Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-05-31
MEMORIAL DAY SERVICES
AT THE SIXTH-STREET NJ. E.
CHURCH LAST EVENING.
Description of the Floral Offerings
Synopsis Of the Address of Rev.
T.. II. Ollie on Patriotism.

day morning at Calvary Baptist Church,
which were attended by the Grand Army
Posts and large number of citizens After
the usual religious exercises, Rev. A. C.
Herrick delivered an able discourse upon
Our Land, the Home of Liberty"
In the evening memorial services were
held in the Sixth-street II. E. Church.
under the auspices of the Grand Army of
the Republic. Sumner, Warren and Fair
Oaks Posts, and Sumner and Fair Oaks
Corps attended in body and occupied the
front seats. The posts and corps
turned out in full ranks, uniformed, and
made an excellent showing. The floral
offerings of the two corps, were appropriate
and without doubt the largest and most
beautiful ever seen in Sacramento outside
OF Mrs. Crocker's Floral Festival Among
the pieces from Sumner Corps, the handi-
work of the lady members of that organiza-
| ton, was one representing the Grand Army
| badge. 1t was ten feet in hight, faultless as
! to proportions and outline, and the colors
| interviewer IS cleverly as it could have
| been done on canvas with the brush of an
| artist. Another Of similar hight was the
emblem OF the Woman's Relief Corps made
with equal exactneSs as to colors and de-
| tail. These two magnificent pieces were
] placed one on each side of the altar The
| same ladies also exhibited large Tyre
worked in the most delicately harmonizing
colors, intermingling with smilax and ever
gIe MS, which was placed at the lett of the
altar. Fair Oaks Corps presented banner
and shield which was supported upon wire
frame placed upon table at the right of
the altar, beside fIIll-rigged man of-war.
| This corps also presented an immense pill
| low made of Gala lilies and white flowers,
which was placed directly in front of the
altar. The banners of the three POSTS and
the two corps, together with other flags,
were tastefully arranged on the sides and
in the rear of the altar. The sight was
beautiful one to behold, and the atmos-
| phere of the room was redolent with the
| fragrance of the wealth of flowers.
Long before the hour arrived for the
commencement of the solemn exercises.
the church began to fill with people At
o'clock the building was literally packed,
both down stairs and in the gallery, every
seat being taken, every foot of available
space used for standing room, and no more
people were allowed to enter.
THE EXERCISES.
a choir of thirty voices, supported by
splendid orchestra, sang the anthem, q" ST.
lently Bury the Dead" The minister then
read the Litany of the Departed hymn,
Great God of Nations" prayer by Rev
| E. Il. Ollie; requiem, Not Dead, but
Sleeping" by the choir; Scripture reading,
| by the minister; hymn, Decoration Day"
tune, America Words written by Israel
Luce, of this city, for the occasion. The
same appeared in Saturdays RECORD
| UNION.
THE MEMORIAL ADDRESS.
Comrade E. r. Ollie delivered an adj
| dress upon Patriotism" of which the
| following is brief synopsis:
The memory of the just is blessed
prov. x, y. 1t was appointed by law in
Athens that the oDsequies of her soldiers
| VINO fell in battle or who died in their
country's service should be performed at
the public expense and in the most honor
able manner. Three days before their in
terment her heroes lay in state beneath pa
vilions draped in black, while on their
| biers were laid the last tributes of surviving
affection, and one sarcophagus was draped
| IN honor OF the uncovered or unrecog-
nlzed, but not therefore, unhonored dead.
On the fourth day mournful procession
was formed, in which the mothers. wives
and sisters of the fallen were given the
place of honor, and the highest dignitaries
of the State walked with barred heads as a
guard of honor to the funeral corteee
Thus marshaled, they moved to the place
OF 4nterment in the famous Ccramicus, the
most beautiful suburb of Athens, which
had been adorned by Cimon, the son of
| Miltiades with walks and fountains and
columns whose groves were filled
with affairs, shrines and temples
! whose gardens were ever green with
streams from the neighboring hills, and
shaded with the trees sacred to Minerva;
whose pathway cleaned with the monu-
ments of the illustrious dead, the work of
the most consummate artist that ever gave
| life to marble.
Such were the tokens of respect required
| by law to be paid to the memory of those
who had fallen in the service of their coun-
try. 1t was ordained by law that their
children shoald be educated at the public
expense. To those who fell on the field of
Marathon a peculiar honor was reserved
As the battle fought upon that immortal
field was distinguished from all others in
Grecian history for its influence over the
fortunes of Hellas, as it depended upon the
issue of that day whether Greece should
live glory and light to all coming time.
or should expire like the meteor of a mo-
| ment, SO the honors awarded to its martyr
heroes were such as Athens bestowed on
| them alone. They alone, of all her sons.
were buried upon the bloody field which
| their valor had made FAM Gus. Their names
were inscribed upon the pillars erected
upon the monumental tumulus which
covered their ashes, where, after six hun
dred years, they were read by the traveller
Pausamius; and although the columns
have long since disappeared, the mound
still marks the spot where they fought and
| fell.
That battlefield where Persia's alien horde
| First bowed beneath the brTInt Hellas' cvor,1
For five hundred years Greece led her
children and youth each year to the field
of Marathon on which her heroes
WERE BURIED WHERE THEY FELL,
And there recounted in their ears the deeds
| of their patriot sireS, and while that sacred
ceremony was observed Greece was invinci-
BILE and free, but when her patriotism de-
cayed and her memorial day was neglected
she did not long survive it. Twas
Greece, but living Greece no morem God
forbid that our memorial day should ever
pass UNDECIDED. 1t is the nations duty to
guard the memories of its heroes from
oblivion, and to make the story of their
sacrifice part of her children's education.
Patriotism is my theme might. What
is it? Ask any school boy ten years old
and be will tell you it is love of country"
and Noah Webster gives no better defiri-
|
| ism is the last refuge of a scoundrel;" but
on the other hand, Cicero said that it is the
most royal grace of character, and duty
more sacred than the filial tie, and the
honor which the world pays to the names
of Leonidas, Tell, Hampden, Winkelried,
Lafayette, Washington, Lincoln and Grant
shows that Cicero rather than Johnson was
right.
But we must not confound patriotism
with that sentimental instinct born of as
ISOLATION that links and allies one to his
native land. God has implanted in the
bosom OF every child a love of home
however homely and unattractiye thai
home may be, if only love is there. II
would rather live with its own parents in
a hovel, clad in rags and pinched with
hunger, than share the princely hos
pitality of stranger. We all know what
tender associations cluster round the old
homestead where our eyes first saw the
light. Akin to this attachment to ouf
/ birthplace is the attachment we feel for
the land of our birth-that geographical
locality we call our country.
Breathes there a man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land?
Whose heart has never within him burned
! As home his footsteps he hath turned
| From wandering on foreign strand.
\ If such there breathe go mark him well.
Z atlI,a aarRrr II oil in calf