The San Francisco call., 1896-07-05

to-day who would rather their loved ones
fill nameless graves If such sacrifice could
protect our country's honor. The honor OF
our country's glory is not to man alone. To
the women of the Revolution is tribute due,
who buckled the sword upon their heroes and
bade them fight for home and country; who
watched and suffered, and toiled, and prayed
for our deliyerance. Glory to the women of
our Revolution.
am pleased here to quote few lines from
q speech of one OF the most patriotic and elo-
quent men of America living to-day. refer
to Colonel Robert G. Ingersoll. While we may
not agree with Colonel Ingerson upon matters
of religion, still ! know we all agree with him
when he says:
"All who stand beneath our banner are free.
Ours is the only flag which has in reality
written upon it Liberty, fraternity, equal
ity'-the three grandest words in all the
languages of man.
'Liberty-Give TO every man the fruit of his
own labor, the fruits of his hands and of his
brain.
Fraternity-Every man IN the right is my
brother.
"Equality-The rights of all are equal: JUS
tice, poised and balanced in eternal claim,
shall shake from the golden scales in which
are weighed the acts OF men the very dust of
prejudice and caste: no race, no color, no pre-
In these few words Colonel Ingersoll has
touched the very heartstrings of the princi-
Piles which underlie our political government;
they are the conditions which cause every
Americans heart to throb in response to the
trust OF citizenship.
Our Star-SpangIed Banner, our beautiful
emblem of liberty, we consecrste ourselves to
thee this day. Our pride at home, our protee-
tion abroad; undaunted at perils by land or
- f,,1 to all
quering force; the hope of our living, the
winding-sheet of our dead Thou goddess of
freedom, thou empress of 70,000,000 souls
who would pour out their life's-blood to-day
upon thy pyre, If to quench the flame that
would tarnish thy luster or defame thy fair
name Thy subjects are we all.
thou flag of oursi Thou who hast been
through victory and defeat; thou who hast
witnessed untold sufferings at the hearthstone
and on the battle-ground; thou who has stood
sponsor to answering devotion; thou upon
whom fell the last dying gaze of our Boys in
Blue; thou for whom the pulses of millions
quicken to-day and whose praises sound from
millions of throatsl o thou flag of oursl
Hadst thou a tongue to-day what couldst thou
speak? Haust thou tears to-day wouldst thou
not weep in JOY?
This is an hour with God and with our coun-
try. This is an hour when, temporal matters
ldlQ dSlOet We weave anu weave again
memory's eternal garlands. Tenderly and low
ingly we place them on the Drows of our mar
tyred fathers. In silence and in tears with
greater love for the flag and for the country
they gave us, we kiss their scars, humbly and
reverently, and turn our faces toward another
sun, whose rays shall warm and tighten Ma
ton made greater and nobler for this days
communion with the dead, yet everything,
aye, immortal, past.
Then the curtain dropped, closing those
on the stage from the view of the audience.
1t was known that the next item on the
programme was to be patriotic tableau,
and the audience waited with keen expect
ancy. The curtain rose amid such silence
that one could almost hear pin drop.
There in the center of the stage stood
the father of his country robed in martial
array, while around him stood his staff
attired in the same garb.
Over to the left of the stage stood the
radiant Goddess of Liberty with her right
hand steadying the pole from which
floated the emblem of the Union.
On the left was stacked an array OF
muskets, symbolic of the stormy Reyolu-
tionary period.
AS the red light glared up brightly and
threw the scene into prominence, then
soitened to a mellower tint and cast
shadows Pickering hither and thither, the
audience could no longer restrain its en-
thusiasm, but rent the air with thunderous
bursts of applause.
Just at this period the American flag, so
large that it could have been used as a
stage curtain, was slowly let down behind
the group, and at sight of its broad red
and white bands and forty-tive golden
stars in blue field, that vast assemblage
simply shouted itself hoarse.
When the enthusiasm OF the house was
somewhat subdued by the falling of the
curtain, ali united in singing America -
and the assemblage was dismissed by
Rabbi Voorsanger pronouncing the bene-
diction.