The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1896-06-10

uations to adopt that weapon, you have
introduced the millennium, l have
no right to 60 on my neighbor's prem
ises and assault him, but if some ruff
fan break into my house for the as
sassination of my family, and | can
boarrow gun and load it in time and
aim It straight enough | 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, 60 to Montreal
and Toronto 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 con-
linent again and again, and know
that we have not half inch of ground
for the gouty foot of forign despotism
to stand on. But I am not to sure that
some of the arrogant nations of Eu-
rope may not some day challenge US.
do not know that those forts around
New Yorok bay are to sleep all
through the next century. do not
know that Barnegat lighthouse will
not yet look off upon hostile navy.
l do not know but that half dozen
nation, envious of our prosperity, may
want to give US wrestle During
onr civil war there were two or three
nations that could hardly keep their
hands off US. 1t is very easy to pick
national quarrels, and if our nation
escapes much longer it will be the ex
ceptlon.
If foreign foe should come, we want
men like those of 1872 and like those
| of 1862 to meet them We want them
ali up and down the coast, Pulaski and
and Fort Sumter in the same chours
of thunder as Fort Lafayette and Fort
Hamilton, Men who will not only
know how to fight, but how to die.
When such a 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 asylum 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 year at any rate, on Decora-
ton day, l shall be resurrected into
the remembrance Of those for whom l
died. Here l 60 for God and my
country! Huzza!"
| If foreign foe should come, the old
sectional animosities would have no
power. Here 60 our regiments into
tile battlefield: Fifteenth New
York volunteers, Tenth Alabama
cavalry, Fourteenth Pennsy ylvania
rifemen, Tenth Massachusetts,
artillery, Seventh South Carolina
shapshooters. I do not know but it
may require the attack of some foreign
foe to make US forget our absurd sec
tional wrangling. l have no faith in
the cry, NO North, no South, no
East, no West" Let all four sections
keep their pecul1arities and their pref
erences, each doing its own work and
not interfering with each other, each
of the four carrying its part in the
great harmony-the bass, the alto, the
tenor. the soprano-in the grand
march ui the Union.
Once more, this great national cere-
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 on our
laps. I suppose you have noticed that
many Of the families take this season
as the time for the adornment of their
family plots. This national observance
has secured the arboriculture and fori-
culture of the ceme teries, 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 the stonecutter to call out the
half obliterated epitaph. This day is
the benediction of the resting place of
father, mother, son, daughter, brolner,
sister.
Itisall that we can do for them now.
Make their resting places attractive,
not absurd with costly outlay, but in
quiet membrance. You know how.
If you can afford only one flower, that
will do. 1t shows what you would do
if you could. One blossom from you
may mean more than the Duke of
Wellington's catafalque. Oh, we can
not afford to forget them. They were
so lovely to use. We miss them so
much. We will never get ever it.
Blessed Lord Jesus, comfort our brok-
en- hearts. From every bank of flow
ers breathes promise of resurrection.
In olden times the Hebrews, return
ing from their burial place, use to
pluck the grass from the field three or
four times, then throw it over their
heads, suggestive of the resurrection.
We pick not the grass, but the flowers,
and instead 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, or over the still feet that ran to
service. or over the lips from which
we took the kiss at the anguish of the
last parting.
But stop. We are not inSdels. Our
bodies will soon join the bodies of our
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, 81 will 60 down
lntO tne grave unto my son, mourn
ing" let US cry with David, Il shall
60 to him
On one of the gates of Greenwood is
the quaint inscription, "a nights
lodging on the way to the city of
New Jerusalem. !" Comfort one
another with these words. May
the hand of him who shall
wipe away all tears from all
all eyes wipe your cheek with its soft
est tenderness. The Christ OF Mark
and Martha and Lazarus will infold
you in his arms. The white robed
angels who sat at the tomb of Jesus
will yet roll the stone from the door
of your dead in radiant resurrection.
The Lord himself shall descend from
4 L IL L IS