Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-08-28
INGERSOLL'S GRAFTON.

The past rises before me like a dream.
Again we are in the great struggle for
National life. We hear the sounds Of
preparation-the music of the boisteroas
drums, the silver voices of heroic bugles.
We see thousands of assemblages and
hear the appeals of orators; we see the
pale cheeks of the women and the flushed
faces of men, and in those assemblages
we see all the dead whose dust we have
covered with flowers. We lose sight ef
them no merel We are with them when
they enlist in the great army of freedom.
We see them part from those they lose.
Some are walking for the last time in
quiet woody places with the maideDs
they adore. We hear their whisperiilgs
and the sweet vows of eternal love as
they lingeringly part forever. Others
are bending over cradles, kissing babies
that are asleep. Some are receiving
blessings of old men. Some are parting
with those who hold them and press
them to their hearts again and again,
and say nothing; and some are talking
with wives, and are endeavoring with
brave words spoken in the old tones to
drive from their hearts the awful fear.
We see them part. We see the wife
standing in the door with the babe in
her arms standing in the sunlight sob+
bing-at the turn of the road hand
waves-she answers by holding high in
her loving arms the child. He is gone,
and forever.
We see them all as they march proudly
away under the Haunting flags, keeping
time to the wild grand music of the war,
marching down the streets of the great
cities, through the towns and across the
prairies, down to the fields of glery to do
and to die for the eternal right. Veg
with them one and all. We are by their
side on all the CORY fields. in all the hos
pitfalls of pain, on all weaIy marches.
We stand guard with them in the wild
storm and under the quiet stars. We
are with them in ravines running with
blood, in the burrows of old fields. We
are with them between coDtending hosts,
unable to move. wild with thirst, the
life ebbing slowly away among the with
cred leaves.
We see them pierced by balls and torn
with shells in the trenches by forts, and
in the whirlwind of the charge where
men become iron with nerves of steel.
We are with them in the prisons of ha-
tired and famine; but human speech can
never tell what they endured. We are
at home when the news comes that they
are dead We see the maiden in the
shadow of her first sorrow. We see the
silver head of the old man bowed with
the last grief.
The past rises before US and we see
100000 of human beings governed by
the lash; we see them bound hand and
foot; we hear the strokes of cruel whips !;
we see the hounds tracking women THO
the tangled swamps. We see babes sold
from the breasts of mothers. Cruelty
unspeakable. Outrage infinitel
Four million bodies in chains, ,0O,-
600 souls in fetters.
All the sacred relations of wife, moth
er, father and child tralnpled beneath
the brutal foot of might. And all this
was doue under our own beautiful bar
ner of the free.
The past rises before us. We hear the
roar and shrek of the bursting shell /.
The broken fetters fall; these heroe'
died. We look. Instead of slaves we
see men, women and children. The
wand of progress touches the auction.
block, the slave pen, the whipping post
and we see homes and firesides, ant
school houses and books, and where al
was want, and crime, and cruelty, anC
fetters, we see the faces of the free.
These heroes are dead. They died for
liberty-they died for US. They are al
rest. They sleep in the land that they
made free, under the flag they rendered
stainless, under the solemn pines, the
sad hemlocks, the fearful willows, and
the embracing vines. They sleep be
meath the shadows of the clouds, careless
alike of the sunshine Or of storm, each
in the windowless palace of rest. Earth
may run red with other wars-they are
at peace. In the midst of battle. in the
roar of conflict, they found the serenity
of death. A voice-"Glory."
New YORK SUN (Dem): The prompt
action which Mr.. Blaine has taken to
stamp out scandaluus story concerning
his early life commends itself to all de-
cent mer, ut is utterly and abominably
false" he telegraphs to the friend whom
he directs to insti ute proceedings
against the authers of the libel-"utterly
and abominably false in every statement
and In every implication" The fact thai
MI Blaine, in giving directions by tele
graph for the employment of counsel
does not forget to assure the country il
slightly theatrical phraseology that ht
intends to defend the honor of his fam
lily, If need be with his life, casts nj
suspicion on the singleness of his pur
pose or the genuineness of his indigna
ton. The denial. coming so promptly
In such vigorous form. and precisely al
time when it suggests interestin.
COmparisons increasas our rasnact 20,