The record-union., 1899-05-25
PRESENT DAY THOUGHTS.
BY G. Grosvenor Dave.

with those 10 WnOIu all u lie is LII
portant, and though the memory of the
past deeds of those we love should be
ever with us as daily benison; yet 1t
is so natural a thing for human beings
to set aside times and seasons for per-
forming certain acts, that We cannot be
blamed for having one day of the year
for special decoration of the graves of
our soldier dead. Once more, therefore,
with joy that comes from realizing
an increasing unity in a country once
almost rent asunder, and with a new
solemnity because many of the new
graves of the past year are the graves
of those who were young and strong,
we approach this season.
The years that have passed have seen
our women tenderly decorating in hon
or of a former generation; this year sees
us bending low over the green mounds
that cover the manhood of to-day. Thus
one touch of common sorrow unites the
past and the present.
For what have these dead died? The
earlier neutrality-suspicious. blindly at
times, but nevertheless effectually-on
behalf of nation that was, that is and
that ever will be-please God-one and
indivisible With all sorts of motives,
quite beyond our ken and certainly be-
yond our criticism these forms of dust
worked out even a greater purpose
than they knew of national perpetuity.
Many of them were uncontrolled in pas
sion, many of them We're wayward and
needless, and many of them, perhaps,
need never TO have perished as they did
and when they did. But they now rest
from their labors. And the work they
did partial and complete as to each in
dividual, but grand in it's totality of in
huence, is ours by inheritance, so that
we indeed do reap where we have not
sowed. Their ancestors before them
died to make nation, these dead died
to save it,
The new generation heard from West
to East and from North 20 South the
sad cry Of the Queen of the Antilles
Women and men alike were thrilled
with horror at the ravages done by
dying monarchy and a waning power
So from the mountains of the South,
from the prairies, from the mine, and
from the busy marts, our boys some
of them lying dead beneath our feet
went forth to scourge a scourge, and to
smite beast. So fragile was his fury.
so puerile was his defense that thou
sands of them never tested strength:
but the knowledge that they were ready
to do so gave strength to those who
were in the front and melted into weak
ness the strength of a nation that was
strong only in tyranny. Some of our
new dead died bravely facing the foe;
more, alas, died because the sudden ex-
pansion of our forces found us unpre-
pared to take proper care of them: but
even they in their dying have taught
US a national lesson and hardened up a
national purpose to run no such risks
in future.
This day of DECORATION we will honor
those who fought, those Who fell by, the
Wayside, and those who at rnercy's call
faced the dangers of the camp. Like
wise will we honor the women who bore
them and the women who nursed them.
Just as in the civil war when the unit
soldier was only partially aware of the
great purpose that he was working out
so these, our recent dead mark a year
that has summoned nation begotten
IN riot, born in revolution, nurtured in
separation and grown to manhood in
loofness-summoned, l say, this ma
tlon of power into actual membership
among the groups of nations that make
this great sensitive world 1t is but an
other illustration of the truth that a
duty done is almost certain to reveal a
stll Wider duty to be done; much as it
is with the mountain climber whose
every step upward serves to show him
a wider view.
We have smitten the shackles from
Cuba, and thereby have opened before
ourselves a way that shows us the
need of teaching the Cubans how to
govern themselves We have freed
Porto Rico from the power of the Don
only to find CUR own past experience and
our own high grade of progress s1,m-
moned at every point-governmen
fnanclal, educational and religious-to
bring better things to pass than these
islanders have ever yet known. South
ward, therefore, has the year thrust
our influence, making American the
or1es and American standards leap to
points that we did not reckon on when
our errand was first undertaken. Also.
TAR out over the Pacific Ocean west
ward have the American stars been
all men where they were scarcely
known before. The islands of the great
hlng kamehameha are ours: Guam is
ours; the Philippines are ours 1t has
oeen a strange year, a fateful year.
great year; one whose every solemn
minute summons all of us who believe
IN America and it's future to the un-
avoldable conviction that in the affairs
OF this great round world, in addition
10 RUSSIA, to Germany and to England
there IS one other great nation the
Iourth OF the big four, by whom all
olher nations whatsoever of the earth
are to be controlled, or guided or gov
erned. The hands on the dial of des-
tiny never turn back; they move for
ward with the precision of the uni
verse. In the minutes. or the years, or
the centuries, or the millennia that they
record, the weighing of nations is go
ing on Judging by our past dare any
man predict that in the sudden and un-
expected revelation to ourselves of the
truth that no nation liveth to itself.
America shall be found wanting?
The deeds of the dead leave duty
for the living; and so as we rise with
sobS from bending over those who
breathe no more, may there come to
each American soul the determination
that though partisanship be sunk: that
though personal triumph be considered
of small moment; that though the in
dividual by himself be small and of
light influence, yet there shall be in
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