The Home Of Yesterday

O, pioneer of Kansas,
A song I sing of thee.
Whose stand for freedom ended
The curse of slavery.
Who settled where the bluestem,
Like deep seas rolled away,
And raised above the billows
The home of yesterday.

The home of yesterday^___a speck
Upon the prairie wild,
A little house of rough-hewn logs
To shelter wife and child.
Inside the weekly paper hid
Its rough uneven wall.
A rifle o'er the door for use
If danger should befall.

The home of yesterday was free
To all who ope'd its door,
And 'round its fireplace strangers made
Their beds upon the floor.
And welcome thrice the wanderer
Who in the darkening night,
For miles had kept his face toward
It's lonely beacon light.

How fast the years have numbered
Since first the log house came,
The prairies of the 50's
No longer look the same.
Now cities screened by treetops
Are scattered here and there,
Where then the prairie flowers cast
Their fragrance on the air.

O, cabins of the 50's
How few remain today;
And these as barns or corn-cribs
Are crumbling to decay.
Their builders, too, are falling,
For frosts of many years
Have changed to gray the locks of these,
Our early pioneers.

Undying fame and glory
To him who wore the blue,
The soldier of the 60's
Who proved himself so true.
His noble deeds of valor
All patriots revere
And Justice by his side will place,
The Kansas Pioneer.

^__Ed Blair.

Sunflower Siftings
Ed Blair
(Boston: The Gorham Press. 1914)
Pages 145-146