The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-27
JUDGE ". H. THOMAS,
 ORATOR OF THE DAY
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| (Continued from Page Nine.)
 battle: cemented with the blood of Maine and Texas. and the mingling of the widows and orphans tears: and loyal hearts free from guile, making their obe- stance before the throne of Infinite Jus tice begging for the common good of a united people. f13
 And who would have 1t otherwise? No fair minded man but will now say it was all for the better as it 80 terminated. Surely there must be Divinity that shapes the destiny of nations as of men. For listen to the roar of the blast fur mace and steel plants. the shriek of the steam engine, and tns roll of the busy wheels of commerce as they swell the gladsomc chorus of the New South's na.
 The 9th of April. ,aa
 Man has ever commemorated great achievements but it is of success and public benefaction. and not for disaster and failure. The famous dramatic rep resentation of the scenes of the Passion and Death of Christ. exhibited at regular periods by the simple villagers Of Ober- Ammergau. in Bavaria, is fulfiilment of an ancient VOW for their deliverance from the infiiction of a plague When glad world sings Joyous psalms on East CT Day. the universal heart Is full of the risen Lord. And as on the evening of the sth of April listened to that spien- did address of Gen.. Fitzhugh Lee, by which we consecrated in memory the failure of the Southern Cause, I could but know we were reunited. In the Cra- dle of the Confederacy, was a Confed- crate audience, on the s7th anniversary of the failure of their cause. listening to the patriotic eioauence of an ex-Con- federate General in which he spoke no unkind word of the Other Side and Ism for the Union. The thought was there suggested that ere the circle of an- other thirty-seven years. need we be sur prised to find. at the North and at the April as day of celebration for the ''heroic men in Gray as we'll as the he- roic men in Blue.' who layed their hopes their heroism. and their lives on that ai- tar of Liberty-the American Union7
 A United Citizenship.
 Looking to the ''other Side" we find the same condition. shown in many ways. Of this. will let President Roosevelt. (thankful for his privilege to have served under "a gallant old Confederate leader') speak:
 "The wounds left by the Great Civil war;" he says, ''incomparably the great est war of modern times, have healed: and its memories are now priceless her itages of honor alike to the North and the South. The devotion. the self-sacri- flee. the steadfast resolution and lefty daring, the high devotion to the right as each man saw it--whether Northerner or Southerner-these qualities of the men and women of the early sixties now shine luminously and brilliantly before our eyes, while the mists of anger and hatred that once dimmed them have passed away forever"
 Only a few days ago. General Torrance, the ander-in-Chief of the c. A. R., was the guest of Montgomery. and he elo- quently bears witness as follows:
 'I believe that the men on both sides we're actuated by lofty purpose. They were moved by a sense of duty. Between us there arose some prejudices and some real differences. which could not be settled except by recourse to the Court. of War. to that Court we finally resorted.
 When the sun broke through the clouds at Appomattox on that April morning, 1t shone upon the remnant of as brave an upon an army that surrendered without a stain of dishonor. It surrendered to a magnanimous leader who refused to take the sword of General Lee. It sur with cheers not of victory. but of grat- itude that the great struggle was over"
 This reconciliation is shown not only in public utterance, but the kind deeds city, a Union soldier died in poverty: Confederate Veterans Camp took charge of his body and laid 1t to rest with de. cent burial firing the Confederate salute many illustrations that might be present. ed
 And on the part of the North every day brings assurance in the kindly express sion and effort for higher and more lib- eral education at the South, such men as George Foster Peabody, and MT. Car negle, Robt. c. Ogden, Dr. Albert Shaw, Oscar Willard, John D. Rockefeller, IT,. than worthy of my honorable mention would time permit. and of whose munif- cence we are now the beneficiary.
 A Practical Remembrance.
 The Confederate veteran needs not only patriotic rerembrance. but practical remembrance. The State in the past has done what it could in the way of pen sions; yet l regret to admit that all the Southern States. save West Virginia, Alabama. Mississippi and South Carolina have established Soldiers Homes. and the State of Missouri. showing a. rho.'- oughly just recon ,iliation. maintains two Soldiers Homes, one for the disabled Union soldiers and one for his Confed- crate brothers. I trust that Alabama. at an early session of its Legislature. will provide a Soldiers Home. or assist in the maintenance of such as may be es- tablished by the Camps of Confederate Veterans.
 Soldiers Homes.
 It is a source of qualification that. if the State and the patriotism of her peo- pie. have not provided Soldiers Homes. the Confederate Veteran, with that same courageous persistence and adherence to duty that placed his name with the Im- mortals. has undertaken this provision for herself.
 And what is more fitting than that it be located near the centre of the State! That public spirited veteran, Col. J. NJ. Falkner. and the camp bearing his name. have located and begun a home at Noun tain Creek, near this city. and we now trust that the day is not far distant when the reedy Confederate Veteran in Alabama will not eke out a scant exist ence on an insufficient pension. or be humiilated by his stay in the County Poor House. but that commodious Sol diers' Home may claim her own
 Tn National Soldiers Homes.
 Practical beneficience Is one of the sur est tests of sincerity: and a few years ago in Atlanta, when Mir. McKiniey stated that the time was not far distant when the Federal Government would care alike for the graves of Union and Con- federate soldiers. his sentiment was echoed by nations heart.
 It is a sacred sentiment to care for the graves of the gallant dead, but a nobIer sentiment and more sacred duty to care for the needs of the living. The world too often pays debts when it is too late; seeks by doing deferred justice to com fort broken heart. to give color and life to the famished corpse. Let us re- member that the violet Is sweeter to the living than a cargo of roses on the bier of the dead. That the much needed nT1t.. aw-1lN z1. ,-t,s