{
 "id": "james-mcintyre/united-by-steel-rails",
 "title": "United by Steel Rails",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James McIntyre",
 "poet_slug": "james-mcintyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Poems of James McIntyre",
 "book_slug": "poems-of-james-mcintyre",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 6,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1889,
  "venue": "Poems of James McIntyre (1889)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-mcintyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_09542",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/36068",
   "https://archive.org/details/cihm_11791"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 36,
  "n_stanzas": 9,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "When Indian tribes in the Northwest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rebelled against the Eastern laws,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Canadian courage it did test,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All were united in the cause.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But how shall volunteers proceed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such distance, several thousand miles,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Will they in their dark hour of need",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ask Uncle Sam with pleasant smiles",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "For to allow our volunteers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To pass o’er their north railroad,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Perhaps subject to doubts and fears,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Where British soldiers never trod.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But there went up a glad hurrah",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When it was found that in our land,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Almost finished was railway,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And trains do wait for word command,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "To bear away our volunteers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To those far North distant lands,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But dispelled were all their fears",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When they rode over those steel bands,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Which bound young nation all in one,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Before detached and all apart,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Shoulder to shoulder now each one",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Feels patriot feelings in his heart,",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "First time we truly realize",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The value of this great railway,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Its benefits each now doth prize,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Highway to Japan and Australia.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The policy it has proved wise,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Which did build this great railway,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The vast Northwest to colonize,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bear its products far away.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Canadian flags are now unfurled",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the ports of the Chinese,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Short route to Oriental world",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gives Canada her cheap fine teas.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}