"Ours the wild life in tumult still to range, From toil to rest, and joy in every change. Oh, who can tell? Not thou, luxurious slave, Whose soul would sicken o'er the heaving wave; Not thou, vain lord of wantonness and ease, Whom slumber soothes not--pleasures cannot please; Oh, who can tell, save he whose heart hath tried, And danced in triumph o'er the waters wide, The exulting sense--the pulse's maddening play, That thrills the wanderer of that trackless way? * * * * * * * * * Death! Come when it will--we snatch the life of life; When lost--what recks it--by disease or strife? Let him who crawls, enamored of decay, Cling to his couch, and sicken years away; Heave his thick breath, and shake his palsied head; Ours! the fresh turf, and not the feverish bed; While gasp by gasp he falters forth his soul, Ours, with one pang--one bound--escapes control. His corpse may boast its wan and narrow cave, And they who loathed his life, may gild his grave: Ours are the tears, though few, sincerely shed, When ocean shrouds and sepulchres our dead."
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE OFFICERS OF THE SUMTER--HER FIRST PRIZE, WITH OTHER PRIZES, IN QUICK SUCCESSION--HER FIRST PORT.
Captain Poor, the commander of the _Brooklyn_, was greatly censured by his Government, for permitting the escape of the _Sumter_. It was even hinted that there had been treason, in the engine-room of the _Brooklyn_, as one or more of the engineers had been heard to express sentiments favorable to the South. There was no truth, of course, in this report. It had its origin in the brain of a people, who, having become traitors, themselves, to their former principles, were ready to suspect, and to impute treason to every one else. The greatest offence which had been committed by Captain Poor was that he had probably permitted his cupidity to draw him away from his station. He had chased a prize, in his eagerness to clutch the prize-money, a little too far--that was all. But in this, he sinned only in common with his countrymen. The thirst of gain, as well as the malignity of hate, seemed, from the very first days of the war, to have seized upon a majority of the Northern people. The Army, and the Navy, professions hitherto held honorable, did not escape the contamination. They were soon found, first plundering, and then maliciously burning private houses. The spectacle of cotton-thieving was more than once presented by the highest dignitaries of the two services--the Admiral quarrelling with the General, as ignoble rogues are wont to quarrel, as to which rightly pertained the booty.