Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-09-10
" TOO OLD"

" too old to serve upon the police force a
the nations Capital" Yes! A quarter G
a century has swept by since these mer
then In the prime of life, selected youths
full OF vigor, mighty in their strength
more than grand in their manliness. wen
out to the hard life of the army in tn,
held, to do battle for the nation and saw,
10 the generations of all time the creates
OF republics. In storm and fog, in colo
and heat they tramped and trampet
ana fought. They stretched their weary
bodies upon the damp beds of Southern
marsh and bog they slept beneath the
cold canopy of the night, with the chilly
winds enveloping their forms; they arose
stiff and sore, and fell into line to meet
shot and shell and the sulphurous hell OF
unholy rebellion, in defense of the old flag
Hungry and faint, cold, wet, Or fevered and
parched, they struggled through morass
and thicket, climbed rugged nights in
face of bursting shells, or plunged
through icy rivers to fall upon pitiless
bayonets. They rotted in prison pens or
moldered in military dungeons. They lay
wounded and bleeding upon Southern bat
tlefelds, craving in vain a single drop of
water to COO their parched tongues. They
were riddled with shot, manned bv shells.
torn to splinters, burned by hellish Greek
fire, pieced by bayonets, slashed by sabers.
and tortured by the devices of prison-pen
lnhumanity and now is it any wonder
that they are too old for police service ?
Then glorious old age incapacitates them,
their old limbs are too stiff, their old heads
are too heavy and lowly bowed, their old
rect are too slow, and their gnarled old
hands that once grasped heroicaIly hilt and
stock are now too unsteady.
Three hundred thousand Of their old
comrades rest in Southern cemeteries AMONG
the grand army of the " unknown dead
but a little while longer and these old he
roes will join the great throu; and solve
the mystery of those unnamed graves. Bnt
In the meantime, and while thev await the
hnal taps that shall command Il IN to their
eternal rest, they are too old to serve their
country In the civil army of police. We
censure the District Commissioners
their duty is to provide guardians OF the |
peace who can cope with the IawIess and
reckless. But their decision ought to create
such a rising of the patriotic tide as will
carry these battle-scarred veterans upon its
wave in easy, peaceful, remunera-
tive employment, unstained by even the
suspicion OF grudging charity to life's
and place them on the last shore in
graves, over which a grateful ma
ion should erect monuments of historic
-ecord ioftier and grander than marble
matt or bronze column, and as enduring as
line itself.
They are too old now to serve upon the
oundsran's weary beat; too old to stand
g sentries over the liberties they pre-
erved by their valor but not too old to
eceive the nations grateful bounty, that
hould be poured out so freely as to over
Fhelm vetoes and carping objections, and
Jury out of sight and hearing whimsical
echnicalities and political l~ittleness. and
hroud in the night of contempt the sneers
f Confederate Brigadiers who pronounce
too old" veterans of the mightiest
t human contests, Northern p~aupers.n
hey will not long be too old. Presently.
a eternal seas they will bathe and re-
ew the youth they sacrificed to preserve
he fairest heritage of God to man. while
multiplying millions of freemen will do
onor for ages to the memoir of the least
f them. s
We view the brief past from 1861 to i
SSS, and reading the story of the heroism I
the citizen soldiers of America, we are !
roud of their achievements, glory in their
iumphs, and exalt their heroism. But .
years hence our children's chill.
rem will look down that long perspective 9
time in which all which all things lose
leir defects and stand out in rounded and 6
ERECTED proportions, and with amazement V
Ill exclaim against the niggardliness with
hieh We doled out to these aged veterans y
le pittance of a few cents per day from fl
l Overlooking treasury, to keep them in ,
fe and poor d~ecency, while blatant poll
and windy d~emagogues howled il
'out the disposal of millions of surplus ii
at strains and cracks the Joints of orr
tional vaults. :"
The Presidential anti Chinese bill has
ssed the Senate. 1t is vet retained on a h
to reconsider, but with very little S,
obability of being withheld from the Oh
lecutive for approval. In thus passing CT
bill The Senate has clipped the cam "a
ign wings of the projectors of the bill. CT
hfornia may not take much satisfaction N
the reflection that her need was re- O,
'nded to only under whip and spur of a 81
esldential year nevertheless u people W,
be pleased that something like a rad VI
| test Is to be made whether our civil tai
ion is able to protect itself against the an
aults of the Mongol system. Whatever tn
'ital the President can make for his ~ u
.didacy out Of this measure Republicans
willingly coneede to him, since they
K long been pledged TO precisely such a IN
of Chinese exclusion as the bill
L. To octn LII. Ill Al