Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-06-07
DEDICATION CEREMONIES.

The Deutscher Kriegen Verein held
picnic Sunday afternoon at Columbia
park and dedicated new banner, in
which ceremonies they were joined by
other societies. At one o'clock they
met at the court house square AID
escorted by the Columbia band and the
mayor and city council, marched to the
park. The dedicatory ceremonies were
participated in by six girls dressed in
white and speech was made by Mayor
Zimmerman in which he offered the
society the freedom of the city for the
day. During the afternoon the society's
members gave exhibition drills in
which they demonstrated that they had
not forgotten the military tactics of the
fatherland. The banner dedicated is
a beautiful one of silk-a combination
of German and American colors. The
dedication address in German was
made by Emil Court, of Milwaukee,
Judge Louis Marchetti spoke in Eng
ish, as follows:
In behalf of the Wausau Soldiers
association | thank you all for your
presence here today and for your par
ticipatiOn in this celebration. The
ceremony which we have witnesseth.
solemn and impressive as it was, is
however of much deeper significance
than we can imagine to those, who were
actively engaged as these men were, in
the stirring events which began in
Europe in 1864, ending in 1871, and
which were of far reaching conse-
quenees.
The flag of a country is the symbol of
national honor, national dignity,
national unity, national independence,
ana with us, it is also and more particu-
larly so. the symbol of national liberty
1t is all that to the private citizen, but
20 the soldier it is more than that. To
him it brings the memory of past re-
solves, of past heroic actions and self
sacrifices. 1t rouses in him to enthu-
siasm these sentiments of esprit de
corps, which distinguishes him from
the unframed mass. But to these men
here who have dedicated this, the ban
ner of their association, it means much
more than that, because they were part
of the moving, active force which gave
birth to the flag, around which they
now assemble, for deeds of charity and
mutual assistance.
No colOrs of this KIDD existed before
1866, and even after the formation of
the north German federation, it floated
only over part of Germany These men
remember the land of their birth as it
was before it had a national emblem;
they remember the time when their
native country was not even known in
a political sense as Germany, because
fhInnnh mo n ina f,nn
of foreign powers, and the entire alb
sence of patriotic sentiments in the
breasts OF their many petty rulers
which then held sway in Germany, that
country had stopped down from the
proud position which it once held in
the world, and had become an object of
| contempt to the great powers.
While marching abreast with every
civilized nation in point OF numbers, in
culture, in civilization, in industry, in
the sciences and in the arts, it had
become a political nonentity, and a
German remembered his German de-
| scent only when in a foreign land,
while when at home, he was the subject
of one of the numerous potentates,
through the municipalities of many of
them a traveller could walk afoot from
one end of the land to the other in less
than half day.
Then came the time so ardently
wished and hoped for by millions of
German patriots, when unity came out
of disunion, order out of chaos, when
like phoenix, Germany arose again as
a nation from out of the fire.
1t was through blood and iron,
through fire and sword that German
unity was attained, that the German
tribes and municipalities were welded,
and forged and cemented together into
one homogeneous mass, and that Ger
many again took its rightful place
among the nations of the earth.
These men here have had their full
| share in these soul stirring events and
in the heroic deeds of that glorious
period. Well may they feel proud of
| the part which they have acted, of the
success which has crowned their efforts,
because their success resulted not only
in advance and progress of their coun-
try along political lines, but all along
the lines of humanity.
| 1t is the most natural thing that
these men, who have so nobly acted
their part in attaining these results,
! should seek to preserve among them
selves those ties of comradeship formed
| in times of common peril, that they
should by mutual association, keep
| green the memory of the dangers
through which they have passed, the cpl
sode of battles in which they have par
ticipated, the hardship of forced
| marches, the privations of the camp,
also the humors of the field, and last
but not least, the memory of the love OF
| that humanity, which manifested itself
daily in those great conflicts after the
last shot was fired, in the tender care
| for the wounded and the manned,
whether of friend or foe, and in the
human treatment of the prisoners OF
war.
The men that have passed through
such deadly perilS can never forget the
time which tried their souls, and the
memory of them will live in them as
long as there is life in the body.
They love the country where they
were born, and they would not be good
citizens of this country if it were other
wise.
Lives there man with soul so dead,
| Who never in his heart hath said
| love my own my native land;
If such there lives, he shall go down
| To the vile dust from whence he sprung
Unwept, unhonored and unsung.
To the county of their birth they have
given heaped full measure of devo-
ton there they have also learned the
lessons of obediande to law, to con-
Stituted authority, and the duties
eXacted by sound morality. In coming
to this country, invited by its hospital
ity and by the hundreths of millions of
acres of virgin foil which only waited
for the hand of the industrious hus-
bandman to stir it to yield abundant
harvest, and attracted also by the
l;ha,tx- xz,hiph iS tho hirthriuht of ovarv
American citizen, they have brought
with them those qualities that ! have
mentioned, and also their love for
family, and their habits of thrift and
industry.
They are paying the debt of gratitude
to the country of their adoption, and
they have done their full duty in open
ing this state to culture, and ESPECIALLY
in Marathon county they have done
their share, too, of the pioneers work
aud their share in building up our own