The Mankato free press., 1901-05-31

| to the extent of the nation ability to
| do SO. Can this government ever re-
pay the debt of gratitude dne the sol
dier? Can the people ever make good
! to them what they lost in the fierce
struggle? What did they give up for
their country? l speak now of the liv-
ing. Not only did they leave their
! homes and suffer all the hardships of
war. Those who were youngest among
them neglected their education, were
prevented from fitting themselves for
| the different callings and professions,
and thus lost vantage ground in life,
that could never be regained. The
| older man of business came back to
find his patronage gone and his bust
ress ruined. The lawyer and the doc
tor found their clientage and patron
age also in other hands, and were
forced to begin anew, the battle of
life, with hand less steady and brain
less clear than in the days of yore.
The farmer came back, broken in
health and often in spirit, unable to
dig and delve as in days gone by. So
men of all ages, of every calling and
avocation, found themselves set back
and outstripped in all the walks of
life. Many fortune was lost. Many
bright prospect forever darke ned.
Many strong constitution broken.
Many man left without a home of
his own for life, all on account of the
trials and hardships of those four
long, weary years.
And yet, in the face of all this, we
sometimes see men, in this redeemed
land, stand up and claim that the gov
ernment is too lavish of funds in pen
sioning these defenders of our country
But when hear man so talk, l put
him down as being devoid of the first
rude elements of patriotism No man
who loves and appreciates his country,
could be Indifferent to the claims of
the soldier
Many point to the soldiers home as
a remedy for all the ills of the broken
down soldier. Well. soldiers no mes
are a grand thing in their way. For
those who are alone and helpless, and
have no home ties to sever, the SOL
diers' home is better than the poor
house. Yet it has its drawbacks even
then. To live, to eat, and sleep to-
gether in whole companies and regi-
ments, all kinds and classes forced to
intermingle, congenial or uncongenial,
does not conform to my idea of spend
ing the declining years of ones life in
peace and comfort.
And it certainly seems to me that
this government should be liberal
enough to drive want from the door of
the old soldier without driving the
old soldier from his own home TO
the soldiers home to keep from dying
of starvation. The old soldier loves
his home, his people, his surroundings
as much as do you and L and among
them he should be allowed to spend
the closing days of his life, his wants
supplied, if need be, by his grateful
country. And they are all growing to
be old soldiers very fast. Thirty six
years have taken unto themselves
wings, and faded from our lives for
ever, since tn last of those heroes fell
in battle. So long ago did those brave
ones fight and fall, on southern soil,
that the generation of young men who
went out with them in sixty one, two,
and three, are growing old today, and
the shadows cast by the sun of their
lives, are lengthening toward the east.
Time is working it's will in the
ranks of the Grand Army of the Re-
public. Soon the fragmentary regi-
ments and battalions will join their
comrades on eternity's boundless
shore. Soon the bugle call and trum-
pet blare of battle shall give way to
celestial strains Of heavenly music,
which shall gladden. the hearts of the
righteous when time shall be no
more. Soon the weary soldier shall lay
aside earth's toll and strife, and shall
find peace and rest in the land of eter-
nal day. And we shall strew tear wet
flowers upon the graves in common
with those who have gone before
Those fallen heroes whose sacred mem
DRY we here commemorate. What can
we say of them that is not written
deep in each heart today? They are
dead-they are gone. In this world of
change, we shall see their faces no
more. But they died not in vain. In
the land of the south we hear no more
the baying of the bloodhounds in
search of human prey. Instead, mil
lions of ransomed men, women and
children, send up from the fields and
forests their songs of praise and glad
ness to the God who, through the
deeds and death Of those fallen heroes,
has made them free. Free to live as
others live, to toll and labor unmo-
Tested, for their own wives and child
rem. in happy homes, with no one tC
| make them afraid.
The immortal proclamation of Lin
coin struck the shackles from every flet-
tered limb, and with one stroke of the
in spired pen, the great blot upon
American civilization was swept away
| forever.
And he who is free, and who is
blessed with woman's love and the
affection of little children, is king
among men, no odds how poor ano
humble he may be.
All the coming generations will hol6
in reverence those fallen liberators Of
| the slave. The Union which they died
| to save, shall stand as an imperish-
able monument to their heroic deeds
forever Never again in all coming
time, shall any clan or party dare tt
assert the right of men, on any pre-
text, to dissolve this grand old Union,
and divide our common country int
a multiplicity of independent govern
| ments.
The deeds of those heroes, living an(
| dead have thus assured the perpetuity
of our governme ent, and have left this
free country as blessed heritage t.
| their and our descendants forever.
| "Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead,
| Dear as the blood ye gave,
| No impious footsteps here shall tread
| The herbage of your grave.
| Nor shall your glory be forgot,
| While Fame her record keeps.
| Or Honor points the hallowed spot,
| Where valor proudly sleeps.
| Nor wreck, nor change, nor winters blight
| Nor Times resstless doom,
Shall mar one ray of Glory's light,
| That gilds your deathless tomb "
Red is danger signal on the rail