Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1875-06-05
DECORATION IN FARKINGD.lLE.

| the new TOau lTOn anu Ai"ho"SH 20 ~
pass the dome of the capital and adjacent spires
can be distinctly seen. South Of them lies Hal
lowell, resting in its ampitheatre of hills, almost
within stones throw, while south of us the spires
and masts of vessels at Gardiner and Pittson, are
quite as near and in plain sight.
In all the cemeteries Of these places, busy hands
would be strewing flowers over the graves of oul
fallen heroes. 1t was no trouble to choose where to
20 on Saturday, for Haowell was the place where
that day was taken to perform the ceremony. So
some our people took the accommodation train and
started up liver. AT every flag station along the
route, groups Of citizens and their children with
baskets of flowers and bouquets were waiting to
take the train to the cemetery. No mistaklng
what all this meant Dear old Hallowell who does
not know her classic shades, and beautiful GENE.
terry on the plains. Crowds of people were there
waiting for the procession strolling through the
city of the dead. Soon the living tide of Hallowel
rolled up to the gates, and with it the procession
| marching to the music Of their fine band. The
papers have told all about it, and what the Hal
lowell boys did in the war has passed into history
It was good to be there. We saw venerable men
in places of honor, who taught us good words and
true when bows. Who told us and those dead SOL
die,s that soon we should be men and women, ah
how far off that seemed them, and what our duties
would be. How well the boys in blue did theirs
that beautiful monument tells.
Monday, after discussing what we saw IN Hal
lowell, we divided and part went to Augusta, the
rest to Gardiner, so that could meet and talk
over the doings Of either place around the social
board.
We arrived in Gardiner Up. NJ. What throng
was in her streets. What stawart men and fair
women. The usual industry of the place, that sis
as the soand Of many waters was hushed, and all
seemed anxious TO do honor to the occasion.
Soon the deep throb of the drum corps and the
screaming fife, told that the soldiers were coming
Headed by strong force of policemen, fine
looking men in their new uniform, they came
"marchng on" But instead of being equipped
for war; these veterans bore beautiful flowers, liv
ing tokens to lay on the graves Of their dead
comrades. What Gardiner did for the war, what
she could do again, the faces of these men told.
The procession, the march, the decoration at their
beautiful cemetery, the Grafton and music need no
description. We missed the Togus asylum SOL
ders and lIallowell fremen with their band, which
took part here last year. But it was fitting that
they should divide their fayors, and this year go
to Augusta. Our returning friends and the daily
paper told all about what was done up there.
Venerable men, statesmen, soldiers and patriots
were there too, and after all it was pretty much
the same at the sister cities. How could it be
otherwise. Who knows any difference when we
meet abroadi 1t is enough that we are men of
Maine, from the Kennebec valley. And when the
sun was casting his setting beams over the western
hills and aslant the placid surface of the old river
we took children with their violets and straw
berry blossoms and our richer flowers, without
pomp or show, to our own beautiful cemetery.
We took them round where lie those who fought
for their country, and told them the old old story,
and in the strain of the song We sang in days long
gone by tried to learn them to "repeat their fond
words and their noble deeds cherish
In this memorial time there are other graves we
decorate. The grey haired sire whose trembling
hand guided the pillow and titled the soil, that our
armies might be sustained, has tottered at last to
the grave. The fond mother that gave her son to
her country, lies beside him now. The hands that
sewed and stitched into the weary night, that he
that beat for him lies silent forever. The brother
that may have sailed far the sea and lhoisted
the old flag in ports where it was laughed to scorn
to bring back the necessares of war; his body has
been washed up from the wreck on our shores,
and brought TO lie by the side of him who persisted
on the battle field. Well we remember cour-
ageous dozen of officers of the merchant service
who tore down the first rebel flag that ever few
from vessels gaf in England. One of them lies
on the bank of the "upper Kennebec," and the
thousands in all walks of life who so manfully
helped TO sustain him in the field, do we not,
should we not, strew their graves with SPRING
choicest flowers The question is already an.
swered in all our resting places of the dead And
so may it ever be. While we tell of the soldiers
who went to the battlefield let us not forget tina.
great army who toiled to sustain them.
THE BEECHER TRLAL-1HE SENNING
UP.
FOURTH DAY OF Mr.. EvARTs.
Mr.. Evarts occupied the entire dsy with an an
alysis of Tllton's account of his interview with
Beecher on Dec. 80, 1870. lie rdicued the the
DRY that crime such charged could have
been treated by consciously guilty man with the
calmness testified to by TiltOn. 1t was utterly at
variance with human nature. Titons account OF
the interview was pure invention. The plaintiff
knew that the law would not permit Mrs. Tilton's
confession to be used against Mr.. Beecher. He
knew that the law did not permit him to disclose
the condolences of his wife. lie knew that the
only way to get these things in was on the pre-
tense Of having repeated them to Mr.. Beecher,
and he used this knowledge freely. The great
effort at the interview Of Dec. &c. was to find some
means by which the audacious attack of the 26th
and its recoil could be displaced. Taking up
Moulton's account of his going after Mr.. Beecher
on the stormy Friday evening of Dec. 80, Mr..
Evsrts argued that Beechers conduct on that &C.
cason was perfectly natural, according to part OF
Moulton's story, and that the other part was pre-
posterously untrue. "Out of the heart the mouth
speake tn" he said, seven when the heart is small
aud the mouth large, as in Moulton's case. Moul-
ton has never been unfaithfu to his pledge of that
evening. He has truly "shown how q heather
serves Christian minister" Reading Tilton's
story of mis- interview of Dec. 30 with MI. Beecher
Mr. Evaits said, sarcasticaly, that, forgetting all
about his own wrongs, and all about pity for his
wife and children, he had begun rs Moulton did
in regard TO the letter sent by Bowen. If Tilton's
story were true, his object In soliciting that inter-