Following is a poem written by Mr Shauck. Having grown up around Steam Corners in the late 1850’s, he went on to be a teacher in Lexington and Blooming Grove; after studying music at Oberlin, he taught music for several years; in the fall of 1879 he went into mercantile business at Steam Corners, under the firm name of Shaucks & Maxwell; and lastly served as Steam Corners Postmaster beginning in 1879.
Listen to the water-wheel all the livelong day
How the creaking of the wheel wears the hours away
Languidly the water glides useless on and still
Never coming back again to that old mill
And the proverb haunts the mind–Like a spell that’s cast–
“This mill will never grind again with the water that has passed”.
Take this lesson to yourselves
Loving hearts and true
Golden years are flying by
Life is fleeting, too.
Trying to make the most of life,
Lose no honest way
Time will never bring again
Chances thrown away.
Leave no tender work unsaid,
Love while life shall last
“The mill will never grind again with the water that has passed”.
Work while yet the daylight shines,
Man of strength and will.
Never let the stream glide by
Unused by the mill.
Wait not ’til tomorrow’s sun
Beams upon your way
All that you may call your own
Lies in the TO-DAY.
Power, intellect and strength
May not–cannot last and
“The mill will never grind again with the water that has passed”.
Oh, the wasted hours of life
That have drifted by,
Oh, the good we might have done
Lost without a sigh.
Love which we may once have saved
With but a single word,
Thoughts, conceived but never
penned, perished unheard.
Take this lesson to your heart
Take, oh hold it fast, for
“The mill will never grind again with the waters that have passed”.