Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1891-06-11

bonneville his last message to his wife anf
| mother and child, it sounded just like mes
sage that a northern man dying far from
nome woum send to his wife and mother ant
child
And when | picked ND from the battl,
heid OF Antietam the fragment of n letter
when have somewhere yet, for the name
and the address we're torn off | saw il was
the words of wife to her husband telling
nm how the little child prayed for their
laohef every night that he might not get
hurt IN the battle and might come homo
sound and come home well, but that IL any
tn1ng happened to them they might ali maat
again in the world where there are no part.
lhgs 10 read just as northern wife would
WriJe 10 husband away from home and In
peril conveying the messages of little chill
dren. Oh, yes, they We're honest on both
sizes. And those who lived to get home are
living yet We're just as honest, and ought
they mol lor the suffering they endured have
coronal OF some kind?
But we must not detain the two erarlands
any longer from the pillows of those who for
quarter OF a century have been PROSTATE
In dreamless sumber, never oppressed by
summer heats or chilled by winters cold.
Both garlands are fragrant. Both have in
them thesunshine and the shower Of this
springtime. The colors of both were mixed
by Him who mixed the blue of the sky. and
grass, and the wilderness oi the snow crystal
And do not care which you put over the
northern grave and which ovei. the southern
grave.
These august throngs gathered this MORN
ing In these pews and aisles and corridors
and galleries are Insignificant compared with
Inc mightier throngs of heaven who miugle
IN Unls service which we render to God and
our country while we twist the two garlands-
Han spirits multitudinous Hail spirits
Dlest! Hail martyred ones come down from
from the Kings palacesl How glad are wa
THAT you have come back again! Take this
KISS OF welcome and these garlands of remin-
1scence, ye who languished in hospitals or
went down under the thunders and the
lightning of Fredericksburg and Cold Har-
Dor and Murfreesboro and Corinth and
Yorktown and above the clouds on Lookout
Mountain.
Among the thousands of gatherings at
the north and at the south for Decoration
lays am conscious that this service is
unique, and that it is only one in which there
has been twisted two garlands. one for tho
grave of the northern dead and the other for
the grave of the southern dead. OLord God
OF the American Union, is it time that we
bury forever our old grudges? Myi Myl Can
we not be at peace on earth when this mo-
menb In heaven dwell, in perfect love
Ulysses 5. Grant and Robert i. Lee, Will.
lam Sherman and Stonewall jackson
ana 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 iubi-
lee with some of those old angels who near
nineteen centuries ago came down one
Christmas night to chant over Bethlehem.
GLORY to God in the highest: on earth
Wi IN
have been waiting for some years for
some one else to twist the two garlands
mat to-day twist, but, no one doing it. in
the love OF Tod and my country put now
my hand to the work, and next spring
about this time, If l am living and well,
Will twist two more garlands for northern
ana southern graves and every springtine
uhui some man or woman whom / NAV
have cheered little in the struggle OF this
lie 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 detnagogism,
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
righteousness 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 IL TO the four winds Of heaven, for
do not want to sleep. and l will not sleep in
a land accursed with sectionalism or oppres-
sion.
Aud now hand over the two garlands,
both OF which are wet with many tears
tears of widowhood and orphanage and
childlessness, tears of suffering and tears of
gratitude; and as the ceremony 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 sacra-
ment of flowers, and the other garland to
the tomb of some southern soldier who may
a month ago have been omitted in the distri-
button 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 garlandsl God save the United
States of Americai