Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-10-02

man WeapOQry TO COnCtuu Will, Out luc
tides, the fog, the storm. Not like 9TH
er ships could they run into harbor at
the approach of an equinox o. a cy-
clone or a hurricane, because the har-
bors were hostile. A miscalculation Of
a tide might leave them on bar, and
fog might overthrow all the plans of
wisest commodore and admiral and
accident might leave them not on the
land ready for an ambulance, but at
the bottom of the sea, as when in our
civil war the torpedo blew up the
Tecumseh in Mobile bay, and nearly
all on board persisted. They were at
the mercy of the Atlantic and Pacific
oceans, which have no mercy. Such
tempests as wrecked the Spanish arma-
da might any day swoop upon the
squadron. No hiding behind the earth
works, no digging in Of cavalry spurs
at the sound of retreat. Mightier than
all the fortresses on all the coasts is
the ocean when it bombards a f1otilla.
In the cemeteries for Federal and
Confederate dead are the bodies of
most of those who fell on the land.
But where those are who went down
in the war vessels will not be known
until the sea gives up its dead. The
Jack Tars knew that, while loving
arms might carry the men who fell
ON the land and bury them with solemn
liturgy and the honors of war, for the
bodies of those who dropped from the
ratlines into the sea or went down
with all on board under the stroke Of
gunboat there remained the shark and
boil nd %l1n toe Of
the sea which cannot rest. Once a
year, in the decoration Of the graves,
those who fell in the land were remem-
bered. But how about the graves of
those who went down at sea? Moth
ing but the archangeps trumpet shall
reach their lowly bed. A few Of them
were gathered into naval cemeteries of
the land, and we every year garland
the sod that covers them. But who
will put flowers on the fallen crew of
the exploded Westfeld and Shawsheen
and the sunken Southfield and the
Winfield Scott? Bullets threatening in
front, bombs threatening from above,
torpedoes threatening from beneath,
and the ocean, with its reputation of
5000 years for shipwreck, lying all
around, am l not right in saying it re-
CURED a special courage for the navy
in 1863 as it required especial courage
in 1898!
Christ the Admiral.
1t looks picturesque and beautiful to
see war vessel going out through the
NarroWs, sailors in new rig singing,
A life on the ocean wave,
home the rolling deep,
the colors gracefully dipping to pass
ing ships the decks Immediately clean
and the guns at quarantine firing
parting salute. But the poetry is all
gone out Of that ship as it comes out
of that engagement it's deck red with
human blood wheelhouse gone, the
cabins a pile of shattered mirrors and
destroyed furniture, steering wheel
broken, smokestack crushed, a hun
dred pound Whitworth rifle shot hav-
ing left it's mark from port to star
board, the shrouds rent away, ladders
splintered and decks plowed up and
smoke blackened and Scalded cOrpSes
lying among those who are gasping
their last gasp far away from home
and kindred, whom they love as we
love wife and parents and children.
Oh, men Of the American navy re-
turned from Manila and Santiago and
Havana, as we'll as those who are sur
vivors of the naval conflicts of 1868
and 1864, men of the western gulf
squadron, of the eastern gulf squad
ron of the south Atlantic squadron, OF
the north Atlantic squadron, of the
Mississippi squadron, of the Pacific
squadron, of the West India squad
ron and of the Potomac 1otilla, hear
our thanks! Take the benediction of
our churches. Accept the hospitali-
ties of the nation. If we had our
way. we would get you not only pen
sion, but a home and a princely ward
robe and an eQuipage and banquet
while you live and after your departure
a catafalque and mausOleum OF
Sculptured marble, with model Of the
ship in which you won the day. 1t is
considered a gallant thing when in a
naval fight the flagship with its blue
ensign goes ahead up a river or into a
bay, it's admiral standing in the
shrouds watching and giving orders.
But 1 have to tell you, o veterans of
the American navy, if you are as loyal
to Christ as you were to the govern
ment, there is Il flagship sailing ahead
of you Of which Christ is the admiral,
and he watches from the shrouds, and
the heavens are the blue ensign, and he
leads you toward the harbor, and all
the broadsdes of earth and hell can
not damage you, and We whose gar
ments were once red with your own
blood shall have a robe washed and
made white in the blood of the Lamb. |
Then strike eight bells! High noon in
heaven!
A Word For Veterans.
While we are heartily greeting and
banuueting the sailor patriots Just now