USA > Maryland > Harford County > The rocks of Deer Creek, Harford County, Maryland. Their legends and history > Part 7
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"In ages past, so runs a legend old, These rocks were the wild home of warriors bold ; Here they in council met, and warfare planned, Talked o'er the mighty secrets of their dusky band; I fancy how the echoes have rung out, The noisy clamor of their war-cry shout.
Long years have passed away, the red man's tread
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No longer echoes there; the wild, fierce tribe is dead, And nought remains but memories alone,
And two rough seats hewn from the solid stone.
" These were the lofty thrones of King and Queen, Spread now with moss and trailing vines of green ; We rested in their depths, and pictured rare Visions of Indian beauties, wild yet fair ; All still and silent now, only the breeze Comes whispering soft sweet stories through the trees, And echoes only waken to the words Of untold beauty in the songs of birds, Those clearest, bell-like tones that float and ring, Pronounce the mocking bird the woodland king."
The following was written by a lady, a native of, and now resident in, Harford :
Rocks of Deer Creek, I, a pilgrim, Wander up thy mountain side, And beneath thy lofty summits Watch the sparkling waters glide. .
Here upon this pile of ages, Where the Red Man's flight was stayed,
I, in contemplation solemn, View the mighty work displayed.
Think of Him who, out of chaos, Called this great mysterious world, With its mountains, vales and waters, Like a picture fair unfurl'd.
Piled this mighty, rocky structure, Like some castle, grim and gray, Sublime-mysterious-wrote upon it, A monument without decay.
List ! methinks I hear "the voices Of the hills" that round me lie, For one grand and solemn anthem Seemeth filling earth and sky.
And self is lost-forgotten e'en- As I list the soft refrain ; Surely God, the builder of you, Reigns upon this height supreme.
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Misty clouds are upward rising, Like pure incense, to the sky, Peace-offerings from the waters On this rock-bound mountain high.
Surely in this solemn grandeur, On this temple most sublime, More ancient than the pyramids Of old, in eastern clime,
Man must see and feel a power, Great-beyond our mortal ken ;-
Rocks of Deer Creek, veil'd in mystery, You must ever more remain.
MARY WARNER ROSS.
Sandy Hook, 1879.
That which follows are the meditations of one who discovers, in the vicinity of the Rocks, a sin- gular fern. He is evidently in a philosophical mood, and has been disturbed, it may be, by the rash speculations of some modern scientists so- called.
A REMARKABLE FERN.
Strolling one day of the past autumn along Deer Creek, in the vicinity of the Rocks, I was attracted by a species of fern with which I was not familiar. Upon examining it minutely, I found, to my sur- prise, and I must confess to my gratification, written upon the stem and each leaf of the fern the word Biogenesis : life from life, and from nothing but life. And recollecting that Sir William Thomp- son, President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, in an address to the Soci- ety, incidentally refers to the theory of Biogenesis and its opposite theory, Abiogenesis (spontaneous 10
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generation), I sought that address, and found the following statement therein :
" I am ready to adopt as an article of scientific faith, true through all space and through all time, that life proceeds from life, and from nothing but life." I am not aware that Sir William had ever seen a specimen of the singular Deer Creek fern, or ever heard of it; but one cannot fail to note the agreement between the teaching of the fern and that of the distinguished President of the British Asso- ciation. Anxious to know what that other distin- guished member of the same Association, Professor Huxley, might have to say upon Biogenesis and its antagonistic theory, Abiogenesis, I turned to an in- augural address delivered by him to the British Association, in which Professor Huxley concedes that "the evidence, direct and indirect, in favor of Biogenesis : life from life, and from nothing but life, for all known forms of life, must be admitted to be of great weight." This utterance of the great inductive philosopher gave me great pleasure, as it seems to confirm the suspicion that possibly the Creator of all things wrote upon my fern the word Biogenesis : life from life, and from nothing but life. My satisfaction with this declaration of the philosopher would have been complete, had he not to this just admission, as I thought it to be, added : "But though I cannot express this conviction of mine too strongly, I must carefully guard myself against the supposition that I intend to suggest that no such thing as Abiogenesis (spontaneous gener- ation) has ever taken place in the past, or will take place in the future. If it were given me to look beyond the abyss of geologically recorded time to
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the still more remote period when the earth was passing through physical and chemical conditions, which it can no more see again than a man can re- call his infancy, I should expect to be a witness of the evolution of living protoplasm from unliving matter." I was now in a quandary. When doctors disagree, who shall decide ? And what estimate can I have of the veracity of my fern? Singularly, the phil- osopher whose just quoted utterance had tended to overthrow my cherished theory of life, and brand as false the teaching of the fern, comes to my relief. The philosopher does not account for life without a metaphysical cause. Hear him: "I, individually, am no materialist, but, on the contrary, believe materialism to involve grave philosophical error." His materialism is only a trick of logic; his faith is that all life has a transcendental, metaphysical cause. He vindicates the truthfulness of my fern.
The question is, where did my fern get its life ? Who wrote upon its stem and leaves Biogenesis ? My fern was sustained by inorganic substances. From such substances it extracted the nutriment of its life by a chemistry peculiar to itself. But whence its life? It cannot be that life is a phenomenon, evolved from the forces of unliving matter. Science does not say so. Matter is a basis of life ; in it life manifests itself, and nothing more. Life, like
matter in which it dwells, was created, not evolved from unliving forces. The life of my fern came from abroad. Its cause was the only cause, ultimate, spontaneous will. The Author of all life gave it life, and wrote upon its leaves Biogenesis.
My fern is perishing. Is this not singular ? Strange that the living forces which built it up
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should now, that its vitality is gone, tear down the structure which they, with so much pains, con- structed. The vital principle in my fern did for a time hold in abeyance the physical forces, but this having departed, its enemies triumph. My fern is returning to unliving dust. Whether it, Phoenix- like, will arise from its ashes, I do not know. And if its unliving dust should become the basis of other life, whether it will be the life of another fern, I do not know. Of this I am confident, if it shall be the basis of another life, upon that creation, be it rose or magnolia or fern, will be written Biogenesis : life from life, and from nothing but life.
If any of my curious friends would see a specimen of the Deer Creek fern, they can do so by searching the hills between Preston's Mill and the Rocks of Deer Creek.
THE OLD MILL.
Opposite Mingo Hill, on the waters of Deer Creek, a few miles above the Rocks, is a quaint old mill. Of this ancient mill a poetess writes :
"Softly dim twilight lingers O'er the picturesque mill, Night, with her purple fingers, Is draping each noble hill With the shadows she loves to muster, And waft in the twilight down, Faintly outlined with the lustre Which streams from his starry crown. Beautiful shadows that fall so still And nestle down on the silent mill.
"Silent, for now the throbbing Heart of the mill's at rest, And only the breezes are sobbing O'er the water's breast ;
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Its ripples' musical splashing Seem crowning a dreamy song, As o'er the high dam dashing, They hurry so swiftly along. Laughing waters that scorn to feel The ponderous weight of the old mill wheel.
" We sit in the night's dark splendor And list to the whippoorwill, Breathing in accents tender Its moan o'er the night-wrapped mill, And watch how the shadows linger O'er the tree-topped hill on high, Till each waving branch seems a finger Writing against the sky.
And the spirit of night has awakened The fairies that surely dwell,
In the quiet depths of the woodland In some fair little hidden dell ; For the fire-flies twinkle their lights afar Till each fairy lamp seems a tiny star.
" Brightly the summer dawning Gleams o'er the quiet mill, And scattered far by the morning The shadows lift from the hill ; And the sunbeam's golden splendor Pours o'er the dewy earth, While the birdlings' voices tender Thrill with sweetest mirth. A morning concert given us frce Echoing sweet the softest melody.
"How lightly the water dances, How sparkles its crystal breast, As each arrow of sunlight glances In quivering, gay unrest, And the dewy morning breathing Tenderly touching now, Silvery hair enwreathing An aged though cheerful brow. For many years that are gone and dead, The mill has echoed his gentle tread. 10*
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"And long may it echo the paces Of the feet that are walking toward The golden gates of the city Leading to home and God. Respected friend, I will carry Sweet memories as I roam Of the picturesque mill in the valley, And the sweetly embowered home.
With sad regrets my song will fill,
And a fond farewell to the dear old mill."
" JAMAICA, LONG ISLAND."
WHAT immediately follows are the prophetic dec- larations of the resident of "Shirley, near the Rocks," who may be indebted, in a measure, to the scenes amid which he dwells for the strength of his patriotic inspirations and impulses. The High- lands of Scotland, the mountains of Wales and Switzerland, have ever been inhabited by peoples of patriotic sentiments and practically devoted to lib- erty. The dwellers by the Rocks are not an excep- tion. The Eagle, which is the symbol of their country's majesty, soars above the summits of their mountains. They watch its lofty flights with pride, and aspire to equal eminence in their sentiments and aspirations. The lowlands are generally the places of wealth, and luxury, and enervation, with which the sentiments of personal independence and individual liberty do not usually co-exist.
The prophecy is a portion of a Centennial Ad-
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dress, delivered by the author, July 4th, 1876, in Ward's Woods, not distant from, and in view of, the Rocks, and is a legacy to the young men who shall be living in 1976 ; bequeathed to them with the hope that they will cherish an ardent love of country, and maintain the principles of their fathers.
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A PROPHECY.
-
THE retrospect we have made very naturally sug- gests the prospect. What shall the future of our country be? Who shall forecast its destiny ? Have we, by the marvelous rapidity of our growth in the hundred years past, exhausted our energies, and brought upon ourselves premature old age, premon- itory of speedy death ? Or, are we as Hercules in his cradle, possessed of a vitality and force and fer- tility of resources that shall be manifested in achieve- ments that will surpass all that has been seen in the past of our history, and surprised the world with their greatness. We are in the infancy of our greatness, the beginning of a progress such as has not hitherto been seen, and of which the most sanguine could not possibly have dreamed. Man- kind is standing on the very threshold of a new life, on a boundary line, about to launch out into an unknown future. The past is gone, the old land- marks are swept away, and fresh armies of thoughts, opinions and knowledge are breaking in upon the world. The jungle has been cleared, space has been almost annihilated, and the human mind, free from embarrassments that have inter- rupted its progress, is entering upon a series of es- says and conflicts that shall ultimate in achieve- ments far surpassing those of the past, and that shall carry humanity upward to higher planes rap- idly and majestically. It may be centuries before the new life shall be matured. In the very " lisp-
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ing infancy " of the new life humanity may be, but the child is born, and there shall follow the vigor of manhood and the ripeness of age. A sagacious thinker and observer has said : " A mighty impulse has come over the world lately. A time of looking forward rather than back has set in. Great inven- tions of all kinds are altering the face of the earth, making the conditions of life different, and raising the hopes and fears of men. Great discoveries are bringing with them all the eager wildness, all the enthusiasm for good or evil, that such unsettle- ments must always bring. The vast ocean of knowledge has found its Columbuses, and hearts beat high with the daily hope of fresh wonders be- ing unveiled by new voyagers." Where, we ask, has this impulse been felt stronger than on this continent and with us ? Where so much of change, of adventure, of achievement ? Where in all the earth so much of enthusiasm, of earnest purpose, of determination to do all that lies within the range of possibility ? There are barriers that no human invention can overcome; conditions beyond the range of mortal power. But within those great bar- riers which God has fixed to human progress, an almost infinite advance is certain. There are men of folly, as was Canute the Great, when he sat by the sea-shore, and said to the advancing waters, " So far shalt thou come, and no farther," who in the impotency of their reason may prescribe bounds to human progress, but that progress, as did the oncoming waves, will mock their folly and weak- ness. This continent, this nation, shall participate in this general onward movement, and in a degree exceeding all. The genius of the American people,
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their inquisitiveness, their steadiness of purpose, their inflexibility of will, their inventive qualities, their love of change, their ambition to excel, all point to a destiny of unparalleled grandeur. Our lofty mountains, our wide extended plains, our ma- jestic rivers, are symbolic of the might and majesty of our coming greatness. Here, upon the shores of the Atlantic, on the banks of the Mississippi and the Missouri, and by the side of the Pacific, in mountain place and valley, shall be a teeming multitude of men building up in their strength a material, in- tellectual, social, spiritual empire, before which all other empires shall pale as the glow-worm pales in the presence of the sun. It will be the onward movement of thought, and feeling, and faith, and work, widening and deepening, and increasing in strength, until mighty in its volume and resistless in its force, it shall bear upon its bosom, as the flood bears the oak, all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This is my thought-it may be the dream of an enthusiast.
In one hundred years the population of the United States of America may exceed that of China ; the area of territory, if extended, may embrace the whole of North America, and our progress in all other respects be commensurate. Then it will be that those then living will look back upon the epoch of the first Centennial as we, who celebrate it to-day, look back upon its beginning-as a day of very small things, and, as we do, congratulate themselves and the country on the progress made, differing from us in this, that their felicitations will be greater-pro- portionate to their increased prosperity. The reali- zation of this hope will depend essentially upon
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one thing-that we remain at peace among our- selves. This unity of the nation is the pledge of its perpetuity, and the assurance of its high destiny. Not, indeed, that unity which is enforced by strength of will and power of bayonet, but unity of senti- ment and affection, that unity of mind and heart which has its most striking illustrations and exem- plifications in the virtuous household, each member of which, recognizing the significancy of the rela- tion, performs its obligations. The hope is that Christianity, in its onward march, will so leaven society with its restraining and conserving influ- ences, that human passions will not simply be held in check, but will be consecrated to virtuous pur- poses, the human heart responding always and un- erringly to truth, and the life to noble aim.
Our fathers sought to erect the superstructure of American government upon a substantial basis, in- tending that in this ark of national safety their de- scendants should be secure when the tempests gath- ered. The fabric of government which they erected was no temporary expedient, to serve the wants of a day ; it was built, as the pyramids were built, to resist the wear of ages, and serve the necessities of generations. Washington, and Adams, and Jef- ferson, and Madison, and Monroe, and all the illus- trious host of worthies who laid the foundations of American nationality, were men not only of wis- dom, but of conscience also, having in view, not the mere gratification of personal ambition and the ag- grandizement of self, but the welfare of the whole people and of generations of people. To establish this government our ancestors toiled, and sacri- ficed, and poured out their blood, not anticipating
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that Catalines would ever be found among their descendants, who would conspire against the liber- ties of the people, but hoping and believing that they to whom had been bequeathed the precious legacy of American freedom, would cherish it as vestal virgins and priests of Inca cherished their sacred fires. The gift has so far been generally appreciated, and the men of this generation are bearing upon their shoulders the ark which contains the sacred things placed therein by the fathers of the republic. They cherish it as the ark of the Lord was cherished in the house of Obed Edom.
It is not within the power of man to foretell the time when this nation, having performed its allot- ted part in the great drama of the world's life, shall follow the peoples that have preceded it, and pass in mournful procession to the graves of dead nationalities. The race that forms this nation has, as we have seen, been distinguished above all other races for its vitality and force, resisting thus far that strong tendency to decay that characterized the nations that preceded it. It may follow in the footsteps of the nations that have gone before; but if true to itself, if it fulfills the destiny which the Divine hand has marked out for it, then when its cycle shall have been completed and the record made up, future races will look back upon its period as the brightest in human history. And that re- cord, the brightest spot in human history, may be - the roll of a thousand years.
Yea, if the period of the existence of the great nations of antiquity was ten centuries, ten times ten centuries may be the cycle of American history, the time when its record shall be made up. The senti-
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ment of patriotism existing in such intense force in the bosom of every true American would place no limit to his country's life. To-day, moved thereto by the enthusiasm kindled by our recollections of the past and our faith in the greatness of our coun- try's future, we all with one accord exclaim, Our country ; may she live forever !
My fellow-citizens, we congratulate ourselves that we have lived to celebrate the Centennial. In honoring this day we do justice to the memory of our fathers who bequeathed to us our heritage-to their intelligence, their virtue, their bravery, their fortitude, their spirit of self-sacrifice. They have gone to their graves, and the worthiest monuments that we can erect to perpetuate their memories are the appreciation of their virtues and the imitation of their examples.
Fellow-citizens, we shall not live to celebrate. another Centennial. Ere the coming century of our national existence shall have closed we will have passed away-been gathered to our fathers ; but we shall leave a heritage worthy to be preserved by our posterity, and by them transmitted to the genera- tions following.
11
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MASON AND DIXON'S LINE.
A FEW miles north of the Rocks of Deer Creek, in latitude 39 degrees, 43 minutes, 263 seconds, is the boundary between the States of Pennsylvania and Maryland. This line was begun in December, 1763, and concluded in the end of the year 1767. Its whole length is 244 miles, not all of which was laid out by the scientific gentlemen after whom it is called. They were prevented by fears of hostile Indians from proceeding further than Sideling Hill, a distance of 116 miles from the place of beginning. At the termination of every fifth mile is planted a large stone, having on one side the coat of arms of William Penn, and on the other or southern side, the Escutcheon of Lord Baltimore, the proprietaries respectively of the provinces of Maryland and Penn- sylvania. Every mile is a smaller stone with the letter P on one side and M on the other. All these stones were brought from England. This line was fixed after eighty years of constant discussion, and thus was lost to Maryland much fertile territory. It was not surveyed in the ordinary mode, but estab- lished by mathematical and astronomical calcula- tion. A survey was had in 1844, and the original line was found to be substantially correct.
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A LITERARY CURIOSITY.
IN the year 1661, the Rev. John Eliot, " the Apostle to the Indians," translated the Virginian Bible into the language of the New England In- dians. The following specimen exhibits the Lord's Prayer (Matt. vi : 9-13) :
9. Yowutche yeu nuppenantamook: Nooshun kesukqut quttianatamunach knowesuonk.
10. Peaumooutch kukketassootamdonk, kutten- autamoouk nennach ohkeit neane kesukqut.
11. Nummeetsuonqash asekesukokish assamaii- nean yeuyea kesuked.
12. Kah ahquontamaiinean nummatchseonqash, neane matcheneukgueagig nutahquontamounna- nog.
13. Ahque sagkompagunaiinnean en qutchhua- onganit, webepohquohwussinean wutch matchitut. Newutche kutahtaun ketassootamoonk, kah menuh- kesuonk, kah sohsumoonk micheme. Amen.
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