The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1884-06-26

erous and charitable especially to old soldiers and
is the soul OF fires, Reunions and the like:
His wife is lovely little woman-the best of
neighbors, and, with one exception all heart could
wish. She is the rankest little rebel that ever
walked. What would you do in such case?
Where will you draw the line? say, at all loyal
women! S.
FOREVER AND FoREvER.#
May 80, 1877.
By Kate BroUnlee Sher,uood
When men forsook their shops and homes and
stood with troubled faces
From morn till night, from night till morn in dusty
When women watched beside their babes in
anguish half resisted,
Until the husky message came: " God keep you
When all day long the long roll called in hateful
exultation,
And fife and bugle stung with pain the pulses of
When woman's hands formed every star upon its
field of glory,
And womans tears were stitched along each stripe
in jeweled story
What said we then? g Go forth, brave hearts! Go,
where the bullets rattlel
For US to pan for US to pray; for you, to toll and
Ours to uphold yours to defend; the compact none
can seyeri
And honored be your name and fame, forever and
foreverl''
When charge and trench gave up their dead, and
loathsome rebel prison;
When on the march the hidden shot took aim with
dread precision;
When every whitewashed ward put out the light
OF some far dwelling,
And every numbering mbulance some dying plant
was telling;
When fathers took their papers up with of
evil presage,
And mothers tore with sitting sobs the wrap of
swift messages
When prone the Nation lay before its God with
sins uncovered,
And with o'ershadowng awfulness the black
winged angel hovered-
What said we then? Stand firm brave hearts,
Stand where the bullets crashing
Cut down your comrades the sheayes go down
before the tfrashingi
Nation pleads with lifted hands, Give up the
Union neyeri
And yours the glory that abides forever and for
ever!'
When bronzed and SCARED and tattered the ranks
Came up from Appomattox with their banners
riddled through,
An hundred for thousand and by tens where
fifties went
With their armless sleeves and crutches showing
where the balls were spent;
When they stacked their good old rifles and their
knapsacks flung aside,
Yielding up their comrades messages bequeathed
them when they died
When the Nation breathed more freely than for ten
long years before
Though the crepe hung, freshly knotted, upon
many mulled door
What said we then9 80 tried and true who live
to rise and rallyi
o tried and true, who sleep SO well by storied
stream and valley!
We bind this debt upon our hearts which time
cannot discover,
To guard your name and shield your fame, forever
and foreyer!
When fort and rfe-pitare brought unto COM
mon level,
And where the soldiers blood ran red the wild
long grasses reyeI;
When year by year the ranks go down that thrilled
TO deeds of glory,
And year by year the ear grows dead to patriotic
story;
When men forget IN stock and trade and feyered
speculation
That any smote and any saved the honor of the
Nation;
When policy would splot the name of hero and of
And swear'w wear, neversaw a foe nor heard a musxet
rattle
What say we now? 80, comrade hearts, that still
are strongly boundingt
And conlrade hearts that wake no more to hear
| the bugles soundngi
| AS when you fought. when you fell, your
memory brightens ever,
Our faith is welded to your fame forever and for
everi"
And the good sword lays neglected in its scabbard
dim and rusty,
The Blue and Gray no longer are the colors of
division,
| And "Yank " and 9 Reb are heard no more the
nick-nalnes of derision
/ The malice of the combat is, thank God no longer
cherished,
| The vengeance that relents not in the breasts of
all has perIsled,
And an infinite compassion in each loyal heart Is
swelling
| For the vanquished in the shadows of their DESC
lated dwelling.
1 Yet say we now, as in the days of our hun1ilia-
ton,
! AS in the days when triumph crowned the armies
of the Nation:
1 The men who fought, the men who fell the old
/ flag none can sever
Shall all be shrined in loyal hearts forever and
forever"
! o, shadow armies, bending where the roses shed
to-day
Their gentle fragrance typical of all our hearts
would say,
From the spires of the Atlantic to the Golden
Gate sublime,
Where Thomas waits his old reserves, who're
serving out their time;
/ O., shadow armies, bending where the scattered
lilies lay
With tears of recollection kissing tender bud and
spray
| o, shadow armies, bending from the SUBMITS of
! the stars,
Holding up the flying pennons of the dear old
Stripes and Stars!
Bear witness that we keep to-day the vows that
we have spoken
In our Iliads, anthems, in our prayers weak
and broken;
In the statue proudly rising, in the statutes none
| From the records of a Union sealed forever and
/ foreverl
| *Republished by request.