Poems

BY CROCKET McELROY. St. Clair, Michigan.
CHICAGO, SCROLL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 1900. Copyrighted, 1900, BY CROCKET McELROY.
Hon. Thomas W. Palmer, Detroit, Michigan; Hon. Joseph B. Moore, Lansing, Michigan; Captain Byron Whitaker, Detroit, Michigan; Henry C. French, Esq., Buffalo, New York; Charles A. Calzin, Esq., Marine City, Michigan; and all my other friends, this book is dedicated. Crocket McElroy.




At morning light October twelfth, In fourteen hundred ninety-two, With shouts of joy and dreams of wealth, Columbus and his happy crew, Sang land ahoy! Sweet land ahoy! And landing on the virgin soil, Gave thanks to God, in tears of joy, And laughed at danger, care and toil.
And thus became our country known A short four hundred years ago, And yet in greatness it has grown Beyond the reach of man to know; The forests vast have given way Before man’s mighty march and hand, And prairie wastes like night to day Have changed to blooming garden land.
The savage hosts that here were found Living like roving beasts of prey, Have given up their hunting ground, And thrown their poisoned darts away; Now turning to the arts of peace, And living on the white man’s plan, Their wasted numbers will increase, While they respect the rights of man.
The howling wolf and dreaded bear, The buffalo and antelope, And all the beasts not in man’s care, Are going down the western slope; Whate’er obstructs the onward tread, Of the overwhelming march of man, Must soon be numbered with the dead, All sacrificed on nature’s plan.