Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1901-06-05

the morning light, and you are blue
 clad soldiers once more. While you
 talk the camp fires light up the whis-
 pering pines of a Georgia forest or
 the rich fields of the Shenandoah.
 Long lines of muskets gleam in the
 march or the battle. You forget the
 years of toil since the war. You for
 get that you are gray and getting old.
 You forget that you are poor and
 without adequate provision for old
 age. Many of you fail to remember
 that you are wounded, and crippled and rheumatic. You forget the in i gratitude of some and the cruelty of
 others. You call to mind the former
 days; the glory of that great epoch
 when one shot on Sumpter called into
 existence an army of million men; again you live in the days when, with
 magnificent loyalty you sprang to the
 front, shouting:-
 We are coming Father Abraham,
 Three hundred thousand strong"
 and again you hear the boom of canon.
 You stand once more in long lines
 before the gleaming muskets of the
 enemy, Vicksburg, Atlanta, Peters burg, Antietam, are again realities.
 These are great memories and there
 are thousands who love to recall
 them.
 Today we are met together to re-
 call the memories of those who once
 marched but will never march again.
 And there is no need of magic or
 necromancy to call forth the spirits of those who seem never to have been
 absent. Their faces are before
 you in memory as they were
 then, beautiful in the pride of young
 manhood, or strong in the prime of their years. They went home years ago but they were greeted by loved ones on a different shore. They did not go by the way of Washington. Many of them did not march in the grand review. They went on diff ferent journey to a different country.
 The soldiers who died in defense of the nation gave up their lives in the same proud spirit as did Private Ar thur Ladd, whose death was the first of that great tragedy, His blood was poured out in the streets of Baltimore | when the Sixth Massachusetts was marching through that hostile city. | His name passed at once into the rich | Decoration Day" of poetry, and he was immortalized:
 Straight to his heart the bullet crushed. Down from his breast the red blood gushed, | And o CT his face glory rushed. "A sudden spasm shook his frame. And in his ears there went and came
 "A sound as of devouring flannel
 Thus. like king, erect in pride,
 He raised clean hands to heaven, and |
 cried.
 |" All hail the stars and stripes and died''
 But not alone to the soldiers should | the nation and these younger genera tiens pay their tribute. The Ameri- can women stood as heroically as did the men. To every soldiers heart from all the lonely homes behind, there stretched a thread of love and sympathy spun by the loyal women of the north and pulsating with affec- ton and hope. Their unfailing pa- triotism and devotion gave strength to the soldier when weakened by the trials of the march, fortified him in diversity and inspired him in battle They sent to the front, not complaints and discouragements, but messages of cheer and strength. They received back their loved ones mutilated, sick, dying, and dead, and sent again to take their places others as brave and as loving. They followed the bloody footsteps of war, and in hos pital and on battle field, slaked the thirst of the wounded, dressed their wounds, caught the last whispers of love, and to the dying their presence was the gate of heaven. And not yet have these loyal women laid down their burden, but come today with ]. their daughters and join with the old | soldiers and the sons . f soldiers, and . in the pathos of suffering and out of | the boundless sympathy of their noble hearts, unite in this offering upon the sacrifcial altar of their country.
 Yet while we delight in honoring heroes and in exalting patriotism, let no man think that upon this occasion, or ever. we eXult over the misfortunes of fallen foe, or glory in the gory scenes of war; let no soldier of the south believe that in the hearts of his victors there rests the shadow of any thought he is less noble because of his adherence to cause which he now knows to have been wrong, or that any taint of treason now pollutes his blood. Those who wore the gray realize that the. cause of war was just cause and their knowledge of their error makes them loyal sons of freedom. We should, and do, deprecate war. But , it must be remembered that wars are in the evolution of society; they are part of the great cosmic they are often great moral l which, like those of the ! physical world, produce important c changes in society and politics. The ( greatest teacher mankind ever had recognized these facts when he said: l ''Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars, be ye not troubled; for such ( things must needs be-"
 And although the judgment of man kind has been that the nation fought l for righteous cause, yet it should be 1 that charity demands for l getfulness of the faults of the van ' quished, and We should and are, dip ( ping our flag more and more in honor $ of our fallen adversaries. The nation T has not withheld nor has the south re a fused the hand of friendship and which straight from his c soldiers heart. Grant offered to Lee at i It would not be possi- V ole for the citizens of any country to a give higher and more sincere evidence V 0f loyalty to the government under a which they live. than have our south t ern brethren by their reception of r President Mckinley during his recent $ our of the southern states. Most t eagerly they sought to press the hand s ,f him who, though in former years C opposed to them in battle, yet now is y l.. 4