Part 8 (1/2)

Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead, Dear as the blood ye gave; No impious footstep here shall tread The herbage of your grave; Nor shall your glory be forgot While Fame her record keeps, Or Honor points the hallowed spot Where Valor proudly sleeps.

Yon marble minstrel's voiceless stone, In deathless song shall tell, When many a vanished age hath flown The story how ye fell; Nor wreck, nor change, nor winter's blight, Nor Time's remorseless doom, Shall dim one ray of glory's light That gilds your deathless tomb.

HOW OLD BROWN TOOK HARPER'S FERRY

EDMUND CLARENCE STEDMAN

[Sidenote: Oct. 16-Dec. 2, 1859]

_It was on Sunday, October 16th, that John Brown took the a.r.s.enal at Harper's Ferry. On the 18th he was captured. On December 2d he was hanged. One year later began the War which caused the abolition of slavery._

John Brown in Kansas settled, like a steadfast Yankee farmer, Brave and G.o.dly, with four sons, all stalwart men of might.

There he spoke aloud for freedom, and the Borderstrife grew warmer, Till the Rangers fired his dwelling, in his absence, in the night; And Old Brown Osawatomie Brown, Came homeward in the morning--to find his house burned down.

Then he grasped his trusty rifle and boldly fought for freedom; Smote from border unto border the fierce, invading band; And he and his brave boys vowed---so might Heaven help and speed 'em!-- They would save those grand old prairies from the curse that blights the land; And Old Brown, Osawatomie Brown, Said, ”Boys, the Lord will aid us!” and he shoved his ramrod down.

And the Lord _did_ aid these men, and they labored day and even, Saving Kansas from its peril; and their very lives seemed charmed, Till the ruffians killed one son, in the blessed light of Heaven,-- In cold blood the fellows slew him, as he journeyed all unarmed; Then Old Brown, Osawatomie Brown, Shed not a tear, but shut his teeth, and frowned a terrible frown!

Then they seized another brave boy,--not amid the heat of battle, But in peace, behind his ploughshare,--and they loaded him with chains, And with pikes, before their horses, even as they goad their cattle, Drove him cruelly, for their sport, and at last blew out his brains; Then Old Brown, Osawatomie Brown, Raised his right hand up to Heaven, calling Heaven's vengeance down.

And he swore a fearful oath, by the name of the Almighty, He would hunt this ravening evil that had scathed and torn him so; He would seize it by the vitals; he would crush it day and night; he Would so pursue its footsteps, so return it blow for blow, That Old Brown, Osawatomie Brown, Should be a name to swear by, in backwoods or in town!

Then his beard became more grizzled, and his wild blue eye grew wilder, And more sharply curved his hawk's-nose, snuffing battle from afar; And he and the two boys left, though the Kansas strife waxed milder, Grew more sullen, till was over the b.l.o.o.d.y Border War, And Old Brown, Osawatomie Brown, Had gone crazy, as they reckoned by his fearful glare and frown.

So he left the plains of Kansas and their bitter woes behind him, Slipt off into Virginia, where the statesmen all are born, Hired a farm by Harper's Ferry, and no one knew where to find him, Or whether he'd turned parson, or was jacketed and shorn; For Old Brown, Osawatomie Brown, Mad as he was, knew texts enough to wear a parson's gown.

He bought no ploughs and harrows, spades and shovels, and such trifles; But quietly to his rancho there came, by every train, Boxes full of pikes and pistols, and his well-beloved Sharp's rifles; And eighteen other madmen joined their leader there again.

Says Old Brown, Osawatomie Brown, ”Boys, we've got an army large enough to march and take the town!”

”Take the town, and seize the muskets, free the negroes and then arm them; Carry the County and the State, ay, and all the potent South.

On their own heads be the slaughter, if their victims rise to harm them-- These Virginians! who believed not, nor would heed the warning mouth.”

Says Old Brown, Osawatomie Brown, ”The world shall see a Republic, or my name is not John Brown.”

'T was the sixteenth of October, on the evening of a Sunday: ”This good work,” declared the captain, ”shall be on a holy night!”

It was on a Sunday evening, and before the noon of Monday, With two sons, and Captain Stephens, fifteen privates--black and white, Captain Brown, Osawatomie Brown, Marched across the bridged Potomac, and knocked the sentry down;

Took the guarded armory-building, and the muskets and the cannon; Captured all the county majors and the colonels, one by one; Scared to death each gallant scion of Virginia they ran on, And before the noon of Monday, I say, the deed was done.

Mad Old Brown, Osawatomie Brown, With his eighteen other crazy men, went in and took the town.

Very little noise and bl.u.s.ter, little smell of powder made he; It was all done in the midnight, like the Emperor's _coup d'etat_.

”Cut the wires! Stop the rail-cars! Hold the streets and bridges!” said he, Then declared the new Republic, with himself for guiding star,-- This Old Brown, Osawatomie Brown; And the bold two thousand citizens ran off and left the town.

Then was riding and railroading and expressing here and thither; And the Martinsburg Sharpshooters and the Charlestown Volunteers, And the Shepherdstown and Winchester Militia hastened whither Old Brown was said to muster his ten thousand grenadiers.

General Brown!