The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1903-05-25
The Veterans at New Orleans.


The feeble health of General John
p Gordon. the beloved commander Of
the Confederate Veterans. which led
him we'll nigh TO the brink of a col
lapse at the New Orleans reunion
Tuesday, serves to accentuate the pa
thetic truth that age is sapping the
strength and thinning the ranks OF the
brave men who pledged their lives
fortunes and sacred honor to the de
Tense of the southern confederacy
more than forty years %.
Forty years ago. The abstract re-
Election that so long a period OF time
has elapsed since the war between
the states was half fought out, is suifi-
Cient to make us realize. indeed. that
the surviving soldier who is so dear 10
us, through personal ties and patriotic
associations. is indeed growing Old.
Why, the men who were in their era
dies when the south still shuddered
with fresh memory of Appomat-
tox are the men who. largely, are
making the new south" something
much more than an idealistic catch
phrase. The work of material rehabil-
itation, so bravely begun and indelati-
gably carried on through years OF dis
couragement and difficulty. has IN
great measure passed from the hands
that bore arms under the stars and
bars into the stronger hands OF the
sons and sons sons OF tho men who
wore the gray. The laws OF nature
exact this penalty, and today the ma
Tor part OF those who I'D battle for
a cause that was lost have their active
lives behind them. They live in a
subjective world, thinking much OF
other days-days that had their glory
as well as their pain. Their hearts
are with their spectral comrades biv-
ouacing behind the veil. They only
await the eternal reveillc.
Each reunion season now sees gaps
In the ranks srpassing the mortal
ity of the old battles. When men
reach the psalmist's allotted span OF
years they fall like autumnal leaves,
and the veterans who were under thir-
" when Sumter threw down the
gauntlet have reached that border
line. The man who was in middle life
at that time is IN togenarian.
Still. without detracting from the
pathos of it all, 1t might be pointed
out that a remarkable lumber OF eX-
confederates are with us in prime
trim for combating the rorld that is,
for the reason that the southern con-
federacy robbed the cradle to carry
its fight TO the last ditch. The beard
less boys who ran away to meet the
sWarming cohorts Of Grant and Sher-
man along about tire middle sixties
are yet in their fifties, and. Of course,
most OF the veterans at New Orleans
or who wish they were there were
mere striplings when they went to the
front, Why should man. particu-
Iarly an old soldier, get old faster
than a woman?
The further OF the civil war. the
more precious are these gatherings Of
our grizzled heroes 1t matters not
that conditions, measures and senti-
ments have undergone a change dur
ing the long peace which has inter
yened. and that the south has literally
been metamorpto Never for an
instant has our loyalty to &c past.
and our love for the true sons OF the
southland who wrote its history In
blood, wayered. and in this good day
we nave no public delight so great as
I'm doing the brave souls of the sixties
honor. That was an epoch-making
era. and its actors were the strong
men great national crises demand.
The inevitable emergency arose; there
were heroes equal to it,
The south is keenly live to her
duty to her broken soldiers of that
long.ago conflict AS he fingers in the
shadow, recounting the days of his
glory and eXcha ging the greetings of
comrades at his annual reunions, the
great heart Of tt Dixie that can new
er change goes out to him as the af-
lection of a mother to her son. of a
daughter to her father II he must
grow old and cross over the mystic
river to rest under the shade of the
paradisal trees, God grant him peace
in the waiting and the going
The Constitution, in common With
ell southerners, looks with tender
emotions toward New Orleans this
glorious May day and wishe the gal
liant old boys OF the times that tried
the souths soul the happiest reunion
of their lives!
Getting at the Truth