The record-union., 1897-03-14
(For the Record-Union)
THE COLUMBUS GIFT,

14s2: 1892.
Another dawn breaks Ger the earth,
The dawn that shall precede birth
dawn, whose slanting rays of sun
Shall heavy hang with victories Won
Not since the morning stars We're heard
| Till Gallilean breeZes stirred
With chantings of the angelic choir
Has earth received an impulse higher.
And puts forth duplicating hands,
In all her breadth from sea to sea
There is no room for liberty.
Inc church, once pure from Calvary,
To superstition bends the knee,
And despotism holds its sway
From Emerald Isle to far Cathay.
Hope like fugitive has flown,
And ignorance dictates from the throne.
The new world stretches virgin palms
And asks of history an aims
Forth from the wilderness she peers
With equal claim to all the years
The age is ripe, as if by plan
With its full dawning comes the man.
Not from the downy couch of kings,
Not from the feudal lord he springs
Cnheralded by pen or word,
He comes as Nazareth found her Lord.
From lowly loins the infant sprung
Whose ripe age glitters every tongue.
A student from his early youth.
Columbus searches for the truth.
With Ptolemy he mediIates
And with Nearchus reads the fates:
With Marinus and Pliny pores
And peers through all the open doors.
That shed the light of ancient Greece
To seek anew the golden fleece.
One burden from parental roof,
One lifelong task a search for truth
Old ocean with its stored fears
Must yield his secrets to the years.
Too long the gristling monarch's sway
The twilight ripens into day.
He struggles with environment
From court to court his steps are bent;
With bold Ell Moso plows the sea,
At Lisbon bends the suppliants' knee.
From Monks of old La Ribda
He asks for bread, he makes his plea.
The good Monks won, his burden share,
And Isabella hears his prayer.
The dark of superstition's time
And inquisition's fateful crime
Still is she queenly and the pain.
That racks the history of Spain,
Is lightened by the queenliest word
That through the dark was ever heard,
AS Isabella's jewels shed
Their brightest luster DER her head;
And in her pledge of all their worth
She makes debtor of the earth.
Three sails from Palos kiss the breeze
The Admiral on Bonded knees
Fours out his soul in thdnkfulneSS,
That Spain has answered his distress,
Then faces with perfect faith
The unknown seas He knows that death
May hang upon his daring quest,
But he must penetrate the West
And from the secrets of the sea
Must wrench its long-locked mystery.
Brave heart, to realize the fate
The penalty of being great,
Great souls are born to greater deeds
And must keep step with human needs!
Necessity had forced the plan
And pointed to thee as the man.
In thee through pc t'erty and tears
Comes the fruition of the years!
With absolute InCuestioned faith
He faces mutiny and death.
Where other souls are put to rout
There is no room in him for doubt.
The logic of his lifelong thought
Was gertrude within him wrought;
And when on that October night
His faith took form, he saw q light,
He knew the dawn would give in birth
The long-sought better-half of earth.
| Two moons had more than filled the horn
Since facing into unknown seas,
He challenged fortunes rude DEGREES,
And watched the naked birth of morn
Watched with a Masters watchfulneSs-
Watched the receding sun go down,
Watched as each day resumed its crown,
Watched but to wanton his distress.
The last night came-he could not sleep;
He pierced the dark repelling deep
With eyes that would not rest on air
With faith that claimed an answered
prayer.
At last it came-it was no dream,
The horizon gave back a CLEAN.
His eyes claimed forfeit of the night
The land was near..he saw light.
God used the element of fire
In his creations. TO aspire
To it's production human thought
Must from the Deity be caught.