The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-05-03
COL. ". H. DBNSON
 DELIVERS ADDRESS
SPEECH BEFORE COMRADES OF CAMP HARpEE OF coNFEDER. ATE VETERANS AT YEsTER- DAYS MEETING.

At meeting of Camp Hardee. United Confederate veterans, held yesterday. Col. W. H. Denson delivered the follow ing speech:
 My Comrades. I feel and appreciate my utter inability to say anything that will lend a greater charm, or add more fas- cinating attraction to the name "Confed- crate Veteran"
 It is a name around which clusters the grandest conception of human patriotism, human sacrifice, human courage and human glory. The memories that come up in our minds, the emotions that arouse our souls, at the mention of the name Confederate Veteran, are indefinable by the human language, and unfathomable by human measurement.
 When I contemplate the magnitude of the subject when l attempt to scan the grandeur and loftiness of the characters that are suggested in that name, l feel that silence is the best expression of our hearts appreciation. the truest eloauence of our woe. No two words have ever been pronounced. and can never be pronounced among men, that can arouse among friend or foe loftier conceptions of valor, grander ideas of heroism or purer inspirations of patriotism
 All that is grand, all that is lofty all that is beautiful, all that is noble; aye, all that Is pure, sublime and unalloyed in human character, find fit expression an unerring and complete measurement in the name Confederate Veteran. l Human energy, human wisdom nor hu- I T I NTlrA l nothing from the lmmortelles that find ] expression in that sacred name. l Glory guards with solemn round" their names, their fame. and in the loftiest and most virtuous niche in the great temple l of fame, their names and their deeds have been inscribed beyond the reach of ungen- | erous or ignoble criticism, and the corrod- ing energes-of time. There they are in- scribed. and will be defended as long as human kind shall be capable of appreciat- l ing all that Is sublime and noble in human action and in human character. 1 Each year. when spring with all the lovelness of her vernal foliage bursting 1 from the bosom of cheerless winter lays down her rich argosies of fragrant flowers and sweetest perfumes they are gathered | up by the fair and noble women of the south, and, watering them with their l tears, they are beautifully and tenderly l piaceu, Dy pldStlc ana lONlnS ndnuS, on the graves of our departed comrades and heroes, in some measure giving expression of womans love and remembrance.
 Such honors 1lium to her hero paid,
 While peaceful slept the mighty Electors
 shade"
 In this ceremony there Is but little of military parade. nothing of the pomp and arrogance of victory-but little of mar tial music; but in quiet and solemn pro- eesson, we wend our way to the cities of our dead, cheered by that music alone that makes the whole world akin fla- lures woodland choir, with hearts tri- umphant in the knowledge of the fact that no sod of earth rests upon, or storied urn contains, nor sarcophagus holds, ashes of the dead. who gave their lives more eheerfully or bravely to the cause of their country, or gave up their nor tai existence more willingly in defense of what the pen of impartial history will proclaim to have been their natural and charter rights, than the buried Confeder- ate heroes.
 As our victorious adversaries in the conflict learned much of the science and art of war from us, during the period of that terrible conflict, so, too. after the sword is sheathed anL the artillery ceased to reverberate its awe inspiring sounds; after white-winged peace has taken the sceptre of authority in hand; those same ad ersaries have learned from