Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/630

 548 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNTY The arch o'er Red Wing's summer home Was higher than St. Peter's dome, And lit with heaven's tapers, — The stars, aflash with diamond sheen, Than which more glorious ne 'er was seen Since fled creation r s vapors. Before the words, ""Let there be light," The King of Day and Queen of Night I shered into the places Which they have held from age to age, While monarchs on earth's shifting stage ■ Have hid in dust their faces. And Red Wing brave has passed away Like potentates of wider sway, And cruelty, and pillage; His trail is covered by the years Of peace and war. of thrift and tears; And what of Red Wing's village? The Landscape shows divinely fair The beauty that it used to wear On hill and vale and river; The ether clear makes background yet For sun and moon and stars thai set A poel 's heart aquiver. Where rose the wigwam's curling smoke. The factories' fume of coal and coke Ascends in mighty pillars; The whir of mills is daily heard AVhere leaped the fawn and sang the bird When squaws alone were millers. Now mansions rise where tents were spread, A growing "City of the Dead" Bears witness to the living That toil and strife must sometime cease, That life is held by doubtful lease, For getting or for giving. But while the kilns of potteries burn, And while the wheels of traffic turn. To strenuous life inciting,