The Aberdeen examiner., 1883-05-24

ltuIOW anu mounts HIS Morse IDr Ulle
fray the churches melt their bells
into cannon, and women their Jewels
into the treasury. A storm of indig-
nation sweeps over the land in the
tension and revolt of which all the
forces of society are bent like bow
and recoiled like bolt.
The ''long roll" is sounded and
forth march the eager hosts excepting
time to the wild music of war" They
fling upon the breeze the consecrated
"Southern Cross" and for the first
time i'll the history of the world
brother meets brother in the awful
carnage of battle and appeals to the
arbitrament of the sword. The black
ened cloud thickens and broadens,
and pail as of death hangs over our
Southland. In the darkening gloom
Pluto's demons strike hands with the
mailed Mars, while in fendish ecstasy
they dance to the music of shrieking
she'll and Kissing shot.
"a night of storms, but not like those
That sweep the mountains breast;
1t lightened, twas the sheeted flash
From scrIied ranks that flew;
II thundprcd, twas the cannon crash,
That tore the forest through.
Oh, the darkness and horrors OF
that night Of gloom and desolation
to the heart of the South! The light
of her hope went ont and the darkness
of Erebus settled upon her. Her
Vestal fires were extinguished and
her Penates dethroned. In the midst
of her anguish and despair,and kneel-
ing in the blood of her children, the
mournful Niobo of nations, she
prays Gethsemane's prayer
90 Father, if it be possible, let this cup
pass from me.
my heart is filled with anguish, deep
My joys are fed, my tears are flowing
In whom save Thee, our Father, shall
| trust?"
The sad refrain of this agonizing
prayer is waited on the wings of swift
messengers to the Olynpian courts.
There Jupiter holds his council. The
errant Mars pleads i'll vain his cause.
The fiat Of him whose voice is thunder
goes forth. Out Of these heavenly
halls the radiant Goddess, like the
flaming cross Of Constantine, wings
her eight to earth whence she had
been banished. With one hand upon
the bended head of the sonowing
South, she stretches the other upon
troublouS elements and commands
'peace be still" Obedient to her
behests rift shoots through the sui
phurous canopy through which the
sun looks down with 'blood-shot eye"
upon mighty Chieftian sheathing
his sword at APpomattoX, Wider
drifts Che breach as the walls Of smoke
roll away into eternity. The all-reach-
ing "IIalt" is given, and the scroll
upon which the record Of four years
Of blood is inscribed is folded and
caught away to await the reyeilIe OF
resurrcction's morn. Limp and lifolcss
clings the banner OF blue and gold
around its stall. Proudly floating no
longer above the serried ranks OF
dauntless Southrons, homoward it
turns its dropping crest. Tho God
dess of Victory turns reluctant from
the scene and stamps her image upon
the colors of the enemy. The shout.
ings of the war God are heard nc
more, but there comes up from the
face of the land wall as plaintive as
the song Of the dying swan. Brave
stout hearts, who barred their breasts
to the raging storm, who stood un-
daunted in the tempest of shot and
sustained their dropping colors DO not
come. The heart broken mother scans
the horizon for her absent boy; the
saddened eyes Of the weeping wife
look in vain for his coming; the lonely
maiden is disconsolate in tho shadow
of her grief; yea, the South, in her
''consecrated coronet of sorrow
wecps behind "War'S bloody hearse''
and mourns her un returning dead
The God-given cause for which
they fought, bled, and died, the blood
bought heritage of their forefathers
goes down with them into their peace
ful resting places. And, yet, the vile
tainted breath Of slander tells us the
South.made no history during these
years of her sorrow. All! false
"False as false Iscariot's kiss"
Heroic history is the living soul Of
a nations renown. Leonidas, with
his three hundred Spartan warriors in
the Passes of Therlnopylae, gave tc
Greece a coronet of glory. Hanni-
bal, going like flaming meteor
across the Apenines to the very door
of Rome, gave to Carthage immortal
ity. Joan of Arc, with the Inquisi-
ton cap upon her head, burned tc
death for witch and her ashes thrown
upon the Seine, made the name Of
France musical to the ear of French
men. Wallace, tortured and beheaded,
gave to Scotland a sense Of freedom
and independence which made the
name of Wallace "a wild flower all
over his dear country" The thirteen
numbered brave Switzers who met
the overwhelming hosts of thei1
proud invaders in the mountain
gorges near Basle, gave to Swit2er
land an enduring monument, The
incompatible fidelity in death Of the
valiant Swiss;Guard Of Louis XVI
inspired the nations Of the world Will
a love of freedom. Yea, the cleaning
sword Of Lee as it fell into its scab
bard at Appomattox gave to the
Southern States Of America a plac,
on the honor roll Of nations. Though
she fell with the vestments Of mourn
ing upon her and cypress leaves o
sorrow twined around 'her brow
though the great principles whicI
she strove to maintain seemed to g
down with her arms, yet, the South
ern Con(ederacv became a star OF th