Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-08-25

most all and much of the storr i an.
Gent history. Hardly far
the older settlers represe Ell zero
today but what had it's repr:~ tive
in that list of those who went way.
Hardly family, here but what we'd
person of a relative friend or loved
one in that list of fatalities.
Many of the Mothers Present.
81 see many of the moths
ers of the boys who went
away from here before me this alter
noon. 1t does not take great courage
to go into the battle. When you get
started you are ashamed to falter or
turn back but it does take courage to
send a husband or son. The men
who went to the war can never know
what the women suffered who staid
behind when they went away. And
then when the battle was over the man
knew whether he had been killed or
not but the poor wife or mother a
thousand miles away could only walt
in agony for days till the good or bad
news reached her
81 tell you men, | can never under
stand how q man with vile or
family could leave his home and go to
the battle. With me it was different.
| There was no one dependent upon me.
Had / been killed it would not have
mattered greatly but the man with
family OF loved ones dependent upon
him-I can not understand it-that /.
took bravery of the highest order.
Homes in Fact. Not in Theory.
Another thing, let me say that those
We're homes in fact not in theory.
When man was called from his fire.
side to go to the front he left a home
that was worth fighting for. So long
as the great American home is scat'
tered broadcast over this land the frees
dom and safety OF the nation are assure
ed
Bitterness Fading Away.
Il am glad that the bitterness
of that struggle is fading away. The
years go Slipping by. hurrying on to
the end of the nineteenth century and
fastening as if eager to begin and
push into the twentieth. With these
| slipping years the bitter memories are
disappearing. Those who fought on
this side and upon the other in that
long desperate struggle have
| together given their sons to fight side
Iby side in the Spanish war and will
/. again give their grandsons and their
great grandsons to fight in the next
great American war whenever that una
| happily shall come.
"The day is fast coming when the sol
diers of both sides will fraternize in
| the times of peace as did the soldiers
in the lull of battle when the firing had
for a time ceased, when men OF the
north traded coffee and sugar for to.
bacco from the men of the south.
I'VE have all heard the story of Jules
and Frank Lombard when they sang in
the union trenches of General Grant
when his great army surrounded
| Vicksburg. Their voices as they sang
rang higher and higher and the firing
lslowly ceased. A rebel sprang upon
| the works of the defense and shouted,
Hello, Yankee Hello, Johnnie
Reb,' went back the answer. Isn't
that Frank and Jules Lombard singing
over there?' Yes We'll, stop fir
ing, we want to hear Them The two
brothers climbed upon the dirt of the
trenches and sang as they never sang
before. They sang the old song, An
ME Laurie. and many a butternut
sleeve wiped a tear from the eye of
a confederate man and many blue
/ coated sleeve wiped tears from union
eyes.
Every heart in those great armies
of men called up a different girls face
and different name. The brothers
sang Home, Sweet Home the con-
cert was over. the soldiers sprang
down into their trenches. A rebel
voice cried Look out and again
the bullets began to sing their song of
| death
There never yet has been result
less war. Every battle ever fought
has left its mark upon all time and
it can never be effaced. The great
civil war is ended and the bitterness
of the struggle is being forgotten. We
of the north and they of the south are
all glad that it is over and that it end
ed as it did. The sons and daughters
of the north and of the south togeth-
err take up the work of the passing
generation and together place it an
other stage forward and leave it in
the minds of those who are to
/ come.