Connecticut western news., 1902-06-05

Come on! Charge and follow me-!
 Where can you find a greater deed of heroism than that exhibited upon the field of battle when the ambulance corps found among the wounded boy in blue with both of his eyes shot out. There he sat. holding in his arms the dead body of another boy in blue. They were brothers. AS the surgeons aid came near they heard the blind boy whispering to the dead boy: Poor Bob by, Poor Bobby! Mamma told me to look after you, and will. Poor Bob by! Poor Bobby" An, in this land of the free and the brave we do not want a greater standing army! We do need, however, more consecrated homes; we do need more fathers and mothers who will build the right kind of family al- tars; we do need the right kind of Christian churches, where those chil- dren can be brought in contact with God; we need those Christian boys and girls started in the right kind of avo- cations. Then when war comes, if it must come. the Christian homes of the north and the south, the east and the west, will yield up their sons for the battle and their daughters for the field hospitals.
 The Christian dead of our American
 battlef1elds are intensely alive today in the heavenly recognitions which have been given to them. Impossible Is it to suppose that God would allow his servants who were to be found in both armies and who died upon the American battlefelds to go unreward- ed In the beautiful sermon upon the mount Christ pronounced blessing on those whose lives were full of tears and heartaches, poverty and persecu- ton, islander and death. Do not Christ's
 words apply to those brave men? Did they not suffer enough? Were not their wounds deep enough? Did not they hunger enough and have homesickness enough? Did not many fair checked boy under his blanket at night sob himself to sleep, or, unable to sleep, keep on crying, "Oh, mother, mother, if l could only see motherv In one of the national museums I saw a Bible which had saved a soldiers life. When the young man left home, his mother gave it to him. In battle he was carrying 1t in his coat pocket just over the heart. A flying bullet almost cut its way through that Bible, but 1t was stopped at one of the leaves of the four gospels. Did not many a dying soldier have one of these Bibles in his hand? Did he not weep over 1t when he was dying far away from home? Can God forget his Christian soldiers who died upon the American battlef1elds? No, no! The Bible describes the entrance into heaven of a mighty host marching l through the gates as before the review ing stand of an earthly ruler. St. John in apocalyptic vision cried out In rap- ture as he saw them, "Who are these who are arrayed in white robes, and whence came theyF" There must have been many seen by his prophetic eye wlro came from our American battle fields to whom the answer that he re ceived would apply, These are they
 which came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb"
 An Incident of the crtnea.
 When the English soldiers came back from the Crimean war, all London turned out to greet them. After they had marched past the reviewing stand Queen Victoria and the prince consort arose to receive those heroes who were to be decorated with medals. As each soldier approached, the queen, with her own hand. pinned the medal upon the breast of the man she wished to honor. Some of those soldiers had an empty sleeve; some came on crutches; some
 had their heads bandaged. At last there came a litter. In it was carried the physical wreck of a man. Both of his legs had been shot away One of his arms was gone. His body had sim ply been riddled with bullets. Then the queen, with tears in her eyes, bade the bearers halt She left her place and descended the steps of her stand to the side of the litter. She bent over the poor veteran. On account of his sufferings the queen wished to honor
 him more than any of the rest. So the more the Christian dead of our Ameri- can battleields suffered the more Christ has honored them. Therefore the more are they alive today in the heavenly reunions. My fellow countrymen from the north, the east and the south and the west, this Memorial day let us go forth to decorate with flowers the graves of the American soldiers who died upon the field of battle because their glori- ous memories still live in our hearts. Let us decorate all the graves alike; let us put just as large a wreath upon
 the grave of the unknown picket who was shot by the sharpshooter in the moonlight when doing sentinel duty as upon the grave of the most noted gen eral of the war-Albert Sidney John ston, who fell at Shiloh; Leonidas Polk,
 who fell at Pine Mountain, Georgia Jeb Stuart, the cavalry leader, who fell in Virginia; John Fulton Reyn- olds, shot at Gettysburg; James Birds eye McPherson, killed at Atlanta, or George Armstrong Custer, who was scalped by the Indians a short time after the close of the civil war, receiv- ing the same need of honor and the same floral tribute at the hands of their countrymen as the humble color bearer who when the regiment was re- treating rallied the men just before he was struck by bullet and leaped up
 into the air, crying, "Oh, my God; I'm gone" and fell dead. Give a hero's l garland to the farmer boy who kissed his mother for the last time under the
 shadow of the apple tree when he went | forth to die.
 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his | friends" Every one of the dead heroes paid the greatest of all sacrifices for
 his country. They gave their lives in | order that others might live. And as | we, one and all, fellow countrymen,
 from the north, the east, the south and
 the west, kneel down to place the
 Memorial day flowers upon the graves
 of the boys in blue and of the boys in