O, the billows of fire!
With maelstrom-like swirl,
Their surges they hurl
Over roof, over spire,
Mad, masterless, higher,
Till rumble--crack--crash--
Down boom with a flash,
Whole columns of granite and marble: see! see!
Sucked in as a weed on the ocean might be,
Or engulfed as a sail
In the hurricane-riot and wreak of the gale!
Ha! yonder they rush where the death-dealing steam,
Over-pent, waits their gleam
To shudder the city with earthquake! Who, _who_
Will adventure mid-flame, and unfasten the screw,
Set the fiend loose, and save us so? Firemen, you--
_You_ willing? Would God you might hazard it! Nay,
The red tongues are licking the faucets now! Stay!
Too late!--’tis too late!
If ruin, explosion, must come, let us wait
Its coming: to go is to perish.--Hold! hold!
You are young--I am old--
You’ve a wife too--and children?... O God, he is gone
Straight into destruction! The pipes, men! On--on!
Play the water-stream on him--full--faster--the whole!
And now ... Christ save his soul!
I stifle--I choke--
And _he_--Heaven grant that he smother in smoke
Ere the dread detonation! Hark!--hark! What’s the shout?
_Is he saved? Is he out?_
Did he compass his purpose?... The hero! _One_ name
This pencil of fire on the records of Fame
Shall blazon, if justice is meted. Why here
On my cheek is a tear,
Which not a whole city in ashes could claim!
His name, now,--_can nobody tell me his name_?
--MARGARET JUNKIN PRESTON.
(By special permission of Dr. George J. Preston.)
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