The Red Cloud chief., 1891-06-12
GARLANDS FOR HEROES.
A Decoration Day Sermon By Rev.
T. Dewitt Talmara.
Gsrisnds Foe All the Dead, Both North
and south-Honors Due 70 Both sides
Ne Time For SectionaIIsm
KOV

On the Sunday after decoration dav
Rev. I. Dewitt Talmage preached an
appropriate sermon at Brooklyn. His
subject was: 1.-TWO Gsrlands for North
ern and Southern Graves" Over the
pulpit we're two wreaths of beautiful
flowers, and they were linked together
SO that they were an object lesson of
the subject presented. His text was
from Isaiah 43, 6: II will say to the
North. Give up. and TO the South, Keep
not back" DIR. Talmage said:
just what my text mean by the
north and south, l cannot say, but In
the United States the two words are 40
point blank in their meaning that no
m can doubt. They mean more than
east n west, for although between
those two last there have been rivalries
and disturbing ambitions and intellect.
ties and silver bills and worlds fair
controversies, there have been between
them no batteries unlim bered, no en-
trcnchments dug, no long lines Of
sepulchral mounds thrown ID. II has
never been Massachusetts, fourteenth
regiment against Wisconsin zouaves: il
has never been Virginia artillery
against Mississippi rifles. East and
west are distinct words and some
times may mean diversity of in
tsrest but there In NO blood on
them They can he produced without
any intonation of waiiing and death
groan. But the north and the south
are words that have been surcharged
with tragedies They are words which
suggest that for forty years the clouds
had been gathering for a Tour year,
tempest which thirty year ago burst In
a fury that shook this planet as il has
never been shaken since IL swung out
at the first world building. ] thank
God that the words nave lost some of
the intensity which they possessed
three decades ago; that a vast multitude
of northern people have moved south
n a vast multitude of southern people
have moved north and there have been
intermarriages by the ten thousand,
and northern ~colonels have married the
daughters Of southern captains, and
Texa rangers have united for life with
the daughters of New York abolition
lists, and their children are half northern
and half southern and altogether patri-
otto.
But north and south are words that
need TO Toe brought into still closer har-
monization. thought that now when
we are half way between presidential
elections and sectional animositics are
at the lowest ebb, and now just after a
presidential journey when our chief
magistrate, who Was chiefly elected by
the north, has been cordially received
AT the south, and now Just after two
memorial days, one of them a month
ago strewing flowers on southern graves
and the other yesterday strewing flow
ers on northern graves, II might he ap-
propriate and useful for me TO preach a
sermon which would twist two gar
lands, one for the northern dead and
the other for the southern dead. and
have the two interlocked in a chain of
flowers that shall bind forever the two
sections into ono; and who knows but
that this may be the day when the
prophecy of the text made In re-
gard TO the ancicuts may he fulfilled in
regard TO this country and the north
give up its prejudices and the south
keep not back its confidence IL will
say to the north, give up, and 70 the
south, keep not back"
But before I put these garlands on
the graves, ] mean to put them this
morning a 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 a
wound than a coo bandagc, and these
two garlands are cool from the night
dew. What a morning hat was on the
banks of the Hudson and the Savannah
when the son was To start for the war,
What fathcrly and mothcrly counsel!
What tears, What heart breaks! What
charges TO write home often! What lit
tie keepsakes put away In the KNAPP
sack or the bundle that was to be ex-
changed for the k~napsack! The crowd
around the depot or steamboat landing
shouted, but father and mother and sis |
ter cried. And how lonely the house
seemed after they went home and what
an awfully vacant chair there was at
the Christmas and Thanksgiving table.
And after the battle. what waiting for |
news, What suspense until the long
lists of the killed and wounded were
made out |
All along the Pcnobscot and h Con
necticut and the st Lawrence and the
Ohio and the Oregon and the James and
the Albemarle and the Alabama and
the Mississippi and the Sacramento
there were lamentation and mourning
and great woe, Rachel weeping for her
children and refusing to be comforted
because they were not
The world has forgotten II, but father
and mother have not forgotten it.
They may be now In the eighties or
the nineties, but IL is . fresh wound
and will always remain . fresh wound.
Coming down the steep of years the
hands that would have stcadied those
tottering steps have been twenty-eight
wears folded into the last sleep. The
childlcssnesS, the widow hood. the or
phauage, who has n measuring line
long enough to tell the height of It. the
depth Of it. the infinity of il? What q
mouptain, what an Alps what q Hima-
layah of piled-up agony of bereavement
in the simple statement that 800. 600
men of the north were slain and 500. 600
men of the south were slain, and hun
dreds of thousands long afterwards,
through the exhaustions there suffered.
going down To DEATH
/ detain from the top of the tomb
these two garlauds that I am twisting
for n little while that | may with them
soothe the brow of the living. Over
the fallen the people said; Poor fell
lowl What a pity that he should have
been struck DOWN." We did not. how
ever. often enough say Poor father!
Poor mother. Poor wife! Poor childv
and SO ! say il now. Have you realized
that by that wholesale massacre hun
dreds of thousands of young people at
the north and south nave never had any
chance? We who are fathers stand be-
our children and the world We
fight their battles, we plan for their
welfare, we achieve their livelihood,
we give them the ndyioe Of our euDe-