The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-09-18
T)r, NU0rikk'8 Grafton
ri Winchester

Iup their full allegiance to the memory
of those who sleep the sleep OF the JUST
in Nit Hebron when on each recurring
sixth of June they lay their banks OF
| beautiful flowers on every MOUND III
Stonewall cemetery, as though with the
aroma of flowers they would do homage
to the guardian angels who keep Watch
and ward over their country'S noble
dead in the camping grounds OF the
| Great Beyond. The women of North
! Carolina charge me today. noble women
of the Shenandoah alley, to say that as
| they were in full sympathy with You
when Sheridan's hosts ranged this val
| ley, pillaging and burning, so Will they
never forget your great tenderness and
womanly devotion, which promptet you
as fast as one set of wooden head boards
would rot away. TO replace them "iUh
others carefully marked with the name
and company of each silent sleeper of
North Cardinals dead. The noble women
of my native State wish me to say to
YOU, fair women of the Shenandoah Val
ley, that you have been true to the
high commission of the three Mary's at
the sephulchered garden. when Though
it be said reverently on a lower plane)
fidelity to the dead-you have discharg-
ed one of the noblest duties of life In
giving tender assurance to the jewellers
in all the fair valleys of North Carolina
that the women of Virginia We're keep
| ing their holy vigil over the ashes of
our dead. We know, fair countrywo-
men. that our dead are safe in your
hands, and one of my high duties to-
derest, is formally to transfer to your
guardianship the 497 silent forms of
North Cardinals citizen sOldiery which
sleep in this lot. am charged by the
women of North Carolina to say to you
that they are grateful to you for that
sweet courtesy of yours which accorded
to North Carolina the lot of honor, the
plot of sacred ground which lies to your
right as you enter under the archway of
Stonewal cemetery. 1t is simply a pre-
emnence which your courtesy has ac-
| corded us not because of any difference
| in the value of the sacred dust which
| lies in each of these State lots, but
simply because of the greater number of
| our dead. Surely the silent forces Of
woman's most beautiful courtesy emu
late if they do not surpass even the cum
I
! ton OF the dew-drop, and the beautiful
intarmingling of rich colorings with
| which our old mother Nature illumineS
lyour sunsets and kindlcS her glories at
! the opening Of morning. And now that
we have been able, after a long lapse
of time amid our poverty and the
! blighting Upas tree OF Modernism on our
| State. from which the manhood of
| North Carolina has slowly emerged, to
! place living stones at each and every
1 one of these graves, we here today in
the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Ghost, our Fathers
4 God, commit them to your loving care
i and tender guardianship. Guard them
well. This | know you will do as long
as the healthful correlation between the
two sexes exists between n patriotic
manhood and a faithful womanhood, all
over our sunny Southland.
i And now to you, sir, Graded in Mary
| land, nurtured and developed in Vir-
| GINA, underbuying and underselling
with wonderful success in New York.
i the fair women of my old State bid me
say that with grateful hearts our por-
ton of the South land and we believe
! the whole from the Susquehanna to the
Rio Grande will cherish the memory of
your noble benefactions with which you
have tenderly sought to drive away the
wolf of want from the doorway Of Il
thousand Southern homes. You, sir,
| have given bread to the living, and
have fifty sepulchered our dead. You
have surrounded this Gods acre, in
your munificence with beautiful iron
fence which will defy the tooth of time
You have caused water to spring up in
| this valley with its refreshment for the
sick and the dying. You have fortified
the inhabitants of this old town of Win
chester against the fire fiend by day
and by night, and in your annual gifts
to the Shenandoah Valley Agricultural
/ Fair you have taught the farmers of this
| beautiful section to SOW in hope that
they might reap in joy. Nay more, sir,
you have not forgotten Virginia's great
shrine of learning, for in the dark hour
of her University's loss from fire, with
a sons high pride and joy, you have
poured your treasury in her lap. You
have gone still further in your far reach
ing tenderness toward the South You
have expressed your willingness, nay,
your fond desire, to meet the whole
South land more than half way in build
ing upon a magnificent plan and scale
Il SI0dt bdtl4C ~ApDCJy III WHICH LlISHL Ut
preserved the relics, the trophies, the
insignia Of her splendid heroism ON the
battlefield in tattered flags, bullet-pierc-
ed and SHREDDED, but ever glorious;
upon whose walls might hang the
protraiture of distinguished heroism, and
along whose aisles in chiseled stone
might stand sculptured statues of Albert
Sidney Johnson, Ashby, Stonewall Jack
son and our peerless Lee; and in whose
safe repositories might be placed the rec
ords of the land you loved and fought
for, struggling to be free Nor have you
stopped here, but to show how deeply
you love the Southern soil, you have
brought the remains of your noble boy
from the great emporium Of the CONT
nent and given him Christian burial in
the soil of old Virginia. Nay more, with
monumental stone you have marked the
spot gathering around it the ashes of
lI.rO, fp fJlf