Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1908 — HOME-COMING DAY [ARTICLE]

HOME-COMING DAY

In Rensselaer • ' £ 1x... - - * By Graco Nichols’Loathorock, Putnam, Oklahoma ~ ■ They’re coming home from many lands, They’re coming home to shake glad hands; To share fond hopes and royal cheer— They’re coming home to Rensselaer. From the Pacific’s fruitful shore, From isles where tropic surges roar, From prairie farm and city dome And college halls, they’re coming home. The flags will wave, the flowers will glow; The scarlet salvia burning low, Fall roses and the rich perfume Of apple trees, and clover bloom, And blue grajss! Hush, we love it so, While swaying slowly to and fro The oak and maple leaves have laid Each stately street in checkered shade. In that broad square the band will play, Like summer echoes far away; Soft haunting strains, whose melody Weaves from the wealth of memory A net of unseen silver strings, Which like the angels’ swift wide wings, Bears still across the distance where $ Wait wistful ones who can’t be there, To hear, as in their dreams they hear, The court house bells of Rensselaer. When they have opened up for me The narrow door whose noiseless key Unlocks the Deeper Mystery, Whose meaning must be for us all A better chance, a higher call; If then the Giver of the' Task, * In loving Fatherhood should ask [Not for the years I bring to Him, But for the effort, lone and dim In vagueness and futility, Mistakes and all humility.] If but one blessing might be mine, Granted by tenderness divine; This longing then I’d name most dear, To reunite with Rensselaer.