Los Angeles herald., 1891-05-31
The Day at the Santa Monica
Soldiers Home.
The Old Warriors Decorate
Their Comrades Graves.
A Good Lunch and Good Speeches in
the Afternoon.
Already-A Striking Address by
General Sargent-Major Bone
brakes Speech.

tion, except such as was absolutely
necessary, was suspended.
The services were commenced at 8
O'Clock in the morning, when the vet
Grams assembled in front of the new
dining hall to form in line and march
to the graves con the hill" The home
band headed the procession, and the re-
mainder of the column was made up in
the following order; Officers of the
home, non commissioned staff, John A.
Martin post, No. So, GAR, visiting
members of the GAR. and W.R.C.,
Companies A, B, G and d of the in
mates of the home. Wagons loaded
with loose flowers and floral pieces
brought up the rear, and almost every
person in the procession carried some
similar offering to the dead.
The ceremonies over the seventy-two
graves on the hillside were very brief,
and conducted strictly according to the
q. A. r. ritual. After the procession
had come to a halt Chaplain w. r.
Roberts read the ritual prayer, and the
home band struck up a dirge. Post
Commander w. B. Clothier delivered
the address, and then the graves of the
heroic dead were strewn with flowers.
After the singing of the national hymn
by the entire assemblage, another
prayer was offered, the bugler sounded
the recall, and the firing squad, consist
ing of eight men, fired salute OF three
volleys over the graves. The procession
then moved back to the parade ground
and was dismissed.
Between IL O'Clock and 2 80 pm. the
veterans and visitors put in their time
partaking of luncheon, which for the
former was made specially elaborate in
honor of the day, and in resting after
the fatiguing march of the forenoon.
At the last-named hour nearly every
soul within the gates of the home as
sembled at the old dining hall, where
the exercises of the afternoon were to
take place. The dining tables were not
removed from the hall, and each old
soldier seated himself at his accustomed
| place to listen to the words of the or
ators. There were about 600 people in
| the hall when the exercises began. On
the platform were seated Governor
! Treichel, General McCook, General Hor-
ace B. Sargent, Colonel Dunkelberger,
Major A. Erdman, Dr. HI. <. Hasse
and others. Gov. Treichel inaugurated
| the speech making in very brief ad
dress, and then gave away to General
A. McD. McCook. The popular depart
ment commander made one of his hap
piest. off-hand speeches, and stirred the
old warriors to the very bottom of their
patriotic souls. He was one of them, he
said, and his sympathies and love would
always remain theirs. The general
closed his address by reading poem of
The war, and then introduced General
Horace Burney Sargent, the orator OF
the day. General Sargents address in
clined on the humorous, but was deep
ly patriotic withal, and was heartily ap-
plauded throughout its course. He said
in brief:
COMRADES, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:
You all know the history of this day; it
has been repeated over and over again
from time immemoral. 1t is dedicated
to the goddess of war and of wisdom,
for what could have been wiser than
that war which these veterans went in
to in their youth? [Applause.] One
minute-sixty seconds-is not a very
long time, and yet if you name one OF
these brave men who fought for their
country each minute. it would take
longer than the duration of the war to
repeat them over; ten years
would be required to regis
ter them. OF these 359,52S men had
been killed before the war was over, and
hundreds. of thousands have gone to
their rest since. Twelve of them who
were alive yesterday are now stiff in
death, and twelve who are with us to-
day will be gone tomorrow. And when
think of all this wonder why the
youth of the American nation can make
this Good Friday of the republic-the
Good Friday of the civil war--a day OF
senseless enjoyment; can desecrate it
with wild and riotous sports. Do they
know that 359, ,52S men died in four
years to save the nation? Some graft
tude, it seems to me, ought to be shown
these noble men. And while | speak OF
gratitude | remember the dying words
of the gladiator to his emperor While
am about to die | salute you.' 1t is
the same with us: we old men salute
you.'
"We ought to learn a lesson from that
war. For sixty years before the rebel
lion we lived in a sort of FOOLS paradise.
We twisted the lions tail and spoke
grandiloquently OF ourselves on all oc,
casions. An English paper remarked
about this and copied satire,
which it did not know to be such, In
dead earnest. See what these Ameri-
cans say, it repeated. They claim to be
bounded on the south by the antarctic
circle, on the north by the aurora bore
alis, on the east by the Star of Bethle-
hem and on the west by the day OF
Judgment 1t seems to me that in JUS
tice to those who fought in that war we
are bound to make country-a grand
countrv-as memorial to them.
"Was it not strange that we had men
at hand in those trying times to meet
the emergency? If the volunteer Of
fcers did not know what to do, the vol
unteer privates did, and in all my expe-
rience I never knew of man who was
not willing to impart orreceiveinforma-
ton, no matter in what station, without
insolence or insubordination. Take
General Grant for example. Applause. ]
He was an obscure boy-so obscure that
the congressman recommending his ap-
pointment to West Point did not know
his name, and for fear of being barred
out by some technicality, he went
through that school as Ulysses Simp-
son, as his name had been given. linn
agine the government going to his pa
rents and saying: We want your boy /;
there are some good points in him, and
We need his services But the parents
say: We can't afford to educate him.
/ Uncle Sam says: 4 will educate him. !