The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-06-04

years folded into the last sleep. The
cfnidlessness, the widowhood, the Or
phanage-who has a measuring line
long enough to tell the height of it, the
depth of it, the infinity of itf What
mountain, what an Alps, what Hima-
iaya Of piled up agony of bereavement
In tie simple statement that three hun
dred thousand men of the north were
slain and five hundred thousand men
of the south were slain, and hundreds of
thousands long afterward, through the
exhaustions there suffered, going down
to DEATH
SYMPATHY FOR THE BEREAvED.
detain from the top of the tomb
these two garlands that / am twisting
for little while that may with them
soothe the brow of the living. Over
the fallen the people said: Poor fel-
lowl What a pity that he should have
been struck down." We did not, how
ever, often enough say: ''Poor father!
Poor motherl Poor wife! Poor child"
and SO l say it now. Have you realized
that by that wholesale massacre hun
dreds of thousands of young people at
the north and the south have never had
any chancei We who are fathers
stand between our children and the
world We fight their battles, we plan
for their welfare, we achieve their live
ihood, 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 my battles un-
til I was old enough to fight for my
self.
Have you realized the fact that ouI
civil war pitched out upon the farm
fields of the north and the plantations
of the south a multitude that no man
can number, children without fatherly
help and protection1 Under all the ad-
vantages which we had of fatherly
guidance, what a struggle life has been
to the most of US! But what of the
children, two and five and ten years of
age, who stood at their mothers lap
with great, round, wondering eyes, hear
ing her read of those who perished in the
Battle of the Wilderness, their father
gone down amid the dead host2 Come,
young men and women, who by such
disaster have had to make your 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 if l
cannot spare a whole garland for your
brow l will twist in your locks at least
two flowers, one crimson and one
white. the crimson for the struggle of
your life which has almost amounted
to carnage, and the white for the vic
tory you have gained.
FLOWERS FOR THE SURVIVORS.
Before I put the two garlands I am
twisting upon the northern and south
/, ern tombs detain the garlands little
while that l may put them upon the
brow of the living soldiers and sailors
| of the north and south, who though in
variance for a long while, are now at
peace and in hearty loyalty to the
United States government, and ready
| if need be to march shoulder to shoul-
der against any foreign foe. The
twenty-six winters that have passed
since the war, think, have sufficient
| ly cooled the hatreds that once burned
| northward and southwark to allow The
remark that they who fought in that
conflict were honest on both sides
| The chaplains of both armies were hon
est in their prayers. The faces thai
went into battle, whether they marched
| toward the Gulf of Mexico or marched
toward the north star. were homes
faces.
1t is too much to ask either side tt
believe that those who came out from
their homes, forsaking father anC
mother and wife and child, many o
them never to return, were not in earn
est when they put their life into awfu
exigency. Witness the last scene a
| family prayers up among the Greer
mountains, or down by the fields o
cotton and sugar cane. Men do no
sacrifice their all for fun Men do no
eat moldy bread, or 60 without breas
at all, for fun. Men do not sleep un
sheltered in equinoctial storms for fun
There were some. no doubt, on botl
sides who enlisted for soldiers pay, 0
expecting opportunity for violence ant
pillage. or burning with revenge ant
thirst for human blood, but such case
were so rare many of you who wer
in the war four years never confronte'
such an instance of depravity.
| AS chaplain of Pennsylvania req
ment and as representative of tn
| United States Christian commission
was for a while at the front, and il
those hospitals at Hagerstown and VIII
iamsburg, and up and down the Pot6
mac. where all the churches and farI
houses were filled with wounded an,
dying Federal and Confederates, fol
got amid the horrors to ask on whicl
side they fought, when, with what lii
tie aid l could take them for thei
1 OSr01CS 1uo tIlC AAtSAAiSi eAAo
could pray for their souls, passed tn
| days and months amid scenes that i
my memory seem like ghastly dreaI
rather than possible reality.
When New Orleans boy. unable t
answer my question as to where he wa
hurt, took out from the folds of th
only garment that had not been tor
off him in the battle New Testamer
marked with his own life blood, and
saw the leaf turned down at the pa:
sage. My peace give unto yoa, az
as the world giveth give l unto you, "
read just as though it had been a norti
ern New Testament And when s.
down and took from South Carolina
dying in a barn at Boonesvlle his 10!
message to his wife and mother an
child. it sounded just like messas
fhaf n rorfhorn man diving far frO]