The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1900-11-08

|
with the work of rehabilitation until
beauty once more takes the place of
ashes and the South, like the butterfly
emerging from the chrysalis, bursts
asundcr the bonds Of humiliation and
defeat and leaps into the radiant and
triumphant Dixie of today.
We have not forgotten our battlC-
Scared veterans whose presence among
us still links the present with the past.
We honor them for the lessons OF pa
triotism which they have taught us in
peace no less than in war. Dear to us
arc their empty sleeves and their
wooden legs and their locks of white.
We cannotscnrich them with gold, but
we can crown them with honor and We
can keep on loving them until our
hearts, like broken drums, have beat
their music out forever.
" We have not forgotten our heroic
women. AT the lircsidcs of home we
see them through the memories of this
Sabbath night enduring stcrncr hard
ships and displaying nUblcr forltudc
than we lind in the experience of our
soldiers at the front of battle. En-
cOmpaSscd by the dangers Of INVASION
they never ninchcd or faltc"cd once,
but stcadiastly labored and prayed and
suffered that DiXic's cause might win.
In The quictudc of home they knitted
socks and made clothes for the rcgi-
mcnts. In the hospitals they nurscd
the wounded and the sick, wo0inT them
back to life with smiles of healing
sympathy on kissing them to sleep
with tears of sacred tenderness and
when the vaults of the COnicdcracy
were empty they even pledged their
trinkels and their jewels IN order that
failure might not come until the re-
sources Of devotion were exhausted.
Dim and commonplace become the
crowns OF honor which have rested un-
challenged for more than twenty cen
turtles upon the brows Of the women of
Sparta when we contemplate the lofllcr
virtues which rcyaliZc the women of
Dixie.
What if we failed IN the struggle,
whose memories we recall tonight.
They never die ingoriously who die
for principle and they suffer no humi-
liation who enIoblc the defeat Of arms
with the victories of virtue. The
hcroism Of which Warsaw is the syno-
nym survives to-day, not III the triumph
Of the allied powers whose strength
consisted in the force Of numbers, but
in the handful OF intrepid patriots. who
fell with kosciuskO in defense Of the
liberties OF Poland. Thcrmopolac lives
today rmhaimcd not in the achieve
mcnt OF NCrNcs'S hammered millions,
bul in the sacrifice Of the immortal
few who pcrishcd with I.conidas. so
may il he affirmed that the SAVIOR of
heroic incense with which Appomat-
toX shall invest the pages of impartial
history in the years to come will re-
mind Americans less Of the victorious
lcSions which prevailed with Grant
than of the vanuuished cohorts of half
starved Confcdcratcs who, in fcalty to
the constitution, followed the plume of
our immortal Lee.
~ ctcrans Of the gray, your thoughts
are sad tOnights. Tears fiji your eyes
as you dream with mellow hearts Of
the days which are no more; but
wcighticr still becomes the load upon
your spirits when yuu rccollcct that
many OF the faces which flashed rccogni-
ton into yours when last you met arc
missing now. In the year whose sands
are almost run more than 4 score of your
gallant comrades have fallen in the
ranks. Weary Of the march and
Scared with the bruises of the battle
they Swcctly rest at length III the
slumbcls of the bivouac. Time moves
apacc ; and ere you meet again still
others will retire 10 dreams. Thus
one by one fate closes the eyclitls OF
the veterans Of the Lost Cause, and
soon the hour will come when there
will be no more to follow. But may
we not So0thc our bosOms with the
hope that some sweet day cv"iy camp
w''l call It's roll up yOndcr without one
soldier missing and every tic of com
| radcship winch death has sunJcrcd
here will be knit once more toScthcr
in the reunions OF the skies.
{" But one word more, and | am
through. Standing tonight in scnti.
mcni beneath the flag of our reunited
country, we find no difficulty in re-
conciling our allegiance to the Stars
and Stripes with our tender rccOllcc.
tions of the Stars and Bars for if the
| past which we love to think of teaches
anything, it teaches that III the will
ingncss of Americans iu die for prin-
ciplc are grounded the lriumphs of
the nation in the conflicts which arc
yet t" come and if the spirits of our
martyrcd dead could speak to us in
whispers through this autumn even
ing's silence they would nerve us fot
lifc's coming battles with something
like the sentiment which Addison has
put upon the lips of Cato
"'Tis not in mOrtals to comm md sue
} cess,
But Won do more, Sempronlus, wei
} deserve 1t. -
-------zzz0 -Szzass---
, An ln0crt aEpr's h,Icinnco ,c o,lv,,