The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-06-18
Bunker nm yesterday.

The fountain of tears lies very near to that
of JOY, and tho successful, jubilant celebra-
ton of the hundredth anniversary OF Bunker
Hill, now that It is over, gives place to senti-
ments that have a tinge Of sedate melancholy
The pleasure Of meeting is followed by the
pain OF parting, and, on occasions which eau
recur only once in a century, both the meet
ing and the parting exert strange sorcery
over human feelings. When this great CEN
tennial is again celebrated, at tae close OF
another century, where snail we all be who
have taken 50 lively an interest in this oc-
casion Of patriotic iestiYity? The very tomb
stones on which our names will have been
inscribed will be crumbling with age, and it
will be difficult to decipher the eptaphs
which attest the flial piety OF our
children, who will themselves have
been laid by our sides, and even
most of their children will DO sleeping with
us awaiting that final resurrection which we
ara taught to expect by the Christian Scrip
lures. The young men, full of life and vigor
and hope and Astounding in generous I'M
pulses, who wore bright uniforms in the great
procession yesterday, and whose elastic step
and military precision attracted admiration
to their beautiful regiments will have trans
mitted their fine physical qualities and alert
military bearing to the generation which sue
ceeds their great-grandsons before this CEN
tennial again recurs. Let us hope that the
ideas and sentiments of our glorious Reyolu-
ton will be as reverently cherished then as
they are now, and that the participants in the
next centennial may find reason to do honor
to this generation, which has maintained the
Union by its valor and effaced the dark blot
Of slavery from our national insttutions by
its humanity. We may cry out to them IN the
language OF our greatest orator, Advance,
then, we future generations We would han
you as you rise in your long succession to I'LL
the places which we now fill, to taste the
blessings of existence where we are passing,
and soon shall have passed, our own human
duration. We bid you welcome to the pleas
ant land of the fathers. We greet your acces-
sion to the great inheritance which we have
enjoyed. We welcome you to the blessings
of good government and religious liberty.
We welcome you to the treasures OF science
and the delights of learning. We welcome
you to the transcendent sweets Of domestic
life, TO the happiness of kindred and parents
and children. We welcome you to the i'm
measurable blessings Of rational existence,
the immortal hope of Christianity and the
light Of everlasting truth |"
The great celebration yesterday met and
satisfied every expectation. The weather was
delightful, the procession immense and
magnificent, the display of flags, dec
orations and inscriptions marvellous in
appropriate beauty, and if the tall
and massive monument which looked
down upon the exhilarating scene could have
felt its stone TRANSMITTED into flesh, like
Pygmalion's statue, and have been animated
by the heroic spirits who bled in that field, it
would have lifted its head more proudly to
the skies. In Campbell's sublime ode to the
naval glories Of England, he says:-
The spirits or your fathers shall start from
every wave.
1t would require less poetic animation to
fancy the spirits Of our fathers starting from
every turf Of the green slopes Of Bunker Hill
yesterday at the tread Of the vast multitudes
who assembled there to commemorate their
sturdy patriotism and immortal valor.