Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1897-05-27

| IAcIS HdS puDiAC UluueI IOF the
soldiers. There were speeches by poll
ticlans who lent their voices and be-
lleyed 1t excused them from lending
their arms. There was music, and the
adulation OF the throng. Then the dis
solving OF a host and the threading
of river paths by two and two
who discarded Hardee in the gentle
tactics Of Dan Cupid's war.
And Monday they marched gayly.
"Thi, is memorial day said young
Harold Wade. "All the schools are go
Ing to the cemetery. | am TO help
The torn letter 2
scatter fcwtTs. Are you and grandma
going2"
mo, | don't approve of this new
holiday answered old Judge Wade.
There were enough without it. Ard
we have no soldier buried there"
- wish nv fathers grave were
there exclaimed the boy But | will
lay some roses on a grave that don't
kEow-cne of the unmarked graves
And It will be for him. | wish my
mother had liyeL And | wish she
were here"
Sometimes | think we ought to tell
him sliI Mrs Wade, when her grand
son had hurried, heavv-hearted, away
Not till he is a grown man." said
the resolute judge. "He would blame
rs too bitterly now said before Wal
lace enlisted that If she got my son
to go to the army she would regret It,
| think she has. This memorial day
nonsense will be forgotten long before
Harold grows up"
1t was new ceremony, but the spirit
of 1t appealed to the people, and they
paid all honor to the armies that lie
front face to the stars" Harold Wad
! felt the significance as he laid roses
on the graves of men who had made
| cal this final sacrifice. And when other
ceremonials were occupying the rest
/ he slipped from his schoolmates and
laid a rose on the grave of a soldier,
( who had fought for freedom and had
neglected to accumulate even 50 much
| as would have purchased a monument.
/ AS the boy turned back to the crowd
woman approached him swiftly-a
woman of fair and happy, yet Vistful,
| face. Her gentle hands had carressing
| breath was like a memory from infancy
She gave him paper,
Read 1t when you get home she
said. when you have found the other
half you will know" Then she stopped
and kissed him and walked swiftly
! away, while he stood wondering.
THE other half | will know-what?
Who was she?"
/ He looked at the paper. 1t was a
| torn bit of letter, much wrinkled. 1t
| vas dark stained on the uneven edge.
! And there was a miniature flag, lik
! monogram, on the upper corner And
| this is what he found:
II have read His fiery gospel------
Writ in lines of ur--
"As you deal with my------
- So with you-------- ------------------
Let the hero===-------
| Crush ------
| In The vacation that followed present
| ~ Harold had a great deal Of time
! on his hands One day it rained and
| he crept up TO the attic with a book
of adventure And when he was tired
( OF following his hero through peris he
wandered into a shadowy nook under
! the roof where the rain was beating,
and dragged out crumpled old KNAPP
sack which he had never seen. He
! loosed It's fastenings, and pulled open
/ . ba tIthh N
articles OF dress and toilet, already
quaint, though this son Of a soldier was
hut half way through his teens. There
was Testament, and a needle, with
some thread And there was torn
half sheet Of note paper, written on
fairly, and dark stained along its I'M
even edge. 1t bore these words:
nished steel;
contemners
His grace shall deal
born of woman
the serpent with his heel
While God is marching on
cts the other half!' he cried. And
| the son Of soldier leaped to his feet.
Now I shall know"
lie Went straight 10 MS slduhldIhti'
and showed him the two matched fras-
ments
you have been very good to me-
Ae said but that woman was my
mother. Ny mother is living, and not
dead. She was with my father when
he died You got that knapsack some
how, but she had saved half OF the
letter which had been cut in two by
the bullet that gave him his death
wound. And she has never asked you
for anything, though she might have
asked you for much. Now I ask TO
her Where is she?'
And the grandfather told. He was
less bitter to the woman who had sent
/ his son to the war, since she had
soothed that son while he suffered. )
I that the judges home received a sweet
( faced woman who reaped in years of
owing companionship the reward OF
saIf-denial that had lasted from the