The Democrat. (Scotland Neck, Halifax Co., N.C.) 1884-1896, 1895-12-05
BEAUTIFUL SCENERY.
ARLINGTON.
Classic and Poetic Description Of the
National Cemetery and its
Surroundings.
Selected.

esty, gazing on the eternal waters O
the Nile, Arlington rears her romatit
head to the sky and bathes her feet lr
the murm uring waters OF the Potomac
The gnarled oak, the cedar and sigh
ing pine echo back the cav of the crow
and song of the Wild bird, and through
the morning sunlight and evening twi
light, the various voices of Nature
chant requiem over the moulderine
remains of the loyal dead.
This spot is dedicated to herolsm
It's green sward is the mausoleum oi
patriotic hearts, its dome the bending
heavens, and its alter candles the
watching stars of God
AS the years glide away and coming
centuries usher into life millions oi
human beings, Arlington shall be a
Mecca for the unulterable principles oil
| truth, and around its undulating wales
and green hillocks, the spirit of love
and loyalty shall kneel at the vespers
of Nationality, and swing perfumed
censors at the Holly shrine of praye-
and patriotism.
Monuments in marble, granite and
bronze lift their modest of pretentious
head, appealing to the memory of those
who wander near the lonely bed where
valor sleeps, but when these emblems
of love and remembrance shall have
passed away and crumbIed into impalpa-
BILE dust, the truth for which they died
shall shine out like the rising sun, and
be as lasting as enternity.
The former home of romance, wealth
and slavery has become at last the
sepulcher OF the dead, and the laugh
ing musical voices of the proud past
are bat a memory In the columned
mansion of General Lee.
Sheridan of the army, and Porter OF
the navy, sleep their last sleep in front
of Arlington Mansion and the stars
and stripes floating from the tall staff
throws its glinty shadows over the
heroes that rest below.
Long regimental lines of white mar
ble headstones fade away into forest
vistas, and Sheridan seems again to
ride down the valley, through Winches-
ter, to turn retreat into victory.
Tempted, unlike the roman Pan
theon, the divinities of Arlington are
dedicated to patriotism, and its work.
shippers are Christian people. From
it's columned porch the eye beholds to
the East and North across the Potomac
the mansions, temples, steeples, domes
OF Washington and Georgetown, framed
IN by rolling hills of Maryland. To
the South and West, the eye may
linger on the historic Long Bridge and
Alexandria, where the martyr Ellsworth
lost his life for freedom.
In the dim distance a chain Of forts
and earthworks rear their crumbling
heads. Thirty years of rains, SHOWS
and suns have wrinkled their bald
brows, yet Dame Nature with her
universal kindness has covered the rude
scars of war with the daisy, the morn
ing glory and Virginia creeper.
The plowshare of industry has lev
elled down the red ridges of rebellion,
and were once the reveille and long
roll of battle resounded, the horn OF
the husbandman calls his tOilers of
peace from fields of waving grain and
golden fruit to the rustic board Of joy
and love.
The brave hearts that slumber for
ever at Arlington, as we'll as those who
rest at Chickamauga, Fredericksburg
and Gettysburg dedicated their lives
to liberty, and immortalized their de-
votion by death. Who will care Tor
| their loved mounds when we are gone
| Who will strew roses and plant bright
| flowers in the Maytime of Nature
| Other patriotic bands Of brave men and
| fair women will take up the roll of duty,
and even when all but liberty has
perished from the earth, the robin and
the blue bird, the lay and the mOcking
bird. will warble at sunrise a revellle
over the green sod that wraps
their sacred clay. Nature herself will
deck the graves of our fallen comrades
and the winds of heaven will chant a
REQUIEM to their memory, and kiss the
loved spot where heroes slumber.
Thousands of loved soldiers rest in
unknown graves, far away from the
loved ones at home. They sleep in a
land of strangers, where the tears OF
love cannot molsten the green shroud
that mantles their ashes. But, II nc
kind hand is there to strew flowers, OF
loved eve to shed the tear of sorrow
there Is One that relgns among the
eternal stars that daily floods the
unknown grave with sunshine, and
nightly waters the budding wild flow
ars with dew from heaven.