Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - Memorial Stadium [PAGE 25]

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And step with soft moccasins everywhere— The elder Illiniwek whose names you bear— The tribe of They-are-men: The strength of one is the strength of ten; When the wind shakes the corn, the rustling stalk, Know that upon the trails That wind across the forest floors Among the patriarchal sycamores, The spirits of our buckskinned pioneer fathers walk And whisper to you across the night; That even the soil of Illinois shall talk To you of fortitude,— Of the Great Exemplar of democracy And Universal Brotherhood, Who turned his troubled face Upon the sorrows of a shackled race,— Of that Patient Warrior whose memory Still lingers, fragrant, sweet, In the soil whereon he pressed his weary feet. Know that the broken hosts Of martial-moving ghosts, Who gave to a warring world their last full breath, And won to immortality in death, Hovering in stadium shaft and tower height, In memorial court and buttressed peak, Shall watch for you, and speak T o you of Great Moments in a Greater Fight. O men of Illinois, in war and peace and play, So may we live that when the crucial fight is won, And the long race run, These spirits of an elder day Shall bend to each of us, and say: Well done! Well done! Yours is the will to win. Well done, my prairie son.

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