The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1901-06-07

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tial city of the Orient "Old Glory is
afloat to the breezes and Memorial
| day is being observed with tender re-
membranes and reverent hearts in
honor of the brave defenders of the
siege OF Pekin, and in token of safe
deliverance from the awful peril that
encompassed that little handsome OF
whom are very dear to Iowa.
But Memorial day my friends is not
alone for our brothers who went forth
to battle and never returned, or since
have joined the great majority and
gone to their reward Hard as it
was to leave mother, wife, sister or
sweetheart harder still was it for
those aching hearts in the long and
weary vigils in the home.
THE wife who girds the husbands
i sword,
Mid little ones who weep of wonder;
And bravely speak the cheering word,
! Although her heart be rent asunder-
Doomed nightly in her dreams to hear
The bolts of war around him rattle
Hath shed as sacred blood as e'er
Was poured upon the field OF BATTLE
2Ai.t ll4uo NlSillOllcl ucS, DSSolllIlIS5
in honor of the nations defenders in
the war of the rebellion, has broadened
in purpose and is today, and will ever
remain, a day set apart for commemor-
, alton generally OF death and sacrifice
and suffering in defense of life and
home and in defense of our common
!, country and the institutions we all
cherish and love. I know something
OF the hallowed recollections that
crowd in upon you this day and my
words are not only empty and mean
ingless, but seem almost irreverent.
There is no comradeship like that born
: OF dangers and privations shared and
OF struggle and suffering in defense of
life. and home and fatherland The
, tie that binds old army comrades can
) only be rightly understood and appre-
, ciated by those who have marched
side by side through long, hot, weary
| days, sharing the same old hard tack
: and army bacon and beans, drinking
| from the same canteen, standing Shout
/ der to shoulder out on the firing line
and Drawing a thousand dangers to-
gether. One day last summer, it is
oeiiI, dtli lllC tWl III SlSSG DIT IGlAlll,
as the little band moved out with the
rude casket bearing the body of one
: of the marines who had fallen, pierced
by Boxer bullet, and just as the sim
pie but touching last sad rites were be-
ing performed, a Russian soldier
stepped forward and said: This
. man fought by my side. knew him
{ and | loved him. Let me assist, -
u and then he arranged the earth with a
y resting place for the head, and placed
0 the flowers, while the tears streamed
n down his face and fell upon the clods
S that covered one who had been so
I much to him, although they were
+, strangers to each other until sent
there in defense of the legations by
II their respective governments. Oh, the
liinship and the brotherhood of suf-
d fering, and of struggle in defense of
life and loved ones.
ii This afternoon as memory takes you
)f back to those terrible days of carnage
Ie and OF strife, and you recall the famil-
IS lar voice and touch OF a loved com
b. rade who shared your tent and fought
p by your side, and whose hopes and am
~ DlIlOHS WSlS ldlu vi lllG dlldI VI your
lie country, remember this-that because
le of that sacrifice, these hopes and am.
lg billions live on in you; and the land
lie he SO much loved, and for which he
n gave'his life is all the better for his
e. having lived in it; and your RESPONSE
o. bility in being spared is only Increased
the more, not alone in chershing his
as memory, but in striving to make pos
ed sible OF better fulfillment the hopes anG
~ ambitions that inspired him. Do yor
We not all love to think of him now as
lg he was when he went out from home
er that morning in the pride of his manly
I strength and yigor to go with his regi
III ment to the front? With a mothers
kiss on his lips, and fathers parting
Sc God bless and keep you my boy,
even as Abraham offered up Isaac unit
I'M sacrifice, he soon was gone never t.
return again. Dead you say? Well
ar, thank God, he fell with his face tC
ward the enemy And do you no
es know that tits only the clayey tenemen
that lies underneath the sod, watere
Jul by your tears and decled by you wit
flowers. Over that grassy mound TIL
~ SHOW Will COiIe anu dHu llG uctls
oil les bloom and blossom-God's sent
ill nels over the silent dust that sha
IRE sleep until the resurrection morn an
7rs then awake TO put on immortalit!
get when death shall be swallowed UP /
rts victory.
far To me, the saddest thought in a
lad these exercises this day, is the fac
18th that the Grand Army of the Republi
the is now a fast fading column, ever
Ing year finding the hair little white
you the ranks little thinner and the steI
all alittle more irregular. Ten years ae
me the Grand Army was all that its nam
lis implies. 1t mustered over 100000 me
it'll at roll call. Today it's roster show
ov- less than 275,OO0. They are going ;
the the rate of regiment a month, ar
dis during the past year every Post
the the country has held its flag at hal