The evening times., 1899-05-30
|HOMAGE TO HEROlSM
At SOLDIERS home
DR.. Hamma's Tribute to the
Growth Of Liberty.
Freedom Not Menaced by Expan-
sion Of the Nation.
Parade Followed by Exercises I'm the
Cemetery-A Poem by DIR.
Thomas Calver.

In common with the memorial exercises
being held all over the country those al
the Soldiers Home today were filed with
references to the heroic dead Of the late
war with Spain. Lessons drawn from the
objects and result Of that war, together
with those Of other conflicts in which the
country has been engaged, were pointed out
by the different speakers.
The services at the Home were in the
immediate charge of Henry Wilson Post,
No. II, G. A. R. G. H. Slaybaugh, Senior
Vice Commander of the Department of the
Potomac acted as the chairman Of the
exercises and announced each number.
| The parade, consisting OF the Soldiers
! Home Band, committee and officers of the
! home. the orator. chaplains, poet. invited
| guests, Henry Wilson Post No. II, G. A. R.,
| Gen. William +. Barry, Garrison No. l36.
| Army and Navy Union, and the veterans
Of the home, together with their visitors,
formed in the Soldiers Home grounds near
the main building at 9:45 o'clock and
marched to the speakers stand in the Gem
etery, where participants in the pro-
gramme, together with the invited guests,
took seats ON the platform while the re-
mainder were provided with seats on the
lawn in front Of the stand. There were
more than LOCO persons present. The ex-
ercises opened with the rendition Of DE
parted Days" by the Soldiers Home Band,
after which Chairman Slaybaugh called the
! assembly to order and delivered the open
| ing address.
Rev. DR.. NJ. W. HANNA was the orator
OF the day. His address was filled with
| patriotic sentiments and contained many
| important lessons drawn from the expe-
riences Of war. He stated that expansion
will not and cannot destroy liberty. His
! oratiol was in part as follows:
"All over the Republic, wherever the
love of native land prevails and men can
say L have country and / have flag,
wherever the highest ideals and sacrifices
of human conduct inspire to noble deeds,
this day will be celebrated with the ten
derest memorial services while strewn
flowers everywhere with fragrant lips kiss
the sod beneath which sleeps the lust OF
the nations million heroes Though all
understand why this beat of drums, why
these plaintive notes Of music, why these
gathered throngs, why these fower-strewn
graves, and this universal benediction OF
sympathy and blessing, yet 1t is meet that
We should thus assemble in every year OF
every generation and recount the signit-
cance of this memorial.
The first proposition suggested by this
day for our consideration Is the greatness
of our common country. The speaker
then gave a detailed account of American
progress and American advancement In
speaking of the late colonial acquisitions.
DR.. HANNA said: "Our latest immense in
crease OF dominion has pushed our bounda
ries from continental toward the approxi-
nation OF hemispherical proportions. Out
of providential and humanitarian war, our
conQuering fleets and armies have gone TO
distant islands and archipelagos and pro-
claimed liberty to the oppressed and raised
over them a Heaven blessed banner"
In speaking of the fears of those who
regard expansion as a menace, the speaker
said: BE it ever remembered that Ii is
not the nature of liberty to live within
narrow confines. 1t is as unconfinable as
the atmosphere. With equal facility, it
makes its home at the same time on arc
tic shores, in endless summer land OF
flowers and beneath the fire OF equatorial
suns All climes and all lands are its own.
Its spirit is wider than the seas. broader
than the earth. and chainless as the tides.
We need not fear our wide extent OF coun-
try in which enlightened freedom is the
controlling spirit. or organized govern
ment and chastened and God-fearing pat
rotism, which is the schooimaster of the
people, and. with a citizenship that has so
often passed through the fiery furnace OF
war to preserve for themselves and their
posterity the freeman's glorius Inherit
ance. We hail this day of great national
memories with more enthusiastic acclaim
because in the light of its risen sun there
lies SO much wider domain Of The land of
the free and the home OF the brave.
One OF the striking contributions to the
programme was a poem by DR.. Thomas
Calx pf 10 Flowers
recited by the author:
Bring hither the beautiful flowers
From the lap and the bosom of May;
Bring here the bright gems Of her bowers,
For they tell Of our lost ones today.
Sweet music their voices giving,
Ard it floats the fragrance they she'd
They speak to the hearts of the living
As they rest on the graves OF the dead
Their song through the balmy air stealing,
II we listen Alright shall hear
And best by some grassy mound kneeling,
With the heart opened wide by tear.
They sing of their gladness in giving
OF their breath for the breath that is fed
To comfort the hearts of the living
With the life they bestow on the dead.
The song Of the rose is of valor.
With its fervid and glorious hue;
The lily's ethereal pallor
Sings of souls that are spotless and true.
These honors they glory in giving,
With their banners of white and Of red,
To cheer the sad hearts Of the living
With the honors they give to the dead.
The violet's beauty and sweetness,
With the twilight Of skies in its blue;
The pansy's varied completeness
Both are telling of hearts that true.
Their delicate lives they are giving
In each breath of the fragrance they shed,
To sweeten the hearts Of the living
With the sweetness they bring to the dead.
The disc Of the daisy, golden
And its starry rays. silvery white;
The laurel. of stories olden.
With its leaves cleaning glossy and bright.
The peans Of glory are i,iying,
As the song by their voices now led
They glorfy hearts Of the living
With the glory they give to the dead.
All, sweet are the myriad voices
That arise from the beautiful blooms;
Their chorus the zephyr rejoces,
As it carelessly fits by the tombs;
But all of their souls they giving
To the music by idle winds sped
They sing to the hearts OF the living
In the song that they sing to the dead.
Most precious their life that is fleeing,
Though it smiles in each beautiful hue
Their breath is the touch of their being
Their tears we mistake for the dew.
Each blossom its mourning is giving
For the boys whose brave spirits have fed
And il weeps for the hearts Of the living
As it weeps on the graves Of the dead.
Each flower is an eloquent token
OF the sweetness that blooms in the heart
And lives in the language unspoken
OF the tear drops that silently start;
And blest the hands that are giving
OF their treasures Of vine and OF bed
We garland the hearts OF the living
When We garland the graves Of the dead.
All, sadly we think Of the flowers,
OF hoynea nd o,fr hearfs fhof are ooro