East Leyden High School - Eagle Yearbook (Franklin Park, IL)

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SOO LINE TOWNS These are the Soo Line towns. Hometowns that rise on the prairies. Their lands are raw, untouched, untamed. They are proven lands, developed, clamoring. Factories—factories with sonorous names comprise them. And long limbs of railroad connect them. And shade trees, a river and crimson barns are found in the heart of them. These are the Soo Line towns- On the main streets pigeons circle about old water towers. And nearby— Smokestacks like steeples of strength rear against the landscape. Grey canvas skies frame the factory-sites. Around them taut wire fences mark neat boundaries. Sharp on the noon breeze are whistles screaming an hour's relief, While timeless stone bridges arch over northern rivers. Work gangs prowl along railroad tracks, Watching for loose spikes, shattered ties. Stubble fields pattern the land And prattling ducks wander through the young corn. There is beauty in the darkness of the Soo Line towns. Beauty in a glowing blast furnace, in the glimmering arc of a switchman's lantern, in crimson sparks like filing handfuls of falling stars. There is a surging beauty over the land.

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White sparks flare up as a shop boy works in the darkness of the arc-welding room. 7

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