Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1898-12-29

The following poem was read at the
State grange meeting at Bethel by DR.. W.
l.. Paine OF Royalfon:

-
tate grange meeting at Bethel by DR..
!. Paine OF Royaifon:-
Our day Is on a cycles brink
The nineteenth century, great, removed.
Ia passing with Its annals bright
Aud soon win reach the utmost bound.
We stand upon the great divide
And locking backward from the west,
A mighty age Of progress looms,
OF high ambitions and unrest
An age wherein did m nd prevail,
And force was captive led by brains.
Man harnesssd lighlninR 10 his cart
Or bound the cataract in chains.
The shafts OF Jove are in his hands
And at their detonations loud,
The mountains open wide their gates
Where'er would pass the human croud,-
The human crowd; that glides along
fThe track Of steel by night and day.
A painting, yet unwearied force,
Mans giant thrall doth IL convey.
The hostile microbes Of disease
That bring man 70 his mortal gasp
0f venom robbed. oft strangied are
Within our F-n de Steele grasp.
The Fin de Steele men are we
l0r women) With our hop and joys,
Who grant INTO this coming age
Our Fin de Steele girls and boys.
We stand amid the changing lights
tAAl fitAm ana pdfAlc 1t lue close
Ere silently this golden age
Embalmed u history doth repose
welisten Tor fhe stroke Of time
That tolls our dying RrAs knell,
The ticking Of the horologe
Doth her approaching doom foreteli.
And yet upon the epoch's brink
Some croWning deeds may well transp pire
And SO Of late our native land
Was ali abinze with martial hre.
Her missills hurled with accurate aim
sank hostile navies in the sea,
And battered ramparts tell the tale
How tyranny was forced to Zee.
Amid the Fin ie ecle chimes
america the world astounds
Great Hbcrator OF ms nkind
And loyal to her utmost bounds
generation down the slope
There looms to meet our backward gaze
Our then divided faith. rland
In civil conflict all abiaze-
There martyred Lincoln's glory shines.
priceless ifuIitage 10 man;
The victor Grant. our foeman Lee,
And each Rgreat American.
The passions Of that day are dead
And burned TO ashes Ia the dre
Wherein Secession was consumed
And human slavery did expire
Another gene ratiou down
There stands sold Hickory at the helm.
A rugged man. who with his might
The nuiiidrrs did o'erwhelm.
Calhoun contends In fierce debate
With Daniel Webster. Henry Clay,
But all have vanished now from earth
And meuidered into dust swny.
And stisi smother backward glance
And 10 T. where now The eye msy rest
Another Fin dc Steele gl ans
And sparsles 90 distant crest.
distant creast, ten dceaaes o'er
The eighteenth oenturs's hsrder iiue
We see as through aea 81 nist
With contour we may III define
Could one as in = dream descry
That life hundred yaats Aeo.
Could some bright CLEAN Che mist alspei,
or magic mirror eiinPses throw,
That Fin de sieole dimiy seen
With oars tuday we mifht compare
Its joyous p4stimes. b ,iIlant life,
rs fribniation and despair.
B ITS Washington In deaths repose.
A sire for whom they nourned and wept
lose halIowed Fin de Steele Tears.
While Earth . revefent siient kept
yon hoary rrandsirc lives again,
The aainted days OF Aud Lang Syne
The visions o'er hs dyfnK bed
With Fin de Steele giories shine. 9
But. oh the change undreamed Of then
Our most familiar sights and sounds, Il
And quaint and queer TO US would seem
Their antique customs, slower rounds,
Their tollsates, turnpikes. produce teams
To market bound. the family chaise,
5. The arcient coach that rumbied past.
The freside group and back-loss blaze
= Farewell, fareweil. . long farewell
To that ore simple homc@pun life,
llPrimevai forest. track ess plains.
where ragged the elemental strife
On rushes time from age to age
As billows ride bounding ssa.
All men must die.the race shall live
And fosish In posterity-
posterity upon the brink.
OF yet another age sha all rise
The twentieth centurys distant crest.
Beneath her Fin de Steele skies.
The babe unborn. leader then,
Shall guide the hurricane as we'll.
And man shall reach his high estate,
With gods on high Olympus dwell;
And airships round the world shall sail
Mans vision penetrates the night
Aud thought from soul to soul shall run
Upon the hurrying wings OF light.