The rude woodcut which adorned the head of one of the two broadsides circulated at the opening of Charles River Bridge was executed, as the printer says, by ‘that masterpiece of ingenuity, Mr. Lemuel Cox.’ It shows a detachment of artillery with cannon ready for firing, and a coach with four horses, and a footman behind, driving at full speed over the bridge. To do justice to the occasion of the opening there was issued a poem of forty stanzas of which the following are a sample:—
1.
The Smiling morn now peeps in view,
Bright with peculiar charms,
See, Boston nymphs and Charlestown too
Each linked arm in arm.
2.
I sing the day in which the Bridge
Is finished and done,
Boston and Charlestown lads rejoice,
And fire your cannon guns.
3.
The Bridge is finished now I say,
Each other bridge outvies,
For London Bridge, compar'd with ours
Appears in dim disguise.
23.
Now Boston, Charlestown nobly join,
And roast a fatted Ox
On noted Bunker Hill combine
To toast our Patriot Cox.
38.
May North and South and Charlestown all
Agree with one consent,
To love each one like Indian's rum,
On publick good be sent.
Powder and wire making were not the only benefits conferred on the public, beside bridge building, by Cox.
