"OLD PIONEER DAYS—THEN AND NOW” 

By a pioneer of ’57, read at the Old Settlers 2^nd Annual Picnic held at Livermore, September 24, 1886.

The pioneer lives, who breasted the storm,

With hardships most cruel before him;

His youngest son has become a man,

And is worthy the girl who adores him.

Old pioneer days have glided away,

With the “hoe cake,” hut and hovel,

And the prospect that greets us here today,

Beats the scenes of the recent novel.

Here are fluent speakers and ladies, fair,

And loveliness all around us,

We feel that the time we hoped for has come,

That we rise from the chains that bound us.

That our hearts have thrilled with a higher life,

We prove by your belfry and steeple;

We know by the screech of the engine, there,

We’re becoming like other people.

With unbounded love for our clime and soil,

We believe in our beautiful west,

As the future home of the sons of toil,

When pioneers sleep in her sweet, green breast

--S. C. Clark