The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-10-08
A R0UNDFlAY OF
SALT LAKE.
BY Joaquin Miller,
In San Francisco Bulletin.

Cnlel with LnOuHdNQe OIL UdDt5 All a A-Al'.
The pink-faced infants cooed vel
come at Mr.. Roosevelt that filled his
big heart with joy, and doubtless If ne
We're to have been called upon to decide
as to the city TO which belonged the
honor for the most appreciated enter
tainment. he would have decided IN
favor of Salt Lake.
Mr. ROOsevelt's expressed regret, in
an address delivered some time preyi-
Gus. that the old-fashiOned SroAnc
American mother was becoming a thing
of the past, is said to have suggested
to the Salt Lake women this unusual
welcome to the president.
The plrest woman, sweetest, best,
Beneath our forty stars is she
Who loves her spouse most ardently
And rocks Jhe cradle oftenesr;
Whose home is filled. whose heart is fed
With halo of a baby's head
H.
How pitiful that we must pay
And pension man for killing man
While woman brings forth as she may
Unpaid. unpensiOned, as she can:
Gives life while man takes lie away,
Gives lite. gives love because she must
How sad that we must pension. pay
Our tallest, braVcst and our best
For killing brave men. east or west
Until our race is in the dust,
As Greece is i'm the dust today;
A tomb of glory gone away.
III.
7 say the mothers of strong men.
Strong men and merry men and tall,
Must build, must man the Spartan wall
And keep il stOutly manned as when
Greece won the world, nor rocked at all
j say that she must man the wall.
The wall of breasts. uushielded, bare,
The wall TO do. the wall to dare,
The wall of men. or we must fall
j say that she, strong limbed and fair
Deserves the pay. the pension, care.
"
OF all brave. heartfelt welcomes found
Who're flowers streW the fragrant ground
And rainbow banners fret the air
BY city hamlet, anywhere
in Midland. Southland. Northland, West,
L reckon Utah's first and best.
V
Not guns to greet the nations chief,
Not tattered flags from battles won,
Not trumpets blaring to the sun.
NOT scars Of glory and Of grief,
Not thrice-tOld tales of battles fought,
Not seas of flowers at his feet,
Not bold to glitter and to greet.
SUI Otah brought her babes, and brought
Not one babe fTetted or afraid
Not one that cried or walled. no one.
Oh, what to this the booming gum
Oh. what to this the loud parade?
Proud troop on troop poured manifold
VI
Just babies, babies. healthful fair,
FROM where the Wasatch lion leaps,
From sunless SHOWS, from desert deeps
Just babies. babies, everywhere:
Just babes in arms, at mothers breast,
With pounding fists. too fun to rest;
And robust boys with girls at play,
As chubby, fat as fair as they
VII.
Behold yon seas OF aIkali.
of sand, of salt Of dried up seas,
Then shelter by these watered trees
And humbly dare to question why
These countless babes, these mothers
ave.
The maid in love. the lad at play.
All seem so gladstone bright and gay?
VIII
Who tented mere. who brake the sod,
Subdued the Artcmisia's strength
With patient Ruth at ready CALI
Who faced the red man at arms length
And she beside aim first to fall,
| The while he prayed the living God2
Who gat such babes as never man
Had looked upon since time began?
And Why2 Because the loving sire
Loved life and hated low desire.
He loved his babes, he loved his kind
BY desert waste of mountain wind;
He watched his happy babes a play
The while he glOried, glad as they.
This John the Baptist. naked, lean.
1 LOrn, crying in the wilderness,
| This half fanatic. Luther. HUss
| Whom we once Knocked in his distress,
Stands better than the best of us;
! Stands nearer Jesus, God, because
He loves His babes obeys His laws
Because his hands, his feet are clean;
Because he loves his hearth. his home,
And patient heaps the hOneyCOmb.
X.
Behold yOn million desert miles
With scare a pillow, with scant a tree,
Save where this desert garden smiles
And robust babes leap merrily!
Behold our bOundless seas, as chare
OF sails as yOnder peaks are barrel
XII
Then give us babes. babes of your own
My meddnnC congressman and men
OF cloth with great brains in the chin
| Glad babes like these to PROV the seas
! Strong babes like these to pillow or spin
! And let this BedOuin alone.
! Yea. give us babes 81 home, where nov
/ We hide and house on every street
Such things as 'twere q shame to meet
/ Glad babes to build and guide the PROV
/ Possess the isles, protect and bear
! The star-bult banner here-Or therei
I Till then, hands off, my Pharisee,
/ And tend your own affairs. as they
/ OF Utah tend their own today,
! Lest from the mouths Of babes ye be
/ Condemned and damned eternallyi
/ --o--<EEp -o--