Telegram-herald. ([Grand Rapids, Mich.) 18??-1892, 1891-06-01

And. II / caano< spare Nholx garland
Tor your brow | viii twist Ia your locks
a. least two no~ers. ote eri1ason eai one
white, the crimson for the struggle OF yoar
hfe. which has almost amounted 10 car
mage. and the white for tee victory yea
have gained
FOB LIVING soLDEERa
Before put the TIVE garlsnds Am twist
fag cpon the nortAera and southern Ionlbs.
! detain the sarlands a little while that
may put them 1pon the brow OF TIE LIVING
soldiers and sailors Of the north ADD south
who, though as vsFisace for a long nile.
are now al peace aud IN hearty loyalty 70
the United States government. aud ready.
II need oe, 10 march shoulder - shoulder
, against any forsign foe Ths twenty SIX
winters that have passed since the war,
think have sufficiently cooled the hatreds
thas ooce ournei northwart and south
ward TO allow the remark that they who
fought in that conflict were honest on both
sides The eaaplains on both armies were
honest IN their prayers The faces that
went into battle. whether they marched
toward me Gulf Of Mexico or marched tow
I ard the noTtL star, were honest faces.
it 10 too much - ask either side 70 be-
lieve that those who came out from their
homes forsaking father and mother and
wife and child. many OF them never 10 re-
turn were not in earnest wasa they put
their life into awful exigepcy. Witness
the last scene at family prayers up among
the Green mountains or down by the fields
Of cotton and sugar cane Men do not sac
rifce their al. for fun Msn do not eat
Inoldy bread or go without bread at ali for
| fun. Men DO not sleep unsheltered in eqai
I ~s.ts f.r f,,.
no doubt 90 both sides " no enlisted for
soldiers pay. or expecting opportunity for
/ violence and pillaSe. or burning with re-
venge and thir.t for human blood. bat
such cases we're so rare many of you who
/ were in the war four years never coafront'
Ell such an instance OF de2rayity.
As chaplain OF Pennsylvania regiment,
and l representative OF the United States
I Christian commission, | was for a while at
/ the front, aud IL those hospitals at Hagers-
town and Williams bure and up and down
I the Potomac, where all the churches and
| farmhoGses were Oiled with wounded and
| dying Federals and ConfederaieS, forgot
| amid the horrors 70 ask on Which side they
| fought, when with what little aid | could
| ts.ke them for their suffering bodies, and
the migntier aid | could pray for their
/ solls, | passed the days and months amid
| scenes THAI in my memory seem Ike
| CHASTITY dream rather than a possible real
| ity
| When a New Orleans boy. unable TO an
: swer my question as TO where he was hurt,
| took out from the folds OF the only gar
| naent that had not been torn of him in the
battle a New Testament, marked with his
| own life blood, and saw the leaf turned
down at the passage, my peace give unto
you, not as the world Giveth give unto
you." it read just as though it had been a
northern New Testament And when |
sat down and took from q South CAROLYN
ian dying in a barn at Boonesville his last
message to his wife aud mother and child.
il sounded just like message that a
northern man dying far from homo would
send 10 his wife and mother and child.
And when | picked up from the battle
field OF Antietam the fragment of a letter
which have somewhere yet, for the name
ard the address were torn of. saw it was
the words Of wife TO her husband telling
him how the little child prayed for their
father every night that he might not GET
hurt in the hattie and might come home
sound and come home we'll. but that II
anything happened TO them they might
all meet again in the world where there
are no partings, Ii read jus. as northern
wife would write TO a husband away from
home and in peril conveying the mes
sages of little children. Oh, yes, they
were honest on both sides. And those who
lived to get home and are living yet vera
I just as honest. and ought they not for the
suffering they endured have a coronal Of
some kindf
| COURAGE on BOTH SIDES.
Yea, there was courage on both sides.
| They who were at the front know that.
/ When the war opened the south called
! the northern men ''mndsills," and the
north called the southern men "braggarts"
and ''pompous nothings," but after few
battles nothing more was said about
northern "mudsills" and southern "brag-
CARTS" 1t was an army of lions against an
army OF lions. 1t was flock of eagles
mid-sky with iron beak against another
! flock OF eagles iron beaked- 1t was thun-
/ derbolt against thunderbolt. 1t was arch
angel of wrath against archangel Of wrath.
| II was Hancock against Longstreet. 1t
was Fitzpatrick against Wade Hampton.
| 1t was Slocum against Hill. 1t was o. o.
/ Howard against Hood IL was Sherman
| against Stonewsll Jackson. 1t was Grant
against Lee, and the men who were under
|
them are here, and detain the two garlards
that I have twisted for the departed, and
/ 10 recognition Of honesty and proves put
the coronals upon these living Federals and
/ Confederates.
| North and south. we will make a great
| fuss about them when they are dead. There
| will not be room on their tombstones TO
tel! how much We appreciate them We
shall call out the military and explode
three vo!leys over their graves, making all
| the cemetery ring under our command OF
FIRE. We will have long obituaries in
newspapers telling in what battles they
| fought, what sacrifices they endured. what
flags they captured. IN what prisons they
/ suffered. but all that will come too late.
| One word in the living ear OF praise for
/ their honesty and courage will be worth to
them more than a military funeral two
miles long. or pie OF flowers half mile
/ high, and ten bands Of music playing over
! the grave Star Spangled Banner" or
Way Down South in Dixie"
/ Now, while they arc in their declining
} years. and their right knee refuses 70 work
because Of the rheumatism they got sleep
/ irg on the wet ground on the banks of the
/ Chiekamsuga, or their digestive organs are
/ OF on furlough because Of the six months
I Of prison life IN which their rations were
big slices OF nothing. and their cars have
never been alert since the csnnonade in
/ which they heard so much they have been
+ able to hear bat little since-in these eases
/ call upon the people OF north and south
I 70 substitute a litsle ante norton praise
( for the good deal Of post norton eulogiun.
3 These two eaFiands tnst twisted for north