The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-06-01
UNITY OF THE SECTIONS.
1.-TWO GARLANDS FOR NORTHEN
AND SOUTHERN GRAVES"

IN Neeu Cl Otll closer 6armOnl1a~
tion-A Vivid Pen Picture of the
Start from Home for War.
BROOKLYN, n. Y, May. 50.-Yesterday
having been observed as Decoration day,
DIR. Talmage this morning preached an ap.
propriate sermon. 1t was a novel and un.
precedented service, as in different parts OF
the audience we're many Of those who had
belonged 10 both federal and confederate
armies, the subject having been previously
announced; namely: "Two Garlands for
Northern and Southern Graves Over the
pulpit were two wreaths of beautiful
levers. and they were linked together so
that they were an object lesson Of the subs
ject presented. Tent; Isaiah xiii, 6: II
will say to the North, Give up, and to the
South, Keep not back"
just what my text meant by the north
and south, cannot say, but in the United
States the two words are so point blank in
their meaning that no one can doubt. They
mean more than east or west, for although
between those two last there have been
rivalries and disturbing ambitions and iu-
felicities and silver bills and worlds fair
controversial, there have been between
them no batteries unlimbered, no entranch-
ments dug, no long lines or sepulchral
mounds thrown up. IL has never been
Massachusetts, Fourteenth regiment against
Wisconsin Zouaves; it has never been Vir.
ginia artillery against Mississippi rifles.
East and west are distinct words and some.
times may mean diversity OF interest, but
there Is no blood on them. They can
be pronounced without any intonation
OF wailing and death-groan. But the
north and the south are words that have
been suroharged with tragedies. They are
words which suggest that for forty years
the clouds had been gathering for four
years tempest which thirty years ago burst
In fury that shook this planet as 1t has
never been shaken since it swung out at the
first world-building. l thank God that the
words havs lost some of the intensity which
they possessed three decades ago; that a
vast multitude of northern people have
moved south and vast multitude Of south
ern people have moved north and there
have been intermarriages by the ten thou-
sand and northern colonies have married
the daughters OF southern captains, and
Texas rangers have united for life with the
daughters of New York abolitionists.
and their children arc half northern and
half southern and altogether patriotic. But
north and south are words that need TO be
brought into still closer harmoniZation. I
thought that now, when we are half way
animosities are at the lowest ebb, and now
just after presidential journey, when our
chief magistrate, who was chishy elected by
the north, has been cordially received at
tho south, and now Just after two
memorial days, one OF them
month ago strewing flowers on
southern graves and the other yes
terdRy strewing flowers on northern graves,
1t might be appropriate and useful for me
kn xuhi i1h krUfa
garlands, one for the northern dead and the
other for the southern dead, and have the
two interlocked in q chain of flowers that
shall bind forever the two sections into one;
aud who knows but that this may be the
day when the prophecy Of the text, made in
regard to the ancients, may be fulfilled in
regard TO this country and the north give
up its prejudices and the south keep not
back its confidence. ~ will say to the North,
Give up. and to the South, Keep not back"
But before / put these garlaDds on the
grave, mean to put them this morning
little while on the brows Of the living men
and women of the north and south who lost
husbands and sons and brothers during the
civil strife. There is nothing moro soothing
to a wound than a cool baudage, and these
two garlands are cool from the night dew.
What q morning that was on the banks Of
the Hudson and the Savannah when the
son was to start tor the war; What fa-
therly and motherly counsell What tearsi
What heart-breaks! What charges to
write home often What little keepsakes
put away in the knapsack or the bundle
that was to be exchanged for the knapsackl
The crowd around the depot or the steam
boat landing shouted, but father and
mother and sister cried. And how
lonely the house seemed after they went
home, and what an awfully vacant chair
there was at the Christmas and Thanksgiv-
ing tablet And after the battle, what wait
ing for news What suspense till the long
lists of the killed and wounded were made
out All along the Penobscot and the Con-
necticut and the st. Lawrence and the Ohio
and the Oregon and the James and the Al-
bemarle and the Alabama and the Misiss-
ippi and the Sacramento there were lamen~
tation and mourning and great woe Rachel
weeping for her children and refusing to be
comforted because they were not. The
world has forgotten it, but father and
mother have not forgotten it. They may
be now in the eighties or the nineties,
but it is fresh wound and will al
ways remain fresh wound. Coming
down the steep of years the hands thao
would have stesdied those tottering stepi
have been twenty eight years folded intt
the last sleep. The childlessness, the widow-
hood, the orphanage, who has measuring.
line long enough to tell the hight OF it, the
depth of it, the infinity OF iN What a
mountain, what an Alps, what Hilnalaya
Of piled-up agony of bereavement in the
simple statement that three hundred thou-
sand men of the north were slain, and five
hundred thousand men of the south were
slain, and hundreds of thousands long after.
ward through the exhaustion there suffered,
going down 70 death
detain from the top of the tomb these
two garlands that / am twisting for little
while that / may with them soothe the
brow of the living. Over the fallen the
people said: Poor fellow What pity he
should have been struck DOWN. We did
not, however, often enough say: Poor
father Poor motherl Poor wifel Poor
childin and 30 / say it now. Have you
realized that by that wholesale massacre
hundreds of thousands of young people at
the north and the south have never had any
ehancei We who are fathers stand between
our children and the world We fight their
battles, We plan for their welfare, we
achieve their livelihood, we give them the
advice of our superior years. Among the
richest blessings of my life l thank God
that my father lived to fight my battles
until was old enough TO fight for myself
Have you realized the fact that our civil
war pitched out upon the farmfield Of
the north and the plantations of the
south e multitude that no man can number.
children without fatherly help and protec-
tion? Under all the advantages which we
had of fatherly guidance, what q struggle
life has been to the most of usl But what
of the children, 2 and and 10 years of
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