And he scowled and he growled;
But he held In his fingers. that foggy day,
In his thawing fingers, sweet bouquet
Mldwrnter-grown In the omen
III our gardens sOmewhere-anywherer
And he ramoled the streets with step that was
slow,
And he growled with Will, and he scowIed
although
The green tree leaves and the tender grass
he hills were all adorniug
And wherever the GROWER CHANGED to 60
l ne groves ana the gardens were all ALLOW
IN the gray OF The foggy morning
"Fogp' laughed the farmer who went to sow:
Ia he nil hi
"Ihe tourist will relish my truck know
Whoop! But the crops and things do grow,
/ IecS on this climate talk half bosh
And amt much on the rhyne-ft;
But this think fact that'iI wash
That an even rod of beans or SQUASH
Is burned sight more to a hungry man
Than twenty acres of lovely climstsp'
RAIN! RAIN! RAIN!
Here in tho land of the old-time drought.
From the farthest north to the farthest south,
Up from the snu'-sou-east by the MAN,
The clouds assemble. a waCery train;
All overhead extend spread
And shake from their watery wings the rain
Pouring and pouring It down.
over the valleys. the hills and the plains,
Over the lofty mountain crown,
Green are the paths of tue recent rains,
And still the rains come down.
A break in the misty, leaden gray;
flash OF the warming sun;
The clouds grow dim on the outer rim,
SO dark when the rain begun.
A warm mist blooms on :he dawn of day;
slowly the clouds dispense, and through
Farther and farther the rift extends
Till out on the horizon far away
IT,; The glad green earth with the blue sky blends.
The clouds have flown aud the rain is done
And the brightness OF day deseends
Only perchance the glorious sun
At intervals his face may snroud
In the misty white OF ghost of a cloud.
Here he likens the earth in her summer
desolatlon 10 one in widows weeds
My love asleep in the hollow air.
And wept that he would not awaken
And the soft winds sighed in my widow weeds
And the weeds by che winds were shaken;
They said wore the dismal look
Of dame by her love forsaken.
Kiss the cheek that is waxing brown,
Come down, dear rain, come down.
Hist. heard a footstep on the roof
And plash on the corridor!
On the hills laughter in leaping riIs,
And the call of the waterfall.
= is the step, tits the laugh OF my love,
The voice of my love and none other.
1t will be observed that in this last. az
occasionally happens elsewhere, there is
loot or two, and perhaps line or So. ont
of killer IN Mr.. Rodenaver's verse, and
this reminds ME to say, what should ner
haps have been said before, in Justice tn
critical readers, that those who value verse
for It's mechanical texture alone would do |
we'll to skip this account Something of
mechanical finish may surely be forgiven
TO one who has written for forty wears
without profit or recognition, and VIM has
Thought ont his lines while treading THE |
damp furrow behind the plow, grooming
his horses. showing a carpenters plane. or
resting from heavy toll. Yet if this verse
cannot always be measured by rod and
rule it is usually distinguished by fine
interior enphony that lends il mrlotv.
and this eupnony is to some sensitive ears
sweeter music than the mere Jingle of
similar sounds or the steady marking of
time. FLORA HAINEs LoUGHEAD.
Santa Barbara. Nnv-mDsr %