Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-05-30

roses, sent by Mrs. A. r. Bowen, teacher of a
eSor red os school in the Randall building
flowers made up in tasteful and beautiful
designs. The ladies received large contributions
well, commissioner Of public buildings and
grounds, sent many, and a dozen boxes Of
beautiful t;aa h,, flowers intended for the GUAM
to the committees ere Mise ao baisy co SSs1
and Mrs; J. 81. Jochum also contributed largely
from their floral wealth. This morning a box
from the White House arrived at Airing.
Ton. 1t was expected that there would not
Of the backwardness Of the season
s 1@t the committee a were very agreeably
sneaes upaP
nc schools alone filled five furniture wagons
AS one OF the ladies of the committee expressed
had 70 st STAR reporter lit seemed IS If nature
! collection and distribution of flowers was under
the general direction of Commander II. II.
smith, of Post No. 3.
THE AMPH1THEATER,
In which the exercises are held, was very taste
FULLY decorated by committee working under
the direction Of Chairman G. III. Ingram, Of the
decoration committee. The work of decorating
the amphitheater was finished last Thursday
evening, but most of the decorations were
spoiled by the rain, so that the work had
to be done all over again last night.
The amphitheater is surrounded by q row of
columns. A tent roof was erected over this.
emblems of various kinds were suspended
about the amphitheater. Garlands Of ever
greens stretched from pillar to pillar.
THE SCENES ABOUT THE CEMETERY.
The rain stopped falling about 10 O'Clock,
much to the qualification of the little band that
mad then assembled at Arlington. Still the
grass was wet, and promised wet feet,
pneumonia and a hundred other Ills A thick
mist, rising from the river, completely yelled
the city, from sight and spoiled the
shef xsW which e1 Arp to many is a the
ten o'clock one old colored woman, attended by
several urchins, opened refreshment stand in
t the roadway in front of the main gate Her
spread out upon A dlap p de- table able
tsuay the nea roadway for some dis
thrifty colored people turn an honest penny or
two by. purveying to the rustic appetite tor
horsecakes and the bucolic thirst for city LEM
onade. AT noon to-day there were not more
than dozen such business places established,
and and business . was very slack Those dealers
balls and pies to-day, suffered heavily
VIM, It is expected, keep their stock till next
taking advantage of tie expected rise in the
market. AS usual there were many teams and
wagons wagons at the end of the aqueduct
terry for a dime apiece. The owners of these
vehicles bounced upon the few pedestrians
who came upon the bridge and competed lively
for the little traffic that came. In some in
stances the fare was reduced to five cents and
even less: And then the roads! 1t seemed as
though the Virginia mud made up its mind to
Guido itself. 1t reminded the old soldiers, who,
true to the memory of their dead comrades,
would have braved any weather, of their cam
palgns IN Virginia, when the very mud of the
Ola Dominion seemed to rise up in protest
against the northern invasion.
THE EXERCISES.
At noon the members of the Grand Army
had arrived at Arlington, and soon afterwards
the formal exercises were commenced. Com
pared with the attendance of former years
there We're few present outside the members OF
the Grand Army of the Republic and their fami-
lies.
At 12 o'clock Lieut.. j. A. Swift commanding
detachment from the signal corps, fred ma
tlonal salute. A procession was then formed In
front OF the mansion, and headed by the Marine
band, which played a solemn dirge, marched
through the grounds to the cemetery. Here the
ladies. taking huge baskets OF flowers, strewed
them in profusion over the graves. Upon each
grave had been placed little fias.
procession was reformed and marched to
the amphitheater, where the assembly was
called f;lie5l, to order by Department Commander
Invocation, and an appropriate poem, composed
by Hon: George NJ. Drake, OF Tennessee, was
read by Prof. +. c. Townsend.
Gen. S. s. Burdett was then introduced as the
orator of the day.
Gen. Burdett's Grafton.
Gen. Burdett spoke of the time that had
elapsed since the close Of the rebellion and of
the beautiful custom, which had now been OBJ
served for seventeen years, of decorating the
graves of the dead soldiers with flowers Since
the close of hOstiities a new generation had
arisen. The war was to them but as a tale that
Is tod, but should the national honor call for
defense the sons OF the veterans OF a quarter of
century ago would stand to the front ONLY a
rev, more ne years and the hand Of the stranger
ing OF flowers, if flowers be brought at all. The
bones of the fathers who fell in achieving our
national independence were not gathered into
common sepulchre. The earth, which for a
season was refreshed by their sacrifice, hath
forgotten to reproach the ploughshare as it
passes over them.
THE FIRST AND SECOND wAsH1yGToNs
Gen. Burdett spoke in glowing terms of the
exalted patriotism and the heroic achievements
of the revolutionary sidery, and asked: Shall
we hope that when such as these have not so
much of acknowledged tenancy in the CONT
nent they gave us as the spot their bodies
covered when they fell prone beneath the bat
tie flag that our comrades of the last great
struggle shall, in days to come, fare better?
Look about you and see the beginning of better
things. Look across the water flowing at our
feet-the capstone Is in its place., There is at
length fit monument to George Washington
though century and more has played its ire
mendqus games since he earned t Of his conn-
among these shades, and in the spirit that
hovers about yon marble column, the Inca
the century. 1t is the face that first shone out
In the completeness of its beauty when the last
cloud was rolled away at AppOmattox 1t Is the
face OF the new nation wherein is blended the
serene faith in his country's future, of him
named first by his countrymen everywhere:
the patient trust In God and In the people of the
second Washington, and with these the con-
scious soul of the Union itself, radiant with the
fruition of highest hope, and proud In its be-
lief that all the future is secure There was no
place on which the shadow of fit monument
to Washington could fall unfretted and un-
broken until the sword, the last dread arbiter
enthrOned mastership, that mastership which
elsewhere divides the state into sovereign and
subject, but which here, under other names
armed felow-citizens, with powers over fellow.
men to which no king our race had ever known
had dared aspire, and set the state to be the
guardian of the strong.
For generation an unfinished and unslghtly
pile stood for the confusion of our faces, and it
was not until the funeral march had been set
on Arlington and the many voices tuned to the
chorus of the Union over all that the Washing
skies, challenging the veneration of the world
for the mortal whose fame it comment
crates. The orator here depicted the
poverty of the embryo nation which fur
lack of means and facilities, even when indie
pendence was won and the nation more firmly
established, for gathering together the dust OF
the heroes who had fallen; The adoption of
adverted to-. A son of New England did in
yonder Capitol, once set the tune and sang SO
grand melody that well nigh all the living
world gave pause to listen, and set its heart to
like Webster sang, there looked into his very
eyes the defiant spirit of the master, and in his
ears was the clank of a chain worn, alas! by his
cOuntrymen. Ours Is the suspicious day when
that discordant note has lost It's echo, and when
they who of old time hanging their harps upOn
the willows, refused to sing, now standing by