The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1900-05-30
Memorial Day,
O'TIARA.

The day devoted to the remembrance
of the patriotic men who died that the
Nation might live, one and INSOFAR
able, need not necessarily be time of
gloom and sadness. To many who still
live it is day of tender recollection, of
personal sorrow mellowed by time, of
chastened pride and joy that the father,
son, or brother, above whose mound on
that day in particular will rise the be-
coming incense of flowers, is numbered
among his country's glorifed defenders
and saviors.
To those who have no graves of kins-
men to garland with flowers, to whom
the day brings no recollection of an
hour of mortal anguish in those battle
years of the struggling nation, the &C.
casion should be one of such reverent
observance as men instnctively devote
to the memory Of the greatest of person
al benefactors. The day of tears may
long have gone by, cheerfulness and
buoyancy of spirit may have replaced
sorrow and depression. The glory of the
sacrifice and the inestimable worth of
the cause for which millions of men
fought and fell by hundreds of thou
sands arouse other emotions and
awaken other feelings. The day is
rather one of patriotic exaltation than
of repining for personal loss or the
mighty sacrifices of the government for
its own preservation. This is all as
natural as it is inspiring and reassur-
ing. 1t is the spectacle of nation ris-
ing superior to its burdens, of individ-
uals sinking personal bereavement in
chastened joy that the greater life, the
life of the Nation, was saved by sacri-
flee, that the blessings of liberty have
been preserved, and the Republic, re-
united and strengthened thousand
fold, is extending those blessings to
millions beyond the coast line that had
once circumscribed its interference
with the divine right of despot to
abuse and maltreat humankind.
Memorial Day may not be funeral
occasion; but it cannot, or ought not,
to be day of levity, of games, of feast
ing and license, Of the observances and
amusements common to the ordinary
holiday. There are days enough for
these in the course of the round year;
Memorial Day at least may be kept sac
red to the memory and observances TO r
which it was piously instituted. Though
time has dulled the sense of personal
sorrow, and distance from the period Of
the awful carnage of the battles of the
civil war, when men died by thousands
and tens OF thousands to preserve this
government, has softened the outlines
of those appalling sacrifices of human
life, the day set apart for commemora-
ting the soldiers death in battle should
not be given over to holiday pleasures
and pastimes. People do not ordinar-
lily devote the anniversary of death and
sacrifice to the common pleasures OF
the world. Common decency and
common humanity forbid this, and
they equally forbid that Memorial Day
shall be made day for ball games,
horse racing, picnics, excursions, or the
varied excitements and entertainments
of Vanity Fair. The Grand Army
posts furnish the appropriate means for
the days observance. Good citizens
will attend these and supplement them
with decorous abstention from the
every day affairs Of life and business.