Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-06-01

tie nelu oil AnIleUam the fragment OF
; letter which have somewhere yet, fo
the name and the address we're tprn of
| saw it was the words of a wife to he
husband, telling him how the little chill,
prayed for their father every nigh
that he might not get huH in the bat
tie, and might come home sound ant
come home well, but that If anythin!
happened to them they might all NEE
again i'm the world where there are M
partings. 1t read just as a northern wifi
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 were just as honest and ought they
not for the suffering they endured have
a coronal of some kind7
THEY WE'RE BRAVE MEN.
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 ''mudsills," and the
north called the southern men 'brag-
garts" and 'pompous nothings," but
latter a few battles nothing more was
said about northern "mudsills" and
southern "braggarts. 1t was an army
of hons against an army of lions. 1t
was flock of eagles mid-sky with iron
beak against another flock of eagles
iron beaked 1t was thunderbolt
against thunderbolt. 1t was archangel
of wrath against archangel of wrath.
1t was Hancock against Longstreet. 1t
was Fitzpatrick against Wade Hampton.
1t was Slocuin against Hill. 1t was o.
o. Howard against Hood. 1t was
Sherman against Stonewall Jackson.
1t was Grant against Lee. And the
men who were under them were just as
gallant, and some of them are here
and | detain the two garlands that ]
have twisted for the departed, and in
recognition of honesty and prowess put
the coronals upon these living Federals
and Confederates North and South,
we will make great fuss about them
when they are dead.
There will not be room on their tomb
stones to tell how much we appreciate
them. We shall call out the military
and explode three volleys 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 mil
itary funeral two miles long, or pile
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 are in their declin-
ing years, and their right knee refuses
TO work because of the rheumatism
they got sleeping on the wet ground on
the banks of the Chickamauga, or their
digestive organs are off on furlough
because of the six months of prison life,
in which their rations were big slices of
nothing, and their ears have never been
alert since the cannonade in which
they heard SO much they have been
able to hear but little since-in these
cases call upon the people of north
and south to substitute a little ante
mortem praise for the good deal of
post-mortem eulogium. These two gar
lands that | twisted for northern and
southern graves shall not be put upon
the grass of the tomb until they have
first encircled the foreheads of the liv-
ing. will let the front of the wreath
come down over the scar of scalp
wound made by the sword of a cavalry
man at Atlanta, and droop a little over
the eye that lost its luster in the mine
explosion at Petersburg. Huzza for the
livingl Gala lilies and canellias and
amaranths and palm branches for the
living
THEY KNOW.