The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-07-08


sweet with fern
Tales of the long ago and the fa-
away;
And when to the hemlock solitudes re-
turn
beach woods
Ring with enchantment as the twi-
light falls
Among the darkening hills;
And the new moonlight fills
The world with beauty and the soul
with peace
And infinite release
Is there any land that history recalls
Bestowed by Gods on mortals any
where
More goodly than New England or
more fair?
On such day tnree hundred years
ago
BY toilsome trails and slow,
But with the adventurer's spirit all
afiame,
The great discoverer came, -,
Finding another Indies than he gue5&k
ed
To reward his daring quest,
And fill the wonder volume of ro-
NANCE
The sailor of little Brouage. the found
err of New France,
Sturdy, sagacious, plain
Samuel de Champlain
On many a river and Stream
The paddles of his abeaakis dip and
CLEAN;
Their slim cance / 0les set and FLASH
In the sur
Where strong hite waters run;
BY many a portage, many a wooded
shore,
They press on to explore
The unknown that leads them ever to
the west;
And when at dusk their camp is made
Within the dense still shade,
Tie white shafts of the moonlight
creep
About them while they sleep
On the earth's fragrant and untIOub-
led breast.
Then on a day upon some granite rise
They stand in mute surmise,
And wonder, as they gaze
On the green wildern IS in summer
haze,
At new paradise
Unrolled before their eyes.
What did he seek.
This hardy voyager with the steady
hand,
And the sunburnt cheek.
Passage to India and the tabled land
So longed for and foretold,
Where rivers ran with gold
Mans fond far hope of unlaborious
ease,
Miraculous wealth and benefits un-
earned,
For which he vainly yearned.
He found here no such place.
But in this new world again was face
to face
With life's familiar laws and orders
old,
Still to be followed, If we would fill
the mould
OF our ideal,--a manhood that is free
With the souls large and happy liber-
ty.
AS if God said TO man.
TRY once again my plan.
Here is a continent all new,
Take it and SEA- once more what thou
canst do.
The happiness which thy stormy heart
desires
My will foresees, requires.
On the long road tlat lies
Across the centuries
To my perfection linlly understood,
Seek thou the almighty good
The everlasting beautiful and true"
Men of New England, scns of pioueers
And in your birthright peers
OF the worlds masters, this is holy
soil,
The divine ancestral dust from which
we come,
Bringing our dream of justice, the
high thought
OF a pure freedom for which our
mothers wrought
In dreamful pride,
And our fathers lived and died
With unselfish toll.
Even as they willed,
We too must toll to build
The ideal state,
Which snail be strong without brutal
ity,
And by it's fine humanity be great.
This is no fairyland,
No Eldorado planned
For our salvation The law runs forth
and back,
Immutable as the sun on his slderlal
track,
Beneficient and profound;
Only with labor comes ease,
Only with wisdom comes JOY
And greatness comes not without
love.
This is Gods garden ground,
And we are the tillers thereof.
And the crop shall be women and men
AS ever of DID,
Not pale city breed,
Bred between hunger and greed,
Rnt a new cosmic race,
with the poise of the world in It's
mien,
The ineffable soul in its face,
Remembering the best that has Deen'
\ And its password, The best that can