Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1902-06-06
Memorial Day at Island
Pond.

the veterans, with the Sons Of Veterans
as escort, aud headed by a fife aud drum
corps. marched to the cemetery where
the graves of departed comrades were
profusely decorated aud the customary
ritual service performed, after which
they proceeded to the opera house. The
exercises here consisted of the reading
of the Department Commanders procla-
nation, the salute to the dead, prayer
by Rev. Thos. Hall, these being inter
spersed by selections by a male quar-
tette. The singing was very fine. The
speaker of the day was introduced by
Col. Porter II. Dale in touehingly ap-
propriate language.
MR.. CoNwELL's ADDRESS.
1t seldom falls to the lot of town of
the comparative retirement of this town
to listen to such an address on any oc-
casion, however suspicious, as that de-
livered on Memorial day in Island Pond
by Rev. Russell ii. Conwell. Rare and
unusual is the eloquence that, on any
given subject, can so appeal to every
member of an indiscrimnate audience
as does this mans. A soldier and a
patriot himself, there was not person
who listened to him Friday who at the
end of his address would not willingly
have shouldered gun and marched to
the field of battle to do and if need he
die for his country; not a person, man,
woman or child who could help weeping
at the pathos of the stories OF heroism
that he told or fail to feel the force of
the morals that he incidentally drew.
Mr.. Conwell's eloquence is Of the kind
that adapts itself perfectly and instantly
not only to bis subject and the occasion,
but to his audience as well. Devoid of
all attempted rhetoric, shorn of any and
all verbiage that might go over the head
of his humblest nearer, he talks straight
to the hearts of his hearers aud never fails
to make them understand, nor fails to
gain their attention aud sympathy and
to hold it from first to last. His words
Friday while appropriate to the day, be-
ing of the war, its causes, results and
the lesson to be drawn from it, were not
in the nature of discourse but rather
in the form of narrative, story of a
great struggle forcefully told, with
enough of incident and fact to show the
great pity of it all, and enough of elo-
quence to show the great heroism and
devotion to duty that characterized both
armies in the righting of a great wrong.
And it was the sin of people not of an
individual, was the speakers conclusion.
Particularly effective was Mr.. Conwell's
story of the great battle of Antietam.
AS a captain of infantry he, with his
command, was stationed on Table
Mountain overlooking the scene of the
battle that was waged on both banks of
the Newport river below. Aud as he
told of the lines of soldiers that swept
from one point of vantage ground to an
other, line after line, column after col
umn following each other in quick sue
cession in one of the most desperate and
fatal charges in the history of modern
warfare, not one of his hearers but
whose pulses tingled and whose heart
beat faster; and then the awful slaught
er, the repulse, the ree!ing, dying men
staggering back, blackened with smoke
and stained with their own blood only
to charge again and on to victory. 1t
would indeed have been a heart of stone
that would not have been moved by so
vivid story and what was the wonder
that Island Ponds quota of gray haired
men, members of the diminishing Grand
Army of the Republic should drop a
silent tear as they recalled that awful
scene and the memory of the 5000 brave
men that it cost the Union army, and
the 5000 Northern homes that it rem
dered desolate. Aud this, said the
speaker, was but small part of the
price that the sin of nation cost. Mr..
Conwell's stories of instances of indi-
vidual heroism that came under his per-
sonal observation were many of them
touching in the extreme. No one who
was present will ever forget the story of
Johnny Ring and his rescue of his cap
tain's sword. Few were the dry eyes in
the audience at the conclusion of the
pitiful little story, and few were the
acts of heroism recorded of all the War
of the Rebellion that exceed in bravery
the act of this lad who laid down his
life for his country, and for the man he
loved Russell ConwelD. And this.
with the horrors of Andersonville and
Libby prisons so wildly portrayed by
Mr. Conwell, was part of the price of
the sin of a nation. Mr.. Conwell's adj
dress lasted for the greater part of an
hour and it will be many long day be-
fore its like is again heard in Island
Pond. At the close he was greeted by
an enthusiastic outburst of applause.