Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-06-05
Decoration Day.

Grating the graves of the heroes who
have fallen in defense of their country.
During the forenoon, liberal contribu-
tions of flowers continued to arrive, at
the room of the committee on flowers,
in the Village Hall, and were tastefully
arranged by the young ladies in the form
of pyramid and placed in the center of
a carriage, which was beautifully trim
med with flags and evergreens.
Post. Roberts No. IA formed IN pro-
cession at Odd Fellows Hall, at 2
o'clock, and marched to the Town Hall
preceded by the Cambria Band, when
the following exercises were held:
Music-"Columbia," by the band.
Prayer by Rev. James Gibson John
son.
After which Col Albert Clarke was
introduced by the marshal, Lieut.. ]. H.
Goulding, and delivered the following ,
GRAFTON.
We are a square-headed people and
not given to ceremony. The block of
national character quarried from Plym-
outh was hewn for use and not for orna
ment. We believe, with a celebrated
French philosopher, that ''the more free
people are the fewer ceremonies, the
fewer ostentatious titles, the fewer de-
monstratiOns of annihilation in the
presence of a superior, they possess. )"
We have been taught that in proportion
to the barbarism of countries or the
weakness of courts, professions, preCe-
cedence, distinctions of rank, forms of
| address and imposing displays, are most
in vogue. Oar rulers, who are called
servants of the people, have never deem
| ed it necessary, like the emperor and
mandarins of China, to formally inaugu-
rate the seed time by a demonstration
with the plOw. We know that the
Egyptians prOspered and the Greeks
| grew great, but unlike them we have
! not celebrated teasts to Isis and Osiris,
nor paid our homage to Ceres or Proser-
| pine We believe that ROme's great
! day was when Cesar was called plain
Caesar" and before Constantine was
spoken of as 'his imperial majesty
| We believe in courtesy, but unlike the
ambassadors of Charles the First when
treating with the Cardinal de Richeleu
| for the hand of Henriette Of France.
we do not push an important matter to
the point of defeat by demanding two
or three steps more toward a door.
Fitz Greene Halleck's Yankee would
even
Shake hands with king upon the
throne,
So self-respecung Is every man that
more than one sturdy CitiZen-Soldier has
been tied up by his thumbs for failing
to salute his superior officer. Even the
rites of religion-in many other coun-
tries so imposing have here been strip
ped to the bare outlines Of simplicity,
Is it not strange, then, that such q
people, stern as Puritans, and practical
even i'm the realms of fancy. should have
fallen into the beautiful castom that VIZ
observe to-day When, on almost any
occasion, ii is hard to induce the unor
ganized multitude to join IN process
sion, they choosing rather to follow o.
the side walks. is it not strange that toI
this one day in the year they should lay
aside their sovereign independence and
march reverently to unauthorized com
mands? What is il that to-day eau
make the iron visage of the soldier
|
cannon and the flame of struggling lines
relax like the mobile muscles OF the
child? What tenderness touches thO
heart of him who has 'looked ON ar
mics with a leaders eye and makes
him follow with the men he led
What magic has thrown away the heavy
arms and burdened these re-assemblet
ranks with only the beautiful and del
Nf fIA Fs1V1
dead whom we honor sleep their las
sleep. No pomp can fill their eyes, NJ
music and no words can touch then
hearts, no sound can awake them u
glory again. We do, indeed, sometimes
fancy that they look upon us from The
ssarmies of the blestn but as we recount
their services and their sacrifices, we on
lv too sadly realize how little is the mos
that we can do for them, and are obhg
ed to turn and confess that our owl
poor lives are all that can receive the
benefit of this memorial day.
have heard it said that this obsery
ance must soon pass away-that 1t caI
evolve nothing new and that the peopl'
will fire of it. as they do of all mOnotOny
This may be, bat not yet. lie Wh'
thinks that emotions of gratitude are 81
soon spent. little knows how dependen
this people felt when the soldier
stood between them and their en-
emies as wall of fire. He VIII,
imagines that the grief of yesterday viii
tomorrow pass away, has never looked
M to the height nor penetrated to tn
dentb of that sacrifcial altar reared II
, every thirtieth house throughout tn
land. He who thinks that men will tIr
of bearing flowers to their comrade
graves. who with those comrades hav
borne the privations of the camp, tn
hardships of the march and the danger
of the field, little realizes how deep am
strong and true becomes the friendship
which common dangers ripen into love
, The day for passing by these honore'
graves has not yet come, for as MRS
| Dorr so sadly sings,
"stiu do the black-robed mothers com
still do lone wives by drearv hearthstone
, weep; -
FoI. her dead sons a moarnful vigil keep.
: This year. as much as last, and equa
. to the years before, do the people com
down from the hill sides and gathe
, from the plains. You have seen tn
little family groupes, standing in re
| spectful silence just aloof from I'll
graves of their loved ones, looking o
: with fearful interest and swelling heart
while the hands of surviving comrade
bedecked the turf You have locke
? into the reflective eyes of the fathers an
! the mothers and re-read the story Q
: their affliction. You have seen th
widows and the'orphans changed, 1t ma
be. with the flight OF time-but SAD an
reyerent re-, in the presence of that return
ing m memory which tells how all the
loved was risked and lost, You hav
q seen sec the manned and crippled soldiers
e relics of their once whole, and Aopetl
: lives. standing here as broken links b'
tween the living and the dead, and drol
ping from their single hands the wreath
: Of ps glory which you thought they we
< might wear themselves. And as yo
E have M seen all this have you not love Owe
= your country better than before nav >,
! You not thought how dear lnh lnt
Io,,d that cost SO muCH