The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-06-04

| again III the world Wnere Iuere art no
partings. 1t read Just as a northern wife
would write TO husband away from
home and in peril, conveying the mes
sages of little children. Oh, yes; they
were honest on both sides. and those
who lived to get home and are living
yet were Just as honest, and ought they
not for the suffering they endured have
a coronal Of some kindl
THEY WERE BRAVE MEN.
Yea, there was courage on both sides.
They who were at the front know that.
When the war opened the south called
the northern men "mudsiils, and the
north called the southern men ''brag-
carts" and ''pompous nothings," but
after a few battles nothing more was
said about northern 'mudsills" and
southern "braggarts. 1t was an army
of lions against an army of lions. 1t
was a flock of eagles mid-sky with iron
beak against another flock of eagles
iron beaked 1t was thunderbolt
against thunderboIt. 1t was archangel
of wrath against archangel of wrath.
1t was Hancock against LOngstreet. 1t
was Fitzpatrick against Wade Hampton.
1t was Slocum against Hill. 1t was o.
o. Howard against Hood. 1t was
Sherman against Stonewail Jackson.
1t was Grant against Lee. And the
men who were under them were Just as
gallant, and some of them are here,
and / dctain the two garlands that L
have twisted for the departed, and in
recognition of honesty and proves put
the coronals upon these living Federals
and Confederates North and South,
we will make great fuss about them
when they are dead.
: There will not be room on their tomb
stones to tell how much we appreciate
= them We shall call out the military
t and explode three volleys over their
l graves, making all the cemetery ring
t under our command of Fire. We
+ will have long obituaries in newspapers
J telling in what battles they fought,
what sacrifices they endured, what
, flags they captured, in what prisons
l they suffered, but all that will come
= too late. One word in the living ear OF
praise for their honesty and courage
will be worth to them more than mil
itary funeral two miles long, or a pile
. of flowers half mile high, and ten
Il bands Of music playing over the grave
I. ''Star Spangled Banner" or "'Way
;. Down South in Dixie"
}. Now while they are in their declin
ing.years, and their right Haee refuses
, TO work because of the rheumatism
they got sleeping on the wet ground Oh
- the banks of the Chickamauga, or theil
O. digestive organs are off on a furlougl
:, because of the six months of prison life
@ in which their rations Wee big slices o.
l. nothing, and their ears live never beer
l. alert since the cannonade in which
t they heard 50 much they have beer
IS able to hear but little since-in these
d cases call upon the people of nortf
I and south to substitute a little ante
e mortem praise for the good deal O
post-mortem eulogium. These two gar
a lands that l twisted for northern an(
l. southern graves shall not be put upo1
J. the grass of the tomb until they hav,
. first encircled the foreheads of the liv
I, ing. will let the front of the wreath
II come down over the scar of scall
wound made by the sword of a cavalry
:, man at Atlanta, and droop little owe
, the eye that lost its luster in the min
> explosion at Petersburg. Huzza for tn
,, living! Gala lilies and camellias ant
amaranths and palm branches for tn
living!
THEY KNOW.
O. But we must not detain the two gaI
at lands any longer from the pillows Q
a those who, for a quarter of a century
have been PROSTATE in dreamless Stun
e. Der, never oppressed by summer heat
or chilled by winters cold. Both gal
N lands are fragrant. Both have i
$, them the sunshine and the shove
lie of this springtime. The colors of bot
IL were mixed by him who mixed the blu
u of the sky, and the gold of the sunset
. and the green of the grass, and tn
= whiteness of the snow crystal. And
~ do not care which you put over til
~ northern grave and which over th
~ southern grave. Does any one say
od What is the use? None of them wi
NJ know it. Your Decoration Days bot
+ sides Mason and Dixon's line are gre;
ye, waste of flowers" All! see you ha,
in carried too far my idea that praise fl
the living is better than praise for Il
departed. Who says that the dead &
not know of the flowers2 think the
do. The dead are not dead. III
r.. body sleeps, but the soul lives and
L. unhindered.
Ill No two cities on earth are in sue
Try rapid and constant communication
ch earth and heaven, and the two gre
Tvs Decoration Days of north and SOU
-, are better known in realms celesti
~, than terrestrial. With what intere
~ . we visit the place of our birth and
our boyhood or girlhood days! Al
have the departed no interest in IL
world, where they were born and "a
IA somed, and where they suffered al
~ triumpheda My Bible does not pc
w lively say so, nor does my catechis
~ teach it, but my common sense declar
=. it. The departed do know, and t
al hammered procession that marched t
IA earth yesterday to northern graves. III
~ the hammered procession that march
MI month ago to southern graves, we
EW accompanied by two grander thou
invisible professions that walked t
n, air-processions of the assembled, pl
i in cessions of the martyred, professions
utes the sainted-and they heard the &
vino thems of the churches and the salvo
rs II the batteries, and they stopped do
i. nj. to breathe the incense of the flowers
:hild These august throngs gathered t
Co, morning in these pews and aisles a
corridors and galleries are insignifc;
Ala. COMPARED with the Yniphtier thrones