Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-05-27
NEW GRAVES AT ARLINGTON
Where Heroes of the Spanish War Now Lie
Buried.
A Touching Word Picture by a Man
Who Saw Many Of Them
Fall.

Written for The Evening Star by Edward Marshall.
Ugly in the bare red of its monotony of
newly turned clay the new graves of the
soldiers, dead in the Spanish-American war,
will pitifully bear their flowers this Me-
mortal day.
1t was Sunday afternoon when I drove
out to Arlington. Holiday makers swarm
ed into the great national graveyard as if
it were a picnic ground. The spreading
trees and rich turf of the old cemetery were
green and peaceful. Where lay the dead he
roes of our civil war was solemnity, but
no sadness The scars of that great con-
flict had been obaiteEated by time But
where the new graves are in this great red
blot-a tremendous wound in the sward to
tell story awesofne and as full of heart
ache as t. is of glery.''
Almost precisely q year before had tray
eled about from camp TO camp and came to
know our soldiers. III had messed and camped
with the gallant 9th Cavalry: ! had gone to
Cuba with the surgeons and the Hospital
Corps: | had gone into battle with the
Rough Riders andtfoaght with them and
bled with them: Among the brave black
troopers OF the 10Th ID numbered scores OF
friends Among the Rough Riders there
was scarcely a man whom did not person
ally know. Day after day. since the time
when battle and disease began among these
my friends | had watched the records. ana l
knew who were dead. l wanted earnestly to
find their graves But on the long rows of
tiny tomb stones there were no names. Each
had it's inexpensive, unromanuc NUMBER
On one or two some feVereht one hdo
scratched a name in lead penc1l, Dut they
were all strange names to me. pleasant
man came from the office OF the cemetery
Nth at first some merriment. He showed
me the map of the graves. l looked at II
i1fD v
quickly when I saw the long rows marked
unknown 1t seems to me pity that
our government does not make some pan
by which the identity of the men VINO go
to fight for it shall be certainly preserved.
One Little Decorator.
Then T drove back to the graves. Ihey
were not wreathedG with flowers as one
would have expected them to be just AFTER
they had been made. but from each one
fioated a little flag. They were pitAlul NJ
tie flags, those bits of color on our sol
ders' new graves They were made of the
cheapest cloth, and the red and the blue
in them stenciied on with cheap paint
which viii run down and Sp0i the "hite
stripes when the first rain comes On one
or two of all the thousand graves We're tiny
nosegays. l fancy that they mad been put
there by a little girl that morning. L saw
her going about weeping, with some othef
punches of flowers in her hands. She told
there. but that her big brother had been
killed in the Philippines.
The graves were dug by contract, doubt
less, and are arranged in rows so regularly
that they make straight lines, no matter in
what position you stand as you view them.
They were dug by contract, and there were
not enough dead soldiers to fill all Of Them
for there are many blank spaces where one
may walk, II he is not on crutches, as 1
was. II he is. the soft earth which has
been loosely thrown into the useless holes
Will sink beneath his eFutches and he Will
founder. as If in quicksand L tried TO walk
about among the graves. but the govern
ment OF the United States had too little
land to spare to make the paths wide
enough for lame mans progress
Capt. Capron's Grave.
L saw Capt. Capron moment or two
after he had been hit at Las Guasimas.
saw his grave at Arlington. At Guasimas
he so covered himself with glory that he
| made the brave men in that brave regiment
of Rough Riders look at him in amaze
ment. and more than of them there,
| in the exciterlentfof 1.-THE first battle, took
| time enough as he5passed him to pause and
| bare his head. 14t arlington a grateful
country has not taken time to pause long
| Ell ough In the morotopous workaday hours
| to put flowers OH his grave. Two faded
palm pal, leaves WERE laid upon it. That was
Near his grave is that of another soldier
| whom I knew Welt Gthpt. William O'Neill
| the famous Buckley He rests under a
handsome granite Stone and some one had
SInothered the sodded mound with flowers
| the day l saw 1t. 1t was he who made a
| famous remark. Some had said that
our landing in Cuba would be a gamble.
| Who wouldn't gamble for new star in
| the hag? Buckley qfisetly remarked. and
went on chewing hfs tobacco.
To one who had seem the men who are
now lying at Arlington in camp and on
the battlefield 1t was tremendously impress
sive to gaze at their last resting places. 1
| raised my eyes and across a beautiful ra-
| vine the sflvery sheen of the Potomac
| greeted them. Beyond that lies Washing
| ton-the magic city in which the country
| for which they fought and died has its
| governmental center. The great white
| dome of the Capitol changed slowly to
red dome as the suns setting cOlored every
| thing. The tall shaft of the Washington
monument pierced q tinted sky.
From Fort Myer came the long, quivering,
| pathetic bugle Eotes of TAPS"
Paying Patient Qeaving hespftaD-'WeIl,
| nurse, am very grateful for all the skill
and attention 1 have received here. If there
| is any way in which could show my graf
! itude-' '.-a
Nurse-"Perhaps ought to mention that
| paying patients, IL unmarried are expected
| to propose to one of the nurses. They have
| full liberty of choice. Life.
| Resident-'"Fhinking of commencing busi-
ness, eh? Seems to me you are rather
| young for family physician
I Young D0Rtar-sEVaS b4tt-4r-I shall nr1l.