1748-1923
Fair city of our love and pride,
With stream and mountain setting,
The flying years bring round again
The thought of thy begetting.
Bright member of a sisterhood
Of time's supremest nation,
The wisdom of the Founder's choice
Has amplest vindication.
Where once the virgin forest stood
Its summer charm releasing,
The incense smoke of industry
Now rises without ceasing.
The little hamlet of the past
Has forged to proud position,
The product of whose toiler's skill
Has world-wide recognition.
Our mountain heights look down upon
The founder's fruited dreaming,
A city where the urge of home
Has fullest, truest meaning.
A city with no bar of caste,
Where toil has honored rating,
Where labor wears its crown with pride
And glories in creating.
We celebrate thy natal time
With joy in thy possession,
And glance adown the vanished years
To view thy rare progression.
With nature's gift of charm and grace
To civic virtues wedding,
Go forward through the coming years,
A greater Nobler Reading.
By H. Luther Frees, of the Eagle News Staff
Source: Official Program of the 175th Anniversary of the Founding of Reading, PA, and the 150th Anniversary of the Reading Volunteer Fire Department Sept. 30th to Oct. 6th 1923, ed. by the Chairman of the Publicity Committee, Reading, PA, 1923, p. 87.
Submitted by: Nancy.
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