The Caldwell tribune. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho Territory [Idaho]) 1883-1928, 1898-03-26
The slave who Saved st. Michael.

Her maiden name was Mary Anna Ph1n
ney, and she was born in Vernon, N. Y.
in 1912. She was educated at Lawrence
University Wisconsin, and was married
first in 1861 to e. P. Humphrey, and at
forwards TO D. Emory Stansbury of APP
pleton, Wis.
Twas in the days of slavery-ere yet the
signal gun
That blazed above Fort Sumter had wax
ec the North as one;
! Long ere the wondrous pillar of battle
cloud and fire
Had marked where the unclaimed mil
liens marched on to their hearts de-
sire.
On roofs and glittering turrets that night
as the sun went down,
The mellow glow of the twilight shone ike
Jeweled crown, ......
And, bathed in the living glory, as the
people lifted their eyes,
They saw the pride of the city-the spire
of st. MIchaels-rise.
The gentle gathering shadows shut out
the waning light;
The children prayed at their bedsides as
they were wont each night;
The noise of buyer and seller from the
busy mart was gone,
And in dreams of q peaceful morrow the
city slumbered on.
But another light than sunrise aroused
the sleeping street,
For cry was heard at midnight, and the
rush Of tramping feet;
Men stared in each others faces, through
mingled fire and smoke,
While the frantic bells went clashing,
clamorous stroke on stroke.
BY the glare of her blazing rooftree the
houseless mother fed.
With the babe she pressed to her bosom
shrieRing in nameless dreado
While the Fire Kings wild battalions
scaled wall and cGpston high,
And planted their glaring banners against
an inky sky.
From tho death that ragged behind them
and the crash OF ruin loud,
To the great square Of the city was driv-
en- the surslng crowd,
Where, yet arm in all the tumult, un-
scathed by the fiery FOOD,
With its heanward-pointing finger the
church OF st. Michaels stood.
But cen as they gnEed upon it, there rose
a sudden wall
A cry CT horror blended with the roaring
OF the gale
On whose scorching wings updriven, a sin
gle flaming brand.
Aloft on the towering steeplo chung like a
bloody hand.
wifi It fade?" the whisper trembled from
a thousand whitening lips;
Far out on the lurid harbor they watched
it from the ships
A baleful CLEAN, that brighter and ever
brighter shone,
Like a Pickering, trembling will-o'-the-
wisp to = steady beacon grow.
'Uncounted gold shall be given to the
man whose brave right hand,
For the love Of the perilled city plucks ,
down yon burning brandt!
30 cried the Mayor of Charleston, that |
all the people heard;
But they looked each one to his fellow, |
and no man spoke word.
Who is it leans from the belfry, with face
upturned to the sky?
Jlings to a column, and measures the
dizzy spire with his eye?
VIII he dare 1.-THE hero Northumberland !
terrible sickening height?
Dr. win the hot blood Of his courage freeze
in his veins at the sight?
But see! he has stepped on the ralling-he
climbs with his feet and his hands,
AA0 III III Oll d ndTEOW pTOJeCIlOn, WIN the
belfry beneath him he stands!-
Vow once, and once only, they cheer him
"a single tempestuous breath
Ind then falls on the multitude, gazing
hush like the stiffness of death!
low, steadily mounting, unheeding aught
save the goal of the fire,
It'll higher and higher an atom, he moves
on the face of the spire;
lie StODsl VIII he fall? I,O for apsuar q
CLEAN like a meteor's track;
md, hurled on the stones of the pave
ment, the red brand lies shattered
and black!
nee more the shouts of the people have
rent the quiverinE air;
t the church door Mayor and Council
wait with their feet on the stair;
nd the eager throngs behind them press
for a touch of his hand
he unknown savior whose daring could
compass deed so grand.
mt why does q sudden tremor seize on
them as they gaze?
nd what meaneth that stifled murml1r of
wonder and amaze?
10 stood in the gate of the temple he
had perilled his life to save
nd the face of the unknown hero was the
sable face Of slave!
nth folded arms he was speaking. IN
tones that were clear, not loud,
nd his eyes, ablaze in their sockets
burnt into the eyes of the crowd:
fe may keep your gold!-I scorn i'll hut
answer me, We who can,
the deed have done before Won ba MT
the deed of a MANI" -'0'
e stepped but a stort step backward
and from all the women and ros,1
here were wild cheers for answer. or5
the Mayor called for a pen,
na tne great seal Of the city, that he
might read who ran
no the slave who saved st. Nicbse1,s
went out from its dOor-a man. .