Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-06-01
,ver confronted such an instance of de-

Il
that in my memory seem like a CHASTITY
dream rather than possible reality. -Whena
New Orleans boy, unable to answer my
question as to where he was hurt, took out
from the folds of the only garment that had
not been torn off him in the battle q New
Testament marked with his own life-blood,
and / saw the leaf turned down at the pass
age. my peace give unto you, not !, as read sn9
Just as though it had been a North-
ern New Testament And when l sat
down and took from South Carolinian oy-
ing in a barn at Boonesville his last message
20 his wife and mother and child, it sounded
Just like a message that Northern man dy-
Ing far from home would send to his wife
and mother and child. And, when picked
up from the battlefield of Antietam the frag-
ment of letter, which / have somewhere
yet, for the name and the address were torn
of, saw it was the words of II wife to her
prayed for their father every night, that he
might not get hurt in the battle and might
come home sound and come home well, but
that If anything happened TO them they
might meet again in the world where there
are no partings, il read just as Northern
wife would write to a husband away from
home and inperil, conveying the messages
OF on bots ses And Who yed to get
home and are living yet were Just as honest,
and ought they not for the suffering they en-
dured have q coronal of some kind?
No Scarcity of Courage.
Yes, 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 ''braggarts" and "pompous
nothings," but after few battles nothing
more was said about Northern "mudsills"
and Southern "braggarts." 1t was an urmy
of lions against an army of lions. 1t was a
flock of eagles mid-sky with iron beak
a;,,e Ano of los NH r
1t was thunderbolt against thunderbolt 1t
was archangel of wrath against archangel of
wrath. 1t was Hancock against Longstreet.
1t was Fitzpatrick against Wade Hampton
It was Slocum against Hill 1t was y. U.
Howard against Hood. 1t was sherman
against Stonewall jackson. 1t was Grant
against Lee. And the men who were under
them were just as gallant, and some OF them
are here, and detain the two garlands tnat
Ihave twisted for the departed, and in recog-
milton of honesty and proves put the cor
onals upon these living Federals and Con-
federates.
fuss bout them when they are dead. There
will not be room on their tombstones to tell
how much we appreciate them. we shall
call out the military and explode three vol
leys over their graves making "a sia re the eeWe We
will have long obituarv in newspapers tell
ing in what battles they fought, what sacr1-
fees they endured, what flags they ca ptured,
will come too late One word in the living
ear of praise for their honesty and courage
will be worth to them more than a military
funeral two miles long or a pile of flowers
niaTin9 nav s over sa the sn grave star spangIed
Banner" or "Way Down South in Dixie"
Now, while they are in their declin-
ing years and their right knee refuses
matism they got sleeping on the wet ground
on the banks of the Chickamauga, or their
digestive organs are of on a furlough be-
cause of the six months of prison life in
which their rations were big slice OF nothing,
and their ears have never been alert since
the cannonade in which they heard so much
they have been able to hear but little since,
in these cases call upon the people OF the
North and South to substitute little ante
mortem praise for the good deal OF post
mortem eulogium.
These two garlands that I twisted for
Northern and Southern graves shall not be
put upon the grass Of the tomb until they
have first encircled the foreheads of the
living. / will let the front of the wreath
come down over the scar of scalp wound
made by the sword of a calvaryman at At
lanta and droop little over the eye that lost
its lustre in the mine explosion at Peters
burg. HuzZa for the living. Gala lilies and
camelias and amaranths and palm branches
for the living!
The Dead Know of the Flowers.
But we must not detain the two garlands
any longer from the pillows of those who for
a quarter of O century have been PROSTATE
in dreamless 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.
Ind n aar uvh unn
Northern grave and which over the South
ern grave. Does any one say: "What is the
use? None of them will know it; your Deco
ration Days both sides Mason and DiXon's
line are a great waste of flowers" All! see
you have carried too far my idea that praise
for the living is better than praise for the de-
parted. Who says that the dead do not know
of the flowers? I 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 COM
munication as earth and heaven, and the two
great Decoration Days of North and South
terrestrial With what interest we visit the
place of our birth and of our boyhood or girl.
hood days! And have the departed no inter
est in this world where they were born and
ransomed and where they suffered and
triumphed?
Ny Bible does not positively say so, nor
does my catechism teach it, but my COM
mon sense declares it. The departed do know,
ana the Danner6Q procession IIldt naTCHeQ
the earth yesterday to Northern graves and
the hammered procession that marched q
month ago to Southern graves, were ac-
companied by two grander though invisible
professions that walked the air, professions
of the assembled, professions of the martyred,
procession scf the sainted and ehey heard the
anthems 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 SER
vice which we render to God and our coun-
try while we twist the two garlands. Hail
spirits multitudihous! Hail spirits blest!
Hail martyred ones come down from the
Kings palaces! How glad we are that you
have come back again. Take this kiss of
welcome and these garlands of freminiscence,
ye who languished in hospitals or went down
under the thunders and lightnings of Fred
ericksburg and Cold Harbor and Murfrees-
boro and Corinth and Yorktown and above
the clouds on Lookout Mountain.
The Service a Unique One.
Among the thousands of gatherings at the
North and at the South for Decoration 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. y, Lord God of
the American Union, is it not time that we
bury forever our old grudgesP My! Myl
Can we not be at peace on earth when this
moment in heaven dwell, in perfect love,
ULYSSES S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, William
T. Sherman and Stonewall jackson, and tens
of thousands of Northern and Southern men
who, though they once looked askance at
each other from the opposite 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 Christmas
Rath