Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-06-01


laya of piled up agony of bereavement
in the simple statement that three hun
dred thousand men of the north wer
slain and five hundred thousand mel
of the south were slain, and hundreds o
thousands long afterward, through TIN
exhaustions there suffered, going dow
to death
SYMPATHY FOR THE BEREAvED.
detain from the top of the toni
these two garlands that | am twisting
for a little while that may with then
soothe the brow of the living. Ovel
the fallen the people said: Poor fel
low What pity that he should have
been struck down." We did not, how
ever often enough say: Poor father
Poor motherl Poor wifel Poor child y
and so | say it now. Have you realized
that by that wholesale massacre hun
dreds of thousands ofyoung people at
the north and the south have never had
any chance9 We who are fathers
stand between our children and the
world. We fight their battles, we plan
for their welfare, we achieve their live
lihood, we give them the advice of our
superior years Among the richest
blessings of my life thank God that
my father lived to fight my battles un.
til was old enough to fight for my
self.
Have you realized the fact that our
civil war pitched out upon the farm
fields of the north and the plantations
of the south multitude that no man
can number, children without fatherly
help and protection2 Under all the ad
vantages which we had of fatherly
what a struggle life has been
to the most of us But what of the
children, two and five and ten years OF
age, who stood at their mothers lap
with great, round, wondering eyes, hear
ing her read of those who perished 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 to make your own
way in life, and | will put the garland
on your young and unwrinkled brow.
Yes; you have had your own Malvern
Hill, and your own South Mountain,
and your own Gettysburg all along
these twenty years. Comel And if
cannot spare a whole garland for your
brow will twist in your locks at least
two flowers, one crimson and one
white, the crimson for the struggle of
your life which has almost amounted
to carnage, and the white for the vic
tory you have gained.
FLOWERS FOR THE SURVIVORS.
Before put the two garlands | am
twisting upon the northern and south
ern tombs detain 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 while, are now at
peace and in hearty loyalty to the
United States government, and ready
If need be to march shoulder to shoul.
der against any foreign foe The
twenty-six winters that have passed
since the war; think, have sufficient
ly cooled the hatreds that once burned
northward and southward to allow the
remark that they who fought in that
conflict were honest on both sides.
The chaplains of both armies were hon
est in their prayers. The faces that
went into battle, whether they marched
toward the Gulf of Mexico or marched
toward the north star were honest
faces
1t is too much to ask either side tC
believe that those who came out from
their homes, forsaking father anC
mother and wife and child, many o
them never to return, were not in earn
est when they put their life into awfu
exigency. Witness the last scene a
family prayers up among the Greer
mountains, or down by the fields o
cotton and sugar cane, Men do no
sacrifice their oil for fun. Men do no
eat moldy bread, or go without breaC
at all, for fun. Men do not sleep un
sheltered in equinoctial storms for fun
There were some, no doubt, on botl
sides who enlisted for soldiers pay, o.
expecting opportunity for violence anC
pillage, or burning with revenge anc
thirst for human blood, but such case
were so rare many of you who were
In the war four years never confronted
such an instance of depravity.
AS chaplain of a Pennsylvania regi
ment and as a representative of tn,
United States Christian commission
was for while at the front, and il
those hospitals at Hagerstown and Win
iainsburg, and up and down the Poto
mac, where all the churches and farm
houses were filed with wounded anC
dying Federal and Confederates, for
got amid the horrors to ask on whicl
side they fought, when, with what lit
tie aid could take them for theh
suffering bodies and the mightier aid
could pray for their souls, passed tn,
days and months amid scenes that IN
my memory seem like a ghastly dream
rather than possible reality.
When "A New Orleans boy, unable tC
answer my question as 10 where he wal
hurt, took out from the folds of th,
only garment that had not been tori
OF him In the battle New Testament
marked with his own life blood, aud
saw the leaf turned down at the pos
sage, MY peace | give unto you
as the world giveth give | unto you
read just as though 1t had been a Nos
ern New Testament. And when | s