Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1897-04-01
THE LOGAN GRAzIER.
BY THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH.

THE LUGAN GRAHlEh'
BY THOMAS DUNN ENGLISH.
At dawn TO where the herbage grows
Up yonder hill the grazier goes.
Obedient TO his every word
Before him stalk the lowing herd.
Reluctant in the misty morn,
With stamping hoof and tossing horn,
With heightened low and angry moan,
Go black and dappled, red and roam.
Through drain and hollow, up the hill
They pass, obcdient TO his will.
The slender OK and mighty bull
The grazier thinks them beautiful.
You see less beauty in the herd,
Thanin yon orange-tinted bird;
You fix your better pleased gaze
On Won broad sweep of emerald maize,
Yon naples on the hillside high,
Or ON yon field of waving rye.
More pleased WIN lllulLc, VI lNSi Va ''NNN-
The graziers sight is not on these.
He sees netted purse of gold,
In every believing three-year
He sees new comforts round his home,
When BUYERS down from Tazewell come.
Hc sees his cabin nigh the creek,
Itsmud daubed chimneys changed to brick,
It's rude logs hid by clap-bOards sawed,
Split shingles on its roof so broad;
New punchcons on the worn out floor
i picket fence before the door,
And cups of tin and plates of delf
And pewter spoons, adorn the shelf.
Close where the rifle hangs on hooks.
On cupboard top are rows of books
The Pilgrim of the dreaming John,
And WeenIs life ofMarion
The well-thumbed speeches of Calhoun,
The pictured life of Daniel Boone;
D'Aubigne's story told so well,
How Luther fought and Cranmer fell
To please his wife yellow gown,
And beads to deck his daughters brown.
y jack-k knife for his youngest son,
y rifle for his Oldest one.
All these to him the cattle low,
As up the hill they slowly go.
IT,. t;aorc no ro,oCa of disaeea
Mong brutes so strong and fat as these.
There's salt enough for them in store,
Brought from Kanawha's muddy shore.
The herbage on the hill is good,
The fern is thick within the wood.
There's tender grass in yonder drain,
And pGa-vine on the summit plain.
High thought of gain that moment thrills
The grazier Of the Logan hills.
He envies not the hero bold,
lie cares not who may office hold.
Thest0tesmans pride, the stout mans limb,
The lovers hopes are naught to him.
Els mind three things alone receives
His wife, his children, and his beeves.
So these may flourish and be fair,
All else around is smoke and air.
Oh, Logan grazier, stout and strong,
Despising fraud, defying wrong;
Brave as thine ancestors who bore
The scars Of combat long and sore,
And fearless met in battle shock,
The wild and painted Shawanock,
True as the rifle in thy hand,
And generous as thy fertile land
Full Oft " e eaten by thy side
Thy cakes of corn and venison fried.
Oft in thy cabin as thy guest
Have stretched my weary limbs TO rest.
] love 10 note thy honest brow,
Siaunch friend end true companion thou,
And know no manlier form is seen
Than dwells within the ccat of jean;
Truth fills those eyes so keenly set
Beneath the fox-skin cap and yet
Iwould not that thy lotYers mine,
Would not that my lot were thine.
Guard thou thy beeves and count thy gold,
Be glad when those great herds arc sold.
For me, by midnight lamp, pore
My manuscript in silence o'er.
Each to the path that suits his feet;
ISocb foil fnr finn &c ,onvipu nnat
Ana soon in wooen shroud arrayed,
Both in our narrow collins laid,
..
ltmatters not ifcattle fair,
Or making songs mas been our care.
The poets and the graziers form
Shall feed alike the greedy worm;
Shalpass the poets glowing words,
Shall pass the grazier's lowing herds;
And from mems memory fade away
potl, o,ro1ior'c ebout ond Doat'c lov