Sturgis advertiser. (Sturgis, Dakota [S.D.]) 1887-1???, 1891-06-04
STURGIS ADVERTISER.
MEMORIAL SERVICES.
Decoration Day Appropriately observed in
Sturgts.

sturgis.
Under the auspices OF Calvin Duke
post, g. A. r., Decoration day was
fittingly observed last Saturday at Stur-
gis. At the appointed hour large
number of men, women and children
met at the hall and proceeded in body
to the cemetery to assist the old veterans
in conducting the services as customary
upon these sad occasions. The cere-
monies were impressive and interesting,
and after the graves of the departed
heroes had been decorated, Hon. r.. H.
Kirk delivered the address, given below.
IL was well received, being appropriate
in every sentence, and eloquent upon q
whole At the close Mr.. Kirk was fol-
lowed by Revs. Nelson and Follansbee,
in the order named, both of whom spoke
briefly but in language that gave ex-
preston to popular sentiment upon such
occasions. Mr.. Kirk said:
These occasions naturally call forth
feelings of sadness; but they should and
do also furnish favorable season for re-
joicing. A grateful people, keenly sensi-
BILE of hardships and sufferings endured
and of gallantry without a parallel in
history, have set apart this day not only
for the decoration Of these graves but for
meditation and thought. It is fit to roll
back the years and refreshen the mem
DRY of those who more than generation
ago offered their lives that we might live.
Indeed do not know what idea was
predominant in appointing this day each
year to strew these flowers upon the
graves of departed heroes. In one sense
it may be considered in the nature of a
funeral service and a time for funeral
orations and mourning; it may also very
properly be taken as an occasion for re-
joicing that as nation, one and indivis-
ible, we still survive. With grateful re-
membrance Of the services of the sol
der dead and with unfeigned reverence
and sadness we strew their graves with
these beautiful and fragrant flowers as
the mark of our highest appreciation and
gratitude.
The quarter-century milestone has
been passed and the fifth of another
rebellion went forth. To those of us
and events of thirty years ago they now
the leaders of either side of the great
civil conflict remain among us today.
One by one the master minds which
moulded and swayed public sentiment
and action have been passing away.
While honoring the gallant dead, we
must rejoice that the evil passions and
emotions which in those dark days
ranked in the public breast have also
passed away and now known only in
dim memory. We have also reason for
congratulation and rejoicing that those
evil passions and emotions are not fully
understood by those who, since then,
have grown to the estate of manhood,
and are not in any appreciable sense
even recorded in history.
We rejoice that peace is restored
One of the last requests of General
Grant was that the confederate general,
Buckner, should assist at his obsequies;
and the noted confederate who more
than twenty years before had submitted
to terms which he deemed "ungenerous
and unchivalrous," viz: unconditional
and immediate surrender" was a rever-
emit and sincere mourner at the tomb of
his ancient foe. The hot and copious tears
Of the most brilliant of the confederate
commanders, Joseph e. Johnston, shed
over the lifeless form of his former ad-
yersary, General Sherman, only few
short weeks since, were the browning
glory of skilled warrior, and were re-
ferred to with warmth and affection upon
all hands when only few days later his
own mortal remains we're consigned to
the dust
These evidences of peace and good will
in fact, as distinguished from the theo-
reticai, furnish matter for rejoicing and
congratulation, and no time is filter
therefor than the beautiful May day
now sanctioned and set apart, first by
general consent, and then by law in
most if not all the states Such touch
ing scenes as these furnish evidence of
peace, not merely in the sense of cessa-
ton of actual war and the laying down
of arms and the return of the survivors
of CORY conflict to their homes, but in
the higher and purer sense OF fraternal
feeling and unity and that noble senti-
ment of the human breast, which in
many places this very day, prompts the
blue and the gray to unite and side by
side honor and revere the sacred memory
of the dead and without distinction as to
whether they wore the blue or the gray.
IL the politicians north and south
would emulate this example, while by
such course their occupation would soon
slip away from them, the people as a
whole would be benefited by the in
creased fraternal feeling and unity which
would surely follow. / do not know that
voice the sentiment OF single indi-
vidual present when Iexpress the candid
conviction that had the details
of the terms of surrender and of
reconstruction and the reinstatement
of the rebellious states been taken
entirely from the hands of the pol
iticians and committed to the control of
the surviving soldiers, who had endured
the sufferings, starved in prison pens and
who had shot and been shot at, the
peace and unity which required at least
the fifth of century to consummate,
would have been accomplished in in
finitely less time and with much greater
satisfaction to all concerned.
Credulity is taxed to the utmost, at
this far off day, as we recall the scenes,
the deep-seated passions, the agitation,
the angry mutterings, the protentous
storm cloud that enveloped the horizon
Of thirty years ago. The very strongest
men trembled at the approaching storm.
Doubt was displaced by courage, and
courage frequently made way for doubt,
but amidst all the alternating fear and
doubt and courage, the sentiment OF
patriotism ultimately arose Respondent,
dissipated the gloom OF the surround
ings and prevailed. Historians, orators
and poets have eloquently described the
carnage, the deeds Of heroism and the
| marvellous military skill Of comm andars