Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1883-05-31

IL,
from the hands of Beauty and Love to
hear a response of gratitude that shall
never come. Little children, in the auroral
blush and bloom of childish innocence and
glee, gambol about these sacred shines.
The old soldiers heart is cold and his eye
is blind, and his ear is deaf. Their merry
footsteps he cannot hear; their warm and
open hands he cannotclasp. Mother and
father, sister and brother laden these
graves with tears, and lament the loss no
time can wholly heal; and yet the soldier
heeds it not. He is welded to the dust.
The worms are his father and his mother
and his sister. In vain, all in vain, you
call his cherished name, he shall never an.
swer back, and his footsteps, once so
familiar to your ear, shall never more
sound upon this planet. 1t 3 hard to
realize, even yet, they are goRe, and gone
forever Somehow they were
so YOUNG, so BEAUTIFUL AND BRAVE AND
True.
that we thought them only sleeping and
that they would soon be back.
But they come again to us only in our
dreams and vanish from our sight the mo-
ment we awake. We shall all 60 to them,
but they shall never come again to u.s.
Never. Then why build these monuments
or strew these memorial flowers and speak
these words of praise? If they to whom
we dedicate this day cannot with US enjoy
the solemn rites why observe them still
from year to year? God knows We would
reach them il we could. God knows with
what fervor and gratitude we should kiss
their lips and embrace their forms,
and with what lavish gratitude
we should pour words of praise into their
ears if we could. We strain every nerve,
every living power and emotion we have,
and il is hard to realize that the who did
so much for us can never know how CRATE
Jul we are to them for their unsel6shness,
their devotion. The Christian believer ad-
dresses Christ in thanksgiving and praise
for what he did for him by his life and
death. Calvary is on his lips. He falls at
the foot of the cross. He addresses dead
but living Christ, conscious that Christ
hears every word Of praise, and that though
dead he still lives. The devoted Christian
sings the praises. The praises not of a
dead but of risen and living Christ.
AN ORATOR TO rosTERTTY.
1t is for this that these fair ladies, these
sweet children and these earnest men are
here to-day. 1t is that one day may be
consecrated and set up to the memory OF
those who fell in defense OF the American
Union. 1t is that their gratitude to their
brave defenders may be voiced in this
monument, and by it proclaimed to pos
terity. A hundred Decorations Days yet
to come, when you and and all this vast
multitude shall have passed away, this
monument shall be onr orator to speak for
us which we can no longer say for our
selves, and with its silent eloquence pro-
claim the Nations gratitude to Its
brave defenders. This nation has made
great mistake-one that it must in time re-
pair, and which even now it is not too late
for it to remedy. While it is we'll that at
more than eighty national cemeteries to.
day ceremonies of decoration are observed,
and the heroic dead are not forgotten
quite, yet no truly national monument
has yet been erected by the Congress of the
United States, the servant of the people, to
commemorate the valor and devotion OF
the Union army, the heroism and selfsac-
rifce Of half million men who died for
their country.
1t is time this act Of justice were done,
creditable alike TO the act, the genius, the
civilization. the patriotism and the graft.
tude of Nation.
Future times and people reading the
story of that conflict shall look for monu-
ment truly National; disappointed end
with no good opinion of the present age il
they do not find it somewhere in our vast
domain. States have performed this sacred
duty. Many OF them, West Virginia among
the first, and others are yet to build mon
ments OF this kind. But the Union, the
whole Union, joining as one man in the
grand, sacred task, has yet remaining to it the
great duty of building one really national;
vast in proportions, grand in design, and
with the pernanency OF the pyramids
stamped upon it. The nation need not be
ashamed of the colossal task. It need
apologize to no one for the undertaking.
1t owes it to itself. 1t need give no offense
and woe to him or them by whom offense
cometh, if the nation in recording its graf
ltude in granite or marble columns to its
brave defenders, exceeds any monument
hitherto raised in the history of the
world,
THE LESSON OF MEMORIAL DAY.
There is nothing new IN our decoration
custom. 1t was suggested by the passage
have referred to from Grecian history. II
is well that We annually observe the beau.
tiful custom recently revived Of strewing
the graves of our soldiers with flowers, and
concentrating their gallant deeds by the
triple and mystic power OF painting, poetry
and oratory. 1t does the dead no good, but
it educstes the living, and instils into the
hearts of the young the patriotism and
manly virtues of their heroic ances.
tors. The martial glory of Greece
made its classic literature possible, by
giving it something worthy of an i'm.
perishable record, and much more by ex-
alting and refining every true and honora-
bic sentiment and passion that can adorn
and beautify human nature. Recalling the
example of Cato, as he looked back on the
field where Pompey and Cesar had Just
fought terrific battle, and as he saw the
bleeding bodies OF a thousand Romans he
covered his face and retired weeping, ex-
claiming: Though they were enemies they
were my countrymen; so We stand at the
graves not only Of our comrades, but of
our enemies, and drop the tear of pity, for
they were misguided countrymen. o, let
US pray for the coming day when wars will
cease, when wars and discord shall be ban
ished from the world, and when the dream
OF the ancient philosophers shall be real.
lied in one full of diapsson OF harmony.
and "the bugles of God" of which Charles
Sumner wrote so beautifully, shall sound
the chorus of peace.