Milford chronicle. [volume] (Milford, Del.) 1878-1974, 1891-06-05

i communication rs earth and heaven and
! the two great Decoration Days Of north
and south are better known in realms
I celestial than terrestrial. With what in
terest we visit the place Of our birth and
I of our boyhoOd or girlhood days And
/ have the departed no interest in this world
/ where they were born and REASONED, and
where they suffered and triumphed2 My
4 Bible does not positively say so, nor does
my catechism teach it, but my common
! sense declares it. The departed do know,
and the hammered procession that marched
the earth yesterday to northern graves,
and the hammered procession that marched
a month ago to southern graves, were &C
cOmpanied by two grinder though invisi-
/ BILE professions that walked the air-pro
cessions Of the assembled, professions Of the
martyred, professions 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 cor
ridors and galleries are insignificant COM
pared with the mightier thrODgs Of heaven
who mingle in this service which we render
to God and our country while we twist the
two garlands. Hail spirits multitudinOusl
Hail spirits blesti Hail martyred ones
come down from the Kings palaces How
glad are we that you have come back
againi Take this kiss OF welcome and
these garlands of "reminiscences, ye who
languished in hospitals or went down
under the thunders and the lightnings
of Fredericksburg and Cold Harbor and
Murfreesboro and Corinth and Yorktown
and above the clouds on Lookout Mount
ain.
A UNIQUE SERVICE.
Among the thousands Of gatherings at
the north and at the south for Decoration
Days l am conscious that this service is
unique, and that it is the only one L
which there has been twisted two gar
lands, one for the grave of the northern
dead and the other for the grave Of the
southern dead o Lord God Of the Amer
lean Union, is it time that we bury for
ever our old grudges9 Myl Myl Can we
not be at peace on earth when this mo-
ment in heaven dwell, in perfect love,
Ulysses S. Grant aud Robert +. Lee, Will
lam T. Sherman and Stonewall jackson,
and tens of thousands of northern and
southern men who, though they once
looked askance at each other from the
opposite banks Of the Potomac and the
Chickahominy and the James and the Ten
nessee, now are on the same side of the
river, keeping jubilee with some of those
old angels who near nineteen centuries
ago came down one Christmas night to
chant over Bethlehem, GLORY to God in
the highest; on earth peace, good viii to
menw
have been waiting for some years for
some one else to twist the two garlands
A. 7 \ I'M
the love of God and my country put now
my hand to the work, and next spring
about this time, if am living and we'll,
will twist two more garlands for northern
and southern graves, and every springtime /
until some man or woman whom l may
have cheered a little in the struggle of this
life shall come out and put pansy or two
on my own grave. But if the time should /
ever come when this land shall be given |
over to sectional rancor and demagOgism, /
and moth and south, or east and west
shall forget what the good God built this I
mutton for, and it shall halt on its high I
career of righteousness and liberty and l
peace, and become the agent of tyranny |
and wrong and oppression, then let some /
Young man whom have baptized in in |
fancy ut these affairs go out to Greenwood I
and scoop up my dust and scatter it to the /
four winds Of heaven, for do not want to
sleep, and I will not sleep in land &C
cursed with sectionalism or oppression.
And now hand over the two garlands,
both OF which are wet with many tears
tears of widowhood and orphanage and
chiIdlessness, tears of suffering and tears
of gratitude; and as the ceremony must be
performed in symbol, there not being
enough flowers to cover all the graves, take
the one garland to the tomb of some north
ern soldier who may yesterday have been
omitted in the distribution of the sacra-
ment of flowers, and the other garland to
the tomb of some southern soldier who
may month ago have been omitted in the
of the sacrament Of the flow
ers, and put both the wreaths gently down
over the hearts that have ceased to beat.
God bless the two garlandsl God save the
United States of Americal