The Newtown bee., 1888-06-08
WooDBURY.
seen.

A read on Memorial Day, but not delivered on account of illness: Veterans-MOre than 20 years have elapsed since the last Shot was fired in our late civil war. The hatred and animOsity engendered during the dark, lurid years of that bloody con test have been gradually passing away with the passing years. The old nation | al feeling has come back, in some good | degree, in all our borders. The old sol diers, who fought on either side, having learned each others prOwess, are frater- | niZing more and more, each year and setting good example to us civilians, | who went not forth to battle. Memorial | day is observed in many parts of the 1 land by union services, in fraternal ac- cord, by those who wore the blue and the gray. X new generation has come upon the stage, who knew not the sad animosities of those sorrowful years and they, too, unite in all brotherly demon strations. The associations of veterans sons, so generally forming, do much to keep alive the fires of patriotism. The men who went forth to do battle against each other were of common lineage and heritage, often from the same neighbOr- | hood and. in the South. not subsequently | from the same paternal roof. It happen ed to me to have relatives residing in the South, as we'll as ill the North and they fought on opposite sides. A cousin from the North was stricken down in the bloody passage through Baltimore of the Massachusetts Seventh regiment. Inthe | South, two of my cousins from one roof fought under hostile flags. Two years ago there was a union observance of Me morial day in Georgia and their sister, | whose father is now member of Con gress, recited verses which clearly eX- press the thought l have stated. They follow
 Upon my bosom lies
 A knot of blue and gray;
 You ask me why? Tears fill my eyes
 z And tenderly say:
 'sI had two brothers once,
 | Warm-hearted, brave and gay; They left my side, one wore the Blue, The other wore the Gray.
 One rode with Stonewan and hi s men H And joined his fate with Lee; The other joined in Sherman's march,
 Triumphant to the sea!
 Both fought for what they deemed the right | And died with sword in hand. .. One sleeps amid Virginia's hills
 And one in Georgia's sand.
 The same sun shines upon their graves, 1 My love unchanged must stay;
 And so upon my bosom lies I The knot of blue and gray"
 Il A few more years, veterans and there
 will be none of you left to attend these
 beautiful memorial services. You will still gather in undiminished ranks, but it
 will be on the other shore, in the beauti-
 ful Beyond. Year by year, your com rades are dropping by your side, leaving
 the ranks below for the ranks eternal. As blue-clad veterans, you will march no
 more, but you will be reunited with J your comrades, who fell in the bloody
 strife and now await your coming, eX-
 pectant on the battlements of Heaven.
 Your posts below will decrease in num-
 tha tc oh fill
 the grand reunion of all and the final re- view. All your old leaders will be there:
 Grant, sherman, Sheridan, Mcclellan,
 Meade, Hancock. Logan, Thomas, Lyon, ISedgwick and, of the navy, Farragut,
 Foote s'and all the others of the glorious list of names, who have Out-soared the
 shadow of our night" And we, too, who !, went not forth to battle, but remained at home to furnish the sinews of war and !, who now are in the forefront of the bat
 tie of life are falling all around you like !. Autumn leaves. The never changing
 knell has come especially near us in the
 last few years. Our best-loved and most
 honored have been called hence from all the activities of life and this will go on in the ways of Providence till all who have lived in the dread days of the war have tasted the last of earth. The Woodbury base ball club returned the visit of the Gunnery club of Wash
 ington, last week and beat them on their
 own ground to z.
 Memorial Day exercises passed of !, creditably. The principal address was given by Trial Justice M. F. Skelley. It
 was eloquent and interesting. This was
 followed by short impromptu speeches by Judge Huntington and Rev MT Free
 man. The Waterbury drum corps fur , nished music. Prayer was by Rev NIT : Shackelton.