The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1893-05-25
MEMORIAL NOTES.

MEMORIAL NOTES.
Observations and Reflections by Junius
Henri Browne.
If it De grateful and honorable, as the
Roman maxim is, to die for ones country,
it is grateful and honorable likewise to re-
for patriotism, and to decorate on Memo
rial day their graves with flowers.
Memorial day is not so much holiday as
holy day, in the sense that our gratitude
and reverence for the memory of the men
who sacrificed themselves on the altar of
the republic stir the deepest and most sae
cred feelings in our nature, and hallow
their dust forevermore.
It seems often as if, in the rush and whirl
and fever of our everyday pursuits and
struggles, we had no time and little il
clination to cultivate patriotism. 1t seems
often as if the great virtue might die But
it will not While this day is honored, the
fire of patriotism will be kept alive in our
hearts.
Some persons appear to think that with
the passage of years, interest in Decoration
day will diminish until it will cease to be
celebrated. There is hardly any danger of
this. Great events need the perspective of
time and distance to he fully appreciated
The civil war will assume larger proper
lions in the century to come than il the
century now passing. The shadows of he
roes lengthen as generations recede
A generation has grown up since the civil
war began. When another generation stall
have appeared. scarcely single man of the
hundreds of thousands who took rart in
the struggle is likely to be alive. Let all
who survive do honor to those who have
gone, on this day which may be regarded as
the anniversary of the country's preservar
ton.
Death, which comes to us all soon or late,
is generally but commonplace, prosaic
fact. AS everybody dies, death conveys
not the slightest distinction. But the man
who dies in great cause, as the Union
soldiers did, is ennobled by the cause, and
his death is linked with history.
In the next century Americans will be
proud and happy to trace their lineage
through some soldier in the civil war.
And he or she who can say. "My great
grandfather fell at Donelson or Shiloh or
Antietam or Gettysburg" will have the
highest patent of nobility that democ.
racy can confer.
Flowers are always considered an appro-
pirate contribution at wedding, a feast or
funeral, at the entrance into the world
and the going out Of it. But they are
never quite so appropriate as when laid on
the graves of men who died that the ma
ton might live.
The civil war made us for the first time
all Americans. 1t destroyed state sover-
eighty and created Union sovereignty in.
stead Appomattox settled sectional diff
ferences for all time. After that we ceased
to hear CT loyalty to Virginia, Mississippi,
South Carolina. That kind of loyalty was
swallowed up in loyalty to the republic
which is alone consistent with permanent
government, with liberal and truly enlight-
ened institutions.
The observance Of Memorial day proves
conclusively that republics are not migrate
full. The saying is ascribed to Themis
tocles, who certainly had reason, FROM his
treatment by Greece, to hold such an opin
ion II may have been true of the old re
publics, but it is not of the great republic
of today \She remembers the brave men
WHO IGll III ucE uclcIlSc duO OuOcTSUhuuS
that to them she owes her present integrity
Although William Collins has been dead
nearly $50 years, some of his odes might
have been written specially for this coun
try and this time, What can be filter fol
Memorial day than these familiar lines?
How sleep the brave who sink to rest.
BY all their cOuntry's wishes blest!
BY fairy hands their kneu Is rung;
By forms unseen their dirge is sung.
There Honor comes, q pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay.
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell weeping hermit there.
A day like Memorial day is always ex
cellent, most wholesome, in its influence
It was eminently proper to make it . lega
holiday. It gives us pause; it impels US tt
think Of others; it counterbalances ourtend
ency to selfshness Reflection on the dis
interested acts of our fellows arouses ou1
sympathy, stimulates our humanity, ele
Yates our ideas, enlarges and purifies ou1
thoughts, exalts our purposes.
JUNIUs HENRI BROWNE.
Girl Wanted,
A good girl, who can cook, wash
and iron for small family. Wages
throa dollars ngrs week.