The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-06-06

| There are still the memorial services,
the professions of diminishing ranks of
veterans, the floral decorations, the
words of orators, now recruited
largely from the ranks of civilians
many of whom were boys in knicker-
bockers or were unborn when the be-
roes whose deeds they celebrate were
fighting for the preservation of the
Union. Flags are displayed, the bands
play funereal music, and crowds of peo-
pie, young and old, look on with an in
terest and with feelings which repetition
has dulled, or the sight to the younger
generation has only the attraction of
novelty. Those who have living
memory of the mighty events crowded
thick between the firing on Sumter and
the surrender at Appomattox never
lose the significance of the ceremonies
of the day. These awaken memories
no language can portray TO the genera
tions that have arisen since the preg-
nant times of the early sixties. So it
may not be expected that the people of
these generations should be in full sym
patty with the memorial aspects of the
occasion. 1t is natural that their OBJ
servances of the day should take on
more of holiday character. But it is
natural, and fitting also, that these OBJ
servances should have some reference
to the sacred object and memorial pur-
pose of the day; that at least their con-
duct should be marked by decent re-
spect for the memory of the sleeping
warriors. Thus they would naturally
pay them the homage of the more quiet
and rational kind of holiday relaxations.
One who had lost father, or son, or
brother, in battle, or in that bourne
from which few Union soldiers re-
turned, rebel prison, would hardly
choose the sad anniversary of death, or,
if his children or children's children
were so forgetful or unmindful of the
prophecies of the time, allow them to
select that day, of all the year, for
dancing, card-playing, or any form of
hilarious festivity. Memorial Day is
the national anniversary of the death of
all the Unions defenders, from the
first to the firing of the last shot, To
all the people its significance should be
the same as the day when the individual
soldier fell to the individual mourner,
and this aggregate anniversary should
have the same respectful and consider
ate observance as the individual ami
versary receives at the hands of the be-
reaved individual. While the nation
cannot be expected to sit in sack-cloth
and ashes on that day, it should not
swing TO the other extreme and make
Memorial Day the Acknowledgment
time for horse-racing, baseball playing,
or any other form of festivity the indi-
vidual of even ordinary human sensi-
bility would forego on the anniversary
of personal bereavement. So we
deprecate the growing tendency, be-
coming now more marked with each
passing year, to choose, for sports and
pastimes better suited to a day of
jubiation or to an all-round public
holiday, the day the nation has ap-
pointed for the commemoration of the
great host that died in the fierce strug-
gle to maintain the Union. The heads
of schools, from the humblest to the
presidents of colleges and universities,
have patriotic duty to perform in this
connection. 1t cannot be neglected or
shirked. The stars and stripes float
from the school-houses of the land.
This public display of the national
colors is made as an Indictment to
patriotism. Let its teachings be re-
inforced by wholesome instructions as
to the import of Memorial Day. Let it
be made clear what sacrifices were
endured to defend and uphold that en-
BEN of Il" liberty and union" Let the
day have its special school exercises
that shall tend to make living realities
the inscriptions on the battlefront flags
borne back from the fields of strife;
that shall render the names of Lincoln,
of Grant and Farragut, of Donelson,
Shiloh, Vicksburg, Gettysburg, Rich
mond and Appomattox, of the Moni-
tor, the Alabama and the Hartford,
and all the other immortals, animate
and inanimate, of the great W r, famil-
lar to the ear of every boy and girl, and
something more tangible and real than
a dim echo from an historic chaos.
So shall the flag that floats from the
school-house staff touch the heart of
the pupil with new emotion and a
larger sense of all it stands for. So
shall he 'smile to see its splendors fly"
and he will disdain, on the nations
great memorial day, to do any act that
may be construed as dishonoring the
memory of the brave men who, through