Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1891-06-01

er and child. And when picked up from
the battlefield of Antietam the frag-
ment of a letter which l have some
where yet, for the name and the ADDRESS
were torn off, l saw it was the
words of wife to her hus-
band telling him how the little
child prayed for their father every night
that he might not get hurt in the battle
and might come home sound and come
well, but that it anything happened to
them they might all meet again In the
world where there are no partings, 1t
read just as a Northern wife would
write to a husband away from home
and in peril conveying the messages OF
little children. Oh. yes; they were hon
est on both sides. And those who
lived to get home are living yet were
just as honest, and ought they not for
the suffering they endured have coro-
neal Of some kind?
COURAGE on BOTH SIDES.
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 "mudsills' 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 md-Sky with iron beak
against another flock of eagles iron
beaked. 1t was thunderbolt against
Il, hon Of n
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 Stonewall Jack
son. 1t was Grant against Lee. And
the men who were under them were just
as gallant, and some of them are here
and detan the two garlandS that
have twisted for the departed and in
recognition of honesty and prowess put
the coronals upon these living Federals
and Confederates. North and South,
we will make 4 great fuss about them
when they are dead There will not be
room on their mbStoneS TO tell how
much we appreciate them. We shall
call out the military and explode three
voleyS over their graves, making all
the cemetery ring under our command
of Fire We will have long obituary
in newspapers telling in what battles
they fought, what sacrifices they en-
dured, what flags they captured, in what
prisons 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 military funeral two
miles long or pile of flowers half mile
high and ten bands of music playing
over the grave Star Spangled Banner"
or way Down South in Dixie" Now,
while they are in their declining years
and their right knee refuses TO work be-
cause of the rheumatism they got sleep
ing on the wet ground on the banks OF
the Chickamauga, or their digestive or
ganS are off on furlough because of the
six months OF prison life in which their
rations were big SliceSoof nothing, and
their ears have never been alert since
the cannonade in which they heard so
so much they have been able to
hear but little since, lin these cases |
call upon the people of the North and
South TO substitute little ante mOrtem
praise for the good deal of post
eulogium. These two garlands that |
twisted for Northern and Southern
graves shall not be put upon the grass
Of the tomb until they have first encir-
cled the foreheadS of the living. | will
let the front of the wreath come down
over the scar of a scalp wound made by
the sword Of cavalryman at Atlanta
ana droop little over the eye that lost
it's lustre in the mine explosion at
Petersburg. Huzza for the living! Gala
lilies and cameliaS and amaranths and
palm branches for the living.
ONE COUNTRY NOW.
But we must not detain the two gar
lands any longer from the pillows OF
those who for quarter OF century
have been PROSTATE in dreamesS
slumber, never oppressed by summer
heats or chilled by winters cold. Both
garlandS are fragrant. Both have in
them the sunshine and the shower OF
this Springtime. The colors of both
were mixed by him who mixed the blue
of the sky and the gold of the sunset
and the green of the grass and the
whiteneSs of the snow crystal. And !
do not care which you put over the
Northern grave and which over the
Southern grave. Does any one say:
What is the use? None of them will
know it; your Decoration-days both
sides Mason and Dixon'S line
are great waste of flowers"
All! l see you have carried too far
my idea that praise for the living is
better than praise for the departed.
Who says that the dead do not know of
the flowers? | think they do. The
dead are not dead. The body sleeps
but the soul lives and is unhindered.
No two cities on earth are in such rapid
and constant communication as earth
and heaven, and the two great Decora
ton Days Of North and South are better
know In realms celestial than terrestrial.
With what interest we visit the place of
our birth and of our boyhood or girl
hood days! And have the departed no
interest in this world where they were
born and ransomed and where they
suffered and triumphed? My Bible
does not positively say so, nor
does my catechism teach it, but
my common sense declares it. The
departed do know, and the hammered
procession that marched the earth yes
terday to Northern graves and the ban
nered procession that marched a month
ago to Southern graves, were accom-