Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-06-04
HONOR THE DEAD HEROES
DIR. TALMAGE breaches ON
DECORATION DAY.
Gnr1ands TO the Heroes OF the Nortl,
and Soutl, ana TO the Heroines
and Young Heroes Who
Remained at Home.

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| their meaning that no one can doubt They
! mean more than East an West, for al
/ though between those two last there have
/ been rivalries and disturbing ambitions
md infGliciticS and Silver Bills and
| Worlds Fair cont OVERSEES there have been
between them no batteries uniimbercd, no
sntIenchments dug, no long lines OF sepul-
rhral mounds tArOwn up. IL has never
been Massachusetts Fourteenth regiment
against Wisconsin Iouave>: il has never
been Virginia Artillery against Mississippi
Rifles. East and West are distinct words
and sometimes may mean diversity OF inter-
est, but there is no blood on them. They
can be pronounced without any intonatioii
of waiting and dCath-groau. But the North
and The South are words that have been sur
charged with tragedies. They are words
which suggest that for forty years the clouds
had been gathering fora four years tempest
! which thirty years ago burst INTO fury
that shook this planet rs 1t has never been
shaken since it swung out at the first world
building. | thank God that the words
have lost some OF the intensity which they
possessed three decades ago; that n vast
multitude OF Northern p' o bic have moved
South and a vast multitude of Southern
people have moved North and
there have been intcrmarrIages by the
ten thousand and Northern cpInnols
have married the daughters OF Southern
captains, and Texas rangers have united
for life with the daughters of New York
aUOitiOnists and their children are half
Northern and half Southern and altogether
patriotic. But North and south arc
words that need to he brought into still
closer AUGMENTATION. 4 thought that now
when we are half way between pre>den-
tial elections and sectional animoSities are
at the lowest Cbb, and now Just after u
presidential journey. when our chef mag
istratC, who was chiefly elected by the North,
has been cordially received at tue South,
and now Just after two memorial
days, one of them month ago strew-
ing flowers on Southern graves and the
other yesterday strewing flowers on North
ern graves, it might be appropriate and
useful for me to preach a sermon which
would twist two garland$, one for the
Northern dead and tie other for the SOUTH
Crn dead, and have the two interlocked in
chain OF flowers that shall bind forever the
two sections into one; aud who knows but
that this may he the day when the prophecy
Of the text, made in regard 10 the anclents
may he fulfilled in regard TO this country
aud the North give up ,ts preiudiCes and
the South keep rot back its confidence.
But before put these CARL tnds on the
graves, mean to put them this mornlug a
little while on the brows OF the living men
and women of the North and South. who
lost husbands and sons and brothers during
the civil strife, There is nothing more
soothing to 4 wound than cool baudage,
and these two glrIands are cool from the
night dew. What morning that was on
tue banks OF the Hudson and the Savannah
when the son was TO start for the war! What
fatuprly and mOtuerIy counsel What tears
What heart-breaks. What charges to write
home often! What little keepsakes put
away in the knapsack or the bundle that
was to be exchanged for the knupSack! The
crowd around the depot or steamboat land
ing shouted, but father and mother and
sister cried. And how lonely the house
seemed after they went home and what an
awfully vacant chair there was at the
Christmas aud Thanksgiving table! And
after the battle. what waiting for news!
What suspense till the long lists OF killed
and wounded were made out!
All along the Penobscot an /
the Connecticut and the st. Law.
renee aud the OHIO and the Oregon and the
James and the Albemarle and the Alabama
and the Mississippi AMI the sacramento
there were lamentatton and mourning and
great woe Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing TO be cOmfort,d because they
were not. Tie world has forgotten it, but
father and mother have not forgotten 1t.
They may be now in the eighties or the
nluctie', but it Is n fresh wound and will nj.
ways remain fresh wound. Coming down
the steep OF years the hands that would
been twenty-eight years folded into the last
sleep. The childlcssness, the widowhood,
the orphanage, who has n mcasurng-line
long enough to tell the height OF it, the
dc"th Of It, the inttnity of ii? What
mountain, what an Alps, what Himalayah
Of piled-Up agony Of bereavement in the
simple statement that three hundred thou.
sand men OF the North were slain and five
hundred thousand men of tho South were
slam, and hundreds OF thousands long
afterwards through the CXhaustiOns there
suffered, going down to death!
! dctain from the top OF the tomb these
two garlaads that | am twisting for little
while that lmay with them SoOthe the brow
OF the living. over the fallen the people
said: Poor fellow. What a pity he
should have been struck down. We did
not, however often cnOu III say: Poor
father. Poor mother! Poor wife, Poor
child" and so | say it now. Have you
realized that by the wholesale massacre
hundreds OF thousands of Young people at
tue North and the South have never had
any chance: We who are fathers stand be.
We fight their battles, we plan
for tIcr welfare, we achieve
their livelihood, we give them the nd.
vice OF our superior Years. Among the
richest blessings of my life | thank God
that my father lived to fight my battles u,.
hi | was old enough TO fight for myself.
Have you realized the fact that our civil
war pitched out upon the farn-iields OF the
North and the plantations of the south
multitude that 10 man can number, chill.
uIen without ialhCrly help and protection!
ndcr all the advantages which we had OF
iathCrly guidance, what a struggle life has
L"Cn 10 The most OF US! But what of the
children, two aud five and ten years Of age,
who stood at their mothers lap with great,
TUElnl WANDERING
Of those who persisted in the battle Of the
Wilderness, their father gone down
amid the dead host! Come, young men and
women who by such disaster have had 10
make your own way IN life, and | will put
The garland on your young and unwrinkled
brow. cs; YOU have had your own Nal
Ntrn Hill and your own south Mountain
and your own Gettysburg all along these
twenty years. Come. And, if | cannot
spare whole garland for your brow, will
twist in your locks at least two flowers,
one crimson and one white, the crimson for
Tie struggle OF your life which has almost
amounted 10 carnage, anil the white for the
victory you have gained.
BcIore / put The two garlands / am
twINlIn" upon the Northern aud Southel
tombs, dctain the garlandS little while
that | may put them upon the brow of the
living soldiers and sailors of the North and
South, who though in variance for long
Mille. are now at peace ana IN hearty 10y.
atty TO the United states government aud
really II need be to march shoulder 10
shoulder against any foreign foe. The
tweuly-slX winters that ahve passed since
the war. | think, have sufficiently
cooled the hatrels tGat once burned
northwald and southwark to allow
the remark that they who fought in that
conflict wrce honest on both sides. The
chaplains OF both arm es were honest IN
their prayers. The faces that went into
battle, whether they marched toward the
Gult OF Mexico or marched toward the
North star, were honest faces. II is too
much 10 ask either side TO believe that
those who came out from their homes, for
s1Hins father and mother aud wife and
child, many OF them never TO return
were not in earnest when they nut
their life iatO awful cXigency. Wit
ness the last scene at family pray
cyS up among the Green Mountains OF
down by the fields OF cotton and sugar cane.
Men do not sacrifice their all for fun. Men
90 not cat mOuldy bread or 20 without
orctd 1T all for fun. Men do not sleep un.
sheltered IN equnoctal storms for fun.
There were some no doubt on both sides
WHO enlisted for soldiers pay or expecting
opportunity FOR violence and pillage OF
burning with revenge, and thirst for human
blood, but such cases were so rare many OF
You who were in the war four years never
confronted such an instance OF depravity.