*» 13 3 >J. OL) .s>2> ^O 2^J> ~ I^J> ~" j^ _:^ j> ~: -i-> ~z^ >J) ^^-^~ >^ ''^^ ^ ^^- * l2> ■ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Shelf_:: UNITED S^TATES OF AMERICA. > >:> 3> ^ flllltef -^ > ^S> -^d^B^ -^^-^ ->J>J2»_> J>.5> 43^ W^ > >^ ^ ^ ^^ ^ _ ?3>r>3 '^yk^ii >^ v^^ 3. > lit: ^i^ >» ^» ^»» .-^■^ »> -"s^ ^:3«» .• ■■'-''■^ 3Bt> /i2> ":;, > .^:> >^ i> Poetical Addresses GEO. ALFRED TOWNSEND. — *^"S- No...y./.fe.ut where he sank, at every gentle swell Tolls on the waters a melodious bell — Drowned when the wind of discord brethren hear, But in the truce of hate it brings a tear. Hear it, all brethren of his pleasant craft, While down the days your paper boats are waft ! Hear North and South, the bell's resurgent plea — " Forgiveness, justice, union, liberty!" Alas! nor man, nor press is wholly free. And oft, when free, self-sold to slavery — Slave of its egotism, avarice, lust, To its redemption and its soul unjust; Presuming powers, nor delegate, nor lent, And factious to a generous government. When silly Phaeton drove Apollo's car And fell from Heaven like a shooting star, His lofty station brought no more distress Than when an ass conducts the printing press. Then shine his vices, nature to abhor, Ijike youthful Nero's made the Emperor; His self-esteem portentous as eclipse, His independence false to fellowships, His province fear, his glory to assail, His passion office and his art blackmail. His gallantry to drag a woman down Or stone a ruler when he come to town. Poor dupe! himself upon the cross he nails, For him the gall and vinegar avails. His fangless fury makes no other smart Than stings the gloating vulture in his heart. 22 POEMS. Power sofiens large men and inflates the small; The Press's power is the toil of all — The people's wealth, the freedom soldiers won, Public opinion, liberal as the sun, Surround a modest Press with hosts in steel, As 'twere the Lady of tlie Commonweal. Who plays the traitor to such confidence, Usurping rights or swaggering with pretence, Is like yon maniac on the prison isle, Noisy but dead, inflamed but imbecile. Two powers exist to guide the sneer, the mob — One is the demaarosue and one the snob: " Who is he ?" both with equal malice cry; " What can he do ?'' the earnest heart's reply. "Shakespeare," says Snob, "those plays can scarcely claim; Another man, no doubt, of the same name, Bacon, or Greens, or one of the weviewers, — Not that obscure play-fellow from the sewers." As if a Shakespeare spent his time on "swells," Or Edison, who cast yon echo's bells, And peddling papers, waiting on a switch, Conceived two messages could play the witch And sightless pass; his huml)le state despite God made a circuit with him in the night — The newsboy wired to Moses, " Here's your Light I " In great occasion must your power lie. Or mere sensation is your hue-and-cry. Spread not a net to catch a passing sprat. Nor forge a thunderbolt to kill a gnat ! Mere rhetoric is not our press's grist — Boswell, not Johnson, is the journalist. Sill in your ear one half the talent is. And style in news too often is but fizz. Humor is wholesome, yet exti'emely rare; Forced humor is the drivel of despair; POEMS. 23 Nothing conceived in malice makes a laugh, Nor lifts a fool aliove his paragraph. Chase not your rival daily like a flea, Lest folks perceive you bite for jealousy; Never to name him equally refuse, For both of you are smaller than your news. Our quarrels matter not; our spiteful words Are but the harsher tones of mocking birds; Still the sweet medley gladdens all the air, And every songster brings his tuneful share. The news is statesmanship. He who informs To-morrow's farmers of the signs of storms, Governed no more when from o'erhanging crags He guided battle by his signal flags. Or from beleagured cities, like a moon Rose and passed over in his pale balloon. The hollow ocean, deaf for many a year. Lies with quick nerves like an attentive ear. And barbarous states die without epitaph. Except the over-murmuring telegraph. We too are doomed like poles that hold the wires To be supplanted when our use expires. Our names to perish from the vaults of sound And all we writ unindexed and unfound ; \n unconsulted dust the mirror page Where came and went the image of our age. Debarred from fame, we in our little hour Should feel that nothing lasts but Moral power. Ceasing to shine with strong and separate ray, Yet in yon silver-gleaming nebulae The good, the brave, the gracious we have done, Will belt the heavens as with glory sown. Then may we know immortal is our craft, And every idle word is phonographed; Cast in the Ether, kept till time is done. And paged in flaming tissues of the sun. PROLOGUE DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF TOPE'S NEW THEATRE, ST. LOUIS, MO., (Formerly a Unitarian Clmrcli), Sept, 32, 187S). Witliiii these walls a teacher might impart The I'ise and progress of dramatic art, Since Thespis, with one actor and a choir, To Shakespeare and his myriad world entire: Here by the hour the jn-iest performed the show To passive singers and the organ slow, — A second actor yl^schylus allows, And lo ! the church becomes a social house. So gods draw down as men in culture rise. Nor reverenced less than in the heathen skies. Watching the play where once a church had been, The gentle Lincoln made the closing scene, And on his face the smile the actor brings, Passed through the curtain to the King of kings. He to whom all for matchless art defer. Learned human nature in the theatre. Came to the door at some good patron's beck. And held a horse, perhaps to get a check; Peeping within, upon his soul was born Imagination like a tropic morn; Unfettered by the laws a Bacon knew. Or social bonds a courtier Sydney drew; His mind was wanton as a lover's dream. And ventured, heedless, into every theme; PROLOGUE. 25 The age scarce knew hiui till bis end had come, Cut off -in drinking with a writing chum. Unspoiled by fame, down after centuries ran The lengthening shadow of a Natural Man ! Here in the West let Nature breed again, V?a' from the cities of dependent men, And like your river in its vast descent, Drain all the genius of our continent ! From native springs with confidence commence, In native life discover excellence, And down the ages bear in swelling rhyme The heroes of the people and the clime. Since good Marquette roved down your grand canal, Or scared the wolves DeSoto and LaSalle, And rose St. Louis in the bison's track, To be the refuge of a Pontiac ! Repeat the echoes, plaintive in the eve, Of chapel bells o'er old Saint Genevieve, Or cannon heralding the empire won Napoleon pawned to pilot Livingston ! Show dying Boone from debt and lawyers free. Or lonely Pike stampeding Santa Fe ! With equal art the fading outlines fill Of strong old Benton and young Bonneville I And if the Wars of Roses need perfume, Strew poesy on Price or Lyon's tomb; Paint Captain Grant, by fortune all forsook, Seeking a loan from Captain Marmaduke, Then 'round the world, with Princes making free, Once more Ulysses on an Odyssey. Yet deeper than dramatic action run The moral deeds men of the West have done: Beyond himself, though he all things would dare, Sped on the work of the young, gallant Blair; That courtship every stage effect exceeds 26 PROLOGUE. Fair Mississippi had from Captain Eads, When, bridging here and jettying further south, He spanned her waist and squeezed her at the mouth. Speed well the modern drama's best propense, To soften man and chasten violence ! The bloody combats of old kings revise To household scenes and acts of sacrifice, Till what the sermon says the play may make, And even in church the hearers keep awake. When Richelieu broke the feudal barons down, Corneille appeared to educate the town ; When o'er United Britain James arose Shakespeare was heard the kingdom to compose: So be it here, when through one country free, ''Unvexed the Mississippi finds the sea !" Descend, ye Muses, from the pitying skies. And may our stage disarm and civilize. Till o'er Missouri women safely walk, Neighbors debate and strangers fearless talk. Here may the merchant at the close of day Forget his nerves and bless the genial play ! May lovers nearer grow at evening's hush. And wives and maidens hear without a blush. And all the air so pure that in the brain We almost hear the bells of church again ! POEM READ BEFORE DELAWARE COLLEGE, NEWARK. DELAWARE, Commencement, 1868. A liundred years, less six, has White Clay run Toward deep Christina, turgid in tlie sun, Since from (Iray's Hill the General through his glass His thread-bare army saw through Newark pass ; Its straggling villagers their nervous chins Poised on the windows of the shops and inns. And much they hoped if battle he must seek. Farther he'd go and choose the Red Clay creek. The Red Clay country pleased him for a fight ; From Iron Hill he marked it by daylight ; The Stanton folks, the Newport people scattered, Expecting, both, their hip-roofs to be battered ; But General Washington advanced his line Far north as Chadd's Ford on the Brandy wine, And after all this waiting and retreating, Sir William gave him an effectual beating. We've learned the lesson this Commencement dawn : Defeat's inglorious tempted farther on ! This spot was picked to check the foe's advance, — 'Tis nearest to his lines. Sir Ignorance ! Here on these classic stones again to thrive. We seek our gracious College to revive, To plant its standard drooping since lang syne. To fight the action out upon this line. And keep at heart, though northward we might roam, The snugger precept : " Educate at home ! " Not widest empires lure the reverend most : The wisest Magi sought small Judah's coast, 28 POEM. The Russian Czar to modest Holland sped, To little Weimer, Schiller, CTa?the fled, Famed Heidelberg in narrow Baden see, And cramped Bologna fostered Italy. Shut in the softest verdure of the East, Our Delawarean nook, although llie least. Has soil enough for education's seeds, And schools and students are what most she needs. No sign we want to tell us when we roam : " The schoolmaster has been away from home ; " For, — if we say it need there be a blush ? — Good boys, unlike good wine, need most the bush. The century-flower has blossomed pleasantly Above the tiles of yon Academy, Which from the peaceful Penns derived its lease. And six score years has taught the arts of peace. In Seventy-six its boys marched with the " Blues," The girls behind them stitched their soldier's shoes,- " Delightful task ! to mend the tender boot. And teach the young idea how to shoot." Here labored long those quiet Scottish Chiefs, Holding for God His precious souls as fiefs, McDowell, Ewing, Allison, and more. Whose gentle influence filled this Eastern shore, And humanized its homes from Chester creek. Far as the lonely capes of Chesapeake. In greenest graveyards sleep those pilgrim sires, Bv Swedish chapels or by English spires. By country kirks wrapt soft in dews or mists. Or lulled to peace by singing Methodists; Tranquil their lives, not restless, nothing grand. But melted in the epic of the land. Part of the nation strong and vindicated. Part of the school they cherished and created. Part of the light and culture which endure. POEM. 29 The dawning arts and strengthening literature, The social life, which seeks high thoughts for food, And bulwarks of our pride of neighborhood. Scarce fifty years had scattered Freedom's foes, When, by tlie school, our pleasant college rose ; Loud spoke its bell — what melody did swing it Whene'er the Janitor would let us ring it ! A score of years or more came, for its crack, Fat boys from Cecil, lean from Accomac, Pale boys from cities, from the country pink, Queer boys from Duck and Appoquinimink, Boys raised on Iron Hill, — real mountaineers, — On shaddy Sassafras, oystery Tangiers. From whate'er neck, or sound, or manor passengers. They all stole pears and apples down at Hossenger's. My hasty muse, rouse up and once more show The scenes in Newark twenty years ago ! The morning prayer, the bell's boom sti'ong and sweet. Swung down the one aisle of the village street, ''Day-scholars" hurrying on foot, in gigs. Professors smoothing out their hairs — or wigs,-- The shy new student who can eat no pittance, Mocked by the old boy spending his remittance; That marvel of all Freshmen in their turn, The one queer boy who came to school to learn; That other wonder, whom the mass insist To be, sans -peur, the C/ollege humorist : An idle, jolly, impecunious elf. Who jests on everything, — except himself ; And, greater than all favorites of renown, The boy whose pretty sister lives in town ; In all his woes rose dozens of redressers. He was a favorite, — even with professors. At Summer noon the lanes and fields are seen. To fill with urchins hastening to " The Green." 30 POEM. Proud swimmer he, wliose shy probation o'er, Disdains less fathoms tlian the " Sycamore," Or muds verbis whitely stands revealed Poised on the "Deep Rocks" — as he calls it " peeled, "^ — And |>alms clasped a la mode, head foremost goes To fetch uj) stones, while small boys tie his clothes. Meantime the lovelorn student roams behind, And carves his torment on the beech tree rind. And to the dear initials makes his moan — A bolder student slily adds his own. Our fine girl then, nor skater was, nor sailor ; Therefore her children in our days are frailer ; Let us admit we both did something err : Un gallant she to Nature, we to her. She never wrote in ice her epigram. Cutting " High Dutch " on Dean's or Curtis' dam, Nor down the Roseville rapids showed her skill, boys, Risking a Hogging for it from the mill-boys. She never veished the Northern hills to climb Which on our border lean their ribs of grime. And strangle streams which hurl more mill wheel's arms. And bathe more sheep, and beautify more farms, — That royal road, the North, she did not dare, Like our wild hearts pent up in Delaware, And wondering what beyond those hill-tops lay When trudging toward them on a Saturday. Not in that fashion did our sweetheart journey, But only with a power of attorney. Two trunks, a muflF, a bridesmaid, and a fan. She sacrificed the scenery for the mfh. 'Twas still her triumph when Commencement came And tallow candles made the College fiame ; For her alone the Athenaeums speak. The Delta Phians don their badge of Greek; POEM. 31 For her, for nothing less, do both submit To wear a coat cut in the nether pit. And hear the pert Academicians cry, In chorus : " When the Swallows Homeward Fly." Nothing between a boy and book can slip. Like the soft vision of an eye and lip, And let us stand upon it if we fight there, Nothing has more excuse or much more right there. Much more, if time and art, like memory, held, Might we recover from this cloister eld. Rise up, ye tutors, sacrificed for us : Our lack of love, our natures boisterous, — Whose blood and tears we drew and never knew it. Ah ! the perversity ! Could we undo it ! Are boys to boys more generous than men ? Do we desire our boyhood back again ? Is it the bright, the gallant, roseate time ? "Yea," say the Poets, in the parrot rhyme; All college orators insist upon it. Decrying manhood 'ere they have begun it ; Candor compels a more prosaic ruling : Much of the talk on boyhood joys is puling ! The strong young savage, moving on his muscle, Ready to rob an orchard, try a tussle, Of everlasting restlessness pursuant. Mocking his tutor, selfish, hooking truant. Of ravenous appetite, ungrateful, vain. His keenest sense of pleasure, giving pain, — What man would ask to be a boy again ? Who would resign the calm and chastened bliss. The fireside faith, sealed in his goodwife's kiss, The measured duties of the father, neighbor. And sense of manhood dignified by labor. To roam again an urchin by the creek, And learn to swear about a shinny stick? 32 POEM. Of all the frauds which schools from schoolmen ape None is more empty than the college " scrape." Books have been made on scrapes, and maidens tell them, Sad, for their sex, that no such larks befel them ; The college scrape, as I remember it, Was ruffianism in the mask of wit. Played on a tutor's feelings, a child's terror, A strong boy's dignity or weak boy's error : To tip the bell up and freeze water in it, Or by a hidden cord all night to din it ; To call the poor, pinched tutor but a " tiat," And yell from hiding places : " what a hat !" A hoi'se to whitewash, most superb of all ! — To tie the grass that wayfarers might fall, Let down the farmer's bars, write terms of spite By darkness, for the town to read by liglit. Our sculptor, Crawford, in a noble mood A subject chose from boyhood's habitude : A little spaniel, terrified and worn. Its fleeces dabbled and its white feet torn, Climbs spent, beseeching, to one gentle breast, — The one brave boy humane among the rest, — Who cuts the kettle which had driven it wild, And strokes it, as a father soothes his child. Worthy this statue for our halls of state, — A boy indignant and considerate ! For, if the boy -were Father of the man, As the trite line of some old poet ran, Apt might the boy be to affix a can Behind his sire and chase Iihn with a clan. The sports of schools have now a higher fame With base ball clubs where women watch the game, While tidy barge-crews down the rivers spin And play is beautified by discipline. POEM. 33 To these high joys of the Curriculum, Must meaner " larks " and older " scrapes " succumb ; For, 'tis the student gives the school address, His best diploma is his manliness : The sense of honor seldom can be taught. Lost it may be or not in vain be sought ; It is that breath of good men which survives. The floating aroma of fragrant lives. The gentler thoughts superior souls dispense, And fruit of every noble influence. " Surely," says one, " our poet's a free lance ; The boys are with us : give the boys a chance !'' No ! these young students who would build again Our crumbled ramparts are not boys — but men ; The boys in frolic, some twelve years or more Departed, locked this venerable door, (l) A newer, better generation comes, Out of the roll of Freedom's victor-drums, A race of boys made men by manlier walk, By gentler thinking and by truer talk, On darkened latitudes no more intent, But, like a sailor, in the firmament Searching for lamps, and midst them, strong and far, Shines down the magic of the Northen Star. Retire then men, who puerile have grown ; Be men for them, ye boys of better date. And let this College be the corner-stone Of a humane and reawakened State ! NOTE TO DELAWARE COLLEGE POEM. 1. Newark Academy was a continuation of the second classical school in Pennsylvania, started at New London by Dr. Alison. 1740. He was the greatest teacher of Colonial Pennsylvania. Delaware College was appended to the Academv in 18;i'i. Schools have been on that foundation since 1749. About 1853 a tragedy at the College closed it for several years. mm RODNEY'S FOURTH OF JULY. 1776: READ BY MR. TOWNSEND AT HIS BIRTH-PLACE. GEORGETOWN, SUSSEX COUNTY. DELAWARE, JULY 4, 1880. Lean and quaint and fond of living, Half his bright face patched in green, CfBsar Rodney sat in Congress On Committee and routine; Forty-six in years and spirits, Death and he were one in style; For a cancer on his visage Checked the spreading of his smile. In his hand is laid a packet, Marked from " Sussex, Delaware," Signed by Colonel Doctor Haslet, Of the camp on Dover Square: " General, there are Tory risings In the swamps of Pocomoke, And the pirate fleet of Duninore Anchors in the Nanticoke ! " Barclay Townsend threatens Lewes With his Forresters below; In the North the Kentish Rebels Muster under Cheney Clowe; At his store on Indian River Thomas Robinson, as free, Damns the Continental Congress, And is sellino- British tea. C^SAR RODNEY'S FOURllI OF JULY. 35 " Colonel Dagworthy is feeble; Henry Fisher is too rash; Only thou of temperate courage, Can the wide revolt abash !" Then said John McKean to Rodney: " Stay thou here for larger things, While our Pennsylvania rifles Slay those minions of the King's." " Stay thou here," John Dickinson said, " Lest high treason bad men forge. And the colonies dissever From their master, gracious George !" " Nay, but go," George Read protested, — " Known and trusted always there, 'Tis not meet another province March its arms in Delaware !" Level spread the plains of Sussex To Henlopen's hummocks white, Where the watchful pilots darken In the tower the British light; And the lioebuck chased our vessels From Cape May on False Cape hard, Where they floated deep and foxy. Grounded bowspirit, beam and yard, (l) Fierce around the ancient Court House Raged the ignorant debate; Wildly listened forest people To the hidden things of state: How the Yankee meant to draft them His psalm-singing hosts among, And to battle-fields to waft them, Either to be shot or hung; How the proud Virginia planters Meant to make their children slaves, 36 C^SAR RODNEY'S FO URTH OF JUL T. While the negroes, raised to freedom, Drank good rum on white men's graves. And the penalties of treason Men and women learned agog, — To be hanged and disembowled, And boiled living, like a hog. Then the priests of all persuasions. Save the Presbyterian blue, Showed how God rebuked Rebellion In the Gentile or the Jew; Sly old Quakers fanned contention; Wesley's preachers had their say. Like the Church of England Rectors, Most of whom had run away. Shop-kept classes, smuggling liquors, Teas and sugars, from the fleet. Told how war would stop all tippling And reduce the things to eat; Every good old drunkai'd faltered. Is this land of plenty put, And some well-disposing patriots Took the oath to serve — their gut. Men too nice and moral noticed Jobbers and contractors swell, — Some would raise the sunken Spaniard, And her guns of brass would sell; (2) Some were boiling salt for armies. Some were tanning leather brown, Some were hauling lead and powder Chincoteague to Chestertown. (3) War was up and war is chaos ! War is fear and war is spite. Wo to him who bringeth warfare Lest he have immortal right ! CJESAB RODNEY'S FO URTR OF JUL Y. 37 And the people felled the flag-pole, (4) Sold the flag for hangman's pence, Cheered King George and peace and plenty, And the Congress hissed intense. Caesar Rodney, born of gentrj' — Sherifi^, judge and general all — Knew the lower countries thorough, And each soul by name could call : Dagsbro Whigs and Broad Kill skulkers, Maryland men of Marshy Hope, Folks of Wycoraico and St. Martins, And Virginians of Pocomoke. Some he sent for, some he went for. Through the pines, by mill-ponds black ; Some he soothed and some he threatened With a politician's knack ; But the camp lay back at Dover, And both bays the British held ; And his work was never over, Though the leaders he had quelled. Little-headed, merry featured. Full of fire and appetite, Coesar Rodney loved the table And the ladies who invite. (5) Midst the fairest of the Quakers Round their church at Pilot Town, Sarah Rowland was the gayest. Though she wore the Quaker gown. Niece of merchant Joshua Fisher — (6) Widow, witty, wealthy, fine ; Roguish were her eyes with pleasure. And she kept the best of wine ; When they sat o'er their Madeira And a dish of terrapin. 38 C^SAR RODNEY'S FO URTH OF JUL T. She as juicy as a reed bird, He the rail bird, odd and thin, Like the marshes in the summer. How they twittered, fluttering. And what scolding he took from her On her poor, abused King : " Thee a Rodney, thee a Cfesar, And thy cousin in the fleet, (7) To be leading ragged rebels ! " And she stamped her pretty feet. Then she drew her dark eyes nearer, Smoothed his silk patch with her hand Said he was the only rebel She could pardon in the land ; And his glass she filled moreover, And her maid was fresh to see. And they held the soldier rover In a soft captivity. Fast the days of June were passing, Scarce he knew it was July, For the courting and the glassing. And the twinkle in her eye ; All his couriers and dispatches Ceased, and in the pleased suspense Nought was said of Philadelphia And the public consequence. Joshua Fisher and the Quakers, Dropping in with velvet paws, Brought a bottle oi- a chicken. Bland as to a brother-in-law's. " Tarry thee, friend Rodney, worthy, For we need thy counsel more ! Neither news nor friends come for thee, Congress sits with guarded door." C^SAR RODNEY'S FO URTH OF JUL T. 39 " Why is John McKean so silent ? Is he sick ? Am I forgot ? He who wrote so full and often, Whether there was news or not ?" Cleopatra's white arras branching, Held his will within their clasp ; Saying : " Cfesar, if thee leaves me, I must die without an asp." But one evening, ere the candles Lit the parlor, tripped her maid Through the dusk on noiseless sandals, And in Rodney's arms was laid : " Nay," she cried, " 'tis not my mistress, Nor one of her Tory school ; I'm a good Whig girl of Sussex, You are Sarah Rowland's fool. " Post and riders are kept from you, Lest the truth they might declare ; Congress votes on Independence — There's a tie in Delaware ! On July the Fourth the country Must its preference avow ; And our State is lost without you — 'Tis July the Third, sir, now !" With a cry of pain, the General Showered his kisses on the jade -: " Thou canst save a Rodney's honor — Blessings on thee, Sussex maid ! Where's my horse ?" "Here, ready saddled ; Here your pistols, here your flask ; With a hundred miles before you, All night gallop be your task !" Down the bench-road, past the shingled Homes of Lewes, Rodney spurred ; '40 C^SAR RODNETS FO URTH OF JUL Y. Past the small old jail and conrt-honse, In the starlight flashed his sword ; With one glance upon the ocean To the north star turned his way ; Sarah Rowland saw and muttered : " He will miss it by a day !" Twenty hours to Philadelphia Equalled swiftest courier's powers; Congress met at noon, and Rodney Had one horse, and sixteen hours: Two to Cedar Creek produced him — Haslet's dogs barked as he passed — Then, warmed up, his good steed loosed him. And through Camden winged him fast. One o'clock, as cock-crow reckoned, Jones's creek had come and gone; Rodney bridled horse the second, Changed the saddle and went on. Not a soul at home espied him. All in silence Dover lay: " Who comes there ? " the sentry challenged. " General Rodney: Clear the way ! '' (8) At Duck Creek cross-roads the grey light From the Jerseys rose in wonder; Cantwell's bridge at clearer daylight Sounded to his hoofs of thunder; And old Drawyer's church-panes quiver In the marshes as it knew him, And Newcastle, by the river. Bent its old brick gables to him. Seven o'clock at Wilmington-town, Landlords heard his voice incitening: " Rum and sugar and a biscuit, And another horse, like lightning! '' G^SAB B0BNET8 FQ UBTH OF JUL Y. -41 Folks on Brandyvvine and Naaman Saw his green patch — some to mock it — Like another Abd El Ramon And green banner of the Prophet ! Noon approached at Philadelphia, And in queues, cocked hats and breeches, One by one went in the members. Some with scruples, some with speeches. On the State House steps awaited John McKean his friend decrepid, With his big square nose inflated And his mighty soul intrepid. "Read is skulking; Dickinson is With conceit and fright our foeman, Wedded to his Quaker monies,'' Mused the grim old rebel Roman ; " Pennsylvania, spoiled by faction, ^ Independence will not dare ; Maryland approves the action; Shall we fail on Delaware ? " In the tower the old bell rumbled, . Striking slowly twelve o'clock. Down the street a hot horse stumbled,* And a man in riding frock, With a green patch on his visage, And his garments white with grime. " Now, praise God ! " McKean spoke grimly, " Caesar Rodney is on time." Silent, hand in hand together. Walked they in the great square hall ; To the roll with " Aye " responded At the clerk's immortal call; Listened to the Declaration From the steeple to the air: 42 CjESAR RODNETS FO URTH of JUL T. " Here this day is made a nation By the help of Delaware ! " Joshua Fisher Congress banished To Virginia, where the journal Told, in time, that Sarah Rowland Wed a captive British Colonel; But she kept the same Madeira, Which, posterity endorses. Though it made her lovers tarry. Mighty jalop for their horses. NOTES TO GEORGETOWN POEM. 1. The False Cape, at Henlopen, afforded water enough for a vessel to appear to be aground while really afloat, with her rigging dragging ashore. 2. An old Spanish vessel of war went ashore on the Sussex coast long before the Kevolutionary war. 3. Patriot supplies were run into Chincoteague Inlet, and hauled to Chestertown on carts. 4. The American flag-pole was hacked to pieces by a mob at Lewes during the Revolution. 5. Caesar Rodney was a bachelor, and fond of high living. 6. John Fisher was the first vessel master to use Godfrey's quadrant. He made a chart of the Delaware Bay. He was a tory, expelled from Dela- ware to Virginia. 7. The Rodneys of Delaware were cousins of Admiral Lord Rodney. 8. The Delaware troops had a drill camp at Dover. D OETicAL Addresses OF ^<,%->^^ GEO. ALFRED TOWNSEND. — ^-^^ — PUBLISHED BY E. F. BONAVENTURE & CO., No. 2 BARCLAY STREET, ASTOR HOUSE. NEW YORK. 1881. Books of Geo. Alfred Townsend ("GA.TH") IN PRINT: Tales of the Chesapeake. Cloth, 285 pages, with delicate allotype portrait of the author, $1. Washington, Outside and Inside. A Picture and a Narrative of the Capital City, in forty chapters. VoO large octavo pages. Illus- trated. I'rice, cloth, plain, |3 ; sheep, $3,50 ; half turkey morocco, $4.50 The New World Compared with the Old. A book of vivid international comparisons. Eighty thousand of this book have been sold. Illus- trated. 663 large octavo pages. Price, cloth, |3 ; sheep, $3.50 ; half turkey morocco, $4.50. Lost A broad. A Story of Americans in Europe in If '6, with brilliant descriptions of scenery, cities, war, and events. Price, cloth, plain, |2 ; gilt, $2 50. Bohemiaii Days. Three American Tales. Cloth, $1 ; paper, 50 cents. Any of the foregoing hooks will be sent, postage prepaid by the publishers, on receipt of money or postal order, addressed to BONAVENTURE & CO., No. 2 BARCLAY ST., ASTOR HOUSE, NEW YORK. V ' ">i:>.-^- ■^.:<' Cc S ^ <^ S^ <: 3c<3y\<3c: OK7 c C < C^ ..^fe^<; J'^ OCT -S^ O or «SLCC '^^^C?-^c< < ^^^ <^:C VS^Ccr cjC «s:.C <:: c :_