Connecticut western news., 1896-06-04

and that will give enthusiasm to our young men in case our nation should in the future need to defend itself in battle. We shall never have another war be- tween north and south. The old decayed bone of contention, American slavery, has been cast out, although here and there a depraved politician takes it up to see if he can't gnaw something off it
 We are floating off farther and farther from the possibility of sectional strife.
 Everything For Defense.
 No possibility of civil war. But about foreign invasion I am not so certain. When spoke against war, said noth- ing against self defense. An inventor told me that he had invented style of weapon which could be used in self de- fense, but not in aggressive warfare. said, "When you get the nations to adopt that weapon, you have introduced the millennium. 7" I have no right to go on my neighbours premises and assault him, but if some ruffian break into my house for the assassination of my fam fly, and can borrow a gun and load 1t in time and aim it straight enough, I will shoot him.
 There is no room on this continent for any other nation except Canada, and better neighbor no one ever had. If you don't think so, go to Montreal and To- ronto and see how well they will treat you Other than that there is absolutely no room for any other nation. I have been across the continent again and again and know that we have not half inch of ground for the gouty foot of foreign despotism to stand on. But I am not so sure that some of the arrogant nations of Europe may not some day challenge us. I do not know that those forts around New York bay are to sleep all through the next century. I do not know that Barnegat lighthouse will not yet look off upon . hostile navy. do not know but that a half dozen nations, envious of our prosperity, may want to give us wrestle. During our civil war there were two or three nations that could hardly keep their hands off us It | is very easy to pick national quarrels,
 and if our nation escapes much longer it will be the exception.
 If foreign foe should come, we want
 men like those of 1912 and like those of 1862 to meet them. We want them all | up and down the coast, Pulaski and | Fort Sumter in the same chorus of
 thunder as Fort Lafayette and Fort Hamilton-men who will not only know how to fight, but how to die. When such time comes, if it ever does come, | the generation on the stage of action | will say: My country will care for my | family as they did in the soldiers asy- | lum for the orphans in the civil war, and my country will honor my dust as | it honored those who preceded me in | patriotic sacrifice, and once a year at any
 rate, on Decoration day, shall be res | urrected into the remembrance of those
 for whom died. Here go for God and
 my countryl HuzzaP'
 | If foreign foe should come, the old
 sectional animosities would have no | power. Here go our regiments into the | attlefeld-Fifteenth New York volun- | teers, Tenth Alabama cavalry, Four
 teenth Pennsylvania rifemen, Tenth | Massachusetts artillery, Seventh South | Carolina sharpshooters do not know | but it may require the attack of some foreign foe to make us forget our absurd | sectional wrangling. I have no faith in the cry, "No north, no south, no | east, no westp' Let all four sections keep their peculiarities and their pref erences, each doing its own work and
 not interfering with each other, each of the four carrying it's part ill the great
 harmony-the bass, the alto, the tenor. 1 the soprano-in the grand march of | Union.
 Promise of the Resurrection.
 | nroa ,no,a tlio yroof national coro- | mony means the identification of the | tombs, whether of those who fell in battle or accident or who have expired | in their beds, or in our arms, or on our l laps suppose you have noticed that | many of the families take this season as I the time for the adornment of their | family plots This national observance | has secured the arboriculture and f1ori- culture of the cemeteries, the straight ening up of many slab planted 80 or | 40 years ago, and has swung the scythe
 through the long grass and has brought l the stonecutter to call out the half ob-
 liberated epitaph. This day is the bene- diction of the resting place of father,
 mother, son, daughter, brother, sister. | It is all that we can do for them now.
 Make their resting places attractive, not
 absurd with costly outlay, but in quiet | remembrance. You know how If you
 can afford only one flower, that will do.
 It shows what you would do if you | could. One blossom from you may mean
 more than the Duke of Wellingtons s
 catafalque. Oh, we cannot afford to for | get them They were so lovely to us. | We miss them so much. We will never | get over it. Blessed Lord Jesus, comfort
 our broken hearts. From every bank of flowers breathes promise of resurrection. | In olden times the Hebrews, returning from their burial place, used to pluck
 the grass from the field three or foul l times, then throw it over their heads, I suggestive of the resurrection We pick not the grass, but the flowers, and in- stead of throwing them over our heads | we place them before our eyes, right
 down over the silent heart that once
 beat with warmest love toward us, o1
 over the still feet that ran to service, o1
 over the lips from which we took the
 kiss at the anguish of the last parting. But stopl We are not infidels. Oul
 bodies will soon join the bodies of oul
 departed in the tomb and our spirits
 shall join their spirits in the land of the
 rising sun. We cannot long be separated.
 Instead of crying with Jacob for Joseph,
 Twill go down into the grave unto my
 son, mourning" let us cry with David,
 'I shall go to him."
 On one of the gates of Greenwood is
 the quaint inscription, "A nights lodg-
 ing on the way to the city of the New
 Jerusalem. Comfort one another with
 these words. May the hand of him who
 shall wipe away all tears from all eyes
 wipe your cheek with it's softest tender
 ness The Christ of Mary and Martha
 and Lazarus will infold you in his arms. Il LII IL