Wood River times. [volume] (Hailey, Idaho) 1882-1915, 1889-06-07
; A CENTER SHOT.
The ''Oregonian" Pays Its Respects to
the Cynic, aad Hits the Bull's.Eye. ~
Usnal.

ANU VteBUusSa EAJb lU AeSp0cSs 70
the Cynic, aad Hits tho Bull's.Eye. ~
Ussal.
Memorial Day has one implacable,
bitter enemy from Portland, Maine,
to Portland. Oregon; from the St.
Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico.
This enemy is peculiar to no party.
He is like the army vermin that we're
no respectors o! persons but bit
Confederate brigadier as impartislly I
aud Is venomously as they did .
Union soldier. This bitter enemy of
Memorial Day is that sleepless cynic
of modern civilization, q lineal de.
scendant of the euvious and mean
spirited Greek who could not sleep
because Aristides was cslled "The
Just" There we're some three mil
lions Of men on both sides involved
in the dreadful civil war OF 1S64.65.
They were the enthusiastic youth, the
generous and the splendid manhood
of both sides. At least half of them
up to July, 1868, we're fine young fel-
lows ranging from 1S to % years of
age. Those who took their places in
1S64.65, were an inferior lot Of men,
who, as a rule do not survive to-day.
The G. A. r., who are the oonspicu-
GUS celebrants OF the day, are good
men and true. OF course no church
is without its hypocrites and dissem-
blers; no bar is without its shysters;
no court but has its soiled ermine.
In that human nature displays its
weakness, its in6rmity as conspicuous
ly within the G. A. r. as without.
There are men in the G. A. R. who
were shirks and sneaks in war as they
have been in peace. but they are the
exceptions. As rule it is safe to
say that man who is in good stand.
ing with the G. A. r. to-day is good
citizen, an honorable man, q gentle
man in thought aud action, both in
public and private life. Exceptions,
notorious exceptions, can be cited,
but they are 80 few that they only
prove the rule that the Union veteran
is q self.supporting and therefore
self.respecting American citizen
And yet these survivors of an army o.
100000 are the subject of the
ceaseless sneer Of the sleepless Ameri
can cynic, who thinks it wit and hu
NOR to make burlesque of the mora
!. enthusiasm and fervent patriotism
that is expressed in the ceremonies o
Memorial Day.
The other day resident Of Oregon
O sneered at an article in The OreGoni
al in defense and encomium of tn
4 Memorial Day and denounced a
sentimental rot" the backneyed quo
. tation from O'Hara's poem, 70
, Fame's Eternal Camping Ground.
- The quotation was an unanswerabl
argument, because its survival out G
u long and dreary mess of mediocr
:. verses proves that the people have a
q increasing instinct for the good an
the true. O'Hara, a Mexican W.
veteran, wrote this poem when tt
Or Kentucky dead of the Mexican ".
Is we're buried in Louisville. The on
b. verse that has survived of this drea,
poem is the one derided by the Or
ur gon critic who jssts at scars becau'
% he never felt wound. The heart {
~ the people was touched by the ring
the true metal in the verse that o.
sieepless Oregonian oynic derides.
mr. Our Oregonian sleepless cynio
No. but the double of the sleepless Gym
,e' Of the Springfield Republican; who
never 80 happy as he is when
:: makes patriotic New England mise
-. able by sneer,ng at Memorial Day
Nc u mere opportunity for political del
Vs. .. azogues by blatant speech to increa
." their influence.
a.. There are men in oregon a
- Washington Territory who, as men
ire war times, remember that the you
Der men of 1S6l-65 made splendid sac
na' fees that the nation might live, q
on the ears of these men the words
ers the slsepless cynic, who is never
rms happy as he is when he is ridiculi
m. men whose shoes he is not worthy
md unloose, fall as UNDECIDED as the sh
ant boleth of heather or the mumm
ood of a slave. The G. A. r. has
great injustice done it, because
. a. individual in6rmities of its memb
:. q expose it to criticism, but as q r
N the veterans of the Union army b.
olic "vo.ed as they shot" military sp
,nn. 10 not desirable in this country
and now, but patriotic spirit is an obi
at of public enthusiasm and ooDgras'
ton.
roar mnR opCANn INSTRUCT COUR1