The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1895-05-31
PROVO CITY. MAY 81. IS
DECORATION DAY.

Yesterday this solemn festival was
held in Provo. Loving and pious
hands piled the beautiful flowers high
above the graves of the lost loved ones
in the beautiful cemetery. They
marched to the strains of low, sweet
music, from the live, busting city OF
business to the silent city of the dead.
There was softer and gentler light
in each eye than is usually found there.
The bitterness existing usually be-
tween men we're for the nOnce forgot
ten OF laid aside and each We'd with
the other in performing the beautiful
offices for the dead. 1t is no bad thing
that once a year these feelings are laid
by and the hearts of men are open to
an earnest and honest sympatby for
Others sorroWs. While lovingly dec
Grating the gIaves of the dead soldiers
who reDose there, the graves of others
were not neglected, but loving hands
scattered springs regal offerings upon
the graves of men whose triumphs
were not won on the field of battle, but
who had carved out place in the
memories of the people by their CIVIC
virtues-real heroes of progress were
they who came into the unknown
mountains OF Utah fifty or sixty years
since, and here planted roof-trees,
which are green and fourishing today
Their loving descendants today do well
to gather at their place of eternal re-
pose and recall their heroism and their
virtues and resolve meyer to forget
them, and promise to initiate them as
nearly as may be.
1t is we'll for the children of the dead
heroes of the late war to meet one day
in each year to recall the glories of the
men who went to the south and there
battled for four years tor the union
which constitutes today the hope and
the safeguard of liberty in America.
The graves of the soldiers are few, 1t is
true; but few or many, the Immortal
services they rendered humanity ought
never to grow dim in the mem
ories of their survivors. 1t is
festival in which the gray-besrd-
ed old frontiersman, the delicate
lady, the lovely children and the brave
busy worker of to day, may all join
with equal enthusiasm. We are too
apt, in this busy life we are living, to
forget the services and the sacrifices OF
others, especially the dead. This fes-
tival Observation-Disclosures most
admirably designed to recall these obi
cations and to keep alive interest In the
loved and the lost, In few years more
the Provo cemetery will be mass OF
lovely shade and beautiful flowers
more fitting resting place for the tired
workers who have laid down to sleep.
Thus the duty of religiously caring for
the city of the dead becomes palmer,
and may we not see during the sum mer
now opening up, vast improvements
made. Let all those who have dead
friends resting in the cemetery, do
something to make the place more
beautiful-more attractive to strangers
and the children who are growing up
here-teach them to copy the virtues of
the dead whose place of silent sepulture
is thus honored. 1t seems to us that
there is no one thing that we do which
is more worthy to be done than this
yearly testimony to the memory of the
dead.
The presence in the procession yester-
day of the societies, social, benevolent
etc, together with the fremen, the mill
tery, and others, was beautiful feature
and added much 10 the impIessiveness |
of the scene. Indeed was the exhibit
ton credit to Provo. 1t spoke vol
umes in praise of the inhabitants, of all
classes and all ranks. So long as thie |
admirable spirit obtains we may haye
full confidence in the magnificent fu-
ture of the city and of the territory.