Page 38 - The model orator, or, Young folks' speaker : containing the choicest recitations and readings from the best authors for schools, public entertainments, social gatherings, Sunday schools, etc. : including recitals in prose and verse ...

N ■j ty thirst in a present pain and hunger a coming dread,
Water is dear as gold, as the heat grows fierce apace;
Theft is a common deed for the price of a hit of broad,
And ;>nisor_ has played its p.v.t to sully the morning's face,

Tb.2 ho'-rs reel on, r.nd tease as a bow-cord drawn full taut
Zs th?f thought of the iSoomers ah; a sight t :in t is touched with awe:
A huddle of men and horse to the frenzy pitch upwronght,

A, we! ter of human-kind in the viewless grip c( the Law.

t.'- ! women are in the press, by scores they are yonder come
To fad a footing in front— ah, how can they gain a place?
Nay. softly, even here in the rabble are harbored some
Who think of their mothers, wives, who remember a fairer face.

For the black mass yawns to let these weak ones into the line,
While as many men fall hack ; dis knighthood nameless and great,
Sines it mean.' goodbye to a claim— yea, the end of a dream divine,
To be Ard of the land, and free fbr to follow a larger fate,.

TTi.-jh noon with a fusilade of guns and a deep, hoarse roar,
With a panting of short, sharp breaths in the mad desire to win,
Over the rrsysUc mark the seething thousands poi::\
A s the zenith sun glares down on the rush and the: demon's din.

God ! "vhat a race ; all life merged in the arrowy flight ;
Trample the brother down, murder, if need be so,
Ride like the wind and reach the Promised Land ere night,
The Strip h open, is ours, to build on, harrow and sow.

There comes a horror of flame, for look, the grass is afire!
On, or it licks our feet, on, or it chokes our breath !
Svdfi 1hrough the cacti..1? fly, swift, for it kindles higher;

H om e and love and life- or the ru:ll of an awtui death.

So, spent and bruised and scorched, down trails thick -strewn with hopes
A wreck, did the Boomers race to the place they would attain;