Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1869-10-06
AN ELOQUENT ADDRESS.

The Columbus Democrat Of the 10th ult
publishes an admirable speech delivered by
Rev. N. ". Reed at Hudson, Michigan, on
the 18th of August, being the anniversary
of his Regiment, the 18th Michigan. 1t is
brimful of humor, pathos, timely reflections
and lessons ofinstruction. We regret being
unable to publish it entire, but for want
of space give the following extracts, which
we select, not as being the best things it
contains, but as showing the style" of the
address
Men keep their birth days; the annivar
sary of the twenty four most useless and
troublesome hours is held worthy of COM
memoration The chief record of the tomb
stone IS that man was born, then a suspi-
CiouS blank, then shat he died the two most
insignificant events-th0se which he could
not heIp-are cut into the marble. Such
mention could be as appropriately carved
on the shell of a dead oyster. The
blank between birth and death is the sig.
nifcant thing What did the man do ?
If the coming and going of the guest is
worthy of a hail and farewell, what of the
visit
The majority cf the graves of the world
have no headstones, and deserve none.
Their owners left no more worthy memory
than the Minnesota grasshoppers very much
the same. They lived level with the
ground, deToured q great deal ofsubstance,
and were dead long time before they were
buried. They simply lounged into the world
silently voted that they were no grapes in
the vineyard oS honor, and sauntered out.
The hist.ry OF tie war is not bound in
two volumes and sold Gully on subcription
1t is chiefly to be found in the 9nwritten
memories, in the personal recollecti Ons 0,
the men who marched and fought 1t is for
the most part as yet only in tile thought;
never full on the lips, and never at all, ex-
cept it may be where two or three are met
together, and the time and place are fitting.
In the long winter evenings, in country
stores around hestove, many chapters have
been added to speech-not bony outlines but
told in detail, with suitable gesture, and so
made alive.
It's easy to write history. For instance
IA regiment marched from Covington to
Leyington;' but within that dry fact how
much Of life is held and hidden; it is the
individual experience that makes the story
to which we lend our ears
Multiply one soldier story by thousand
and that is the history Of the regi1ne mt com
plete. 1t will never be found in two vol
umes, but in chats by the wayside. during
mornings in harvest in hours of leisure
anywhere, when the speaker is in mood and
the audience is fit. Day by day the wonder
ful story of the war will grow, till the hearts
that beat in the march are StiIled in the
grave.
The faces that smile to-day at these recoI-
lections have all been known to frown at
the reality. Men have gone on picket when
they did not think it was their turn 1t is
not very agreeable after the sufficient exer-
else of the day, to so out to the forks of
the roa and stare ut the invisible. and
challenge the wind until morning We are
all concious Of the prose Of soldiers life,
the brasSes DO tarniSh, and the blue does
Iade. Sleeping peacefully on the reserve be-
yohd The creek on the CORTLAND road, what
dreams may come to the man in the over
coat but to wake to ''third relief. fall in"
~ come sieepIy into place, and TO go out
Into tle darkness, IS to forget the romance
and the home cheers that greeted the new
made soldier. It tends to cursina.
Ire hne sentence about "beinG \ watch
man on the frontier Of liberty" is found 70
mean loaded, ready muslet. and an erntv
sleepy man, compassed about with the driI
ping wretcheduess Of Il December night an5