Baxter Springs news. [volume] (Baxter Springs, Kan.) 1882-1919, 1891-06-06

ber, children without fatherly help and
protection
There was courage on both sides.
They who were at the front knew that.
When the war opened the south called
the northern men ''mudsills," and the
north called the southern men "brag-
CARTS" and ''pompous nOthings," but
after few battles nothing more was
said about northern '.mudsills" and
southern 'braggarts." 1t was an army
OF lions against an army Of lions. II
was flock OF eagles mid-sky with iron
beak against another flock OF eagles
iron beaked. 1t was thunderbolt
against thunderbolt. 1t was archangel
OF wrath against archangel OF wrath.
1t was Hancock against Longstreet. 1t
was Fitzpatrick against Wade Hamp-
ton. 1t was Slocum against Hill. 1t
was o. o. Howard against Hood. 1t
was Sherman against Stonewall jack
son. 1t was Grant against Lee. And
the men who were under them were
just as gallant, and some OF them are
here, detain the two garlands that /
have twisted for the departed and in
recognition of honesty and proves put
the coronals upon those living federals
and confederates.
These two garlands that I have
twisted for northern and southern
graves shall not be put upon the grass
of the tomb until they have first encir-
cled 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 cavalryman at Atlanta
and droop little over the eye that lost
its luster in the mine explosion at Pc
tersburg. Huzza for the living. Gala
lilies and camelias and amaranths and
branches for the living!
But we must not detain the two gar
lands any longer from the pillows OF
those who, for quarter OF q century,
have been PROSTATE in dreamless
slumber, never oppressed by summers
heat 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. And l do not care
which you put over the northern grave
and which you put 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 great
waste OF flowers" All. l 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 suchssrapid
and constant communication as earth
and heaven, and the two decoration
days of north and south are better
known in realms celestial than terres-
trial. With what interest we visit the
place Of our birth and OF our boyhood or
sirlhood days And have the departed
no interest in this world where they
we're born and ransomed and where
they suffered and triumphed? My
Bible does not positively say so, nor
loes my catechism teach it, but my
common sense declares It.
Among the thousands of gatherings
1t the north and at the south for Decor
ltion days | am conscious that this SER
ice is unique and and that it is the
)nly one in which there has been twisted |
wo garlands, one for the grave of the
northern dead and the other for the |
grave of the southern dead. o, Lord |
iod OF the American union, is it not |
line that we bury forever our old |
yrudges? My! My! Can we not be at |
,eace on earth when this moment in
heaven dwell in perfect love Ulysses S.
Grant and Robert +. Lee, William |
T. Sherman and StOnewall Jackson and |
ems of thousands of northern and south
I'm men who, though once looked
skance at each other from the opposite
'anks of the Potomac and the Chicka-
Iominy and the James and the Tenn
ssee, now are on the same side OF the
liver, keeping jubilee with some of
hose old angels who near nineteen
ago came down one Christ
nas night to chant over Bethlehem,
Glory to God in the highest; on earth
eace, good will to men"
have been waiting for some years
Or some one else to twist the two gar
inds that l to-day twist, but, none
ORG it, in the love Of God and my
ountry put now my hand to the work
nd next spring about this time, if l am
wing and we'll, will twist two more
arlands for northern and southern
raves, and every springtime until some
ian or woman whom l may have
hcered little in the struggle of this
ie, shall come out and put a pansy or
80 on my grave. But If the time
Mould ever come when this
md shall be given over to sectional
lncor and demagogism, and the north
nd south, or east or west shall forget
hat the good God built this nation for,
nd it shall halt on its high career OF
ghteOusness and liberty and peace,
I'd become the agent OF tyranny and
rong and oppression, then let some
Dung man whom l have baptized in in
ncv Mt these alters 90 out To Green-