Show DANIEL RITOSS HIDE HV AL11ION W TOUROnC All day lone the river flowed Down by the winding mountain rond Leaping and roaring in angry mood At stubborn rocks in its way that stood Sullen the gleam of Its rippled crest Dark was the foam on its yellow breast The dripping banks on either side But half imprisoned the turgid tide By farm and Tillage It quickly sped The weeping skies bent low oerhead Foamier and roshin and tumllltn down Into thEstreets of pent Johnstown n Down through the valley of Conemaugh Down through the dam of shale and straw To the granite bridge where its waters pour Through arches wide with dismal roar All day long the pitiful tide Babbled death on the mountain side And all day long with jest and sigh They who were doomed that day to die Turned deafened ears to the warning roar They had heard so oft and despised before Yet women trembledthe mothers eyes Turned oft to the lowering woeful skies Andshuddered co think what might befall Should the flood burst over the earthen wall So all day long they went up and down Heedless of peril in doomed Johnstown All day long in the chilly gloom Of a thrifty merchants counting room Oer the ledger bent with anxious care Old PiTitons only son and heir A commonplace plodding industrious youth Counting debit and credit the highest truth And profit and loss a more honored game Than searching for laurels or fighting for fame He saw the dark tide as it swept by the door But heeded it not till his task was oer Then saddled his horse a blackpointed bay High stepping nighblooded grandson of Dismay Dis-may Rawboned and deep chested his eyes full of fire The temper or Satan Magog was his sire Arched fetlocks strong quarters low knees And lean bony head his dam gave him these The foal of a racer transformed to a cob For the son of the merchant when out of a job Now Ill see said Dan Periton mounting the bay Vfrat danger there Is of the dam giving way j I marveloi Sight young Periton saw I When he rode QD the valley of Coneniausii Seventy feet the water fell i With the roar like the angry oceans swell I Seventy feet from the crumbling crest iTo i-To the rock on cl Ci tao foundations rest i Seventy feet fell the ceaseless flow Into the boiling gulf below I Dan Peritous choek grew pale with feer I As the echoes fell on his startled ear And ho thought of the weight of the peatup tide thu t J That hung on the rifted mountain i < vgntup i Held by that heap of stone and straw Oer the swarming valley of Conemaugh I ie rawboned bay with quivering ears Displayed a brutes Instinctive fears Snorted and pawed with flashing eye Seized to the curb and turned to fly l Ban Periton tightened his grip on the rein Sat close to the saddle glanced backward again Touched the bay with the spur then gave him his head And down the steep valley they clattering sped Then the horse showed its breedingthe close gripping knees Felt tno strong shoulders working with unflagging unflag-ging ease As milo after mile neath the high blooded bay The steep mountain turnpike flew backward away While with outstretched neck he went galloping down With the message of warning to periled Johnston Johns-ton Past farm house aId village while shrilly out rang Oer the rivers deep roar and the hoofs iron clang His gallant young riders premonitant shout Fly I Fly to the hills I The waters ara outl PastMineral Point there came such roar As never had shaken those mountains before I Dan urged the good horse then with word End caress would be his last race what mattered distress dis-tress 1 A mile farther on and behind him he spied The wreckladen crest of the death dealing tide Then he plied whip and spur and redoubled the shout To the hills I To the hills I The waters are out Thus horseman and flood tide came racing It down The cinderpaved streets of doomed Johnstown I Daniel Periton knew that his dobm was nigh Yet never once faltered his clarion cry The blood ran off from his good steeds side Over him hung the white crest of the tide His hair felt the touch of the eygres breath The spray on his cheek was the cold kiss of death Beneath him the horse gan to tremble and droop He saw the pale rider who sat on the croup I But clear over all rang hislait warning shout To the hills To tho hills I For tho waters are out Then the tide reared its head and leaped vengefully venge-fully down On the horse and his rider in fated Johnstown That horse is a hero so poets still say That brought the good news of the treaty of Air And the steed is immortal which carried Revere Through the echoing night with his message of fear And the one that bore Sheridan into the fray From Winchester town twenty miles away But none of these merits a nobler lay Than young Daniel Peritons rawboned bay That raced down the valley of Conemaugh With the tide that rushed through the dam of straw Roaring and rushing and tearing down On the fated thousands in doomed Johnstown In the very track of the eygres swoop With Dan on the saddle and Death on the croup The foam on his nostrils flew back on the wind And mixed with th foam of the billow behind A terrible vision the morrow saw In the desolate valley of Coaemaugh The river had shrunk to its narrow bed But its way was choked with the heapedup dead Gainst the granite bridge with Its arches four Lay the wreck of a city that delves no more And undor it all so the searchers say Stood the sprawling limbs of the gallant bay Stto med in the drift of the Conemaugh A gooulier statue man never saw Dans foot in the stirrup his hand on the rein ISo I-So shall they live in white marble again And ages shall tell as they gaze on the group Of the race that ho ran while Death sat on the croup Independent |