NEMESIS.

Nemesis.

THE MAINE.

SHE glided on her peaceful quest,

What though her starry flag might bear

To some a silent, stern behest,

To some a breath of freedom's air; Then in her berth, a stately guest,

Slept, trustful, in that alien lair.

But what are bulkheads, fashioned well,
And what are sides and decks of steel,
Or cunning dial-hands, to tell,

Through night and day, of woe or weal,
When human hearts can league with hell
And sow volcanoes 'neath a keel?

So, by a deed whose blackness made

The night it chose seem white beside, Struck in the dark by coward's blade,

The knightly Maine leapt once and died,

A name to make a throne afraid,

A wreck that moaned beneath the tide!

THE OREGON.

But o'er the land the tidings swept,

And death-cries quivered through the wire; Down in the hole the engines leapt,

The coal sprang eager to the fire, And never slacked and never slept The sister war-ship's grim desire!

With patient throbs that never wane
A continent's long coast is won;
That nearing death-smoke on the main
Shall teach the lesson to the Don
That he who strikes a blow at Maine
Shall reckon yet with Oregon!

Ah, when her helm goes hard aport,
And all her broadside speaks in fire,

And from the proudly floating fort

The cheers ring out with brave desire, That sound shall shake a trembling court, And thrill Havana's sunken pyre!

-C. H. Crandall.

THE WAR SHIP "DIXIE."

The War-ship "Dixie."

THEY'VE named a cruiser "Dixie,”—that's whut the papers say,

An' I hears they're goin' to man her with the boys that wore the gray;

Good news! It sorter thrills me, an' makes me want

ter be

Whar the ban' is playin' "Dixie," an' the Dixie puts ter sea!

They've named a cruiser "Dixie." An', fellers, I'll be boun'

You're goin' ter see some fightin' when the Dixie swings aroun'!

Ef any o' them Spanish ships shall strike her, east or west,

Jest let the ban' play "Dixie," an' the boys'll do the

rest!

I want to see that Dixie,

I want ter take my stan' On the deck of her and holler: "Three cheers fer

Dixie lan'!"

She means we're all united, the war hurts healed

away,

An' "Way Down South in Dixie" is national to-day!

I bet you she's a good 'un! I'll stake my last red

cent

Thar ain't no better timber in the whole blame settle

ment !

An' all their shiny battle-ships beside that ship air

tame,

Fer, when it comes to "Dixie," thar's somethin' in a name!

Here's three cheers an' a tiger,

as hearty as kin be; An' let the ban' play "Dixie " when the Dixie puts

ter sea!

She'll make her way an' win the day from shinin' East

to West

Jest let the ban' play "Dixie," an' the boys'll do the

rest.

- Frank L. Stanton.

THE EAGLE'S SONG.

The Eagle's Song.

THE lioness whelped, and the sturdy cub
Was seized by an eagle, and carried up,
And homed for awhile in an eagle's nest,
And slept for awhile on an eagle's breast;
And the eagle taught it the eagle's song:
"To be stanch, and valiant, and free, and

strong!"

The lion whelp sprang from the eyrie nest,
From the lofty crag where the queen birds rest;
He fought the King on the spreading plain,
And drove him back o'er the foaming main.
He held the land as a thrifty chief,
And reared his cattle, and reaped his sheaf,
Nor sought the help of a foreign hand,
Yet welcomed all to his own free land!

Two were the sons that the country bore
To the Northern lakes and the Southern shore;
And Chivalry dwelt with the Southern son,
And Industry lived with the Northern one.

Tears for the time when they broke and fought!
Tears was the price of the union wrought!

And the land was red in a sea of blood,

Where brother for brother had swelled the flood!