Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 297, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 December 1910 — The ONLOOKER [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The ONLOOKER

by WILBUR D NESBIT

Oh, I love to hear the thrum and the rumble of the drum marching soldiers come. For I think- of how the, beat has been timing trudging feet Through the years that are forgotten, over path and road and street.

All the legions of the past, armies small and armies vast, Trod the measure of the drumbeat while the dloe of war were cast, And the rattle and the roll wake an echo' In my soul. Wake a war song from the ages when' men fared to glory's goal. -

As a word is caught and flung .on the breezes from the tongue, So the shouting song of warefare~ By the thrumming drum is sung, And the shouts of days of yore that once swept the plain and shore Are re-echoed and re-echoed in the vibrant roll and roar.

And the blood within my veins races on until It pains. While the ancient song of battle in its cadence ebbs and wanes, And I know now why It was men could perish for a cause. Why they died upon the altar for their precepts and their laws.

Ho, a thousand thousand feet have gone marching to Its beat; That has rolled across the valleys in the cold and In the heat; Men have gone from home and hearth from their grief and from their mirth. When the drum sent fprth its summons for the country of their birth.

And I cannot tell you why, but a tear Is in my eye When 1 see the flashing beauty of Old Glory In the sky, As I hear the throb an’d thrum and the rumble of the drum When the fifes are singing shrilly and tne marching soldiers come.