The Poets and Poetry of Cecil County, Maryland Part 47

On, Comrades! faint not now-- Ours is a manly part!

Toil, for a glorious meed is ours-- The fulcrum of all earthly powers Is in our hands and heart.

Toil, toil, toil-- Life is labor and love: Live, love and labor is then our song, Till we lay down our toils for the resting throng, With our Architect above.

Then monuments will stand That need no polish'd rhyme-- Firm as the everlasting hills, High as the clarion note that swells The "praises of all time."

ODE TO DEATH.

I do not fear thee, Death!

I have a bantering thought!--though I am told Thou art inflexible, and stern, and bold; And that thy upas breath Rides on the vital air; Monarch and Prince of universal clime, Executor of the decrees of Time-- Sin's dark, eternal heir.

Over the land and sea Is felt the swooping of thy ebon wings, And on my ear thy demon-chuckle rings, Over the feast the panting summer brings, "For me--'tis all for me!"

All seasons and all climes-- In city crowded, and in solitude, Ye gather your unsatisfying food; Ev'n through the rosy gates of joy intrude Thy deep, sepulchral chimes.

I know thee well, though young; Thrice, ruthlessly, this little circle broke Hast thou. A brother, sister--then the Oak, (Ah, hadst thou spared that last and hardest stroke,) Round which our young hopes clung!

Ye wantonly have crush'd, By your untimely and avenging frost, The buds of hope which bid to promise most; Oh! had ye known the heart-consuming cost, Could ye, O! Death have hush'd

The music that endears, And makes this chill'd existence tolerable?

Yet will I not such selfishness--'tis well; I hear, I hear a happier, holier swell From out the eternal spheres!

I do defy thee, Death!

Why flee me, like a debtor in arrears?

To weary out the agony of years, With nothing but the bitter brine of tears, And scarcer existing breath.

My soul is growing strong, And somewhat fretful with its house of clay, And waiting quite impatiently to lay It off, and soar in light away, To hymn th' "eternal song."

This is a cowardice Perhaps--a deep, mean selfishness withal.

That whets our longings in the spirit's thrall To lay aside these trials, and forestall The hours of Paradise.

Thou wise, Eternal G.o.d!

Oh, let me not offend Thy great design!

Teach thou thy erring mortal to resign, Make me be patient, let me not repine Beneath this chast'ning rod; Though storm and tempest whelm, And beat upon this naked barque, 'tis well; And I shall smile upon their heaviest swell-- Hush, rebel thoughts!--my heart be calm and still, The Master's at the helm!

HENRY VANDERFORD.

Henry Vanderford, editor and journalist, was born at Hillsborough, Caroline county, Md., December 23, 1811. His maternal ancestors were from Wales, his paternal from Holland. He was educated at Hillsborough Academy, a celebrated inst.i.tution at that time, having pupils from the adjoining counties of Queen Anne's and Talbot. He acquired a knowledge of the art of printing in the office of the _Easton Star_, Thomas Perrin Smith, proprietor. From 1835 to 1837 he published the _Caroline Advocate_, Denton, Md., the only paper in the county, and neutral in politics, though the editor was always a decided Democrat, and took an active part in the reform movement of 1836, which resulted in the election of the "Glorious Nineteen" and the Twenty-one Electors. The press and type of the _Advocate_ were transferred in 1837 to Centreville, Queen Anne's county, where he founded the _Sentinel_, the first Democratic paper published in that county, in January, 1838. He was appointed for three successive years by Governor Grason chief judge of the Magistrate's Court, but declined the office. In 1840 he was appointed Deputy Marshal for Queen Anne's, and took the census of that county in that year. In 1842 he sold the _Sentinel_ and removed to Baltimore, where, three years later, he resumed his profession and founded _The Ray_, a weekly literary and educational journal, and the subsequent year published the _Baltimore Daily News_, and the _Weekly Statesman_, in company with Messrs. Adams and Brown, under the firm of Adams, Vanderford & Brown. The _News_ and _Statesman_ were Democratic papers. In February, 1848, he bought _The Cecil Democrat_ of Thomas M.

Coleman, enlarged the paper, quadrupled its circulation, and refitted it with new material. In 1865 he sold out the _Democrat_ to Albert Constable and Judge Frederick Stump, and bought a farm in St. Mary's county, Md., and engaged in agriculture. Three years later, failing health of himself and family, induced him to sell his farm and remove to Middletown, Del., where he founded the _Transcript_, and resumed the business of a printer and publisher. The _Transcript_ was the first paper published in that town, and was a success from the start. It was transferred in 1870 to his youngest son, Charles H. Vanderford. From 1870 to 1878 he was a.s.sociated with his eldest son, William H.

Vanderford, in the publication of _The Democratic Advocate_, Westminster, Md. In 1873 he was elected to the House of Delegates from Carroll county, and in 1879 to the Senate, in which body he held the important position of Chairman of the Committee on Finance, and was a member of the Committee on Engrossed Bills and the Committee on Printing.

On the 6th of June, 1839, he married Angelina, the daughter of Henry Vanderford, of Queen Anne's county, a distant relative of his father.

Mr. Vanderford is a member of the Masonic Order, and he and his wife are both communicants of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the Church of their ancestors, as far back as the history of the Church can be traced in the Eastern part of Maryland. Charles Vanderford, great grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was a vestryman of St. Paul's Parish, Centreville, Md., in 1719. Charles Wrench Vanderford was his grandfather, and a member of the Old Maryland Line, in the Revolutionary war. William Vanderford, his father, was a native of Queen Anne's county, where the family held a grant of land of one thousand acres from the crown, located between Wye Mills and Hall's Cross Roads, on which the old mansion was built of brick imported from England.

Mr. Vanderford is now in retiracy, in the 76th year of his age, but still active, and in the possession of good health and as genial and cheerful as in the days of his prime.

ON THE MOUNTAINS.

Written after a visit to Rawley Springs, in the mountains of Virginia.

On the mountains! Oh, how sweet!

The busy world beneath my feet!

Outspread before my raptur'd eyes The wide unbounded prospect lies; The panoramic vision glows In beauty, grandeur and repose.

I gaze into the vaulted blue And on the em'rald fields below; The genial sunlight s.h.i.+mmers down Upon the mountain's rugged crown, The eye sweeps round the horizon Until its utmost verge is won.

The h.o.a.ry peaks, with forests crown'd, Spread their vast solitudes around, And intervening rocks and rills The eye with very transport fills.

The bosom wells with joy serene While viewing all the lovely scene, The spirit soars on airy wings Above all sublunary things.

I peer into the depths profound Of the cerulean around, And ether's far-off heights I scan, As if, to feeble finite man, The power of vision here were given To view the battlements of heaven.

But, though I gaze and gaze intent, Close scanning all the firmament, No Mount of Vision unto me Does this bold summit prove to be.

Though in elysian wrapt the while, Where sublimated thoughts beguile, Icarian pinions, all too frail, Were sure my fancy's flight to fail.

Confined within this mortal clod, Vain man would yet ascend to G.o.d, Presumptuous, as of yore, to be The heir of immortality.

But, from those fair, celestial heights Of fervid fancy's loftiest flights, My airy visions topple down To where cool reason's realm is found, And fancy folds her weary wings, Content, the while, with earthly things.

PROGRESS.

"Man hath sought out many inventions."

The planets, forced by Nature's law, Within their orbits ceaseless roll, And man the lesson thence may draw-- By industry to reach his goal.

Hail! industry's all-conquering might!

Hail! engineering's giant skill!

That clambers up the mountain height, And intervening valleys fill.

The enterprise of man shall know No bounds upon this mundane sphere, Whate'er his hands may find to do He executes with skill and care.

His genius Nature's self subdues, And all her powers subservient lie At his command, and pleas'd he views His great resources multiply.

He mines the earth and skims the air, He plows the main, descends the deep, And through its silent chambers there, Electric forces flash and leap.

He flies, upon the wings of steam, Mounts up with aerostatic pow'r, He paints with every solar beam-- Unfolds new wonders ev'ry hour!

Not in material things alone Does Progress mark its high career, Fair science builds her regal throne, And morals her triumphal car.

Man stands erect--his image fair In G.o.d's own likeness first was cast, His high prerogatives appear, He seeks his destiny at last.

Upward and onward is his course, In mental and in moral life, With higher purpose, now, perforce, With loftier aspirations rife.

In matters both of Church and State, A high ambition spurs him on, With buoyancy and hope elate, He plies his task till it be done.

WINTER.