Jamestown weekly alert. [volume] (Jamestown, Stutsman County, D.T. [N.D.]) 1882-1925, 1898-03-31
TRIBUTE
To the Memory of the Names
Dead-Cousins', of Iowa,
Speech.
The Vulture Watches For the
Dead, the Eagle For the
Truth.
One of the Speeches That
Stirred Up Reeds Res
erVatiOn.

war spirit was delivered in the house last
week by Representative Cousins of Iowa.
It was delivered on the occasion OF the
passage Of the relief bill for the Maine
survivors, and was as follows:
"The measure now proposed is most
appropriate and just, but hardly is it
mentionable IN contemplation OF the
great calamity to which it sppertains.
1t will be merely an incidental, legisla-
tive foot note to q page Of history that
will be open to the eyes of the republic
and of the world for all time to come.
No human speech can add anything
to the silent gratitude, the speechless
reverence already given by great and
grateful nation to its dead defenders and
to their living kin. No act of congress
providing for their needs can make q
restitution for their sacrifice. Human
nature does, in human ways, its best and
and still feels deep in debt. Express
slons OF coincidence have come from
every country and from every cline and
every nerve of steel and ocean cable has
carried on electric breath the sweetest
tenderest words of sympathy for that
gallant crew who manned the Maine
But no human recompense can reach
them. Humanity and time remain their
everlasting debtors. It was brave, and
strong, and splendid crew. They were,
part Of the blood, and bone, and sinew
OF our land.
''Two were from my native state of
Iowa. Some we're only recently at the
naval academy, where they had Sc often
beard the morning and the evening salu-
taL,on to The tiag-that flag which had
been interviewer with the dearest memo
ries Ut their lives and which had colored
sll their friendships with the lasting
blue of true hdellty. But whether They
came from naval school Or civil life, from
Oue state or from another, they called
each other comrsde-that gem OF human
language which sometimes means llLtle
.eSs than love, u little more than u
Irlendshlp-thsL gentle shlutation of Lhe
human heart that speaks 10 all the
languages Of man, that winds. and turns
ana rIus through all the joys and sor-
rows of the human race-thrOugh deed
and thought, and dream, through song,
and toll, and battlefield.
mo foe had ever challenged them.
The world can never know how brave
they were. They never knew defeat;
they never shall. While at their posts
Of duty, sleep lured them into the sbyss,
then death unlocked their slumberiDg
eyes for but for an instant, to behold its
dreadful carnival. Most Of them, just
when life was full OF hope. sll lts tides
were at their highest, grandest how-just
when the early sunbeams were falling on
the sleeps of fame and flooding all life's
landscape, far out into the dreamy, dis
tsnt horizon-just when all the nymphs
were making disdems and ksrlands,
weaving laurel wresths before the eyes
of young and eager nature-just then.
when death seemed most unnatural,
even lowering above the dark waters Of
that mysterious harbor Of Havana the
the black winged vulture watches for the
belete dead-while over it and over all
there is the eagles piercing eye, sterply
watching for the truth Whether the
appropriation carried by this resolution
shall be ultimately charged to fate or
to some foe shall soon appear. Mean
while patient and patriotic people.
enlightened by the lessons Of our history
remembering the woes OF war. both to
the vanquished and victorious, are ready
for the truth and for their duty.
The tumult and the shouting dies
The Captains and the Kings depart
Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble, and cOntrte heart
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget-lest we forget.