The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-05-31

The murderer waits with drawn knife
awhile
Beside the sleeping babe whose dreaming
Allays the knife just flashing Ger its
breast,
Whose bloody plunge would mean eternal
Touches the guilty man and makes him
pray
The powers will blot his awful sins
away
The eyes of Decius wandered DER the
land,
From sweet Eurotus to Taygetus grand
Whose majesty the Spartan heart en-
thralls
Farewell, We mountains with your wood |
en- walls,
Where oft I've killed the deer and speared
the boar,
Perhaps these eyes will never see We
more!
o, sweet Eurotus, then farewell to thee!
Vending thy way to meet the green-eyed
To lose myself in Neptune's palace fair.
Thy waves are touched to maiden's golden
hair
BY wand of Sol. who rides his glor-
Within his burning chariot Ger the day.
Farewell my Spartan home, farewell to
thee
1 could not live lest thou vert surely free!
Goodbye, sweet wife and children mine, |
goodbyei
But harki-"To war;
TO war; | hear them cry
I'll go to conquer or I'll go to die!''
The silent night. mother of sleep and
dreams,
Scared by the laughing moons approach
Gathers about her form the inky clouds,
And gently lifts the blackness that en-
shrouds
The forests, hills, the rivers and the lakes.
1 he q
takes;
! She hides him meath her cloak, then
starts away,
/ Casting reproachful glances on the day,
Who slowly walks, yet quickens cen her
pace,
With sadness, gloom and worry on her
The heavy sun is in her hands so worn,
And just before her runs the laughing
Morn,
Shooting the golden arrows from his bow
To chase the shades away that he may go.
Then when the Morn has tired of his fun,
To help the Day he carries half the sun.
Thus Morn and Day had found the Spar
tans brave,
The Pass Thermopylae, Oeta's gloom
Ere day had come again would form their
tomb.
Only three hundred men to check the host
OF warriors that the Persian king could
boast.
Only three hundred spartans there to
wait
Five million brutal men to seal their fate
Knowing that they were gathered there
to die,
The Spartans begged Athena from on
high.
And Mars, the frowning god, with awful
To straight ascend and help them in this
fight;
But though they thought the gods
their prayers would hear.
And felt nerhaDS that thew would liDger
near,
They felt that Xerxes on his Trachian
throne,
(And Pluto, tool, had marked them for
his own.
Just where the fountain. like looking
glass,
Mirrored Oeta and the narrow Pass
The Spartans combed their hair and
nicely decked
Their locks with flowers, as though they
little rocked
That Death was creeping near their
scanty band
> Reaching to touch them with its icy
hand.
With olive oil and with the sweet perfume
their doom.
, Then in their scarlet vestments fine when
l dressed,
Some raced and wrestled while some sank
to rest
And though not any man would ever
sigh
Greeks dressed this way who were about
5 to die. tsN
It was the third day they had held the
And by Oeta's' feet beneath the grass
/ Lay many comrade who had fought sc
we'll;
And fighting to the last so bravely fell;
For they had laid the Modes and Cis
0 slams low,
And flung the immortals downward, row
on row;
4 And thrice great Xerxes leaping from hi
throne,
!, Stared at the Pass with Persian soldiers
? SOWn,
e Cried all the lashers to their work begin
Go whip the men to death unless the.
= wini''
And then in desperation shrieked to all:
S Il tell ye, soldiers, in the name of Sol
That if we gain this battle for your king
d The minstrels shall your praises eve
sing.
n I'll give We lands and power and wealth
untold
! | I'll pave you very way with gems an
gold;
d But if We do not, will dash your brain
r Against yon mount. Go! Bring then
back in chainS!'
a But al who came were sleeping in tn
Pass,
) Mangied, disfgured, in one bloody mass
Just now the Persians waited ere the.
final effort, for they were delayed
!. By a strange man, who entered Xerxe'
tent
AS if on some important business bent.
r He seemed cen startled by his sandals
creak,
Cautious in manner and in looks a sneak
:, He laid him PROSTATE at King XerXes
S feet,
And whined, Your Majesty. do entrea
Your Royal Highness will but look on me
n AS one who from the Grecian camp dos
flee"
J; What sayest thou?" cried Xerxes hars
d and proud,
"Beggar, what sayest thou, then spea
up loudi''
your Majesty he bowed again an
whined
IS 81 am poor, old man and almost blind.
He paused and Xerxes tossed him a pec
e of gold.
IF thou canst help us, then thy tale III
N foldr'
"Your Majesty" he whimpered, that
There is path that leads around tn
ID hill,
Whereby your soldiers may the Greek
" surprise,
Ere yet another sun hath time to rise"
d. Then Xerxes said: wen follow the
IN thou Greek,
But should we find that thou dost falsel
ed speak,
Beware! Beware! For Sol shall see til
Dangling to meet the heat and meet IL
s. storm!'
And Xerxes' army following this man,
ed Over the hill their steep ascent began.
We v
d. AS even crept upon the Spartan tents,
e. man came running I'VE must hur
hence!
Over the mount a. countless army come
1 saw them move and l could hear the
rs drums.
o, great Leonidas, pray let us go
d; We cannot meet such numbers in a foe
"Go!" said Leonidas, with frowning bro