THE RAILROAD TRAIN 323
Yet, sooty monster, such alone
Have cause to fear 1 With service fine,
Of all philanthropists, not one Can prove beneficence like thine.
Thou sea to sea, and land to land,
And state to state dost firmly bind ; Through thee shall earth and ocean stand
In a more steadfast friendship joined.
Thou hastenest news of good and ill, And scatterest knowledge in thy flight ;
Through thee shall man's industrious skill Earth's hidden treasures bring to light.
By thee made tame, each jarring race
Its old hostilities shall quell ; Thou shalt subdue both time and space,
And dark delusion's mists dispel.
O swift-winged Messenger, or whether
A thinking or a thoughtless thing, That thus so speedily together
The tribes of all the earth canst bring,
Till through repeated intercourse
Men are more friendly grown each day !
Well may we thank, O iron horse,
The chief who taught thee to obey,—
Who noosed thee in thy native wild, And tamed thy rage with patient skill,
And made thee gentle as a child. The servant of a wiser will.
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