The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1899-06-04
A MEMORABLE ANNIVERSARY.
my c. A. EDwARDs)


coded 1t so far as am concerned and
for that matter so far as the present gen.
Grafton is concerned.
When that long procession started TO the
cemetery at Arlington yesterday 1t set me
to thinking All the feryent loyalty, all
the National thankfulness, all the mem
cries, mournful or solacng, that bad mace
the anniversary memorable In the past
were still existent. but the multitude that
went forth to deck the little green tents
where sleep the Nations heroes had new
thoughts, new ideas, new aspirations, porn
Of the theme that surrounded the new
graves. BY the grass covered MOUNDS
which time had almost leveled to the
emerald sward, around them were the
fresh raised hillocks upon which the sod
had not begun to sprout.
In this procession of yesterday marched
side by side, the grizzled and gray-edged
veteran who had felt the storm at Shiloh
and the youth, lusty and vigorous, who
saw the flag unfurl its beauties over San
tiago, and where wrinkled hand tender
ly placed a bunch of bloom upon the ever
remembered grave of him she had loved
SO well when lips were pouting and cheeks
we're rosy, a plumper hand stretched from
an arm OF mourning dropped roses over
him who scarce year ago she had wished
God-speed and safe return.
~
They were inspiring-the scenes of yes
terday; uplifting, ennoblng, and yet
touching to tenderness and tears. The
old grief and the new, the old soldiers
and the new; no more gray, no more blue;
only grand, overhanging heaven where
the flag huttered in the breezes, and be-
meath It a Nation bent in reverent honor.
How feeble and gray and sad the sur
vivors of the strife between the States did
seem. They are growing fewer every
! year. We who were too young to know
that awful time were wont, in the past,
to disregard the spectacle on each Mem
orlal Day, 1t seemed TO us the parades
of past years were too long for the statis-
teal calculations upon the duration Of
life We thought, dimly. OF a pension
burden, as we saw the old members Of the
G. A. r. struggle past; or, where we saw
the survivors Of the Confederacy we
thought, perhaps, OF the futlity of treas
uring the memories OF lost cause
But It's all different in this year Of our
Lord 1898. We see the warriors OF the
years between 81 and 65 in a new light.
We reverence them more We have more
faith in their feeling The things they
treasure in their old hearts come home to
cur hearts We understand the power OF
the memories which knit so closely the
men in the moving ranks to those in the
long ranks which move no more, but are
moved over by winds, the shadows. the
seasons, the long grass, the ranks of
those bivouacked for eternity.
We have no longer a smile for senile
pomp or for fanfarronading praise. We
have begun to realize that for the G. A.
K. there is something more in it's coher-
ency than pact for pensions. We know
that, in the case of the surviving Con-
federates they are loyal to the memorie
Of those who marched and tented and
fought and died by their side.
~
They are all bound together-these vet
Grams, by the participation in the misery,
the rapture, the glory of great strenu-
Gus time. The names of the famous fights
they fought wake tinglings even in us.
The names of the men who led them arc
/ a f-ft
the remainder Of such armies as the world
never saw, because they We're the first
armies that ever fought for an idea.
We have known. within the past year,
things they knew. We have felt the thrill
of the call to arms, the doubt of leaders.
the rage over seeming slowness, the dead
/ ~ WEAKNESS of the reports OF disease raw
aging the camps, the depression of rumor-
/ cd defeat, the mad eXultation over sue
cess, the heartgrip and flush which come
with the reading Of achievements noble.
heroic, sublime.
/ We, too. since year ago, have lived in
the iron times, We have seen plain men
IKE ourselves transformed by devotion to
duty into demigods We have known
them to suffer and die uucompainingly:
to endure every form Of self-sacrifice that
can shame a selfish world. We have been
near TO the hell OF war and found emerge
ing from It beauties Of heaven. We have
seen the names OF men we knew inscribed
in the Nations pantheon. and we have
known the boy who marched away and
never came back
! We have seen and spoken with and sun
ped with men who have added new stars
10 he flag, who have added new glories
TO mankind, who have risked their lives
/ that men they knew net might be free.
/ We !son9r the men who fought between
81 and 50 the more for that we have
seen their spirit in their children who
/ fought in '9S and who are now hghting and
/ dying in 90.
We honor the dead Of that old war the
more because we so honor the dead VINO
died for freedom in the later war. we
Joined with veterans of the civil war IN
/ decorating the graves or their dead and
/ they joined with US in the decoration of
/ th Sc OF our own The men who sur-
eumbed TO fever in the home camps, VINO
sickened and died in the trenches berore
santiago, who died in the charge up San
Juan hill, who me, their doom al strange
named places In sultry archipelago near
the Yellow sea, these belong, too. To the
/ Grand Army Of the Republic, mustered in
/ SERTED graves near to us or sleeplng un-
DER strange skies, long. doleful rains and
I harce suns in lands beyond the deep.
~