Virginian-pilot. (Norfolk, Va.) 1898-1911, 1900-12-30
Some Thoughts On the Last Hour.
of the nineteenth Century.

Some Thoughts On the Last Hours
of the Nineteenth Century.
Another Centenarian Son of Time
VIII soon descend to dark abysmal
depths,
PROSTATE to lay his giant form beside
The mouldered ashes of the long line
OF dead ancestral centuries, gone be-
fore:
And as his mighty lungs are breathing
out
The last expiring moments of life,
triumphant and potential TO its close
The thoughtful. earnest mind will
pause to hear
The whispered lessons meant for heed
full ears.
But. as our restless thought essays to
grasp
The scope of records so profound and
vast
-sfhese whispering voices seem to grow
TO echoes, measureless and multiform
TIL. like Il thousand heralds, vieing
each
With other in vociferous calls, that
seem
To fill, with wild confusing energy,
The circumambient air. This task is
TO place in orderly array the records
or achievements made by man during
this.
The mightiest century since Time first
Upon the fair primeval earth-en-
On history.s broad shelves, these an
nails lie.
Securely ranged and gathered, free to
all.
Whose student minds incline them to
research.
Nor is it ours, in this essay-in light
Of tbiS rnJ1Srpndon MT GRO Ia
fine:
To analyze, or trace the processes,
BY which development seems to have
reached
Nearly its utmost bound: we only hope
To mark some danger points made
clear in this
Strong light. for not unmixed with
darker shades
Must be the picture, that would speak
the truth.
The broad deep wave of Progress,
sweeping on
It's swift resistless way, bears many
faint
OF woeful wrong, and error in it's tide;
Disasters tireless hand hath strewn its
shores
With wrecks innumerable OF human
hopes,
And lives: Ambitious greed, and lust
for power
<Allu C0ItlttSL HUH Hdu tIclT Willing
subjects.
In this. as in the centuries past:
Oppression's Jokes are forced by wars
rude hand
On Peoples dying for the right to live
In freednm.s- holy air Is nhertX--
So bravely real in this proud century's
Earlier yearS-but now an grown
toy?
Transformed from its former priceless
worth
AS n universal heirloom. to this
An ornament, fit only to be worn
BY the favored few-a thing too
precious
Or. perhaps-too dangerous for the
throng?
80. Liberty!-must 1t still be said
What crimes are in thy pure and lofty
name
Committed!" Shall a wondering world
behold.
In the infant years of the century to
be born,
Thy sacred name disowned. and
License lift
Her banners over thine? Let Prayer
raise
Her pennons. Faith inscribed, yet
higher still.
That Gods Omninotence may daily use
The peoples vigilance, to keep secure
From further loss or peril this peerless
Heritage. by enemies abroad.
Or those most to be dreaded, from
within.
These queries. were they put in serious
mood.
Or where the people of our own great
land
Awake to realize such danger yet
Conceived to be so far remote-would
find
That Freedoms virtue will have power
TO hurl
These monster foes to sure disastrous
death.
No thoughtful mind will fail to see
these foes:
No patriot heart should fear to face
their strength.
Sine Right and Truth for Nations. as
Must seek their victories from "one
Almighty Source, and now. upon the
birth
OF this new century, so promiseful
OF progress, yet profounder, and more
strange.
Shall not one aspiration. deep uphcave
The universal heart-that war shall
cease.
And that the mighty tide OF Wrong
and Woe
May soon remove their bitter curse.
and Lores
Fair reign be fastened on this suffer
ing earth.
-LAwKERBA.
Norfolk. Va, Dec. 2Sth. 1900.