The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-06-05
seetionaIism To Be Forgotten.

gaflanuS 1Of northern ana southern
graves" The text chosen was iron
Isaiah 43: 6: Il will say to the north
give up, to the south, keep not back"
Just what nv text meant by the nOrtl
and south. cannot say, but in th'
United States the two words are 81
point blank in their meaning that NJ
one can doubt. They mean more than
east and west. for although between
those two last there have been rival
ries and disturbing ambitions and in
felicities and silver bills ana World
fair controversies. there have been be
tween them no batteries unlimbered, NJ
entertainments dug, no long lines o
sepulchral mounds thrown up. It ha,
never been Massachusetts Fourteenth
regiment against Wisconsin ZOuaves: il
has never been Virginia artillery
against Mississippi rifles. East and
west are distinct words and sometimes
may mean diversity of interest, but
there is no blood on them. They car
be pronounced without any information
of wailing and death groan. But the
north and the south are words that
have been surcharged with tragedies
They are words which suggest that fOl
forty years the clouds have been gather
ing for four years tempest which
thirty years ago burst into fury that
shook this planet as it has never been
shaken since it swung out at the first
world building. | thank God that the
words have lost some of the intensity
which they possessed three decades ago:
that vast multitude of northern peO-
pie have moved south and vast multi
tude of southern people have moved
north and there have been intermar-
riages by the ten thousand, and north
ern colonies have married the daugh-
tiers Of southern captains, and Texas
rangers have united for life with the
daughters of New York abolitionists
and their children are half northern
and half southern and altogether patri-
otto.
But north and south are words that
need to be brought into still closer har-
nomination. l thought that now when
we are half way between presidential
elections and sectional animCsities 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. strew-
ing flowers on northern graves. il
might be appropriate and useful for me
to preach a sermon which would twist
two garlands. 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 one. and who knows
but that this may he the day when the
prophecy of the text. made in regard to
he ancients may DE fulfilled in regard
TO this country and the north give up
its prejudices and the south keen not
back its confidence. Il will say to the
north, give up, and to the south. keep
not back"
But before put these garlands on
the graves, | mean TO put them this
morning 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 cool bandage, and these
two garlands are cool from the night
dew. What morning that was on the
banks OF the Hudson and the Savannah
when the son was to start for the war,
What fatherly and motherly council,
What tears. What heart breaks,
What charges to write home often.
What little keepSakes put away in the
knapsack or the bundles that was to be
exchanged for the knapsack, The
crowd around the depot or the steam
boat landing shouted, but father and
mother and sister cried. And how lone
ly the house seemed after they went
home and what an awfully vacant chair
there was at theyChristmas and Thanks
giving table. And after the battle.
what waiting for news, What sus-
pense till the long lists of the killed and
wounded were made out
All along the PenObscot and the Con-
necticut and the St. Lawrence ard the
Ohio and the Oregon and the James
and the Albemarle and the Alabama
and the Mississippi and the Sacramento
there was lamentatiOu and mourning and
great woe, Rachel weeping for her chill
dren and refusing to be comf0rted be-
cause they were not.
I detain from the top of the tomb
these two garlands that l am twisting
for little while that I may with them
soOthe the brOT of the living. Over the
fallen the people said: Poor fellow, |
What a pity that he should have been
struck down" We did not however.
often enough say: Poor father. Poor
mother, Poor wife, Poor childw and |
so say it now. Have you realized that |
by that wholesale massacre hundreds of |
thousands of young people at the north |
and the south have never had any !
chance? We who are fathers stand |
between cur children and the world.
We fight their battles. we plan for their
welfare, we achieve their livelihood. we
give them the advice of our superior
years. Among the richest blessings
Of my life 1 thank God that
my father lived to fight nv battles uu-
til was old enough to fight for myself.
Have you realized the factthat our civil
war pitched out upon the farm fields of
the north and the plantations of the |
south multitude that no man can num-
Under all the advantages which we /
had of fatherly guidance, what a strug-
gle life has been to the most of US. But |,
what of the children, and ) and 10 i
years Of age, who stood at their moth
er's lap with great, round. wondering I
eyes. hearing her read of those who .
persisted in the battle of the wilderness,
Fheir father gone down amid the dead ,
host: Come, young men and women {
who by such disaster have had to make
7Our own way in life, and will put the
garland on your young and unwrinkled ,
brow. Yes: you have had your own ,
Malvern Hill and your own South ,
Mountain and your own Gettysburg all ;
along these twenty years. Come! And !
I l can not spare whole garland for j
Tour brow, will twist in your locks at :
east two flowers, one crimson and one {
White, the crimson for the struggle of {
7our life which has almost amounted to