St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-05-31
Conclusion of the Day.

Great applause rang out OH the clear air
at the conclusion of this able effort. A
male quartet consisting of Messrs. Munger,
Hanson, Wood and Willard then sang with
great effect the memorial hymn, sCare for
Them Tenderly." This was followed by a
recitation, grandly appropriate to the occa-
sion and of great beauty, power and pathos
by Miss Laura Austin, whose effect was to
fill the eyes of veterans with tears and at
its close to give the talented lady most
gratifying encore.
GEN. LEASURE'S REMARKS.
''Nearer to Thee" by the Great Western
band displayed their well-known talent to
great advantage, and was followed by some
excellent remarks by Gen. Leasure, chief
marshal. He feelingly thanked the orator
of the day for the inspired words which
had so eloquently fell from his lips, which
echoed the feelings of every member of the
Grand Army. He also, in the same vein
of thought on the part of the Grand Army
and all ex-soldiers, thanked the people, in
procession and out of it, for their Sympa-
thies as extended on this day This was a
day in which living veterans mourned
thier fallen comrades. 1t was a
sacred day in which they
nleInorized their dead. It was a day in
which veteran soldiers waived etiquet, for
it was day when for the veteran dead
the nation was the chief mOllrner. The
association of the Grand Army Of the Re
public was to perpetuate love for comrades
lost in battle, dying from disease and eX-
posture in camp, and from wounds and
disease since. 1t had no political signif-
cance, and no other purpose but fraternity,
charity and loyalty. Its chief memory to-
day was the 100, 600 men buried in shallow
graves, gored with the weapons of war and
fostering in their blood. Though we re-
member those tfloufrifully whose graves we
can adOrn with flowers, more sadly we
think of those unnoticed graves near the
battlefelds Of the war, or those who have
for their Wilidiiig-sheetS the waters Of the
sea.
He agreed with holy writ that there was
without the shedding of blood no remission
of sins, and that every step gained i'll the
advancement of civilization had been by the
shedding of blood. Therefore, our slain
comrades had been given as a sacrifice to
rear good and noble republic. We had no
malice towards OUR late foes, and in them
we met foeInen worthy of our steel. We
conquered because our cause was just, and
they were conquered. because their cause
was unjust. We fought to maintain the
Union, which they would pull down. Now
the same feeling that animated us animates
them, and the blue and the gray are united
as one to gain the victory over all tyrants.
Great applause.
DIR. J. II. MURPHY.
After the singing by the quartet Sur
geon General DIR. Murphy made what he
afterwards said was one of his character
istic speeches. Unbuckling his belt he
cast aside his sword with which he said he
had never killed anyone. He was never
ashamed to be called a soldier and he
thanked the people OH this occasion for the
respect they were showing fallen veterans in
the war; 1t was not the state militia who
had saved this Union, but the men whose
death the nation mourns to-day, and their
surviving comrades assembled for this pur-
pose all over the land. Decoration day had
lasted and been observed for eighteen
years and he expected to see it observed for
1,SOO. At any rate the people of this couil-
try never would forget those who saved it.
He never killed any Southern men with the
sword, and if he had done anything. of the
kind it was in the hospital. But all who
know, the doctor intimately know that al
though he has firm hand he has a tender
heart. and that he did not commit hospital
murders enough to make it hard.
The beautiful poem he had heard recited
had made him weep, and he was not
ashamed of it either This and the faces of
the widowed wives and orphaned children
of men now in Southern graves, whom he
could see in this audience, was enough to
make him shed tears as he thought it all