The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-06-01

did this and after each of the thirty graves had
been marked with some token of love and re-
membrane, the line was reformed and march
for town taken up The procession was dis
missed at City Hall, the G. A. r. Light lnfan-
try and bands marching to Biddeford.
In Biddeford the mills all shut down and the
day was observed as holiday. In the after
noon no business was transacted and the
crowds on the streets were immense. Owing
to the lateness of the return from Saco the pro-
cession in Biddeford did not form until nearly
O'Clock. 1t passed up Adams street past City
Hall in the following order:
--. Platoon of Police under Capt. Pike.
Marshal and Aids
ms ltute Band II pieces.
Biddeford Light IT. I'M Infantry ant Capt Andrews
Loring's Band, Is pieces
Sheridan Post &. A. r.
l- Sailors and Zouaves.
st. Mary's Benevolent Society.
st. Johns Band, 20 pieces.
Carriages containing yonng misses bearing wreaths
and flowers.
His Honor the Mayor and members Of the City Gov
ernment
Citizens generally.
There was crowd estimated at three thou
sand people packed into City Square as the pro-
cession passed. and the streets and sidewalks
along the route were crowded with vehicles and
pedestrians. The first cemetery visited was
Greenwood, where lie the remains of thirty
three sons Uf Biddeford who ten years ago gave
up their lives that their country might live.
Forming in hollow square about the soldiers
monument prayer was invoked by Rey A. L.
Lane, otter which the Rev. Mr.. Ladd delivered
an able address appropriate to the day. The
various graves were then strewn with the flow
ers of. spring by members of Post Sheridan.
The same heartful ceremony was carried out at
st. Mary's Cemetery, where are buried nine
soldiers and sailors of the late war; also at City
Cemetery sixteen graves, and st. .Iosephs
where are the remains of ten soldiers. The
procession reached City Hall on the return
about $50 o'clock. Many places of business
and private residences along tho route were
tastely decorated, the stores of Hamilton,
Getchell, Cobb, Owen, Boothby, Rowe, aud
others being especially noticeable. The harbor
was filled, with shipping and thirteen vessels
and steamers displayed colors at masthead.
All in all, the committee of arrangements
should be credited with an admirable MANAGE
ment of the various details of the day. Every
thing passed off pleasantly, there was not the
least disturbance, not an arrest being made
throughout the day, and the crowd, large, and
composed of all classes, seemed to think the
occasion was one which should not be slightly
noticed, but was day of tribute to the MEM
DRY of those brave fellows, who, in defence of
their country laid down their lives on the field
of battle, that the old flag might long wave
so er the land of the free and the home of the
brave" rne tEr
At Augusta.
AUGUSTA, May 30.-Decoration day was OBJ.
served in this city with the usual ceremonies.
The procession consisting of Seth Williams
Post, G. A R., the pupils of the public schools,
tina civic authorities, the officers of the Nation
al Soldiers Home, &C., escorted by the Capital
Guards, formed in the afternoon, and moved to
Forest Grove and Mount Pleasant Cemeteries,
where the graves of the patriot dead were dec
grated in the usual manner. Remarks were
made by Mayor North, President Of the day,
and an grafton delivered by G. P. Mattocks of
Portland, of which the following is an abs tract
The speaker began by referring to the desire
possessed by all men that they shall not be for
gotten after death, and referred to the beautiful
custom of decorating the graves of the gallant
dead as a ceremony calculated to have a per-
manent and highly beneficial influence on the
patriotism of the people of this country. He
claimed that the honors thus offered
were not to perpetuate the memories
of individuals but to remind US of the duties of
patriotism and the sacrifices of a people for
common cause. Nelson, living life of social
deprayity, exclaiming as he fell upon the deck
which he had defended with his life and Napo-
the future. Some soldiers who left the homes
of their birth for the hardships and privations of
war were as sensible as the greatest of militia
nv chieftans to the sentiments and ambitious
which have made names immortal for
prowess in war. 1t was happy thought
which first introduced among us the beautiful
French custom of decorating with flowers the
graves of the dead.
He could not attempt to give in detail the
MANY associations and customs of different ma
tions for the purpose OF showing that in all
countries and in all ages 1t has been deemed
fitting to pay peculiar tribute to the memory of
those who have died-an impulse given by the
God of the universe alike to the savage and
the christian. David, singing the praises of
heroes who rescued the bones of their king from
the hands of their enemies, the lying in state
among the Greeks and Romans, the chaplet of
flowers, the solemn music and the amounting of
the dead body, typical of the refinement of the
former, the flute players, the hired mourners
and masked imitators of the ancestors of the
deceased so common among the latter were but
expressions of the same sentiments and feel
ings which after the lapse of centuries, we as a
simple but not unfeeling people display by
our annual offerings at the graves of those
who died that nation might live. The North
American Indians who prepared the pipe and
eood and bow and arrow to soace the dead
warrior on his lonely way to the sdistant hunt
ing grounds of the Great Spirit were not insen-
sible to the noble impulse which actuated his
pale faced brother in the more refined and ele-
CANT funeral ceremonies common to enlighten-
In py,1ta nf his
of Rome, and the massive Monuments raised to
the memory of the dead in past ages evince the
immortality of mans desire to be remembered
after death. The cinerary vases of the Greeks
and Romans the guided skulls of Scythia, the
rough cairns of the Esquimaux the fuuer-
al mounds of the North American Indians
were cited as instances of the natural impulse
to do honor to the dead.
The speaker disclaimed any desire to perpet-
uate the hatreds and animosities enklnded in
the war. He declared that these annual reunions
while they may intensity our grief for the loss
of those who fell in the cause of the loyal
States cannot fail TO increase our respect for
the undaunted courage of those brave men who
fought against us, and the fact that upon each
recurring Decoration day there are renewed
Instances of the scattering of the floral tributes
by the same hand upon the graves oe the SOL
diers of both armies, is sure indication that
the cha SIN is fast closing up and that the harsh
and cruel surgery of war has eradicated dis
ease from the body politic which years of peace
could not cure The speaker Condemned the
spirit which would further punish tho people
of the South for their detection. He contended
that there could be no reconciliation without
forgiveness, and no forgiveness without forget
fulness.
There was satisfaction in the fact that
many a soldier who has lived uDhonored may
after death look up from the silent grave and
see that he has not lived in vain. The same
House of Representatives. which reduced the
salary of Gen. Thomas, the hero of Nashville,
and coolly limited his retirement, has since his
death voted costly portrait of him to remind
them of the historic ingratitude of republics.
Among the other advantages of these annual
reunions was that of preserving for future his
torians correct statements of the great events
in the lives of the prominent soldiers of each
Stale for upon such occasions mention is fifty
made of each man and such deeds as history
loves to record for the guidance OF future histo