Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-06-01

those who, for a quarter of century,
have been PROSTATE in dreamless slum-
Der, never oppressed by summer heats
or chilled by winters cold Both gar
lands 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 a great
waste of flowers" All! I 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? l 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
! Decoration Days of north and south
are better known in realms celestial
than terrestrial With what interest
we visit the place of our birth and of
our boyhood or girlhood days! And
have the departed no interest in this
world where they were born and ram
somed, and where they suffered and
triumphedF My Bible does not posi-
lively 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 yesterday to northern graves, and
the hammered procession that marched
month ago to southern graves, were
accompanied by two grander though
invisible professions that walked the
air-processions Of the assembled, pro-
cessions Of the martyred, professions of
the sainted-and they heard the an
thems of the churches and the salvO of
the batteries, and they stopped down
to breathe the incense of the flowers
These august throngs gathered this
morning in these pews and aisles and
corridors and galleries are insignificant
compared with the mightier thrOngs of
heaven who mingle in this service which
we render to God and our country
while we twist the two garlands. Hail,
spirits multitudinOusl Hail, spirits blest!
Hail, martyred ones come down from
the Kings palacesl How glad we are
that you have come back again. Take
this kiss of welcome and these garlands
of Renaissance, We who languished in
hospitals or went down under the thun-
ders and the lightnings of Fredericks-
burg and Cold Harbor and Murfrees-
borO and COrinth and Yorktown and
above the clouds of Lookout Mountain.
Among the thousands of gatherings
at the north and at the south for Dec
Grafton Days | am conscious that this
service is unique, and that it is the only
one in which there has been twisted
two garlands, one for the grave of the
northern dead and the other for the
grave of the southern dead o, Lord
God of the American Union, is it time
that we bury forever our old grudges?
My! My Can we not be at peace on
earth when this moment in heaven
dwell III perfect love, Ulysses S. Grant
and Robert E. Lee, William T. Sher-
man and StOnewall jackson, and tens
Of thousands of northern and southern
men who, though they once looked
askance at each other from the oppo-
site banks of the Potomac and the
ChickahOminy and the James and the
Tennessee, now are on the same side
of the river, keeping jubilee with some
of those old angels who near nineteen
centuries ago came down one Christ
mas night to chant over Bethlehem,
GLORY to God in the highest; on
earth peace, good will to men,
THERE SHOULD BE NO sECTIONALIsM.
| have been waiting for some years
for some one else to twist the two gar
lands that / today twist, but, no one
doing it, in the love of God and my
country putnow my hand to the work,
and next spring about this time, if |
am living and well, ! will twist two
more garlands for northern and south
ern graves, and every springtime, until
some man or woman whom | may have
cheered a little in the struggle of this
life, shall come out and put pansy or
two on my own grave. But if the time
should ever come when this land shall
be given over to sectional rancOr and
demagogism. and north and south or
east and west shall forget what the
good God built this nation for and it
shall halt on its high career of right
BUSINESS and liberty and peace, and be-
come the agent of tyranny and wrong
and oppression, then let some young
man whom | have baptized in infancy
at these affairs go out to Greenwood
and scoop up my dust and scatter it to
the four winds of heaven, for do not
want to sleep, and | will not sleep in
land accursed with sectionaiism or OPP
preston.
And now | hand over the two gar
lands both of which are wet with many |
tears-tear of widowhood and orphan
age and childlessuess, tears of suffering |
and tears of gratitude, and as the cere-
mOny must be performed in symbol, |
there not being enough flowers to cover |
all the graves, take the one garland to |
the tomb of some northern soldier who |
may yesterday have been omitted in the |
distribution of the sacrament of flowers, |
and the other garland to the tomb of |
some southern soldier who may month |
ago have been omitted in the distribu- |
ton of the sacrament of the flowers, |
and put both the wreaths gently down |
over the hearts that have ceased to |
beat God bless the two garlandsi |
God save the United States of Americal |
A Great Man.
John Jay was one of the truly great |
men of our revolutionary period. His |
character was without blemish, and he |
was more anxious to do right than to
acquire popularity or Office. On one
occasion, in an exciting political cam
paign, he procured a vote of censure
against a member of a committee whom
he thought blameworthy.
The committeeman lost his temper
and abused Mr.. Jay roundly. On the
next day Mr.. Jay learned that his sus-
picions were not well founded and that
the man had acted in all honesty He |