Poetry

read at the Welland House, St. Catharines, at a banquet given to the members in attendance at the Odd Fellows’ Grand Lodge.

St. Catharines famed for mineral waters
And for the beauty of her daughters,
For some do worship at the shrines
Of the fair St. Catharines.

St. Catharines your greatness you inherit
From the genius of a Merritt,
You still would be a village dreary
But for this canal from lake Erie.

For on its bosom there doth float
Full many a ship and steamboat,
Brings world’s commerce to your doors
And many gifts on you it pours.

Among its many great rewards
It gives you dry docks and ship yards,
To drive your mills great water power
It doth give you as a dower.

Since we above lines did compose,
Through new canal vast stream it flows,
The lock gates at the hill at Thorold
Can not be equaled in the world.

Lines on Credit Valley Trip

The Credit Valley Railway Company having placed a car at the service of the council we were kindly invited to accompany them to Toronto, a short time after the opening of the road.

Whene’er we take a tour abroad
We love to travel o’er new road,
Where scenery to us is new
And landscape pleasing to the view,
When invited for to rally
And take a trip on Credit Valley,
We resolved for to afford
A day with Council and School Board,
For to view the rural charms
Of hills and dales and fertile farms,
With joy we saw the sunbeams gleam
On Grand River beauteous stream,
And those perpendicular walls
Of rock, like old baronial halls,
We saw the great lake ebb and flow,
And queen city of Ontario,
While some enjoyed the genial smile
Of Hanlon on his lake girt isle,
Returning home each one exclaims
“Happiest spot is banks of Thames.”

Lines on Canadian Hunter

Of Kentucky’s great hunter bold
Old Daniel Boone oft tales are told,
Of wild beasts he had no fear,
But dangers loved that pioneer.

Canada has hunters many,
Yet perhaps there is not any
For skill and boldness can compare
With our own Daniel Hebner.

In youth he was both tall and strong,
And supple as a willow thong,
He never fled from savage bear,
Though bruin on hind legs would rear.

In hunting mink, or fox or coon,
He was a second Daniel Boone,
His rifle oft brought down the deer,
Which to his table brought good cheer.

But through his life his highest aim
Was to kill the savage game,
To track the wild cat to its lair
And see its eyes so fiercely glare.

But he oft longs for a cut ham,
Sweet as from bear near to Putnam,
For he waged his fiercest war
In big swamp of Dorchester.

Now in the winter Dan he rides
Warm ’mong his bear and coon skin hides,
He lets the younger men now snare
The beaver, muskrat and otter.

Hope for Ingersoll

Of Ingersoll we’re justly proud,
Though o’er it hath hung a cloud;
It was heavy, dark, profound,
Weighing o’er ten thousand pound.
But now the clouds do disappear,
And the sun is shining clear⁠—
Now, with pleasure, we do behold,
Our railroad bonds are good as gold.
The people now need not despair,
But thank our Council and our Mayor.4

Canadian Rivers and Lakes

We have here a sight as fair
As bonnie Doon or banks of Ayr,
Like modest worth meandering slow
The quiet waters gently flow,
Rose, thistle, shamrock, all combine,
Around the maple leaf to twine,
Whose outstretched arms so gigantic
Clasp Pacific and Atlantic,
Embracing lakes like burnished gold,
With joy a Shakespeare might behold,
For either Poet Burns or Moore5
Such scenery they would adore.

Life in the Woods

Lines on the struggles of the early settlers.

Canada hath wealthy yeomen
Whose fathers overcome the foemen,
The enemy they boldly slew
Was mighty forests they did hew,
And where they burned heaps of slain
Their sons now reap the golden grain,
But in the region of Northwest
With prairie farms they are blest.
Though this to them it may seem good
Yet many blessings come from wood,
It shelters you from the fierce storm
And in the winter keeps you warm,
For one who hath his forest trees
He builds his house and barn with ease,
And how quick he gets from thence
Timber for bridge and for his fence.

The Joys of Prairie Farmers

1884.

We let Ontario farmers sing
About the joys the woods do bring,
But we in regions of Northwest
Do think prairie farms the best,
For those poor men who swing the axe
On their strength ’tis a heavy tax,
For several years they naught can grow
While from the first we plow and sow,
And while we plow we don’t get thumps
By running it against the stumps,
And where wild Buffalo now doth feed
There very soon they’ll sow the seed,
Where Indian wigwams now do stand
Will be the site of cities grand,
And where the deer and wolf doth roam
Millions will build each happy home,
So quick as if by magic wand
They will arise o’er the whole land,
But this one fact we won’t deny
Ontario she can supply,
For so skilfully she doth invent
Each agricultural implement.

Nova Scotia

Lines written when Nova Scotia was threatening to withdraw from the Confederation.

If you are sulky, Nova Scotia,
We’ll gladly let you float away
From out our Confederation;
You sicken us with sly agitation.
If any more our patience you do tax
We’ll let you go to Halifax.

Port Stanley

Lines composed on an excursion to Port Stanley, 1883.

In winter time ’tis sad and dreary
For to gaze on stormy Erie,
But here in summer time this port
It is a fashionable resort,
For then it is always cheery
For to gaze upon Lake Erie.

Or on the steamer you can sail
All independent of the gale,
Or here the youth can ply the oar
And view the fast receding shore,
And be happy with his dearie
On the bosom of Lake Erie.

No one here need ever weary
On the borders of Lake Erie,
With quadrille parties at Stanley
And games and sports all so manly,
Or bathe in waves with friends near thee,
You fear no storms of Lake Erie.

Donald Ross

A Scottish-Canadian tale.

By the side of a moss
Lived young Donald Ross,
Among the heathery hills
And the mountain rills,
In a snug little cot
Content with his lot
He never knew sorrow
With his wife and wee Flora.

But an order went forth
O’er the land of the north,
To burn many