The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1891-06-12

&D1@ ~ near DAH 41tLAG ElGGGe LII LnCSQ
cases. call upon the people of north
and south to substitute a little ante
norton praise for the good deal Of post
mortem eulogium. These two garlands
that I twisted for northern and south
ern graves shall not be put upon the
grass of the tomb until they have first
encircled the foreheads of the living
I will let the front of the wreath come
down over the scar of a scalp wound
made by the sword of a cavalryman at
Atlanta and droop a little over the eye
hat lost its luster in the mine explo-
sion at Petersburg. Huzza for the Iiv-
ingl Gala lilies, and camellias, and
amaranths, and palm branches for the
livingl
But we must not detain the two gar.
lands any longer from the pillows of
those who for a quarter of a century
have been PROSTATE in dreamless slum-
Der, never oppressed by summer heats
or chilled by winters cold. Both gar
lands are fragrant. Both have in them
the sunshine and shower of this spring.
time. The colors of both were mixed
by Him who mixed the blue of the sky
and the gold of the sunset and green Of
the grass and the whiteness of the
snow crystal. And / do not care which
you put over the northern grave and
which over the southern grave. Does
anyone say: What is the use? None of
them will know it; your decoration days
both sides Mason and Dixon's line are a
great waste of hewers-" All! 1 see you
have carried too far my idea that praise
for the living is better than praise for
the departed. Who says hat the dead
do not know of the flowers? I think
they do. The dead are not dead. The
body sleeps, but the soul lives and is I'M
hindered. No two cities on earth are in
such rapid and constant communication
as earth and Heaven, and the two great
decoration days of north and south are
better known in realms celestial than
terrestrial. With what interest we visit
the place of our birth and of our boy
hood or girlhood days! And have the
departed no interest in this world
where they were born and ransomed
and where they suffered and tri-
umphed? My Bible does not positively
say so, nor does my catechism teach
it, but my common sense declares it.
The departed do know, and the ban
nered procession that marched the
earth yesterday to northern graves and
the hammered procession that marcheda
month ago to southern graves, were &C
companied by two grander though
invisible professions hat walked
the air, professions of the assembled,
professions of the martyred, process
sions of the sainted; and they heard
the anthems of the churches and
the salvo of the batteries and they
stopped down to breathe the incense of
the flowers. These August throngs
gathered this morning in these pews
and aisles and corridors and galleries
are insignificant compared with the
mightier throngs of Heaven who min
gle in this service which we render
to God and our country while we
twist the two garlands. Hail spirits
multitudinous! Hail spirits blestl Hail
martyred ones come down from the
Kings palaces! How glad We are that
you have come back again. Take this
kiss of welcome and these garlands OF
remembrance, We who languished in
hospitals or went down under the
bnunOCIS dAO bllC l1SnbuAlSO VI z
ericksburg and Cold Harbor and Muir
freesboro and Corinth and Yorktown
and above the clouds ON Lookout
mountain.
Among the thousands of gatherings
at the north and at the south for Deco
ration days, I am conscious that this
service is unique, and that it is the only
one in which there has been twisted
two garlands, one for the grave Of
the northern dead and the other for
the grave of the southern dead. o,
Lord God of the American Union, is it
not time that we bury forever our old
grudges2 My! MyI Can we not be at
peace on earth when this moment in
Heaven dwell, imperfect love, Ulysses S.
Grant and Robert Z. Lee, William I.
and Stonewall Jackson, and
of thousands of northern and south
ern men who, though they once looked
askance at each other from the opposite
banks of the Potomac and the Chicka-
hominy and the James and the Tennes-
now are on the same side of the river,
jubilee with some of those old
angels who near nineteen centuries ago
down one Christmas night to
chant over Bethlehem: "Glory to God
IN the highest; on earth peace, good
will to mems
1 have been waiting for some years
for some one else to twist the two gar
lands that / to-day twist, but, no n
doing it, in the love of God and my
country Iput now my handto the work,
and next spring about this time, if l am
living and well, / will twist two more
garlands for northern and southern
graves, and every time until some man
or om whom / may have cheered a
little in the struggle of this life, shall
come out and put a pansy or two on
my grave. But if the time
be given over to sectional rance and
iemagogism, and north and south, east
and west shall forget what the good
God built this nation for, and it shall ]
nalt on its high career of righteousness
and liberty and peace, and become the
agent of tyranny and wrong and OPP
preston, then let some young man
whom / nave baptized in infancy at
affairs go out to Greenwood and
scoop up my dust and scatter it to the
winds of Heaven, for I do not want
sleep and ] will not sleep in a land
accursed with sectionalism or oppres-
lion.
And now / hand over the two gar
ands, both of which are wet with many
tears, of widowhood and orphan
and childlessness, tears of suffering
md tears of gratitude, and, as the cere-