The Iron Horseman

This past Tuesday we recalled that day when our country was torn. It is a very hard topic to ponder, and yet - since I have LIVED in the 1800s for some time - I have had to consider that topic at length. No; I am not here to argue about it - about that war, about slavery, about States' Rights, the Industrial Revolution, Regionalism, or any of the multitude of matters which link to that terror. For one thing, I had too many friends on both sides, too many friends who were right and wrong, too many who suffered... No; I have another Purpose. (Which word makes some of the attentive Tooks among us sit up and take notice!)

You see, God is so powerful, He can even bring good out of evil. I take advantage of this idea in my Saga; as you shall learn eventually, something important happens during that War. Later (in 1875) Mary Fisher wrote a poem, and I thought I might anticipate my own story a little by posting it now. Yes, it has some hints; no, it will not spoil your surprise, but merely intensify it.

The Iron Horseman

Virgo respice,
Mater, aspice,
Audi nos, o Maria!
Tu medicinam
Portas divinam
Ora, ora pro nobis.

-- "O Sanctissima" 4th verse

He dreamed, and so a plan was made,
He acted, thus the rails were laid:
Dug from earth and born in fire,
Going further, building higher:
Iron turning, upon an iron road
Nor war nor death their motion slowed.

His smiling face, his hand that worked
From honor left no task unshirked;
"Ite ad astra" was his dream,
His carriages all yoked to steam.
And so to cultivate the ground
A place for study he did found.

A nation torn, yet still he toiled,
From evil plans his heart recoiled
And engineered a greater plan
To bring aid to the heart of Man:
Locked within his triple steel:
The Good perform; the Truth reveal.

O distant son who runs the thousand miles,
He waits to give his warmest smiles.

"MMF 1875"
(by Mary Mortimer Fisher; written after Joseph Chandler died)

(made Jan 24, 2011. Copyright © 2011 by Dr. Thursday.)