From East and West we come,
Armed and unarmed, the young, the old,
The Vandal and the Hun.
”Hurrah for our old Stars and Stripes,
Afloat, on ship or shore!
It never waved o'er coward heads;
God guard it evermore!ldquo;
And so came back the messenger,
As fleet as comes the wind;
The very horse half understood
The load he left behind.
And then they called the fathers out,
The fathers of the town,--
Wisdom has always dwelt with them
From pagan Romans down;--
And they resolved, “No hostile foot
Shall ever cross our soil;
That all should arm themselves, and keep
Our fields and towns from spoil.
“We'll tear our railroads up a space;
We'll burn our bridges down;
That no invading foe may harm
Our old and stately town.”
And when defence was all arranged,
All warlike plans were laid,
The softer counsels of the heart
Stole upwards to the head.
“We'll send them something up to eat,
Or all these famished men
Will not have strength enough to go
Back to their homes again.”
And so great loads of all good things
Went creaking up the road;
A sort of music in the wheels,
A moral in the load.
Hurrah for South! Hurrah for North!
Hurrah for our great land!
Three cheers for this old Brotherhood--
The Brotherhood of Man!
Baltimore Co., Md., April 30, 1861.
--Baltimore Co. American.
