The sad city of Lancaster.
And the dead, one hundred sixteen,
White and black, were laid to slumber,
Laid to rest from toil forever,
In the old, neglected graveyard.
It was not so old in those days;
Flowers bloomed upon the hillocks,
Blossoms waved among the grasses;
Now, sweet flowers of remembrance,
Live among the few survivors
Of that sleeping generation;
Live with those whose hearts are faithful
To the victims of the death-knell,
Of the fatal epidemic
Of eighteen hundred three and thirty.

And the changing cycle moved on,
As the moons were waxing, waning.

Turn we now from pictures ghastly,
For the hand of God is lightened;
Sing no longer mournful dirges,
For the earth is glad and merry;
Let the requiems rest silent
In the lull of deep thanksgiving.
For the wrath of heaven is lifted,
Lifted from the rescued city.
Gone, the sound of rolling death-cart,
Hushed, the ringing, tolling belfry,
Still, the bier and gloomy shovel,
Still, the idle, listless sexton.
Other days of anxious watching
Followed, one or two years later;
Days when fierce, destructive fevers
Darkened many homes with mourning.[2]
Yet the citizens are happy
In this season of glad respite;
Now the people of the township
Open wide the doors of welcome
To the long-abandoned firesides;
Open now the shop and office
To the artisan and student;
Active now the hands long folded
From the busy round of labor,
And the fields of grain and verdure
Wave once more beneath the sunlight.
Fields of corn and wheat and barley,
Fields of oats and rye and clover,
Fields of hemp and of tobacco,
All the products and the grasses
Spring again to life and beauty.
Let us sing no more lamenting
For the boon of life is granted,
Swell the choral hallelujah
To the Giver of all blessings,
To the Guardian of our fortunes,
The great Healer of diseases,
Our Preserver from disaster,
Our Physician and our Father,
The beneficent Jehovah,
Who hath stayed the scourge's power,
Who hath stilled the epidemic
Of eighteen hundred three and thirty.

[2]What was known as the Lancaster fever prevailed in 1835. A fatal fever
also visited Lancaster in 1836, caused by the grading of the public
square. Dr. Luther Buford discovered the origin of the malaria and
wrote a thesis upon the subject.

CANTO VII.