They come, they come,
The town with fear is dumb!
Their guns have fired from Federal Hill,
It seems we hear their voices still
Demanding gold in tones more bold
Than all the warnings ever told
Since Chambersburg these hundred years
Has triumphed over frontier fears.
They come, they come,
With ruin planned for some
Whose homes, the seat of hearts' desire,
They pitilessly loot and fire
Till only desolate ashes mark
The sight of hearths forever dark,
And only memories live unmarred
To haunt the walls the flames have charred.
They're here, they're here,
They're snatching all that's dear!
The glare of flames, the noonday night
Of smokes that choke our shrieks of fright;
The screams of birds, the horses' neighs,
The pets that mourn in countless ways;
The splash of silver thrown in wells—
All this of hideous plunder tells.
They've gone, they've gone,
Their ranks are speeding on;
Their vandal work accomplished now,
They southward flee and care not how
Our sick, unhoused, have joined our dead,
And well men vainly seek a bed
Whereon to lay the frenzied head
Of some dear one, by fever fed.
They've gone, they've gone,
Their years are speeding on.
Yet, should they come again to-day
We'd greet them in a fervent way:
The Chambersburg they left in tears
Is born anew these fifty years,
And crowned with triumphs toil has won,
Stands royal host, with silenced gun.

THE WEDDING AT PANAMA

Severed forever,
Yet closer than ever
Two neighboring continents lie.
The day when these lands
Could reach out and touch hands
Forever is gone and passed by.
Severed forever,
Yet closer than ever,
For what a new union is this!
They are neighbors made kin
Since the wedding has been
Of seas that were wed with a kiss.
Now both mighty oceans were born of these lands
That fed them with streams from their breast,
And wedded, will bring to the old parent-sands
New wealth from the East and the West.
So, kindred forever,
And closer than ever
Two neighboring continents lie:
Their children are one,
A new era begun,
That's watched with a world-sweeping eye.

A BALLAD OF EUGENICS

“Our modern monogamous family represents the survival of religious, ethical, economic, and legal elements from all the intermingling streams which unite to form civilization.”—Edward Devins.

A mighty stream runs past my house,
Right through my grounds it flows;
From unseen springs it comes, and then
To unseen springs it goes.
And rich deposits in my fields
It brings from distant lands,
The welcome wealth of mingled streams
That rose from blended sands.
But oftentimes a drifting wreck
It carries to my door,
And I must hold it, I who see,
To check it evermore;
Lest some one farther down the stream
Whose face I cannot see
Might snag his craft and perish there,
And dying, censure me.
Not lightly can I turn its way
Aside from channels old,
Yet I can change the shores I own,
Thus much can be controlled.
And all that marks my lifetime's goal
Is that its onward flow
Down past my house and through my lands
May ever purer grow.

IMMORTALITY