Yet, none the less, about his moving bed
Immortal eyes a tireless vigil keep—
An angel at the feet and at the head
Guard his untroubled sleep.
Two nations bowed above a common bier,
Made one forever by a martyred son—
One in their agony of hope and fear,
And in their sorrow one.
And thou, lone traveller, of a waste so wide,
The uncharted seas that all must pass in turn,
May the same star that was so long thy guide
O'er thy last voyage burn.
No eye can reach where through yon sombre veil
That bark to its eternal haven fares;
No earthly breezes swell its shadowy sail:
Only our love and prayers.
Edward Sydney Tylee.
Theodore Roosevelt, Vice-President, succeeded to the Presidency. The greatest project which the new administration undertook was the construction of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama. This enterprise had been agitated as early as 1826, and in 1879 a French company under Ferdinand de Lesseps had secured a concession from Colombia and started to work. At the end of ten years, the company had exhausted its resources and work ceased.
PANAMA
Here the oceans twain have waited
All the ages to be mated,—
Waited long and waited vainly,
Though the script was written plainly:
"This, the portal of the sea,
Opes for him who holds the key;
Here the empire of the earth
Waits in patience for its birth."
But the Spanish monarch, dimly
Seeing little, answered grimly:
"North and South the land is Spain's;
As God gave it, it remains.
He who seeks to break the tie,
By mine honor, he shall die!"
So the centuries rollèd on,
And the gift of great Colon,
Like a spendthrift's heritage,
Dwindled slowly, age by age,
Till the flag of red and gold
Fell from hands unnerved and old,
And the granite-pillared gate
Waited still the key of fate.