THE TORPEDO - BOAT.

Then some will wish for land.

(They'd be sand fleas in the sand;

Or yellow grubs reposing in the loam !)

She's a floating boiler, crammed with fire and steam, A dainty toy, with works just like a watch;

A weaving, working basketful of tricks, —

A pent volcano, and stoppered at top-notch. She is Death and swift Destruction in a case

(Not the Unseen, but the Awful, plain in sight), The Dread that must be halted when afar;

She's a concentrated, fragile form of Might!
She's a daring, vicious thing,

With a rending, deadly sting,

And she asks no odds nor quarter in the fight!

-James Barnes.

35

Old Flag Forever.

SHE'S up there,-Old Glory,-where lightnings are sped;

She dazzles the nations with ripples of red;

And she'll wave for us living, or droop o'er us

dead,

The flag of our country forever!

She's up there,

stream!

Old Glory, - how bright the stars

And the stripes like red signals of liberty gleam!

And we dare for her, living, or dream the last dream,

'Neath the flag of our country forever!

She's up there, Old Glory,

no tyrant-dealt scars,

No blur on her brightness, no stain on her stars!

The brave blood of heroes hath crimsoned her bars.

She's the flag of our country forever!

- Frank L. Stanton.

THE FLAG.

The Flag.

ROLL a river wide and strong,

Like the tides a-swinging.

Lift the joyful floods of song,
Set the mountains ringing.
Run the lovely banner high, -
Crimson morning-glory!
Field as blue as yonder sky,
Every star a story.

Let the people, heart and lip, Hail the gleaming splendor! Let the guns from shore and ship Acclamation render!

All ye oceans, clap your hands! Echo plains and highlands, Speed the voice thro' all the lands To the Orient islands.

Darling flag of liberty!

Law and Love revealing,
All the downcast turn to thee,
For thy help appealing.
In the front for human right,
Flash thy stars of morning,

All that hates and hides the light
Flies before thy warning.

By the colors of the day,

By the breasts that wear them, To the living God we pray

For the brave that bear them! Run the rippling banner high;

Peace or war the weather, Cheers or tears, we'll live or die Under it together.

- M. W. S.

COLUMBIA.

Columbia.

MATED to the Millennium, Time's last heir

And proudest daughter, conquerless as he;

Girdled with lakes like jewels princely fair,
With strong feet planted in the Mexic sea!

Where Law is liberty, where Love is

power,

And the twain one, there Treason cannot dwell;

A fangless asp, it coiled one impotent hour,

But at thy white glance backward writhed to hell.

Leave dotard empires flames of drunken war,
Be thine chaste hours of labor and increase,
Vineyards and harvests yielding guiltless store,
Toil's bloodless battles on the plains of peace!

Yet when slain Weakness, dying at thy door, Summoning thy right arm's vengeance, clasps thy feet,

Thy sword that drinks her murderer's blood is pure As laughing sickles in the saffron wheat.