The Newtown bee., 1900-06-15

HIS ReHeIdblou tO Ieel hDouG tue war 6s he old soldiers do with whom the sight 2 f a battls-scarred flag tenderly stirs the eart. Memorial Day is now largely commemorative of heroic deeds, and it's .reatest blessing today is in making feel ngs tender and in Il, TEACHING THE LESSONS OF GENUINE ?-.a PATRIOTISM,
 For my part would gs ther flowers from the Southland and fl i,wers from he Northland, and, twinipg them E in one common wreath, would lay it alike upon the graves of the Blue aud | the Gray as an emblem of peace eternel that was brought about through the con. tests of fearful wsr. Paul. Laurence Dunbar, negro, one not of our race, has written these beautiful words: Ii "( ut of the blood of a conflict fraternal, Out of the dust and dlmness of death, Burst into blossoms of glory eternal
 Flowers that sweeten the world with their
 breath.
 Flowers of charity, peace and devt ticn
 Bloom in the hearts that are empty of strife, Love that is boundless and broad as the ocean | Leaps into beauty and tullness of life." And these. uy dear soldier friends, gre | the flowers that you will strew on Me- morial day, flowers ot charity, peace and | devotion; for truly flowers are not the | emblems of hate.
 The Civil war brought about lasting | peace. Thirty-five years ago who would have been the rash dreamer that would have prophesied that the very same men who fought against .the flag and in their hate would gladly have trampled 1t in the dust, would, not so many years after, offer their services to the government to fight for that flag and those services would be accepted? Who, thirty-five years ago, would have said that Gen Fnzhugh Lee, one of the bravest and most dashipg of the Confederate cavalry leaders, and Gen "Joe'' Wheeler would be in their lifetime so justly honored by the whole Nation irrespective of section or former opinion? Now North and South are not names for different senti ments, for divisive theories that must for ever break further and further apart, but simply names for different sections of one great broad land. It Is 8 grand thing to be an American to-day. It is grand thing to be citizen of the republic that is working out the problem of the broth. erhood of man, which Is making each of it's many millions feel that he is kin to sll the rest. Hearts grow tender as old age comes on and may live to see the day when the few veterans left, both from the Grand Army of the Republic and from the Confederate side, shall meet in one magnificent encampment and, en- tirely oblterating the black scars of hate, fall into each others arms in loving em- brace. I know not what future ills threaten this land. They may be those of commercial greed, they may be those of anna lgamated and selfish veal h {; but I know there is one Ill that can never again befall, and that is the i'll which comes from out the throes of dreadful civil war. And this know, that if some malignant foe sshould come upon us from abroad from every quarter of this land, from lit tie hamlets hitherto unknown as well as from the great centres of trade, there would rise 8 vast army of volunteers singing as in the olden time, i've are coming, Father Abraham, hundr ed thousand more."
 | WAR HAS ITS BLESSING
 in teaching that sll mortal life ends with the grave.
 "Heirs to some six feet ot sod,
 Both children of the same dear God"
 Six feet of sod is the end of all nor. tality. No matter how different the sentiments in life may have been, nc matter how deeply the passions have been stirred, 10 matter on which side they fought and no matter where they fell, common grave receives them all See them before the battle. See tb be hate written on the fo rehead, see the different uniforns which mark that they are bit ter foes, see the different flags, zee how their most earnest desire is to whip the other out. But the battle is over; now watch the long winrows of slain after the scythe of death has passed over the hsld. The same ghastly pallor is or every cheek, the same stiffness of the heart, the same glassy look in the eye, the same nervelessnsss of the hand. O Death, thou art the great victor, thou dost make all ranks thine own. Twas theirs, my friends, to meet the last ene- my in the tumult of the battle, amid the whizzing of the bullets, amid the burst inn of fk,oc ck fho tuph ho- come iron with nerves of steel" 'Tis yours to meet him in the quietness of citizen life when the stiffness among those gathered round your bed is so pro. found that the throbbing of your heart or the tick of the watch in the attending physician's hand is the only sound that Is heard. How soon, oh, how:socn, will Death come for us all If were to tell you that tomorrow, next week, next year, at the most, in only few years, you would be dispossessed of your home that you would be compelled to move out of your dwelling and would be left with no roof above you and De made vagrant upon the earth, you would think it behooved you now to look about you for another home into which you could move when this present home as taken away. But you will soon be dislodged from your home. You cannot long stay here. Your yearly thinning ranks clearly show that this is not your place of abiding. This earthly home of yours, your body, enfeebled by old age, weakened by sickness, mayhap contracted from exposure in the war, is like an old house through which the