Milford chronicle., 1896-10-02

qucnce and of George Peabody, who neyel
owned a carriage and denied himself al
Injuries that he might while living anC
after death, through last will and tesla
ment, devote his uncounted millions to the
education of the POOR people in England
and America, and Of Bishop James, whS
in boyhood worked his passage from Ire
land TO America and became the joy Of
Methodism ard blessing to the race. &c
to the biographical alcoNc in city, state OF
national library ard find at least every
other book an illustration of overcome OBJ
staclo and of carmine gate that had to be
forced open.
What Is true of individuals is true of ma,
tions. Was it mild spring morning wher
tho pilgrim fathers landed on Plymouth
rock, and did they come In a gilded yacht
gay streamers fyingf No, 1t was in cold
December and from a ship in which onG
would not want to cross the Hudson OF the
Potomac river. Scalping knives all ready
to receive them, they landed, their only
welcome the Indian Warwhoop, Red men
on the beech Red men in the forest Red
men on the mountains Red men in the
valleys Living gates Of red men. Gates
of carbunclel
A story Never Told,
Aboriginal hostility pushed back, surely
now our forefntheFs will have nothing e
do but to take easy possession Of the fair
est continent under the sun. Tho skies 50
genial, the soil so fertile, the rivers so pop
ulous with flnny life, the acreage so inn
mense, there will be nothing to do but eat.
drink and be merry. No. The most pow
erful nation, by army and navy, sounded
its protest acrtsss 5000 miles Of water.
Then came Lexington and Bunker Hill
and Monmouth and Long Island battles
and Valley Forge and Yorktown and star
walton and widowhoOd and Orphanage, and
the 10 colonies went through sutferings
which the historian has attempted to put
upon paper and the artist to put upon
canvas but all IN vain. Engrayer's knife
and reporters skill and telegraphic wire
and daily press, which have made us ae-
quainted with the horrors Of modern bat
tlefield, had not yet begun theirSigilance,
and the story of the American Revolution
has never beep told and never will be told.
1t did not take much ink to sign the Dec
larntion of Independence, but it took a
terrific amount of blood to maintain it. 1t
was an awful gate of opposition that the
men and women-and tho women as much
Of self sacrifice 1t was gate Of blood
1t was gate Of carbuncle,
We are not indebted to history for our
knowledge of the greatest of national cri-
ses. Many of us remember it, and fathers
and mothers now living had better keep
telling that story to their children so that
instead of their being dependent upon cold
type and Obliged to say, ON such page
of such book you can read that, viii
they rather be able to say, My father told
nc so, " My mother told mo so. Men
ard women who wildly remember 1851
and 1869 and 1868 and 1884 be yourselves
the historians, telling it, not with pen, but
with living tongue and voice and gesture.
That is the great use of Memorial DecOra-
ton day, for the Gala lilies on the grave
tops soon become GREATNESS Of perfume
and In week turn to dust like unto that
which lies beneath them. But the story
of courage and self sacrifice and patriotism
told on platforms ard in households and
by the roadside and in churches and in
cemeteries, by that annual recital will be
kept fresh in the memory of generations as
long us our American institutions are wor-
thy of preservation. Long after you arc
dead your children will be able to say, with
tho psalmist, Two have heard with our
ears, o God our fathers haNe told Us that
work thou didst in their days, in the times
of old" But what time it was
The Millions of Bereft,
Four years of inconsistencies -Four years
Of brotAcrly and sisterly estrangementl
Four years of maItyTdCm! -Four years of
Put them in long line, tho
of cities, and see them light
up a whole continent Put them in long
rows, the hospitals, making a vast metrOp-
oils CT pain hnd paroxysml Gather them
in one vast assemblage, the millions of be-
reft from the St Lawrence to the gulf and
from the Atlantic to the Pacific beaches
Put the tears into lakes, and the blood into
rivers, ard the shrieks into whirlwinds!
During those four years many good and
wise men at the north and the south saw
nothing ahead but humiliation. With
such Il national debt We could never meet
our obligations! With such mortal antip-
athies northern and southern Mon could
never como into amityl- Representatives
of Louisiana and Georgia and the CARROLL
ms could never again sit side by side with
the representatives Of Maine, Massachu-
sets and New York at the national CAPT.
tol. Lord John Russell had declared that
We were "a lublle bursting nationality,
and it had cone true The nations of Eu-
rope had gathered with very resigned spirit
at the funeral of our American republic.
They had tollcd the bells on parlialnents
and reichstags and lowered their flags at
half mast, and even tho lion on the other
side of the sea had whincd for the dead
eagle on this side. The deep grave had
been dug, ard beside Babylon and Thebes
and Tyre and other dead nations of the
past our dead republic was TO be buried
The EPitaPh,
The epitaph was all ready: Here lies
tho American republic BoTn ut Phila.
dolphin, 4th of July, 1875. Killed at Bull
Run July 81, 1861 Aged SO years and II
days. Peace to it's ashes. But before the
obseQuies had quito ClosCd there was an in
tciruption Of tie cuCmcnies, and our dead
mutton rose from its mortuary surround
inEs. Gcd had made Tor it special resur-
lection day and cried: Come forth, thou
republic Of Washington and John Adams
and Thomns jefferson ard Patrick Henry
and john Hancock ard Daniel Webster
and 5. 5. Prentiss ard Henry Clay Come
torthw And she came forth, TO DO stron-
ger than she had ever Leen. Her mightiest
pres CflllCS nave come SlI4CC tAub tiAhSs :
Who would want 10 push back this country
to " hat it was in 1860 or 1882 But, oh,
what n Iigh gate, what strong gate, she
had to push back before she could make
ono step IN advanced Gate of flannel See
Norfolk navy yard and Columbia and
ChambeIsbUrg and Charleston on hrel
Gate OF bayonetsl See glittering rifles and
carbines flash from the Susquehanna and
the James to the Mississippi and the Ar
kansasi Gate of heavy artillery, making
the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky
aud Virginia tremble as though the earth
itself were struggling in its last agony.
The gate was so fiery and so red that can
think Of nothing moro appropriate than to
take the suggestion of Isaiah In the text
and call it gate of carbuncles.
The Pulpit and Politics.
This country has been for the most part
of its history passing through crises, and
after each crisis was better off than before
it entered it, and now We arc at another
crisis. We arc told on one hand that If
oeId is kent ms a standard and silver is not