San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-05-30

the G. A. r.
This was followed by America
from the band, and then Capt.
Winthrop began his addresses.
He said: "The speech might be
dispensed with at these celebra-
tions. You, comrades and friends
are all orators of this day that
thrills all hearts with a silent elo-
quence beyond the power of
speech.
The ceremonies of today had its
birth in this land of flowers, the
sunny south, whose women inau-
gurated the beautiful rite Of
strewing flowers on the graves
of their departed heroes
long before the guns Of Appomat-
tox sounded the death knell of the
lost cause. After the boys came
back from the war the people of
the North adopted this beautiful
custom and afterward, through the
influence and example of the G. A.
r. and the w. r. c., there are now
few accessible graves OF Union SOL
diers which will be unmarked by
tonight. There are, however, the
uncounted and unknown graves of
the precious missing. Our thoughts
to them More holy are they in
their secret, Nature knows her
wilderness She has no forgetful-
ness! She keeps and will adorn
them for all her days are decora-
ton days.
In no other country but ours is
such a scene witnessed. A COM
mon purpose of the people once ar
rayed against each other now do
homage to their dead. These cere-
monies teach us a lesson of mutual
forbearance in the presence of the
dead, when all passion is forgot
ton, and we are too far removed
from the late trouble to harbor the
old thoughts.
The speaker quoted the words of
Gen. Grant, "Let us have peace"
and of Lincoln, "With malice to-
ward none, charity for ALL" and
said these words indicate our
feelings, one toward an
other. The primal cause of the
war went down in the clash of
arms, and the golden text is now
a living truth.
He did not admit the cause of
the Union was wrong, or that
the South was right, but he
paid tribute to the in
tense and exalted courage of the
soldiers of both sides in the war
and said no other country on earth
could show a parallel. Other wars
paled into insigniticance beside
this war. There are many battle
fields which showed a percentage
of loss never equalled in the an
nails of war.
But now nature has leVeled the
earthworks and sown the ruts
of the cannon wheels with the
wild flower. The bloody battle
ground nourishes the waving field
of wheat and corn and busy factor
les in the once dismantled south
ern cities proclaim the birth and
growth of the new South which
rises out of its ashes, Ph9niX-like,
to the summer glow. The patriot
heart rejoices and now the race
is for the material advance
ment and prosperity of
the whole country, irrespective of
north, of south, of east, of west.
Our duty today is the decoration
of the graves of these heroes whose
names will be always revered.
He then recited a few stanZas Of
an original poem for the occasion,
dedicated to "Old Glory" then the
band played "Star Spangled Ban
ner.n
The United veterans of Ameri-
can then began the decoration of
the graves of their late comrades.
Jack Harris, Joe Foster, Major
Mechlin and Biesenbach, Comrades
Lockwood, Claudon, ]. Cullmore,
Wallis and Tommy being the COM
mittee.
The German veterans h cid their
service on the graves Of Comrades
Biels and Lieack in the Her.
mann Sons cemetery and the
G. A. r. posts held their services
over the graves of unknown Union
soldiers in the southwest corner of
the National cemetery, Command
er Olsen, of Crook Post, conducting
the ceremony.
The Women's Relief CORPS, in
charge of the following little girls,
each representing a state of the
Union, decorated all the graves in
the National cemetery, to-wit:
Bessie Oswald, Lena Retting,
Amanda Retting, Battle Swartz,