The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-05-10
MEMORIAL DAY.

IN every city, town ana naInleU III
North Carolina today, which is honored
rs the last resting place OF brave Con-
federate soldiers, noble women will
meet to lay flowers on their honored
graves. 1t is custom inspired by love
and perpetuated by deathless devotion.
Writing Of the origin OF Memorial Day,
Mrs. Jefferson Davis recently said:
AN association known as the Ladies'
Aid Society was organized in 1861 for
looking after soldiers who died in CO.
lumbus hospitals. They were buried
under the direction OF these ladies'.
who thereafter took charge of these
graves, making it a practice to go in
body and care for and beautify them
with plants and flowers. Upon the oc-
casion of one OF these visits, in jan
uary, 1866, Miss Lizzie Rutherford, a
member of the society, made the sug-
gestion that a specified day should
be adopted upon which a memorial
service should be held for the. purpose
Of decorating the Confederate graves
annually. The proposition met at
once with the.greatest favor, and let
ter was addressed to each of the chap
ing similar action on their part
These letters were written in March,
1866. and from their publication result
ed the observance of Memorial Day for
the Confederate dead in several south
ern States.p
Wilmington why Memorial Day should
always be'ebseryed at the South, the
New Orleans Times Democrat says
and says so well what every southern
man feels-that we reproduce it here:
These annual decorations, moreover,
are not meant for the present hour and
for the present generation alone. They
are meant also toainstil into the minds
and into the hearts of those who will
come after us, when the last Confeder-
ate Veteran shall have answered his
final4roll-call, and all of US who We're
bornsin time to see or to hear of the
war shall have crossed into the land Of
eternal night-to instil we say, into the
minds and hearts of those who come
after us the same deep reverence for
that sacred Lost Cause" with which
the South wifi never in thought cease
to associate itself, and the same un
changing admiration for those gallant
devotion to that cause with their blood
It. is a day, in short, which we of the
present day, removed just a generation
from the internecine struggle, owe to
our children, and which they in turn
will owe TO their children-to keep alive
the memory of the sacred cause. as it
were a Vesta's fire in the shrine of our
innermost hearts, to preserve that
memory of the heroes who championed
it and to pass it on to posterity a leg
acy % priceless value.
"A people arr purified and elevated
by periodicals Indulgence in the recoI
lection. the re-enactment of griefs that
have gnawed and of suffering that has
left it's scars. The wounds, it is true,
bleed afTesfl lolf, the occasion of every
re-enactment.a but it is a healthier flow
that comes with every opening. There
Is less and less Of venom TO eXude each
time-less of any selfish, indicative
feeling, more of sanctified altruism and
ennobled Spiritual life Therefore it is
well to have fixed occasions for mourn-
ing.
1T would perhaps be too much to say
that the people of New Orleans are
never seen to so much advantage as on
day OF general mourning, like this
day Of the decoration Of the Confeder-
ate graves; but they are seer to decided
advantage on such day. They are all
day long, asst were, under an awesome
pall-a pail crimsoned generation ago
with the blood of their nearest and
dearest ones; and the solenlnity of their
manner, evidenced both in word and
act ,betokens the force with which
that pail overshadows their hearts.
Strangers have noticed in this commun-
ity on this decoration day the still and
solemn demeanor of the people, the abb
sence of the ribald laugh and the drunk
en- shout; and they have put it on
record that we are not altogether a
frivolous people, but that we are at bot
tom thoughtful, and even a religious
people"