Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1891-06-01

the incense of the flowers. These august
througs gathered this morning in these
peWs and alsles and corridors and galleries
are insignificant compared with the mi ht-
Ter throngs of heaven who niingle in this
service which we render TO God and our
country while we twist the two garlsnds.
Hail spirits multitudinous! Hail spirits
olest 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 remiDis-
cence, We who languished in hospitals or
went down under the thunders and the
!lghmlnss 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 ana at the South for Decoration
days. l 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.
y, Lord, God OF the American Union, Is 1t not
time that we bury forever our old grudges
My! My. Can we not be at peace on earth
when this moment in heaven dwell. in per-
1ect loye, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert l..
Lee, William T. Sherman and Stonewall
Jackson and tens of thousands of Northern
ana southern men who, though they once
looked askance at each other from the oppo-
site banks of the Potomac and the Chicka-
homlny and the James and the Tennessee,
now are on the same side of the river, keep
ing jubilee with some of those old angels
VINO 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 menu
have been waiting for some years for
some one else TO twist the two garlands that
| fn-nlE II I
love of God and my country put now my
hand to the work ana next spring about
this time if | am living and well, | will
twist two more garl3nds for
NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN GRAVES,
and every springtime until some man or
woman whom | may have cheered a little
in the struggle of this life. shall come out
and put pansy or two on nv 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, anG 1t shall halt
on its high career of righteousness ana lib
erty aud peace. and become the agent OF
tyranny and wrong and oppression, then let
some young man whom have baptized in
infancy at these affairs go out 10 Greenwood
and scoop up my dust and scatter 1t TO the
four winds of heaven, for do not want 10
sleep, and ] will not sleep in q 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
childlessness, tears of suffering and tears
OF gratitude, aud as the ceremony must be
performed in symbol, there not being
enough flowers to cover all the graves, take
the ole garland TO the tomb of some North
eru soldier who may yesterday have been
omitted in the distribution of the sacrament
of flowers, and the other garland 10 the
tomb of some Southern soldier who may,
month ago, have been omitted in the dis
tribu ion Of the sacrament Of the flowers,
and put both the wTeathS gently down over
the hearts that have ceased 10 beat. God
bless the two garlands, God save the
United States of America