The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1912-08-16
Phaeton' Disastrous Drive.

And beaming with glory all his own
Sat within that palace splendid.
How majestic, on his flashing throne.
A royal youth the portal enters,
Much dazzled, but with courageous tread:
The god, beholding him dsperses.
The splendor circling his own head
Phaeton now the throne approaches.
Does homage to the god of day
g boon, Pheobus, if my father
Thou art, one single boon, pray
Ask what thou wilt. my son acknowledged
1 solemnly swear it shall be done"
Then let me drive the suns bright chariot
One day. to prove am thy SON.
Nay, son, request not that, mplore thee!
Thou asketh only for thy fate
Not even Jove my fiery coursers
May drive safe to the western gate
I alone high DER the heavens
Lofty, steep and dangerous way
BY horns of the Bull and jaws of the Lion,
May safely guide the car of day.
My ire-charged horses are oft unruly,
And test the strength of even a god;
And earth below, and heaven above one,
All whirling, makes dizzy road.
OF earth or sea or space or heaven
Aught thou desirest shall be thine;
My flaming car and snorting coursers
Can guide alone these arms of mine"
But still the youth, too bold and needless,
Insists upon his wild request
And Apollo, sad alarmed and reluctant
Consents that he his skill may test
The high car of gold with seat bejeweled,
Vulcan's gift, is straightway brought;
And Phaeton views with staring wonder
How glorously each part is wrought
Now Dawn, uprising from the Ocean,
Filings ope the ruddy gate of morn;
Pheobus bids the Hours harness
His steeds, and turns the youth to warn.
Beware, my son, rein tight the horses
And keep the heavens middle road;
If run too low, my chariot scorches
The earth, too high the gods abode.
Now haste, for Night with all her shadows
Speeds through the closing gates of the west.
And her sable skirts are fringed in glory
AS she passes the beautiful Isles of the Blest.
But still entreat you, for your safety,
Be not by the mad trial taught
The youth mounts the car; the impatient horses
Are out and away as swift as thought.
They snort like chargers spurred to battle,
And cleave the purple clouds that lie
About the mornings ruby portal,
Like fowery islands in the sky.
40, II =,
AS they leap fast up the sleepy Wy;
And perceiving now their load is lighter,
More wild they race with the car of day.
They dash from the wheel-narked road, and
Phaeton
Is powerless to rein them back
Pale terror seizes him, as the chariot
Flies flaming along its errant track.
The Bears are singed, and the great pole Serpent
Is thawed and loosed from his icy chain;
He wakes and misses in venomous anger
And Bootes cen fees in fear and pain.
All round the youth, the dreadful monsters
Menacing lie on heavens plane;
And when he sees the long-armed Scorpion,
Trembling, he drops the useless rein.
Then the horses dash with the blazing chariot
In unknown space, through regions Wild
strange stars are scorched the youth more
frightened,
Repents him like a classified child.
ike ship tossed on stormy ocean,
Now high, now low the day car flies,
And here and there, glaring monster,
Which threatens ruin to earth and skies.
he Moon now sees with paid terror
The day god S car below her sweep;
md earth is fired; great cities are flaming,
And cloud and mountain and valley deep.
,ven Olympus smokes and blazesr
And snow-crowned Alps high in the air;
,arth cracks, and light breaks in Tartarus,
And frightens the king of shadows there.
ivers and lakes are dried and ocean
Is heated like simmering pot;
reat Neptune sinks his golden trident
And plunges deep, it is so hot.
I'D Triton sounds his shelly trumpet
Loud DER the waves in wild alarm;
nd Proteus all his sea focks rushes
To governed depths, to save from harm.
he Maids weep with hair disheveled,
The Dryads wall out in alright;
Whole nations of people are burnt to ashes;
Ethiopians turned black, who before were
whitel
shes and smoke becloud the heavens.
Tartarus seems to suspend there;
nd Phaeton sees the ruin spreading,
With growing horror and despair.
ut Earth. uplifting her hands to heaven,
oh Jupiter" cries out i'll pain.
If I should die, thrice had rather
With thy dread thunderbolt be slain"
Ipiter omnipotent calls to witness,
The gods; explains the direful case
hen mounts his tower, whence cloud and thun-
der
He filings far and wide in airy space
lightning bolt the Thunderer clutches
And hurls kissing at the charioteer;
crash alaTrns-and dead is Phaeton,
Struck from the seat of the blazing car!
nd he headlong falls, like a flaming comet,
From the Grant Sun, whose fervid wheel
nd fire-breathing horses spread such ruin
Wide round in the creations field.
ow Phaeton sinks in the river Eridanus
Whose waves close over his burning head;
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