Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1901-05-28
MEMORIAL oAY IN PARIS.

"A. II. Hall TO be ready TO start LOT Yves
Paris at 7 o'clock A. NJ, where exercise
} will be held at the cemetery at $50 A
NJ. The G. A. r. men, school children
and citizens will march from the village
to the cemetery, where the following
order of exercises will be carried out:
Singing.
Prayer.
Remarks, Hon. James 3. Wrigh'
Singing.
Remarks, Comrade Rev. W. E. Brooks
General remarks by others.
Decorating Soldiers Graves.
, Clio. ing Singing-America.
n Comrades and ladies of the Relic
Corps will assemble at G.. A. r. Hall
South Paris, at o'clock p. NJ. The line
will be formed at 80, as follows: Band
G.. A. r. men and veterans of the civil
lwar, speakers of the day, ladies of the
Relief Corps, scholars of the several
schools, under the management OF
Superintendent w. L. Gray, citizens
March to Riverside Cemetery, where the
following brief order of exercises will
be held:
Singing, Partisan Male QuaItette
Prayer, Rev. T y. hamt deii
Reading. Miss Ollie Mae Stuart
Singing
Il Decorating OF SOlultTs RraNecp VIC ponu
meanwhile playing dirge.
Then the march will be to Moore
Park, past the soldiers monument, then
return to New Hall, where the general
exercises of the day will be held. Order
of exercises as follows:
| Npsic Band.
/ singing Male Quartette.
/ PRAYER Rev. A. w. POtte.
| Reading Miss Susie Rounds.
| Singing.
Presentation of the gayel by Col. French, to
the Post, to be received by Post CON-
mander.I. j. Monk. p.oo,.,
/ Music Band.
Address, Col C. II. French.
Closing service of the afternoon. Singing
America, Quartette anu Auuiehce.
In the evening Col. French will give
his illustrated lecture for the benem o.
JPm. Il. EimbaU Post-Cuba and The
Maine, also The Klondike Gold Regions,
showing by the use of his wonderful
moving-picture machine several hundred
beautifully illustrated pictures. For
fuller details relative to the lecture, see
posters. Tickets on sale at store OF F.
A. Shurtleff & Co. All are invited.
Memorial Sunday was observed by
services at the Baptist church at p. NJ.
There were marshaled in the procession
from Grand Army Hall forty members
of VIM. X. Kimball Post and other
veterans, and about the same number of
members of the Relief Corps. The mu-
sic included duet by Mrs. j. E. Everett
and Mr.. C. A. Churchill, and a solo by
Miss Jessie Clare Tolman. An excellent
sermon was delivered by Rev. L. j.
Ramsdell, of which the following is a
summary:
Exodus IL IA And this day shall be to you for
memorial.
The day thus set apart was to COM
memorate the deliverance of the children
of Israel from the bondage of Egypt.
There is an instructive feeling that great
events ought to have some formal COM
memoration lest the recollection of them
grow dim or become entirely effaced.
Hence the establishment of Memorial
Day. Heavy indeed was the price paid
in blood and treasure for the preserva-
ton of the union. The loss of life
caused directly by the war of the rebel
lion amounted to nearly half a million
of men. Thousands have died since the
war who would be living to-day had it
not been for the hardships experienced
in the service. At the close of the war
the national debt was nearly three
thousand millions of dollars. Every
eight years the United States pays out
billion dollars in pensions. Was this
sacrifice of life and treasure too great
price to pay? For an answer let us con-
;ider some of the results of that
great struggle. Not|the least among
those results was that it taught the
nation the blessings of peace. The fer
vent Thanksgiving to God that went up
from our people when peace was re-
stored left a permanent impress upon
our national life. The surviving vet
Grams on either side have been dis
tinctively conservative force in our
national life.
Another result was the destruction OF
slavery. The surgeon sometimes finds
it necessary to break deformed limb
that it may grow straight. So it took
the stern surgery of war to remove the
cancer of slavery. Other means had
been tried, but all had failed. 1t SEEM
ed that the slave power was so firmly in
trenched that it could not be overthrown.
But in the shock of civil war the slave
power went down forever. Another OF
the results of the war was to emphasize
the worth of man as man without regard
to color or class distinctions. The
armies of the union were filled with men
| from every walk in life. The college
professor and the day laborer fought
side by side. The charge of the colored
regiment at Fort Wagner proved that
the black man knew how to die for
liberty. 1t would have been but little
advantage to have such generals as
Grant and Sherman and Sheridan had
they not had at their command armies
composed of men of heroic mold who
were ready to lay down their lives for
their country and for humanity.
| Another result of the civil war was to
emphasize anew the fact that the divine
government is over nations as well as
| individuals. The slaves cry to God for
deliverance went up for generations APP
parently unheard. More and more the
Slave power intrenched itself till it
seemed impossible that it should be dis
lodged without destroying the nation.
The system of slavery had so warped
mems moral perceptions that deeply
religious men like Stonewall jackson
foug ht for the South and prayed that its
armies might win. When at last the
people of the North came to realize that
Gods hand was laid in judgment upon
the nation for the sin of slavery, then
came emancipation. Men reverently
recognized in the outcome of the war the
guiding hand of God.
Such were some of the results of that
great sacrifice of money and of life. Are
they not worth the cost? But we would
not forget the price paid. Honor to
those who returned from the fields of
strife; honor to the memory of those
'swho gave that last, full measure of de-
votion'', the sacrifice of life, that the
nation might not perish. And may God
grant that to the last hour of time,
wherever the flag shall float under whose
folds they died, that it may stand as the
symbol of liberty and justice and peace.
RASE RAIL-