The Green Forest tribune., 1894-09-20
The Last Parade.
Globe-Democrat.

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was probably tho last one that viii
ever take place. A poiut has been
reached IN the lives of these sur
vlvors of the greatest modern
armies where they can no longer
endure the fatigue and excitement
OF such displays. Their marching
Gays are over, their time has come
to stand and and wait. The
records show that 1888 of them
died last year, and $50 OF the
number alas! were buried in pau
pers, graves. Thus are they pass
ing away a. Il rate which must
increase with each succeeding
year. Already the death-roll Of
the period since the war exceeds
that OF the war itself, and when
one OF them now departs it means
going to join the majority Of his
comrades. The youngest of them
are over so, and the most of them
over 80. There is snow in the
hair of all of them, and rust in
their joints, and wrinkles in their
faces. They belong to the past,
they represent "A superseded gener.
alton. There could be nothing
more touching than the spectacle
Of their present decline as COM
pared with what we know about
their former potency. They were
Irresistible in their day, equal to
any emergency, ready for any test
OF courage or endurance, and now
they are at the mercy OF the en-.
croachments OF age, and their sons
and grandsons have grown to be
the embodiment of the country's
vital energy and the controlling
force in the activities of civiliza.
ton.
1t seems to these men only yes
tcrday that they were young like
those who have pushed them to
the rear and taken charge of the
affairs of the nation that they have
helped to save. They are fond of
cheating themselves with the fancy
that time has stood still for them
since the terrible experiences of
the war, and they have not ceased
to be boys as they were when they
TO lowed the flag and heard
the thunder OF the captains
and the shouting. 1t does not APP
pear to 10 them that anything impor-
tant has happened in the interven-
ing years. They carry in their
hearts such memories as travalize
the things that are taken seriously
by the present generation. 1t is
not possible for them to share the
surprising interest that those
around teel in such matters as the
tariff, the currency, the rise and
fall OF stocks, and the prices OF !
food and clothes. They were at
Shiloh and Chickamauga, at An.
tietam and Gettysburg, where the
interests at stake were so much
more momcntous, and the sense of
duty so much more significant. 1t
is we'll, they admit,to live in Il
time OF peace, when the martial
impulse is unexercised, and the
multiplication table is predominant;
but it is better, they insist, to have
lived in a time Of enterprise tor
idle bravery and of patriotic de-
votion and sacrifice. And so they
dwell upon what has been, and
fight the old battles over again,
and can not quite reconcile them
selves to the prevailing conditions.
The peculiar feeling of the
veterns can hardly be appreciated
by those who have no personal
recollection of the war, and such
persons, it is to be ro:G embered,
constitute u large proportion (f
the present poplation of the coun-
try. Of the seven million OF peo-
pie in this great land today
probably not over ten million were
living when that awful struggle
was in progress. TO only COM
paratively few, therefore, does the
Of old soldiers appeal
with due torco and trre meaning.
All the rest regard it with sort
ofsurprise, or with smiling indul.
gence, and miss tho solemn beauty.
tenderness and pathos ofit. Tie
war is to them simply q part OF
the general story Of the universe,
known to them aIy by hearsay
and reading. They never heard
the roar OF battle that shook the
and did not witness the