Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1891-05-31


trysa mead and duty's call-see them az
they rushed to the defence OF this city
God and our mother-land.
How we'll that call was answered let these
silent ranks attest. How suddenly Holly;
wood was peopled we who survive well
know. Tho Grim Reaper himself stood
agnsst rs field after field grew red unto the
harvest. Again and again he thrust IN MS
sickle, reaping tho choicest sneaves, ana
bearing them here with unrelenting hanu,
he built with magic speed q city tor the
mighty dead.
thirty years have passed away. The
same tender. loving hands which bound
mn the gaping wound or soothed the re,
vered brow are here with their devoted
daughters 10 testify atresh the love they
bore and still do bear for their brave dead.
[Applause.l
vrnGISIA's DAUdHTZB's TRUE.
With men constancy of sentiment il
short-liyed virtue. II il depended upon US,
devoted as we were TO our comrades, or to
each other now, their memories might per-
ish with one generation. But, thank God,
the daughters of Virginia will keep alive
the sacred FIRE Of gratitude to our fallen
heroes With the eye of faith and neart OF
love thew have never lost sight of the real
Issue of our war. The fight was for our
home-the homo so blessed and sanctified
by wife, mother. sister. and sweetheart
and neither historian nor politician can
ever change her conviction or the intense
significance of that word.
How great the change wrought by war
in all our homes none but the women OF
the South can ever truly know. q,
SO when she bids you, her friends and
countrymen, 10 join with her IN each re-
ourrin9 spring to strew with fresh flowers
the graves of our dead she holds up toyour
edmiring gaze the form and features OF
ideal manhood-the true and tried Con-
federate soldier.
In this service Of love she inyokes the
shirt of the past to breathe into these en-
blems the sentiment of undying honor,
She comes not here to boast OF battle
field or FRAY, though she well knows that
the story of our struggle will forever serve
as the noblest inspiration for poet ana MS
torian.
She asks you to leave behind you the
passions of the past, to forsake the, excite
ments of the present busy life. and; seek
inc the silent temples of the dead, here
cast O leaf upon this lap of earth and pay
20 their memories the passing tribute OF
tear.
She does not invoke their mighty shades
from out the past simply to stir within
your breasts forgotten grief. or to unseal
LESSON OF THE DAY.
No. the solemn import of Memorial-day
is the expression of that truth so beauti-
fully illustrated in the fate of these men
"Death for ones country is everlasting honor"
The great Napoleon was fond of saying,
ut is better never to have lived than to
live without glory" and he esteemed the
glory won in war above all others, because
il linked his name with Hannibal and
Caesar and Charlemagne.
But where shall we look for the glory in
whose hottest blaze these men died? Has
il vanished with the smoke of their last
battle2 Ia 1t hushed with the sound Of
their last gun at Appomattox? No. my
comrades; II is here. This is the occasion
to assert and these are the proofs that they
died not in vain
one wear ago a scene from out the past
was enacted here. 1t was as if the spring.
time of our youth had been renewed.
Hosts of young citizen sOldiery. IN bril-
liant array, escorted the grim, gray vete-
rams Of the Army of Northern Virginia,
with multitudes of sympathetic hearts,
pressing in vast concourse to the foot OF
yonder statue. [Great applause.
Never while life lasts shall we forget the
passionate outburst of emotion, long years
repressed which rose to Heaven from that
enthusiastic throng as the veil, rent in
twain by the hands of the heroic Johnston.
fell and disclosed tho majestic form of
Lee.
Since that glorious day we have pledged
anew the ties that bind our hearts to his
great name.
LEE FACING HOLLYWOOD.
Our general, the peerless Lee himself,
facing HOLLYWOOD as IL to guard his Sleep
ing army, now from the lofty summit of
his fame keeps safe the muster-rol of all
his men.
With the passing years We are brought
face to face with O mOmentous present.
A procession is forming to-day madly
eager for material wealth. The prophets
of progress cry aloud on every hand, bid
ding us prepare for the distribution of
riches by the development of the wonder
full resources OF our once-ruined land.
Success to them, and ell hail to the new
dIspensation!
But, my friends, we can we'll afford to
pause one day in the year 10 contemplate
the sacred dust Of our gallant dead whose
asEes are possession as far exceeding all
other riches az the precious diamond ex-
coils tho base earth in which 1t IL en-
tombed.
Cherish, then, their memories. Take
from the poor dumb mouths of their
wounds the lesson Of duty. Receive from
their honored graves the maxim of their
lives Servo God and fear no man."
plead not for the dead; their past is
secure. Their fallen frames are consigned
TO mother earth-many, alas! sleeping III
neglected graves just where they fell. But
their fame is az safe as the shrine Of VIZ
tue and their honor as sure as the eyerlast-
Ing hills.
THE DUTY or SURVIVORS.
But do plead for tho helpless survivors.
With you, fellowlcitlzens of our now pros
porous country, rests the duty TO protect
the widow and the orphan of the dead Con-
federate or the helpless veteran who Is
still too proud TO let his grief be known.
For you and Tor this generation he struck
his best and last blow, and though you may
not think it now, the time il coming when
North and South, East and West will be
proud to admit that 1t was not struck in
vain. A reconciled Union, country united
under the shield of constitutional law in
which posterity shall rejoice in the equal
enjoyment of peace with honor. This shall
DO the epitaph of every Confederate grave.
DB. HosE THANKED Rnf.
At the close of Judge Garnett's address
DR.. Hoge arose from his seat and facing
that gentleman said he wished on the part
of all present to thank him for his splendid
Grafton. They had been promised some
thing splendid when the Judge was intro
duced, and they were not disappointed.
Nothing that he could say, however, would
convey one half the appreciation that did
the silent tears which stole down the
cheeks of many of those present, who by
the eloquence of the speaker had lived over
again the stirring and also sad scenes to
which he alluded
There had been n heavy storm raging
during the entire time the services ct the
church were in progress. This. with the
heavy thunder and vivid lightning, pre-
vented many attending that would other
wise have done so.
CAPTAINS OF THE BLUES.
Just before the return of the military
from the cemetery the Richmond Light
Infantry Blues were granted permission ia
leave the procession to fire salutes over
tho graves of two of their war captains
o. Jennings Wise, who was killed at Roa-
noke Island in 1852, and Frederick Carter
who fell in front of Petersburg in 1854
The company marched through the wind.
ing walks of the cemetery, the band play.
| ing sacred airs, the rain falling steadily the
entire time. On arriving at the graves OF
each Of its lamented officers Lights
out !" was sounded by Messrs. MounteastlC
and Brereton, cornetist, while the CON-
pany stood at present arms, after which
d. h.,