The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1893-06-08
JEFFERSON DAVIS.
To Take His Place in the Ranks.
[Greenville Is. Co. News, May 18th.


majestic width and the summer winds
dance across the blue and sunlit waters
to linger languidly in the fragrance of
Louisiana's thousand flowers, an old
man lies asleep.
In Virginia, nine hundred miles
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 James river. 1t is very
still and solemn there and the roses
drop their petals silently on the graves
beneath aud yield their breath to go
forth gently through ravines and val
leys where the hopes and loves of gen
erations lie buried and the memories
Of thousands 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 waters surge
beneath the dropping branches of
willows and are rufed into waves by
the lodges Of rock beneath. The voice
of the river rushing amid the willows
comes softly among the hills and ra-
vines of Hollywood like the sound of
ceaseless signing from many thousands
of breasts and mingles with the whls-
perings 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,
shadowed by the whispering, swaying
trees, with the roses above them and
in the sound of the signing from the
willow 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 thousand
miles through the Southern land to
the sound of tolling 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 thrilled at his
name and who crowded the path to
death at his bidding.
Thirty-two years ago he went to
Richmond as the head of a new nation,
the chief Of nation who had taken
arms in vindication of the principles
and for the defense 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
hosts honored with wild enthusiasm.
In the splendid dreams of that time
dreams OF a new empire broad, beau
tiful, mighty and peaceful, and a flag
bearing the Southern cross fluttering
on far seas and waving higher than
the flags of all the empires-his per-
sonality was foremost.
Keeling and choking in the 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 for
ever. He lived to show that the con-
hdence and love his people gave him
were we'll placed, to illustrate the
heroism of adversely, to show the world
how a manly man and patriot could
bear disaster and deprive defeat Of
sting and shame. He died an old
man and very tired. He is going
back to Richmond to rest among his
veterans who have slept there silently
more than a score of years. He will
take his place among those whom he
reviewed as they passed him in shout
ing ranks or swept by with clang of
sabre and blare Of bugle-the fair faced
boys, the bronzed and bearded or
grizzled soldiers who wore the gray
and fought and cheered by the inspir-
alton OF his name and fell and died
following the flag whereon the South
ern cross was blazoned.
They will rest very peacefully, amid
the rolling green hills kissed by the
river breeze, beneath the wide reach
ing, whispering branches of the old
trees. The far off rushing Of the river
will sigh an everlasting requiem
through the days of the changing sea-
sons and the darkness of the nights or
when the moonlight sits through the
leaves upon the mounds beneath which
they sleep. The dreams they dreamed
have vanished the flag they fought
for waves nowhere in this world, flies
above no seas. They are memories.
with no evidences of them remaining
save the ranks of graves and the lin
gering sorrows in ageing hearts. Yet
their dream was a glorious one and
the memories of them will be cher
ished through all this Southern coun-
try while the hills in Hollywood en-
dure and the yellow waters Of the
James rush by their sleeping place.
Let the bells toll and the minute
guns boom their mourntul signals and
the music of the dirges 60 with the
passing OF the splendid old chief to
Join the dead army of his soldiers
silently awaiting his coming in Holly
wood.
1t is our right and duty to mourn
and honor our dead men and our dead
cause.
Rev. SylvanuS Lane,
OF the Cincinnati NJ. E. Conference,
says: We have for years used Hoods
in our family Of FIVE, and find