The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-06-08

away, is Hollywood Cemetery. On
the slopes of its many hills the grass
grows green beneath the shade of
old trees, and marble monuments
to mighty dead CLEAN through the
foliage. swaying gently in the breath
of the breeze from the James River.
1t is very still and solumn there,
and the roses drop their petals
silently on the graves beneath aud
yield their breath to go forth gently
through ravines and valleys where
the hopes and loves of generations
lie buried and the memories of thou
sands turn backward from all the
corners of the earth.
The broad, yellow river rolling by
on its course to the sea is broken
there by many islands, and its water
surges beneath the dropping branch
es of willows and are rlffied into
waves by the lodges of rock beneath.
The voice of river rushing among
the willows comes softly among the
hills aud ravines of Hollywood, like
the sound of ceaseles signing from
many thousands of breasts, and
mingles with the whisperings of the
old trees as their foliage sways and
rustles.
In Hollywood the soldiers sleep in
ranks long and straight as those of
the battle line. Beneath the green
turf, Swallowed by the whispering,
swaying trees, with the roses above
them and in the sound OF the sigh
ing from the willows in the river,
they sleep and wait, silent, stark
and motionless, each man in his
place in the last array.
To-day the old man who went to
sleep by the blue waters of the Gulf
will be brought on his last journey
to Hollywood to join the men who
sleep there. He will pass nearly a
thousand miles through the South
ern land to the sound of toiling bells
and solemn boom of minute guns
and the music of dirges telling of
the mourning of millions of men and
| women.
He will be laid in Hollywood for
his long rest-will be put there
among the men whose hearts thrill
led at his name and who crowded
the path to death at bis bidding
Thirty-two years ago he went to
Richmond at the head of new
nation, the chief of a people who
had taken arms in vindication of
the principles and for the defence
of the land they loved. From every
part of this wide Southern country
men gathered there to him, and his
name was highest among all those
whom the swarming host honored
with wild enthusiasm. In the splen-
did dreams of that time-dreams of
"a new empire, broad, beautiful,
mighty and peaceful, and flag
bearing the Southern cross futter-
ing on far seas and waving higher
than the flags of all the empires
his personality was foremost.
Keeling and falling in the choking
battle smoke. sickening and dying in
prisons, passing away in the crowded
hospital wards, his men went from
the ranks they filled so gloriously
and from this world. His armies
melted away, the splendid dreams
faded and his flag went down and was
furled forever He lived to show that
the confidence and love his people
gave him were well placed, to illus
trate the heroism of adversely, tc
show the world how a manly man anc
patriot could endure disaster and de
prive defeat of sting and shame. He
died an old man and very tired. H
is going back to Richmond to RESI-
among his veterans who have slept
there silently more than a score O.
years. He will take his place among
those whom he reviewed as they pass
ed him in shouting ranks or SWEEP
by with clang of sabre and blare O
bugle-the fair faced boys, the bronz
ed and bearded or grizzled soldiers
who wore the grey and fought and
| cheered by the inspiration of his name
and fell and died following the fag
whereon the Southern cross wa
blazoned.
They will rest there very PEACEFUL.
amid the rolling green hills kissed b,
the river breeze beneath the wide
reaching, whispering brances of tn
old trees. The far-off rushing of tn
river will sigh an everlasting requiem
through the days of the changin!
seasons and the darkness of the ght
or when the moonlight Sits throug
! the leaves upon the mounds beneath
; which they sleep. The dreams the
dreamed have vanished; the flag the
fought for waves nowhere in thi
? world, flies above the waters of n
seas. They are memories, with n
; evidences of them remaining save til
, ranks of graves and the lingerin
j sorrows in aging hearts. Yet thei
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