Fourth Voice. When regal Autumn's bounteous hand With widespread glory clothes the land— When to the valleys from the brow Of each resplendent slope is rolled A ruddy stream of living gold We bless, we bless the plow! All. Clang, clang! First Voice. Again, my mates, what glows Beneath the hammer's potent blows? All. Clink, clank! we forge the giant CHAIN Which bears the gallant vessel's strain 'Mid stormy winds and adverse tides. Fifth Voice. Secured by this, the good ship braves Anxious no more, the merchant sees Calmly he rests, though far away Sixth Voice. Say on what sands these links shall sleep, Fathoms beneath the solemn deep?— By Afric's pestilential shore? By many an iceberg lone and hoar? By many a palmy western isle, Basking in spring's perpetual smile? By stormy Labrador? Seventh Voice. Say, shall they feel the vessel reel, When to the battery's deadly peal The crashing broadside makes reply? Or else, as at the glorious Nile, Hold grappling ships that strive the while All. Hurrah! cling, clang! First Voice. Once more, what glows, Dark brothers of the forge, beneath The tempest of your iron blows, The furnace's red breath? All. Clang, clang!-a burning shower, clear Around and up, in the dusky air, As our hammers forge . . . the SWORD! Clink, clank, clang! Eighth Voice. The sword! extreme of dread! yet when Upon the freeman's thigh 'tis bound, While for his altar and his hearth, While for the land that gave him birth, The war-drum rolls, the trumpets sound How sacred is it then! Ninth Voice. Whenever for the truth and right It flashes in the van of fight; Whether in some wild mountain's pass, Like that where fell Leonidas; Or on some sterile plain and stern, Then Then Is Liberty-where men do stand Still, still, whene'er the battle word may SELECT ETYMOLOGIES.-Anvil: A. S. anfilt, a block to hammer on. . . . Armada: Sp., a fleet of armed ships; fr. L. arma'tus, armed. . . . Colter or Coulter, the iron part in front of the plow with an edge that cuts the sod; fr. L. cul'ter, a plowshare, a knife. Furnace: L. fur'nus, an oven.... Saunter: Ger. schlentern, to wander idly about. XL.-CASCADE BRIDGE. [SEE FRONTISPIECE.] 1. WHAT distinguishes the Erie Road above all other railroads is its apparent disregard of natural difficulties. It disdains to borrow an underground passage through the heart of an opposing mountain, but climbs the steeps, looks over the tops of the pines and occasionally touches the skirt of a stray cloud. It descends with equal facility, with a slope in some places startlingly perceptible, throws its bridges across rivers, its viaducts over valleys, and sometimes runs along the brink of a giddy precipice with a fearless security which very much heightens the satisfaction of the traveler. 2. One of the most remarkable points on the road is the bridge over Cascade Ravine, which is crossed in the descent from the summit ridge of the Alleghanies to the Susquehanna. The mountain is here interrupted by a deep gorge or chasm, through the bottom of which a small stream trembles in its foamy course. Across this gulf, one hundred and eighty-four feet in depth, a single arch of two hundred and eighty feet span has been thrown, its abutments resting on the solid crags. This daring arch, which to the spectator below seems hung in mid-air, was eighteen months in building, and cost $70,000. A little to the north the gorge opens into the valley of the Susquehanna, disclosing through its rugged jaws the most beautiful landscape seen on the road. 3. It was the good fortune of the writer to be one of the guests in the first train which passed over the Cascade Ravine Bridge. At the close of December, 1848, the line was first opened from Port Jervis to Binghamton, a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. At the little villages on the route triumphal arches of fir and hemlock boughs were built for us, upon which antlered bucks, brought in by the hunters, stood straight and stiff. Every town which could boast a cannon gave a hearty salute, and as the early nightfall came on bonfires were lighted on the hills. It was after dark when we left Depcsit, and the snow was a foot deep on the track, but with two locomotives plowing through the drifts we toiled slowly to the summit. After we had passed the deep cut and had entered on the descending grade, it was found that, in consequence of the snow having melted around the rails and afterward frozen again, the breaks attached to the cars would not act. The wheels slipped over the icy surface, and in spite of the amount of snow that had fallen we shot down the mountain at the rate of forty miles an hour. 4. The light of our lamps showed us the white banks on either hand, the ghostly trees above and the storm that drove over all; beyond this was darkness. Some anxiety was felt as we approached the bridge over Cascade Ravine; the time was not auspicious for this first test of its solidity. Every eye peered into the gloom, watching for the critical spot, as we dashed onward. At last, in the twinkling of an eye, the mountain sides above and below us dropped out of sight and left us looking out on the void air. The lamps enabled us to see for an instant through the falling snowflakes the sharp tops of pines far below. For a second or two we hung above them, suspended over the terrible gulf, and then every one drew a deep breath as we touched the solid rock which forms the abutment of the arch. But our course was not checked till we reached the Susquehanna Valley, where we sped on past bonfires blazing redly over the snow, till the boom of minuteguns and the scream of our strong-lunged locomotives startled the inhabitants of Binghamton at midnight. 5. On our return the following day we reached the Cascade Ravine in the afternoon, and a halt was made to enable us to view the bridge from below. Scrambling through the snow down the slippery declivities, we at last reached the bottom of the gorge and looked up at the wonderful arch which spans it lightly as a rainbow. Firm set on its base of eternal granite, it gave not the slightest quiver when our train passed over. Although made of perishable materials, it will last as long as they hold together, for its mountain abutments cannot be shaken. Seen from below, the impression it makes upon the eye is most complete and satisfactory, combining the extreme of lightness and grace with strength and inflexible solidity. A few yards farther up the mountain the cloven chasm, over which the gnarled pines hang their sombre boughs, widens to a rocky basin into which falls a cascade seventy feet in height, whence the ravine takes its name. BAYARD TAYLOR. SELECT ETYMOLOGIES.-Abutment: fr. the F. aboutir, to meet at the end; fr. bout, end. . Bonfire: fr. the Danish baun, a beacon, and fire. . Gorge: F. gorge, a throat; L. gur'ges, a whirlpool. ... Locomotive: L. loc'us, place, and mov'eo, mo'tum, to move. . . . Ravine: fr. the F. ravin, a place excavated by a torrent; fr. the L. rap'io, I seize and carry off. ... A FAREWELL. I. FAREWELL! but whenever you welcome the hour II. And still on that evening when pleasure fills up Some kind voice had murmured, "I wish he were here!" |