The herald., 1895-05-31

Address-Byron l.. Oliver Sons of VeteranA
Quartette, Under the Daisies.
Oration-Orator of the bay J. S. Pittman.
Song. The star spangled Banner-Mrs. Mo
Song, America-The audience. all standing.
Benediction-C Comrade will A. Knighten.
! President of the Day Henry Glaze read
letter from Abraham Lincoln to Mrs.
Bixby OF Boston. dated November II.
1864, condoling with her for the loss Of
five sons who had glorously died on the
field of battle. e IL concludes with the
| words: IL pray that our Heavenly Fat1-
er may assuage the anguish OF your be.
reavement and leave you only the cher
shed memory Of the loved and lost. and
the solemn pride that must be yours to
have laid so costly sacrifice upon the
altar of freedom
The speaker said that Decoration day,
as the memorial of the life defenders uf
the nation, was becoming more and more
"A solemn and impressive occasion. Two
million one hundred and eighty thousand
OF freemen enrolled themselves when the
life of the nation was threatened, willing
ly leaving business. family and personal
advantage behind. He described the part
ing of these brave men from all they held
dear. the hardships of the field, the
perils they encountered. Pierced with
balls and torn with shells in the whirl-
wind of the charge. and woyst of all in
the prison helly of hatred and famine!''
trInts fell. % million of hearts were broken
and an inlinity OF hopes were shattered,
but freedom was saved. The heroes
should be remem bered. For few years
only can the survivors join in these yearly
floral offerings of love. Fewer and more
feeble vii! they be until the last of the
Grand Army shall have disappeared.
Miss Leonora Aliens recitation, The
Rappahannock, was done in spirited
and artistic manner, Miss O'Donoghues
accompaniment on the organ aiding in
making the defamation highly realistic.
Among the songs of the quaItette Under
the Daisies met with great favor and
was much appreciated. The singing OF
this was excellent. 1t is needless to say
that Comrade Mamie Modini-Wood was
rapturously encored after she had grandly
rendered The Star Spangled Banner.
Byron l.. divers address was an elo-
quent review of what the United States
owes the heroes Of the war.
There are those. he said, who think
that battles are fought by men alone, but
if there be such one here today, let me
say to him that there was not mother
who blessed her darling boy and bads
him answer his country S call there was
not a loving wife. who sent her hero to
defend the insulted flag, but felt
more agonizing pain in every battle than
the man who actually participated in the
fight, and we have gathered here today
with these loyal women to perpetutae
the memory OF our dead. Why should
We not honor them? They saved the past
and secured the present; they reaffirmed
the Judgment Of Yorktown and dspelled
The last fleeting hope, OF foreign kings.
who stood by in fiendish glee waiting un-
til the last experiment in self government
should prove a failure; they destroyed the
principles of state sovereignty, and estab-
lished conclusively as the American doc
trino that other principle. SO broad and
unselfsh, SD dear to every American
heart, the supremacy of the federal union
the union first. the state afterward.
Should we stop to consider cost when
we remember that all we have been for
the past thirty years. all that we are, all
that we can ever hope to be, was pur-
chased by the life of the flower of our
land? When we remember that that
grand army of beardless boys, the aver
age of whose age was but % years, shed
their blood on freedom altar, gave their
all for freedoms cause, nor stopped to
ask for compensation or reward, nor
stopped to con slider youth bright pros
poets, nor fame's alluring dream, but died
because they loved the union because
they loved humanity-when we think of
prison pen and southern swamp. when
we think of privation and starvtion, when
we think of the debt of gratitude we owe
our nations defenders should we sacrifice
patriotism and consider cost?
Then with a nations gratitude she lays
soldier and general. admiral and sailor
side by side; she sets aside a day alike to
their memory; she covers their graves
alike with flowers and over her sod she
erects her monuments and inscribes them
not to her admirals and generals, but to
her soldiers and sailors, and when the
recording angel of history takes up his
pen to record the deeds of human ity;
when he reviews the volume of the great
past and considers its deeds, its disap.
pontments, its successes, It's achieve-
ments. its failures, it's sunlights, it's sor-
rows, its ruins. its monuments; when we
review the history of the American people
and consider their virtue. their bravery,
their love for their country and their es-
TEEN for its defenders, may We write high
above that history, in letters of eternal
light. for the inspiration and example of
the ages 10 come, the loyalty of the
American people to their flag; their de-
votion to their institutions and their es-
TEEN for their defenders.
The Grafton was delivered by Rev. J.
S. Pitman. as follows: