The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1896-05-28
" A soldiers life is always gay,
So why be mela .,choly, boys,
So why be melancholy 2"

g A soldiers life is always gay,
So why be mela .,choly, boys,
So why be melancholy?"
AS we used to sing around our
campfires or on the march, when
we hadn't nything better to do or
sing"
Said General Sherman on one
occasion: 81 do not believe a man
ever stood guard ID front of the
enemy at night, or passed through
the crash of battle, without in q
measure its telling upon his physi-
cal system. Nor did any man
ever carry knapsack, haversack,
gun and ammunition on those long
marches, sleeping on the ground
at night, exposed to all kinds of
weather, living upon hardtack and
other army fare, without injury to
him. 1t may not show its effects
in ten years or twenty years, but
the results are sure to come"
For all this glorious life, such as
it was, we paid our soldier boys
the munificent sum Of forty cents
day, in greenbacks, worth fifty
to the dollar, or less, most of the
war. Why, we pay our common
laborers not less than two dollars
day in gold, even in these hard
times, and they don't take the risks
of any such little accidents as shot
and shell, bayonets and sabers,
either. And they do not work in
bad weather, and are sure of full
rations and fair quarters every
night, too.
What is it that we do not owe
"the men of 1861" and their widows
and orphans? Is it any wonder
we now have large pension roll 2
Or is it not more wonderful that
our old soldiers are not now all on
the pension roll! And shouldn t
they all be there soon, tecause of
what they have been and done, and
suffered for the republic 2 Or, are
they all "frauds" and "dead beats"
and mere ''pension grabbers," as
our anti-pension, er-hatlng
civilians now allege2 Or, rather,
have we not now fallen on evil
days unworthy Of the republic,
whose humor will presently pass
away, and the nation turn again
to honor and gratitude?
We reiterate what we said last
year Brave and honest men
fought on either side and contend
ed for principles they deemed
right. Now that these differences
have been adjusted and the de-
cision recorded in blood, a feeling
of charity exists as never before,
and that spirit is increasing year
by year.
Last Septem ber at the dedica-
tion of the Chicamauga and Chat
tanocga National military park
where prominent men on both
sides of the contest were present,
Gen. Palmer said, in part: "Iu
the civil war the American people
learned to properly estimate each
other, which is the only founda
tion for harmonious national unity
By that war the theory of the
right of the states to secede from
the union was forever cradicatet
from our system of national con
, stitutional government. By thai
war African slavery, which was
the root of sectional bitterness
and was one of the causes or pre-
texts for national controversy, wa;
forever overthrown, and the flag O
our country became forever the
emblem of freedom ana the symbo
of national power. AS the resul
of the war the constitution wa:
maintained and not subverted, an(
the union and the American people
T made perpetual. To my comrades
who were Confederate soldier.
, during all the weary struggle o
the civil war, beg to say | wa
o proud of your gallantry aud cour
age. | never allowed myself t.
forget that you were Americans
= freely Offering your lives in de
fense OF what you believed to b
8 your rights, and in vindication o
your manhood. You are now sat
istied that the result Of the civ