The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1900-09-06


From Olympus help to ask
And sing in rhythmic measure
"Poeta nascitur, non fit
You surely will acknowledge;
| cannot scintillate with wit,
Like beardless youths from college.
But surely one who's welded pen,
Paste-pot, and brush and scissors
For thirty years, can face again
These editorial quizzers.
Some men win greatness easily;
Some, honors thrust upon them;
While some poor timid souls like me
Have always sought to shun them
But still. I'll do my very best
TO yield my need Of pleasure;
And summon rhymes at your behest.
To verse my MUSES. treasure.
Twas in the old colonial time
Those days of song and story
When men. in every land and cline,
Strove hard for home and glory.
There lived, in good old New Bern town,
Beside the calm Neuse River.
James Davis-printer of renown-
Deserving fame forever.
He was the first, without loss,
In Cardinals borders,
TO bring printing press across
Atlantic's surging waters.
From old Virginia's border-line
His printing wares he carried
Finding freedom Of Press and mind;
In New Bern fair he tarried.
In silver buckles, silken hose,
Piled he his printing art and views;
With powdered locks and rufled clothes
Each week he press'd important news.
Years have passed since the Davis press
Struck off this first State paper
Editors. stead of being less
Are like leaves in Autumn's caper.
Till now. in all our goodly State,
From Currituck's broad waters
TO Cherokee-the numbers great.
OF printing sons and daughters.
Improvements mark. an progress, too,
This line of onward marching;
Till oft think there's nothing
Beneath the skies O'er-arching.
In larger towns at this glad hour,
Where handpress once was cherished;
Electric, steam and water power,
Show old times long have persisted.
Now the linotype, with its noise.
And magic steel-clad finger.
Is superseding the typo boys,
Who at the type case linger.
The man. too, has changed the while;
No longer slow and easy;
He's prosperous, brisk, dressed in style
In methods and manner breezy.
Now, who can estimate Alright.
The power the Press is welding?
No royal mandate blinds its sight
Its praise the world is yielding.
Then sing the pen-the mighty pen
The hand that yields it moves the land;
And every valley, every glen
Is made to smile beneath its hand.
The poets pen, and pen of science,
instruction brings to thoughtful men,
But after all, our main reliance
Is on the editorial pen.
And women. too, as we'll as men,
Can WELD this mighty power to-day.
And bring dead hope to life again
And bid it smile along it's way.
The pen must move before the sword
Can do its work for freedoms flag;
And when with truth it gives the word
No brave is found where towards lag.
The truthful editorial pen,
The newsy pen, and pen of thought,
Is valued by all honest men
AS much too priceless to be bought.
Like all great powers, the pen has found
Within itself its honors grow,
For, standing on the topmost round,
All lesser honors lie below.
The North Carolina pen must work
And labor for the good of others;
Must help mankind no task to shirk,
An aid them all to live as brothers.
And this requires sterling worth
mind unawed by power of wealth
That dares to take it's stand for truth
And work in sickness or in health.
The rising sun must battle the pen,
And tighten laborious toll;
And then the work of helping men
Must move by light of midnight oil.
Then let count, with thanks content,
The garner'd fruits of brain and though
In schools. and law. and government,
Which North Carolina pens have wroght