September Twenty-Third THE MOCKING-BIRD The name thou wearest does thee grievous wrong. No mimic thou! That voice is thine alone! The poets sing but strains of Shakespeare's song; The birds, but notes of thine imperial own! HENRY JEROME STOCKARD September Twenty-Fourth No other man did half so much either to develop the Constitution by expounding it, or to secure for the judiciary its rightful place in the Government as the living voice of the Constitution. The admiration and respect which he and his colleagues won for the court remain its bulwark: the traditions which were formed under him and them have continued in general to guide the action and elevate the sentiments of their successors. JAMES BRYCE John Marshall born, 1755 (England) September Twenty-Fifth We are gathered here a feeble few Have mingled with the clay: HENRY LYNDEN FLASH Memoirs of the Blue and Gray read at Los Angeles, 1897 September Twenty-Sixth Summer is dead, ay me! Sweet summer's dead! The sunset clouds have built his funeral pyre, Through which, e'en now, runs subterranean fire: While from the East, as from a garden-bed, Mist-vined, the Dusk lifts her broad moon like some Great golden melon-saying, "Fall has come." MADISON CAWEIN September Twenty-Seventb All America will soon treasure alike both Federal and Confederate exploits, in the greatest of wars, as a priceless national heritage. Then Semmes and the Alabama will shine beside John Paul Jones and the Bonhomme Richard, Decatur and the Philadelphia, Lawrence and the Chesapeake, and be ever lauded with the victories of Old Ironsides, the intrepid deed of Farragut sailing over the mines in the channel of Mobile Bay, that of Dewey entering Manila Harbor, and of Hobson bringing the Merrimac under the fire of the forts at Santiago. JOHN C. REED Raphael Semmes born, 1809 September Twenty-Eightb The Alabama had been built in perfect good faith by the Lairds. When she was contracted for no question had been raised as to the right of a neutral to build and sell to a belligerent such a ship. The reader has seen that the Federal Secretary of the Navy himself had endeavored not only to build an Alabama, but ironclads in England. RAPHAEL SEMMES John Laurens born, 1754 September Twenty-Ninth When summer flowers are dying, When Autumn's breath is sighing On the blast; When the red leaves flutter down Then the year kneels for its crown Goldenrod! VIRGINIA LUCAS September Thirtieth Thistles send their missives white To the sky; Robins southward wing their flight, (Sad goodbye!) But where Summer, yellow-gowned, Last has trod, Thorn-torn fragments strew the ground Goldenrod! VIRGINIA LUCAS October Thy glory flames in every blade and leaf To blind the eyes of grief; Thy vineyards and thine orchards bend with fruit A hectic splendor lights thy days to sleep, Ere the gray dusk may creep Sober and sad along thy dusty ways, Like a lone nun, who prays; High and faint-heard thy passing migrant calls; Thy lazy lizard sprawls On his gray stone, and many slow winds creep The Sun swings farther toward his love, the South, To kiss her glowing mouth; And Death, who steals among thy purpling bowers, JOHN CHARLES MCNEILL |