The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1883-05-31

VI u uhtlohs
Future times and peoples reading thu
story Of that conflict shall lock for monu
ment truly National; disappointed aut
with no good opinion Of the present age !
they do not find 1t somewhere in our vas
domain. States have performed this sacrec
duty, many OF them, West Virginia amont
!: the frat, and others yet are to build monu
ments ri this kind. But the Union, the
whole Union, joining as one man in thu
grand sacred task, has yet remaining to i
the great duty Of building one really
D National, vast In proportions, grand IN de
sign, and with the pcrmanency Of the
pyramids stamped upon It. The Nation
. need not be ashamed OF the colossal task
Il need apologize to no one for the under
I taking It owes It to the dead. 1t owes Il
to the living. It owes 1t to itself. II need
give no offense, and woe to him or them
by whom the otIcnse cometh, II the Nation
!. lin recording It's gratitude in granite OF
marble columns TO It's brave defenders,
exceeds any monument hitherto raised in
the history Of the world.
National exequial obseryances are not
peculiar to our country and age. Decora'
ton Day was first instituted on the'motion
Of Aristides In the Athenian Senate just
after the battle OF Platna. The exequy
was annually pronounced by the great ora.
tors OF Greece precisely as It Is in the these
latter days in America. Thucydides gives
us full report Of decoration address
delivered by Psricles more than two thou.
sand years ago. The ceremony OF strew.
ing the graves OF the heroes OF Plattea.
Marathon aud Salamis, was observed pre-.
cisely as it is now, centuries before Christ.
CUSTOM FROM ANCIENT TIMES.
All Greece assembled on these great &C.
casions annually,and Plutarch himself was
an eye witness OF Il six hundred years after
the solemn burial rite was first instituted.
He says that for at least six hundred years
in uccession-longer than since the dis.
covery OF America by Columbus by more
than ahundred years-it had never been
neglected for single year. Yer:
lily, there is nothing new un.
der the sun. 1t was great part OF the re.
ligion oil the Greeks to bury their heroes
with solemn pomp and ceremony, mark
their tombs with special care, and annually
strew them over with beautiful flowers at
the expense OF the nation. So much stress
did they place upon the duty Of victorious
Generals. to carefully bury their dead on
the field OF battle, that Nenophon tells US
that after the ten commanders who had
won the naval fight Of Arginuse returned
to Athens, they were tried, and eight OF
them condemned TO death and executed on
the spot, upon the single charge that they
had not buried their deadl Pericles has
furnished posterity with the best model OF
decoration address. Hear him as he
pronounces these words over the graves Of
those who fell In the Samian war:
"rhey are become immortal like the
gods, for the gods themselves are not visi.
bic TO US, only for the honors they receive,
and the happiness they enjoy we conclude
they are invisible, and such should these
brave men be who die for their country"
The whole Grafton will richly repay Pc
rusal, but have room here for but that
single sentence.
BLooDLESs WARS OF TIE PAST.
In the Italian wars OF the middle ages il
Is u fact that there were few graves and
nothing to decorate in the shape OF heroes
tombs II may seem grave j>ke indeed,
but 1t Is the truth Of history that these
wars furnished nothing to decorate. and
had II not been for the invention OF gun
powder the art oil ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
armor would by this time have done away
with Decoration Dayl Those wars cost no
lives. At the battle OF Zogonora, in 1923,
according to Machiavel, but three lives
we're lost, and those were sulIocated in the
mud, where they were held down by their
heavy armor.
That is the worst case OF stuck in the
/ ~ pt,k knkt1
not more destructive Of life ~ than the
one which occurred sixty.three years after.
wards between the Neapolitan and Papal
troops, for in that battle, though it ragged
fercely!. all day, from sunrise till long
after dark, according to Ammarato, not
a soldier was either killed or wounded.
There were no graves to decorate there,and
many an energetic young woman was dis
appointed in not being made widow.
War in those days was much less hazard.
ous than a snowballing match is now.
With their massive plates or metallic
armor, two armies would whack away at
each other with axe and spear from morn
ing till night, with no other cost than to
pile up big blacksmith bills for repairs!
War had become screaming farce.
in which nobody was fright.
ened and nobody hurt. No one
could put on airs over his fellow soldiers
and claim that he, more than others, bore
about with him, like Cambysses, Cyrus,
Caesar, Napoleon and Grant, a charmed
life. They did not have on them even the
one vulnerable spot which the Grecian
hero had. From the crowns Of their heads
to the soles Of their feet they were all
over invulnerable until, at the close Of
the fifteenth century, eunpowder was dis.
covered, and shattered their armor to
atoms, and war again became that terrible
thing It had been Of old.
Deadly as Kuli'A sword: ~
The purple Testament Of blood and d'Ath,
| Fields OF Slaughter and red with gore"
TOUCHING PAGE OF HISTORY.
There Is graveyard some where that l
should love to see decorated with flowers.
1t isoi those 10000 little children com
manded by child, who, carried away by
the wild fanatiCism Of the Dark Ages,
marched 10 the rescue OF the sepulehre OF
Jesus, dispersed and murdered by the sar-
acens-all but 5000 OF theml Grander
than the column Of Trojan, more imposing
than the Trojan monuments on the field