Classic Poem

THE NEWS-GATHERING

Meantime the newsmen in all parts of the world are alert,
Sifting and straining the currents of life for every event.

In Nevada a new rich mine has been opened:
A stampede of treasure-seekers rushes to stake claims,
Where was a wild forest, or only a bare cactus-hedged desert,
Suddenly springs into life a new city
With a multitude of saloons, electric lights, dance-halls, gambling-hells;
The old California days of " Forty-nine " are recalled;
Fortunes are made and lost in a day.

A fierce storm sweeping up the coast wrecks on the sands of Cape God
A six-masted schooner laden with coal;
The fearless, death-defying coast patrol, launching the surf-boat, are driven back;
One of their number is caught in the surf and perishes;
The breeches-buoy is sent out to the ship and the captain,
Half frozen to death, clasping the dead form of his wife in his arms,
Is brought back to the shore and restored.

There is news of the downfall of a dignified bank-president
Who used for his own private pleasure the funds of windows intrusted to him,
Paying the cost of a double life;
The terrible exposure of one who had been a pillar in the church,
Admired and respected, philanthropic and perhaps Puritamc;
His confession and the story of his temptation
Are printed in full with their sorrowful lesson.

A break in the stock-market portends a panic;
Abundantly-watered securities are tested
And discovered to be fraudulent.
Ambitious clerks who had bought on a margin,
Summoned to cover, find themselves stript of their savings;

Merchants and speculating widows are ruined.
Wall Street and State Street and the ganglionic centers of all cities
Are filled with apprehensions; the rate of interest
On call-loans is suddenly doubled;
Will the United States Treasury come to the aid of the market?
Billions of loss are reckoned on paper; financial prophets declaim.

A city tightly-swathed in the coils of a wily ring,
Which for years has passively allowed herself to be robbed by her mayor and his minions,
Who brazenly exult in their crimes and flaunt their ill-got wealth,
Suddenly awakes and shakes off the insolent hands,
Splendidly arising in might,
Sets an example of what a true democratic spirit,
The noble spirit of the Founders, may do when aroused.

An express-train rushing along,
Making its seventy miles an hour, to redeem lost time,
Meets in a narrow cut a freight train puffing slowly up a steep grade
Allowed passage by signals mistaken;
The engines leap at each other
Like furious prehistoric monsters, like iron-clad mastodons.
Great head-lines chronicle the disaster;
The names of the dead and the wounded are flashed over the wires,
Deeds of heroism are recorded;
Not a detail is past unchronicled.