The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-05-29
TRIBUTE TO OUR
SOLDIER DEAD

Rev. Frederick c. Lee of the California
street Methodist Episcopal Church chose
for his subject last evening Our Soldier
Dead" He said in part:
We have more graves to decorate this S0th
of May than We had year ago. Five hundred
killed on the battlefield. five thousand claim by
fevers and bad food. This evening in the quiet
of this sacred place and hour I Irvine three
gather cluster Of flowers rich and rare for our
heroes living.
MY first wreath lay upon the last resting
place of our nations dead. visit all the
eighty-seven national cemeteries. with their
32500O graves, 147, 900 marked Unknown"
While the North West and East gather at
Gettysburg and Greenwood the South at Ander-
sonville and Nashville. let North and South
join voice and song and sing:
mo more shall the cloud sever.
Or the winding river run red.
Well bury our anger forever
AS we laurel the graves of our dead"
My second chaplet Is for the unburied dead
Those who fell under Foote and Farragut
Porter and Pennock. Beaten down by the iron
hail from Fort Fisher and jackson. Torn and
Mississippi from New Orleans to Vicksburg
The bleached bones that lie in ocean grave. all
the way from Cherbourg, off the coast of
France, where the Alabama went down. TO the
swamps of Chickamauga. Into all the waters
of harhor, bay and river lower this token of
grateful remembrance and gratitude.
Spanning the three and thirty years that lie
between the fall of Richmond and the capture
OF Cuba, between Appomattox and Manila Bay,
I place my third garland upon the new made
graves of our boys who fought and fell at San
Again making a hiatus of the thirty-three
years l JOIN the ranks of the boys of 81 and Go
to the ranks of the boys of IS and '99 and
present my cluster of fresh culled flowers to
the veterans Of the Civil War and the men who
fought so we'll on land and sea against Spain
and are with in the flesh to-day. In place
OF y<aitIr until you have been mustered cut
b. that grim cid officer, Death. h re and HOW
we offer you nations thanks and apprecia
ton. .
And yet, notwithstanding all the glory, the
pomp and circumstances of war. who will not
agree with "od Uncle Billy that war is
hell God guide the deliberations of the
May these wise and representative men sug-
gest to their respective governments and to
the great powers of the world some practical
plan by which arbitration can be brought
before which all international difficulties can
be argued and arbtrated. May this congress
be the first step toward inaugurating that day
when Nation shall not lift up sword against
nation neither shall they learn war any more -
God speed the time when war itself shall be
slain All hail the day when this old god of
battles shall be done to death!
Dig pit deep as hades and tumble his
miserable carcass In. Hurl in after It shot
and she'll saber and cutlass Fill 1t up with
rifes-Springfeld and Mauser, rapid-fre and
monitors torpedo boats. revolving turrets and
armor plate battleships and cruisers together
with ali the devilish enginry Of war. Let the
deep-toned swell of old oceans organ play the
on Atlantic and Pacific form the cantoris and
decani of a universal choir to chant his
requiem Let the widows, wives and mothers
the sisters. sweethearts and daughters go forth
march Let the angel of the Apocalypse that
shall proclaim that the kingdoms of this world
have become the Kingdoms of our Lord write
the epitaph Death is swallowed UP in vic