Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1891-06-05
HONOR THE DEADHEROES
DR.. TALMACE breaches ON
DECORATION DAY.
Garlsnds 10 tho Heroes OF the North
and south, and 10 the Heroines
and Young Heroes who
Remained at Home.

anu SOutn, i cannot say, Out IN tuo OuilSu
States the two words are so point blank In
their meaning that no one can doubt They
mean more than East and West, Tor al
though between those two last there have
bevn rivalries and disturbing ambitions
and infelicities and Silver Bills anu
Worlds Fair cont OVERSEES there have been
between them no batteries unlimbered, no
entertainments dug, no long lines OF sepul-
chrai mounds thrown up. IL has meier
been Massachusetts Fourteenth regin:nt
against Wisconsin Zouaves: IL has never
been Virginia Artillery against Mississippi
Rifles. East and West are distinct words
and sometimes may mean diversity OF inter-
est, hut there is no blood on them. They
can be pronounced without any irtonation
OF waillng and death-groan. But the North
add 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 for four years tempest
which thirty years ago burst into fury
that shook this planet as It 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 vast
multitude OF Northern people have moved
South and a vast multitude OF Southern
people have moved North and
there have been intermarrIages by tue
ten thousand and Northern colonels
have married the daughters OF Southern
captains. and Texas rangers have united
for life with the daughters OF New York
aDoltionisis and their children are half
Northern and half Southern and altogether
patriotic. But North and South are
words that need to be brought into still
closer harmonization. 1 thought that now
when we are half way between presidcn-
tial elections and sectional animosities are
at the lowest ebb and now Just after a
presidential journey. when our chef mag
4.
has been cordially received at the South,
and now just after two memorial
days, one of them "a month ago strew-
ing flowers on Southern graves and the
other yesterday strewing flowers Oh North
ern graves, 1t might be appropriate and
useful for me TO preach sermon which
would twist two garlands, one for the
Northern dead and the other for the South
ern dead. and have the two interlocked In "A
chain OF flowers that shall bind forever the
two sections into one; and who knows but
that this may lie the day when the prophecy
OF the text, made in regard To the ancients
may be fulfilled in regard to this country
aud the North give up It's prejudices and
the South keep not back its confidence.
But before put these garltnds on the
graves, mean to put them this mornlug
little while on the brows OF the living men
aud women of the North aud South. who
lost husbands and sons and brothers during
the civil strife. There is nothing more
soothing TO wound than cool handage.
and these two garlands are cool from the
night dew. What morning that was on
the banks OF the Hudson and the Savannah
when the son was To start for The war! What
fatherly and motherIy counsel! WHAT tears
What beart-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 knap,ack! The
crowd around the depot or Steamboat land
ing shouted, but father and mother and
sister cried. Aud how lonely the house
seemed after they went home ind what an
awfully vacant chair there was at the
Christmas and 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 and
the Connecticut aud the st. Law
renee aud the Ohio and the Oregon and tue
James and the Albemarle and the Alabama
and the Mississippi and the Sacramento
there were Ianentatlon aud mourning and
great woe, Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing TO be comforted because they
were not The world has forgotten II, but
father and mother have not forgotten 1t.
They may be now in the eighties or the
nineties, but il Is fresh wound aud will al
ways remain fresh wound. Coming down
the steep OF years the hands that would
have steadIed those tottering steps have
been twenty-eight years folded into the lat
sleep. The childlessness, the widowhood,
the orphanage, who has a measuring line
long enough to tell the height of It, the
depth of 1t, the infinity OF 1t! What a
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 the South were
slain, and hundreds OF thousands long
afterwards through the cxhaustions there
suffered, going down 10 death
i detain from the top OF the tomb these
two garlands that | am twisting for little
while that may with them soothe the brow
OF the living. over the fallen the people
said: "Poor fellowl What pity he
should have been struck down." We did
not, however, often enough say: poor
father Poor mother! Poor wife! Poor
cbildv and so | say 10 now. Have you
realized that by the wholesale massacre
hundreds OF thousands OF young people at
the North and the South have never mad
any chance! We who are fathers stand be-
tween our children aud the world.
We fight their battles, we plan
for tleir welfare, we achieve
vice Of our superior years. Among tue
richest blessings OF my life i thank God
that my father lived to fight my battles un-
til was old enough 10 fight for myself.
Have you realized the fact that our civil
war pitched out upon the faril-felds OF the
North and the pL,ntstions of the south a
multitude that no man can number, chill
dren without fatherly help and protection?
Under NIL the advantages which we had of
fatherly guidance, what a struggle life has
been TO the most OF us! But what of the
children, two aud five aud ten years Of age,
who stood sat their mothers lap with great,
round, wondering eyes, hearing her read
OF those who persisted In the battle of the
Wilderness their father gone down
amid the dead host? Come, young men and
women VINO by such disaster have had to
make your own way IN life, aud will put
the garland on your young and unwrinkled
brow. Yes; you have had your own Nal
vern Hill and your own south Mountain
and your own Gettysburg all along these
twenty years. Come! And, IL / cannot
spare 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, md the white for the
victory you have gained.
Before | put the two garlands / am
twisting upon the Northern and Soulhe, n
tombs. detain the garlands q 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 a long
while. are now at peace and i'm hearty 10y.