The Forrest City times., 1891-06-05
HONOR THE DEADHEROES
DR. TALMAGE BREACHES ON
 DECORATION DAY.
Garlands to the HerOcs Of the North and South, and to the Hcroincs and Young Heroes Who
 Remained at Home.

Just what my text meant by tho North and South, I cannot say, but in the United States the two words are SO point blank ik their meaning that no one can doubt They mean more than East and West for al- though between those two last there have bean rivalries and disturbing ambitions and infelicities and Silver Bills and Worlds Fair controversies there have been between them no batteries unlimbered, no entrenchments dug, no long lines of sepul- chral mounds thrown up. It has never been Massachusetts Fourteenth regiment against Wisconsin Zouaves: 1t has never been Virginia Artillery against Mississippi Rifles. East and West are distinct words and sometimes may mean diversity of inter- est, but there is no blood on them. They can be pronounced without any intonation of wailing and death-groan. But the North and the South arc 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 1t swung out at the first world- building. l thank God that the words have lost some of the intensity which they possessed three decades ago; that a vast multitude of Northern people have moved South and vast multitude of Southern people have moved North and there have been intermarrages 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 aooitlonists and their children are half Northern and half Southern and altogether patriotic. But North and South arc words that need to be brought into still closer harmonization. 1 thought that now when we are half way between presiden- gt.,I at the lowest ebb, and now just after q presidential journey. when our chief mag istrate who was chiefly elected by the North, has been cordially received at the South
 and now just after two memorial, days, one Of them mouth ago strew- ing flowers on Southern graves and the other yesterday strewing flowers on North ern graves, it might be appropriate and useful for me to preach n sermou which would twist two garlands. one for the Northern dead and the other for the south. ern dcad and Lave the two interlocked in a chain of flowers that shall bind forever the two sections into one; and who knows but that this may be the day when the prophecy of the text, made in regard to the anclents may be fulfilled in regard to this country and the North give up It's prejudces and the South keep not back it's confidence.
 But before put these garlands on the graves, mean to put them this morniug n little while on the brows of the living men and women of the North and South. who lost husbands and sons and brothers during the civil strife. There is nothing more soothing to . wound than q 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 tho son was to start for the war! What fatherly and motherIy counsel! What tears 1! What heart-breaks. What charges 10 write ~(t away in tho knapsack or the bundle that was to be exchanged for the knapsack Tho crowd around the depot or steamboat land ing shouted, but father and mother and sister cried. And how lonely the house seemed after they went home and what an awfully vacant chair there was at the Christmas sld 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 an 1 the Connecticut and the St. Law renee and the Ohio and the oregon and tue James and the Albemarle and the Alabama and the Mississippi and the Sacramento there were lamentation md mourning and great woe, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they were not The world has forgotten it, bu [ father and mother have not forgotten 1t. They may be now in the eighties or the nlnetieS, but it is q fresh wound aud will al. ways remain fresh wound. Coming down the steep of years the hands that would have steadted those tottering steps have been twenty-eight years folded into the last sleep. The childlessness, the widowhood, the orphanage, who has a measuring line long enough to tell the height of IL, the depth of it, the infnity of it? What q mountain what an Alps. what Il Himalayah of piled-up agony of bereavement in the nt mn af fat mi hat hnp hAt 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 exhaustions there suffered, going down to death!
 l detain from the top of the tomb these two garlands that l am twisting for little while that may with them soothe the brow oi tho living. Over the fallen the people said: Poor fellow! What a pity he should have been struck down!' We did not, however, often enough say: "Poor father! Poor mother Poor wlfel Poor childV and so l say 1t now. Have you realized that by the wholesale massacre hundreds of thousands of young people at the North and the South have never had any chance? We who arc fathers stand be. tween our children and the world
 We fight their battles, we plan for their welfare, we achieve their livelihood, we give them the ad. vice of our superior years. Among the richest blessings of my life 1 thank God that my father lived to fight my battles un- Ill l was old enough 10 fight for myself Have you realized the fact that our civil war pitched out upon tue farin-iields of the North and the plantations of tho south q multitude that no man can number, chil- dren without fatherly help and protectionl Under all the advantages which we had oi fatherly guidance, what Il struggle life has No n hn nf n Et.s hat .xt |. children, two and five and ten years of age, who stood at their mothers lap with great, round, wondering eyes, hearing her read of those who perished in the battle of the Wilderness, thelr father gone down amid the dead hostg Come, young men and women who by such disaster have had to make your own way m life and l will put tho garland on your young and unwrinkie brow. les; you have had your own Nal. vern Hill and your own south Mountain and your own Gettysburg all along these twenty years. Come. And, if 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 1 amounted to carnage. and the white for the victory you have gained.
 Before l put Inc two garlands I an twisting upon the Northern and Southeir tombs detaln the garlands little while that may put them upon the brow of the living soldiers and sailors of tho North and South, who though in variance for . long while, are now at peace and ln hearty Joy. atty to the United States government and ready if need be 10 march shoulder to shoulder against any foreign foe. The twenty-six winters that ahve passed since the war. l think. have sufficiently cooled the hatreis that once burned northward and southward to allow the remark that they who fought in that confict wree honest on both sides. Tho chapiains of both aimies were honest lr their prayers. The faces that went into battle, whether they marched toward the Gulf of Mexico or marched toward the