The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-08-17
CONFEDERATE REUNION.

The great event of this month Is the
Reunion Of Confederate Veterans in
Greensboro. 1t embraces August GOTH
22nd. The good people of Greensboro are
making preparations to give royal re-
ception to the old veterans-the surviv-
the annals of history.
Every year there is thinning of the
ranks, many having answered the roll
call in the Great Beyond. 1.-THE snow that
never melts' has fallen upon the head of
most of those who survive. They have
passed the meridian and are going down
them will soon bivouac with Lee and
Davis, Jackson and Pettigrew, Vance
and Pender. and their other comrades
who fell in the service of their country
in battle or afterwards in the severe
conflict of every day life. 1t may well be
questioned whether it is TOOK higher cour
or to try to make bricks without straw
after the last call to arms had sounded.
There were not a few who were ready
enough to win glory at the lannon's
mouth who found it a harder career to
face the ruin and want that war had
brought.
These veterans-(God bless them every
oneD will have many a story to ex-
change this week at the campfire, and
many deed of courage that should be
immortalized in song will be modestly
told to recall the days when youth gave
zest, even in the face of danger.
The many who remain to bless the
Commonwealth have lived to see the
State and the world give fitting recog-
milton of their valor and their nobility.
of the Regiments printed this year, the
half dozen monuments erected in the
counties, and other imperishable evil
dences Of the gratitude of an apprecia-
tive people-these must be very grateful
to the veterans who have been spared 10
this good hour. The lessons of their
patriotism, of their courage, of their for
titude and manhood in defeat and III
poverty-these things will be told to the
children Of this Commonwealth as long
as time shall last. II the youth of North
Carolina are taught to know their heroic
deeds, to understand the honorable mo-
tiyes that prompted their sacrifices, and
the high courage they displayed, they
will be worthy descendants of the men
whose magnificent contempt of danger
has challenged-and must ever challenge
the admiration of the world.
The young men who have grown up
since the war ought to appreciate the
high privilege of coming in close touch
with these soldiers of Lees army. Many
of them are poor and live in comparative
poverty and wear none of the trappings
of the soldier whose bright uniforms
challenged youthful admiration. In their
plain clothes, they are heroes of a Cause
that makes every one of them more to
be revered than if they were members
of the Legion of Honor. That boy or
young man who has come into such rela-
tionship with one of the wearers of the
gray as to hear him tell the simple story
of what he saw and did has heard from
the lips OF the actor narrative of
deeds far more glorious than can be
found in biography. The experiences of
the privates do not get in the books, ex-
cept an occasional act Of heroism that |
was performed in the public eve. There |
is hardly man of the thousands who !
came home in rags whose experiences |
would not thrill those who are moved !,
by gallant deeds. These heroes can sell