Classic Poem

Pike's Peakers! All! From whatsoever climes,
You've “crossed the Plains,” to see or search the mines,
We greet you! here tonight!
And bid you welcome to the sight,
And sound of what may on this People's stage be done—
To present Virtue bright, or cause you Vice to shun,—
To show up Nature's traits,—“shoot folly as it flies,”
And “catch the manners, living, as they rise!”
From Shakespeare's genius, and Ben Jonson's powers,
To grow and gladden, like the mead with showers,
As their high strains of inspiration roll,
Cheer up the heart, and elevate the soul,
And to your heart, and soul, and ear, and eye,
Teach beauty, truth and love, and melody.

At every epoch on the world's page,
Civilization has been aided by the stage,
From Sophocles of old, who in the isles of Greece
First produced plays with but a single piece,
From Caesar's time, beneath St. Peter's dome,
When Roscius was the actor for Imperial Rome,
Down through the changes of the Saxon line,
The Drama's aim was always to refine;
“A friend to Freedom and the virtuous cause,
A foe to tyrants and to unjust laws.”

Now, who can tell, if, as the poets say,
“Westward the star of Empire takes its way,”
But e'er some dozen moons shall wax and wane,
Our “Peoples” here shall prove a “Drury Lane,”
Where “stars” from London, Paris, New York, and elsewhere,
May mount the “iron horse” and play a season here!
Behold what progress, and what change sublime,
Has here occurred within scarce three years' time,
Upon this brow of old St. Charles town,
Where late the Arapahoe and Cheyenne did frown
On “pale-faced” pilgrims who came here to seek,
For shining chunks of gold in Cherry Creek,
Ere yet the Kansas boys had “jumped” Old Nichol's claim,
“Jayhawked” the “Saint” and “wrung in” Denver's name,
Now stands this temple—this Dramatic Hall,
A monument of taste—a source of pride to all,
Where Langrishe—the lion of dramatic war,
And Mike,” the miner of Grass Valley Bar,
Have shown the works and enterprising zeal,
What two can do united, shoulder to the wheel.

We greet you here to-night, on Colorado's plain,
From every section of our vast domain.
Here, where, as yet, we stand alone on squatter's rights,
But stand, as yet, thank God, beneath the stars and stripes!
Here on this highway between the East and West,
'Neath peaks and mountains, from whose snowy crest,
The air of freedom, like grace of God,
Falls on the citizens, and fructifies our sod,
Dispels Disunion and its impious band,
From off this backbone of Columbia's land,
Here where our Gilpin, many years gone by,
Foretold our future, with a prophet's eye,
And where young Fremont—the pathfinder bold,
With patriotism buoyant, and bravery yet untold,
Paved out the way for pioneers—for nations yet to come—
Where, through God's aid, shall ever wave the flag of Washington!