Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-04

the incense of the flowers These august
thrones gathered this morning in these
pews and aisles and corridors and galleries
are insignificant compared with the might
Ter throngs of heaven who mingle in this
service which we render to God and our
country while We twist the two garlands.
Hail spirits multitudinous! Hail spirits
blest! Hail martyred ones come down from
the Kings palaces! How glad we are that
you have come back again. Take this Kiss
of welcome and these garlands of reuliuis-
cence, We who larguished in hospitals or
went down under the thunders and the
fghtnings of Fredericksburg and Cold
Harbor and Murfreesboro and Corinth and
Yorktown and above the
CLOUDS on LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN.
Among the thousands of gatherings at
the North and at the South for Decoration
days, am conscious that this service is
unique and that it is the only one in which
there has been twisted two garlands, one
for the grave of the Northern dead and the
other for the grave of the Southern dead.
., Lord God of the American Union, is it not
time that we bury forever our old grudges2
Myl My, Can we not be at peace on earth
when this moment in heaven dwell, in per-
feet love, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert +.
Lee, William I. Sherman and StoneWau
Jackson, and tens OF thousands OF Northern
and Southern men who, though they once
tOOkeu dShanCc 1T cdcH OTHER lfCul Jlt ppDO-
site bar ks of the Potomac and the Chickd-
hominy and the James and the Tennessee,
now are on the same side of the river, keep
ing jubilee with some of those old angels
who near nineteen centuries ago came down
one Christmas night to chant over Bethle-
hem: ''Glory TO God in the highest; on
earth peace, good will to men,
| have been waiting for some years for
some one else @ twist the two garlands that
I 70 Iat +r,-ict h,lt inrpr in 10
love of God and my country put now my
hand to the work and next spring about
this time if | am living and well, will
twist two more garldnds for
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN GRAVES,
and every spriIgtime until some man or
woman whom ] may have cheered little
in the struggle of this life, shall come out
and put pansy or two on my own grave.
But if the time should ever come when this
land shall be given over to sectional rancor
and demagogism, and North and South. or
East and West shall forget what the good
GOD built this nation for, and II shall halt
on its high career of righteousness and lib
erty and peace, and become the agent OF
tyranny and wrong and oppression, then let
some young man whom | have baptized in
infancy at these affairs 60 out to Greenwood
and scoop up my dust and scatter it to the
four winds of heaven, for l do not want to
sleep, and L will not sleep in land ac-
cursed with sectionalism or oppression.
And now hand over the two garlands,
both of which are wet with many tears,
tears of widowhood and orphanage and
childicssness, tears of suffering and tears
of gratitude. and Us the ceremony must be
performed in symbol, there not being
enough flowers to cover ali the graves, take
the one garland to the tomb of some North
ern soldier who may yesterday have been
omitted in the distribution of the sacrament
of flowers, and the other garland to the
tomb of some Southern soldier. who may,
a month ago, have been omitted in the dis
tribuiion of the sacrament of the flowers,
and put both the wreaths gently down over
the hearts that have ceased to beat. God
bless the two garlands! God save the
United States of America!