Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1891-06-04
DECORATION DAY.
Services most INTERESTING and h1s-
brpSS10e.

The services on Decoration Day were
more largely attended this year than on
former occasions. The business places
were more highly and appropriately
decorated than heretofore and the in
terest manifested in the services of the
day by everyone seemed greater. B.
Silber's dry goods store, H. H. NOss <
Co. s drug store, and r. Parrish & Bro s
hardware store were specially notice
able on account of their decoration.
The decorations gave the city the APP
pearance of holiday instead of mem
orial day. No crepe was intermiXed
with the emblem Of our country. In
this Connection the Milwaukee Sentinel
contained a Short editorial which indi-
Gates how this day is changing from the
original intention. Here is what they
say:
"Once memorial day was a day fol
tears. When the sense of personal loss
was strong, when the recollections OF
the suferings of those who fell on the
field or died in the hospital were fresh
when on every hand there were the
wounds of widowed and orphaned
hearts, to place a reath of flowers on q
soldiers grave was to start the tears.
Now after a quarter of a century,
Memorial day is a day for glowing pride
In this time the wounds have healed,
though the honorable scars remain; the
feeling of immediate personal loss is
gone; the healing hand of time has sub
dued the anguish. The dead have be-
come more impersoral and more typi-
cal. The flow Of tears has been
succeeded by the glow of pride. There
is much that is pathetic still in the
memory of the dead, but the chief
feeling Of the day is such as we know
when we recall the glorious deeds Of a
far off hero, from whose work flowed a
beniticent effect to improve and inspire
his fellow men through all time.
Better now than through the tears
can we see what the American volunteer
accomplished. 1t was not merely the
saving, but also the making, Of nation
Not merely the preservation of geo.
graphical lines, not merely the uphold.
ing of the flag, but removal, an eXtir-
| patton, of an ulcer that not only
| threatened the national life, but i'm.
! paired and degraded the nature of the
American citizen. The freeing of the
slaves was absolutely essential to the
| formation of nation all the sections o1
which could be in harmony. After 6
quarter Of a century we are beginning tC
see, not clearly enough as an accom-
plished fact but rather as certalr
| promise, the removal of all sectional
| animosity and strife. For this, the deaC
are to be honored to-day. But no lesf
important is the effect Of their work OF
the morals Of this generation. Now
| that their work is done, nobody can be
found who does not resent as basely
wrong the doctrine that any human be
ing may be held in bondage under the
protection of law.
To dwell on the great good That has
sprung from the devotion of the deaC
soldiers is to fill the heart with the Joy
of kinship with heroes whose work wat
not merely proservative, but creative
At 10 O'Clock a. III. the procession
formed in front of the 6. 4. r. Hall
with G.. j. jackson in command. The
procession consisted of % members O
the Invincibles; 26 members Of the
Gardner Rifles with Capt. Crawford il
command; 25 members of the Woman's
Relief Corps riding in large wagor
drawn by four horses; so old veteran!
of the Wood County Post; 100 children
members Of the Centralia school Will
teachers in charge of each department
$50 children members of the Howe
High School and their teachers; anC
/ 100 carriages, making a procession a
least a mile in length. At the cemetery
the usual memorial services were helC
and the soldiers graves decorated by
the children.
AFTERNOON.