Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1909-11-03
An Old Abe Poem

the war eagle dead and burned, is
more notable than Old Abe alive. PEG.
pie from all over the country visiting
Memorial hall seem to know about
him, and they look with Ceep interest
at everything pertaining to him. Last
week Miss Helen Ross of this city
asked for the printed story of Old
Abe, as it appeared in the Memorial
Day Annual of 1904, to send to Miss
Jenness NJ. Braden, now of Greenleaf,
this state. who is preparing a series
of school readers. Miss Braden in
tends % write story of the old bird
for her third or fourth reader. In
this way will many school children
of the younger generation become ia
miliar with the part our Wiscon-
sin war eagle had in the war for the
union,
When President Roosevelt visited
this room a few years ago he was dee
lighted to see the war eagle about
which he said he had read in his
reader in school And in the same
way other presidents may come to
know his story.
The Rev. E. c. Dixon. appointed
superintendent of the Methodist Epis-
copal churches in the Madison dis
-trict, has sent to me a poem written
by Wallace Bruce of New York, and
read by him at the Monona Lake as
-sembly on the 10th day of August,
1886. 1t was published the next day
in the State Journal Very few of the
readers of the Democrat remember
hearing it, and it win be entirely new
to nearly all who see it printed here.
1t is well-written poem and, though
not everyone may find himself able
to enter fully into the lively magma.
tion of the author all will find it IN
teresting.
OLD ABE.
There's legend in Britain a thous-
and years old,
That King Arthur shall come to his
kingdom again
To form pure knighthood of Gala
hads bold
And restore the round table once more
iliOLS IuSut
That his spirit still hovers Ger land
and DER sea,
In the guise of an eagle unfettered and
free.
Through sunshine and tempest he
keepeth his way;
Over cities and deserts his wanderings
range,
While minister's and castles have
gone to decay,
And England has witnessed vast
cycles of change;
The years have grown dim but the
prophecy waits
For the eagle to perch upon Came
lots gates.
You smile at the story. you call it alb
surd -
A tale that mother might sing to
her babe
But what shall we say of Wisconsin's
1roud bird,
The badger state eagle, ycleped Old
Abe?
Why laugh at the legend of Albion's
youth,
When stranger than legend or fiction
is truth?
We live among wonders and ask not
the why
God speaks in the present as well as
the past;
The pillar of cloud still floats ia the
sky,
And the pillar Of fire forever shall
last:
The stars in their courses still fight
in the van
OF freedom and progress. the tri-
umph of man.
When the fair southern sky grew
black. and the storm
OF dissension and wrath it's swift
thunderbolts hurled
When the words of Calhoun took on
logical form
And the stars faded out from the ban
ner unfurled,
Say, whose was the spirit embodied
in thee.
Old Abe of Wisconsin, proud bird of
the free?
/ answer: hero whose soul never
swerved
From honesty, liberty, duty and right;
Who knew but one creed--a union
preserved,
Enduring forever in glory and might.
/ answer with reason, that eagle
might be
The spirit Of Jackson from old Ten
nessee.
For the fathers who nutured Column
bias life -
And watched DER the cradle when
freedom was born
In the darkness and clamor of envy
and strife.
When realms DER the sea pointed fin
gers in scorn.
Like the angels of Judah our leaders
inspired
And the heart of the soldier with lib
erty fired.
Ay, the Pinckneys. the Sumpters. the
Rutledges came
To the senate and councils their
children had spurned:
Took the old vacant seats, tho called
not BIZ name,