The Dispatch. [volume] (Provo City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1891-05-16
DECORATION DAY.

DECORATION DAY.
The observance of Decoration Day
is becoming more general with each
passing year This is a sure and a
cheering indication that the sentiment
which was the inspiration and the
strength Of the Union cause, during
all the cruel years of the war, abides
with the people, and that it is growing
in strength with the growing power of
the nation.
The accomplishments of the war are
more adequately appreciated now than
they were at the close Of the great
struggle. Then sense of grateful re-
lief possessed the nation. The long
and cruel tension was relaxed Each
passing day ceased to come to the
fathers and mothers and wives and
sisters OF the land with the fear of a
message of death. Life ceased to be
steady apprehension. 1t became
again hope and an expectation. In
the thankfulness and joy that it was
over, there was naturally little con-
temptation Of the results Of the war.
Things in the world Of achievement,
as in the world Of nature, appear in
their just proportions only as they are
viewed through proper perspective.
The great peaks of the mountains, from
close view, seem to rise only a little
above the main range. From the long
distance they stand out and rise up as
the sole marked objects of the land
scape. So the doings and acts of the
current times seem to be on a common
level.
But as the present becomes the past
and those things are viewed over the
perspective of generation, they have
nearly all well nigh sunk from sight.
Only here and there does there rise up
= great thing of achievement, conspic-
nous and radiant Hence, the achieve
ment of the war, the establishment of
mans right to be free, seems now to
ns all a greater thing than when it was
being wrought out in toll and suffer
ing and peril
The present of our country lis
greatness, its wealth. its prosperity.
its happiness-is steady illustration
to us all of the magnitude OF the re-
suits wrought by those who thirty
years ago, were Fastening to form
themselves into the living wall against
which the surging tides of revolt were
destined to beat in vain. This con
temptation of the country as it is to-
day, indeed, causes many who fol-
lowed the fortunes of the Confeder-
acy, to almost rejoice that they failed.
They reflect that all these things of
growt1. and advancement, and great
ness could not have been, had LEES
legions swept over Cemetery Ridge or
lad GRANT been beaten back from
EicksDurg. They recognize that the
greater good has come to them
Through defeat. They are constrained
10 admit that the right prevailed.
Hence the better appreciation of
WAT was done and established by
the great war, not alone impels
to a more general and reverential hon
oring of those whose lives were
made the price of it all 1t also tends
10 the creation of better, more
Kindly feelings between those who
1oaght on opposing sides. 1t tends to
bring them nearer together. 1t tends
to make this great land nation.
rs the better observance of Decora-
toH Day attssts the abiding strength
o! ne sentiment for which so many
of thousands of men stood !
steady in the dreadful line, it is also
a promise Of the endurance Of the re-
pabiic. 1t is an assurance that should
Lhere again be a gathering of forces
AGAINST it, there would be the same
laic& uprising for its support; there
N 'u'd be the same rapid formation of
: .Lis rllks to stand between it and
q .n<rr.
rstie IS scarcely a necessity to ex-
!. II lh- people to observe the Deeora-
"a DAY custom. They will do it in
t4~ i.aoulse of their purity and
: re leih and enthusiasm Of sentiment.
.,s hose Of the generation Of the war
i a Of the ranks their places will
be taken by their sons, who will come
mPeiied by devotion to right and to
,o1"iry and charmed by traditions of
g sfeat and the brave things Of war
The marked feature of Decoration
'ly obseryances has ever been the
Grade of the Grand Army. But there
suggestions that this cannot al
: be. Each year some are missed
'ln the ranks. The white has gath
little thicker amid the black. and
e brown. The tread lacks little
s.e Of the lirmness it had UP the
hts of Missionary Ridge and on
hiarch TO the Sea- But when the
asst shall have fallen out there viii ap
'ear long marching ranks of the Sons
It Veterans stepping to the same eel
stial music to which their fathers
marched to battle.