San Francisco

From The Birmingham Age-Herald, May 18, 1913.
 By S. E. Kiser.
 

 A pall hung over the broad blue bay;
 In smoking ruins the city lay—
 The splendid city so bravely planned—
 And Horror hastened from land to land
 And Sorrow’s sign was on every door
 For the far-famed city that was no more.
 
 And tearful men to their brethren said:
 “Its glory is gone and its greatness dead;
 Its marble halls and its stately homes
 Its towering walls and its lofty domes
 Its well-won pride and its careless glee
 Forever and ever have ceased to be!”
 
 But another city has risen there;
 They have made it great, they have made it fair;
 Its wharves have called to the wide world’s fleets
 And traffic roars through its crowded streets;
 Still glorified by the old romance
 It grieves no more o’er its sad mischance.
 
 They have left no trace on the flame-swept hills
 Of the twisted beams and the blackened sills,
 And over the haunts where vice was bred
 The glittering roofs of trade are spread;
 With matchless courage and splendid zeal
 They have made a marvel of stone and steel.
 
 They have planned with hope, they have wrought with pride
 And the spirit lives that men thought had died
 And they who were stricken so sorely dwell
 In a fairer city than that which fell
 And all that was lost in that day of despair
 They have bravely reclaimed and glorified there.
 
 The high hills gleam that were desolate
 And riches stream through the Golden Gate;
 A splendid city superbly planned
 Sends forth her greeting to every land,
 And fleets are sailing from every shore
 To the far-famed city that grieves no more.