The Newtown bee., 1898-06-17

an answering standing by the right.
The Presidents call for volunteers
is not the only loyal SER
vice that comes to our ears.
Our country pleads earnestly to-
day, just as she has always plead, with
every legislator to be incorruptihIe, with
every voter to be unbribab1e, with every
servant in the governments employ to
discharge his duty as if he believed that
public office was public trust, with ev-
cry Judge to be q just Judge, and for every
citizen TO have high seIlse of what our
institutions are worth and what a price
for them has been paid, Then our sol
diers will not haye died in vain; then not
in vain will half million of lives have
been laid upon The altar of their country.
True to duty at all times, that is the su.
preme lesson of Memorial Day.
But have thus far spoken of our boys
as dead, | have thus far called your at
rentioA 30 graves. What we decorate on
this beautiful anniversary are not SO
much graves as pulpits, not SO much GEM
eCeries as .shrines. :, we do. not think so
much to-day OF. our soldiers as dead as
living, for they live in that for which
they SO nobly laid down their lives. They
died to keep the flag unsullied, and never
before has it so gloriously waved. They
died that the nation might be kept united,
that on the field of carnage it might not
draw. -ita last ~groan,, hut that having
tasted Of the fountain of perpetual
youth, it might forever renew its
strength. Our soldier dead live to-day
because the nation lives.
My friends, good actions never die. A
good example is death1ess. I speak with
utmost reverence when say that you
could as soon destroy God as you could
annihiIate the influence of good deed
and drive it out of the world. Do you
think that when bis countrymen with
afectionate. regard laid to rest him who,
| by the sterling qualities of his character,
had made himself of renown not alone
among the English-speaking people but
even throughout the world, they buried
all that was. true. and mighty for good in
the life of William E. Gladstone? All,
no; for that life will remain as perpet-
ual force in the world, and this age is
better and all after ages are to be better
because the span of that one human life
once existed.
And what is our country anyway 1s
it so many millions Of broad acres laugh
ing with the Righteousness Of harvest
1t, ID that" ana very much more. Is IL
mines yielding precious ores? It is that
and very much more. Is it harbors
crowded with ships from every cline
I Is it trains bearing the heavy produce Of
western prairies to the Seaboard? Is ii
humming spindIes? Is it heated FORCES
Is it busy factories? Is it happy homes
4 Our country is all that surrounds US, al
that has brought US up and fed as,
r.: ALE THAT WE HAVE LOVED.
Our country is that little Cir
who goes there laughing = along
the street. Our country is THAT
! bright boy whistIiDg his merry tunes on
the way to school. 1t is the room where
we used to see our mother, the remena-
brance she has left US, the earth where
she rests. 1t is our joys, our griefs, our
emotions, our rapturous experience, our
most ecstatfc mood. It Is the words we
exchange with others, the laws which
protect US, the bread which pays for our
I work. Write all these things together
under one great name, and that
name will be Country" And
SO when good man dies, when soldier
dies, what il best and noblest in his life
does not go into the common soil there
to crumble and rot and be eaten Of
worms, but it goes into the nations heart
and life, it lives in the lives OF other men,
and time Is not it's measure. One yirtu,
Gus deed has elevated whole village, a
whole community, whole nation; then
what shall we say Of the legacy OF good
that comes from half million freemen
who died that the noblest institutions on
earth might not perishg
/ Well, then, IL it that we cali this Me-
mortal Day, day Of commemoration.
Itrecalls deeds that are worthy OF com.
nemoration. The things that We recall
to-day do not bring to our cheeks the
faintest blush of shame. There Is moth
| Ing we wish 20 cover In the sacrifice our
soldiers made, in the trium phs that they
won, i'm the principles for which tney CON
tended h the Institutions they saved.
Some things we do not wish to perpetu-
ate for them we desire no Memorial
Day. Wewoul,i fam forget tlaesns We
ss.1..