Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-06-01
Mayor Robertson Presided at
Services in City Hall.
FuIkText of Mr.. buttons Powerful
and Thrilling Grafton.
Auausta's Tribute to the Dead Who
Made and Kept This Nation,

a fair audience.
The veterans of war marched from
G. a. r. hall to City hall to the music
of the band, and had seats reserved for
them at the front. while in the seats
next them were the members of the
Woman's Relief Corps.
Hon. Gustavus A. Robertson, mayor
of Augusta, presided. Having seats
on the rostrum with the mayor were
Commander Mandred o. Savage of
Seth Williams Post, q. A. r.; Lewis
Selbing, uuartermaster of the Post;
William McDavid, adjutant of the
Post: Hon. George r. Smith, register of
deeds for Kennebec county; Hon.
Greenlief T. Stevens, judge of Kenne-
bee probate court; Rev. w. F. Livings-
ton: Hon. Samuel w. Lane and Hon.
Lendall Titcomb, eX-mayors of Au-
gusta: Ex-Governor Selden Common;
and Frank l.. Button, Esq, the orator
of the evening.
Music was by the Lafayette Band
under leadership of Frank A. Dennis.
The opening number was r. B. Halls
concert march, IS. |. B. A"
Prayer was offered by Rev. w. F.
Livingston.
The band gave a selection, Dalby's
overture. Band Union."
Adjutant McDavid of Williams Post
read the orders for the day from the
national headquarters of the Grand
Army of the Republic. Included in the
orders was Lincoln's brief masterpiece
of oratory, the Gettysburg address, it's
powerful eloquence proving effective
even to those of the present generation
who can only imagine the greatness of
that occasion.
The band played medley of war
songs. The music from the band was
excellent during both day and evening,
but it was this piece, the stirring airs
to which men had marched to battle,
that aroused the hearers to enthusiasm.
The Grafton was by Frank l.. Dutton
Esq, of this city, of the firm of Heath,
Andrews & Dutton one of the bright
est young lawyers of the Kennebec bar.
For a young man Mr.. Dutton has had
much experience in public speaking
and this was clearly manifest in his
splendid effort, Saturday evening. In
it's conception and its expression his
Grafton was pronounced one of the
best heard here in many years. In its
delivery there was nothing to be de-
sired and Mr.. Dutton well merited the
enthusiastic applause which showed
the appreciation of the ordinance. The
Grafton was followed with the closest
interest. 1t is published below in full:
Mr.. Chairman Ladies and Gentlemen:
Nothing can be more difficult than to
say something new upon an occasion
like this. For more than a generation
the very best and brightest has been
sary. No other subject in all fields of
literature, of languages living or dead,
has produced so much as the bravery of
a nations soldiers and the valor of a
nations dead.
Deeply conscious am /, members of
the Grand Army of the Republic, of the
honor you have paid me in asking me
to address you this evening touching
that part of your lives and the nations
life which TRANSFERRED before | was
born. And it is with mixed feelings
of emotion that | approach the duty be-
fore me. a duty pleasant in itself, but
to be shrunk from because | cannot
put in words the thoughts | would ex-
press.
Must I content myself with mounting
the hackneyed phrases of others? Must
then tell you of your old age and the
+valor of your former years?
Man never turns his back upon the
past, for he cannot. He never turns
his face to the past for he will not.
Life is ever looking towards the sun,
and the sun is ever moving onward.
The setting of the sun is but the dawn
ing of the morning to a different hori-
Zon.
Were | to tell you that you had
reached the western horizon of your
lives. and more than half convince you
of the fact, you would still look upon
the activities of life with the same
manly vigor you had nearly half a CEN
fury ago. Age remembers, but it does
not relive. You and | stand upon the
same footing tonight. We are staying
here today; we are living here tomor-
row. We labor today that we may
have pleasure tomorrow. When to-
morrow comes we labor again for the
succeeding day.
1t is only upon anniversary days that
the past grasps hands with The future
Disappointment and ambition kneel at
the same altar; one to ask forgiveness
for mistakes. the other for guidance in
hope. Today you are the remnant of
great army; tomorrow you will be
citizens of great Republic. Today you
wear these uniforms. They offer no
future for YOU they have none. To-
morrow you will put on civilian clothes,
bound by the closest ties of home and
family to the living present and the
hopeful future. Upon the one hand
Xou have a remembrance; upon the
other a hope. Giving full credit 20 all
the cherished recollectiOns of the past
and balancing them with a not un-
clouded future. and every man of YOU
tonight has as the burden Of his
prayer day that is yet to be.
Notwithstanding all this, YOU have
for today given yourselves up to the
past. That fact, together with a
sufficient modesty to prevent my at
tempting to forestall the future, turns
me to history. rather than to prophecy.
To many of US history is but table
of great events. We read of the Span
ish Armada. the defeat of Naboleon,
and the sudden rise and fall of empires.
Living as we do in the glamor of the
.r41 r-s.l.