The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1898-05-26
HONORS FOR THE Dead.
HEROES WERE THEY AND DIED
FOR WHAT THEY BELIEVED.
Present-Day Thoughts.
fCopyrighted by Dave & Tabor.)
BY "NEMO."

COmc uOWS WHa1 poA"SuA"A A~o
have we tor decorating the graves OF
the dead? Let not our reason be that
we are followers of custom That par
takes of the indebtedness OF the saw
age who merely initiates when he adds
another stone to the cairn that he
passes. 1t is ours rather to realize that
this season of decoration has mean
ing that its chief actors are people who
use flowers and ceremonies merely as
surface indications of a deep heart feel
ing.
Do these acts OF ours even interest
the dead? Who can tell? But one
would think that it, in conscious lie
beyond the signing of earth, they are
able to estimate deeds at their right
valuation, tho greatest and the bravest
of them are regretful that they we're
not able to accomplish a hundred-fold
more than they did either In living or
in dying for their idea. Your little to-
ken of appreciation and mine may per-
chance please them but it cannot do
for them 1.-THE of what the showing
of that appreciation can do for us.
-.
Herein is the true value of our ten
der regard for the dead, of the yollies
we fire, of the flowers we strew, OF the
flags we wave, of the consecrated words
we utter. The value and the gain are
to us-ward who live and move in a
glorious era of united feeling which
those sleeping eyes would have flashed
joyously to see. It is we who are bene-
flied by these exercises.
~
Animals look on the dead-even
those OF their own kind-and soon for
get or scarcely notice. But we sent
lent beings return after the s.le Gid
ings OF many years, of centur even,
to look on the places ct the dead and
to honor them. Why? Because the
death of tie doer of deeds among men
stops his doing but does not stop the
effects of the deeds de did. The truth
of this is apparent in moment, If we
reflect as we glance downward to the
turf-covered mounds at our feet, that
because these men had beliefs and lived
them out we are able to stand around
them united in one great national
whole. The bodies lying there have
rest from their labors, but the labor
remains, and greater things than they
did shall we do, because human labor
is cumulative and because we live to
carry on what dying hands have drop
ped. Human progress is like the
growth of the prlnting-press from the
slow simplicity of the lever and screw
up to the complicated mastodons that
thunder out human thought more
swiftly than the eye can follow. The
machine Is made up of infinitely small
Improvements by an infinite number
of mechanics, each one adding some
thing to the work OF construction that
had already been effected. Thus is 1t
with our national life. Our RevoIu-
tlonary heroes died to make a nation.
Time passed and showed that strength
was in union. Our heroes of the late
war died to keep that nation inseper-
able forever and forever. Again the
years rolled on over period of expan-
sion unexampled in the history of the
world. Now is the time when we in
heritors of the labors of these motion
less bones at our feet go one step fur
Their and declare that nation born in
noble strife, baptized later in its own
precious blooi, has risen to the stature
of a man and breaches to great selfish
world a new evangel that a nation
great In its triumph over trials, great
in its prosperity, Is not too great to be
Ceaf to vail OF woe from its weak
nelghbor, and Is not too proud to cast
its own offering on the altar of an
others though that offering cost dear
in the money Of its men and the sons
OF its mothers.
***
have only word for those cavilers
who would credit all sorts OF small mo-
tives to the speechless dead. Grant
ing the truth of every pettiness that
can be pointed out, yet we are never
theless in position to say each OF
them, "He wrought better than he
knew" We do not say, because the
feet are unconscious of where. the will
directs them, no credit is due them for
running an errand of mercy. Shall we
bellttle the eye that guides the hand
to righteous act, just because both
are mere eeryants of the self within