The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1883-05-17

Path of Life: "Sorrowing for t
Dead,' after which the followiI
poem, composed By Mr.. Rufus
Allen, was read by Mr.. John
Swindle, to-wit:
Parted friends, we gladly come,
And gather around your silent tomb
In memory of the loved ones gone
To their immortal homes
Fadeless verdure deck each mound
Above the dust the death urn keep,
Years like snowhakes fall without a sound
Wherein the loved ones sweetly sleep.
They are waiting for us, we know,
Upon heavens golden strand,
Those we lost 60 long ago,
To welcome us to land.
Forms we loved are lying here,
And strangers sleep side by side,
While friends away may wander where
Their long lost loved ones died
We lay our dead away with tears,
We sorrow on and on bereft,
And say that life has little joy;
Orhope or comfort left.
But in the sweet spring time above,
Safe from decay and pain,
Clothed in eternal youth and love,
Our dead may live again.
AS f1eeting time rolls swiftly,
Its footprints stamp the dying year;
Each returning May well come
And scatter the sweetest flowers here
And every strangers grave we pass,
Well have flower and tear,
For the truth we know full we'll, alas
Some mothers child is sleeping there.
Now sleep the righteous and the pure,
And perhaps some who were depraved;
The wise, the foolish, the rich and poor,
Are equal now within the grave.
Their follies, we forgive them now;
The debt is paid we all do owe,
We've learned from them lesson how
Little worth, wealth, or folly is below.
OFT the infant from tba breast
Is taken, from the mothers care,
Conveyed to heaven with the blest,
And babe to blossom there.
Oh, death, unspairing monster thou,
The old, the young, the wise. the fair,
All at thy command must bow
And give their lives up there.
Clouds of sorrow viii often come
And leave some heart in sad despair,
And keen distress in some bright homo
VIII lodge poison arrow there.
When the angel death unfolds his wings,
And descends to us below,
An awful message he surely brings,
That some one here must 60.
Bat to heavens bright and golden gate
We look with tender love,
For loved ones there will sweetly wait
To welcome us above.
Happy day when we shall know
Our sins are all forgiven;
The "anger' death may bid us go
To meet our friends in heaven.
RUFUS II. ALLEN.
Red Land, La, May |, 1883.
The ladies having previously pr,
pared many beautiful wreaths
flowers, the decoration began. Aft,
spending two or three hours aroun
the graves the crowd resssembled /;
the church and began preparing dil
ner, the gentlemen building fire
and bringing water from the sprinI
the ladies making coffee and arran,
ing the dinner table, and when dil
ner was announced it seemed th;
the crowd had increased to at leas
three hundred. But notwithstan,
ing the immense crowd, there W:
plenty left. After the ladies ha
cleared off the table, the crowd W;
called to order and a resolutic
passed requesting another meetir
at the graveyard on the third Satu
day in August next.
The matter of the incorporation
the cemetery having been mentio
ed, the following gentlemen, s. !
Boggs, j. j. SwindIe, j. G. ALE
A. j. Spurlin, j. B. Bixler, ST.,
M. Barnett, j. N. Bryan, J. B. Ma
ing and j. B. Crawford were selec
ed by the meeting to incorpora