River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1886-06-03

Their shivcred swords are red with rust,
| Their plumed heads are bowed
/ Their naughty banner, trailed in dust
| Is now their martial shroud:
| And plenteous funeral tears have washed
| The red stains from each brow;
| And the proud forms. 10y battle gashed,
| Are free from anguish now.
| " The neighboring troop. the flashing blade,
| The bugle's stirring blast,
| The charge, the dreadful cannOnade,
| The din and shout, are passed;
Nor wars wild note, nor glOry's peal
| Shall thrill with fierce delight
| Those breasts that never more may feel
/ The rapture OF the tight
To-day the G. A. r., assisted by the
local Militia Companies, observed Deco
ration Dav with pomp and circumstance,
completely eclipsing any previous obsery-
ance of the anniversary in this city. The
Veterans mustered hundred strong, and
| the Sons of Veterans and the University
Battalion added over hundred more
uniformed men, whose Furnished mus
kets and cleaning bayonets supple
mented the rafting drum and screaming
| fife in recalling to the minds of the
SCARED old veterans the scenes Of a quar-
ter century ago. In those olden days
so far away that thousands of the young
men and women, the girls and boys, and
the little children who gazed with inter-
est or wonder upon the little pageant to-
day-in those days, the streets of Madison
trembled under the swinging tramp of
regiments 4 thousand strong, composed
of the best blood and sinew of our State,
marching away to southern battletields to
fight for an abstraction,-a Union of
States-a political Compact-a flag-the
integrity of which would seem to mean
nothing to the individuals whose units
which made the solid columns marching
away toward the South. The land would
Weld its harvests and labor reward its
votaries Just the same, whether the flag
bore thirty stars, or only thirty.
And vet for this abstraction a million and
half of men offered their lives, if neces
saIy, that the compact might not be bro
ken, or the flag lose a single star. And
that is what the world recognizes as pa
triotism. A love of country surprising
love Of home, of wife and children, father
or mother, of ease or pleasure. A love of
country which led men to sacrifice all
that was dearest to them, and brave the
perils of battle, the fatigues of the march,
hunger and pain, and stoically TO suffer
the ills and pains that in the piping times
of peace are wont to make men shudder
at the bare recital. And this is the offer
ing that to-day is commemorated in the
National Holy-day, which sets apart the
thirtieth day of this tlowery month as
day on which the survivors of the battle
years may lead the rising generation in
the simple ceremony which, while hon
oring the dead, educates the living in the
principles of patriotism and love of coun-
try.
That this observance is a power not
measurable by the number of veteran
graves in our land, is manifest from the
very noticeable fact that to-day nearly
every grave in lakewood Cemetery was
crowned with fragrant flowers, placed
there more often than not, by little hands
whose owners cannot rest until they
know the meaning of the ceremony-the
gathering of armed men, the dirge and
the volley which sound a soldiers re-
QUEEN over the sleeping dead. A few
more years and there will be no more
veterans to conduct the ceremonies. viii
the day be then no more remembered?
Must the surviving comrades alone recite
the gallantry of the fallen? do not be-
lieve it. a hundredye has not efIaced
the primal thought from the 4th Of July.
T,rice one hundred years will not etface
the primal thought Of the 30th of May
1.-THE Union, one and inseparable, now
and forever"
As marched in the ranks Of the vete-
rams to-day was struck with the homo
gently Of the old organization, composed
as it is Of men speaking different tongues,
but whose one thought was the country
and the cause for which they fought.
/ There were many Germans and many
| Americans born, with Scandinavians,
| Englishmen, Irishmen, Welshmen, and
| four in whose cOal-blaek faces the burn
| ing suns of Africa had left its hereditary
imprint. But they are all Americans and
all brothers. There is no question of
| ancestry in the q. A. R.-no "cOlor line"
| except the color line Of the past to which
they sprang at the sound of the "long-
roll" or the color line of the present i'm
/ printed in the stripes of the old flag,
which are lighted by the radiance of
every star which ever yet held place in
its azure field. The Sons Of Veterans"
who to-day manfully trudged through
the binding clouds of dust, shouldering
| the muskets which their fathers have
| stacked for final muster-Out, are not going
to let the memories of their sires be for
| gotten; and the bronze medals which
to-day adorn the breasts Of the soldiers
Of the Grand Army of the Republic will
be cherished as the most precious me-
mento Of the past. l heard to-day of a
man who said that he would give a thou
sand dollars for the right to wear the staI
upon his breast. 1t can only be worn by
those who earned the right; the right
Was Only tdAuSu ~ lAAAAAA k'SttcAAs1oAo tsS'i-
otism.
The music for the march to-day was
furnished by two young men, each under
forty years, who went from our State in
6l, with drum and fife, whose combined
ages at the time would scarcely sum a
quarter of a century. Old men in the
ranks to-day tramped over Virginia fields
twenty-five years ago 10 the rythm of the
same instruments, and by the same mu-
sicians that were heard to-day. The
drummer had the flexible wrist and firm.
ness Of stroke which characterizes the
old army drummer from his congeners
Of civil life They can initiate, but they
/ can never equal, the resOlute earnestnesS
Of the "long-roll' beaten at midnight il
the company street by a boy clothed in 8
single garment-a gray army shirt, toe
short at both ends, with the rebel yell fol
an internal accompaniment. Johnny
Nichols, as the old boys call him, was anC
is that kind of drummer His music i,
an inspiration. His composed time-ths
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