The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1904-05-19
The Athenian Dead.

1t was appointed by law In Athens, that
the obseques of our citizens who fell in
battle should be performed at the public
expense, and in the most honorable man
ner. Their bones were carefully gathered
up from the funeral pyre, where their
bodies were consumed, and brought home
to the city. There, for three days before
the interment, they lay in state, beneath
tents of honor, to receive the votive offer
ings of friends and relatives, Of flowers.
weapons, precious ornaments, painted
vases (wonders of art. which after 1900
years adorn the museums of Modern Eu-
rope)-the last tributes of surviving at
lection. Ten collins OF funeral cypress
received the honorable deposit, one for
enth in memory of the unrecognized, but
not therefore unhonored. dead, and OF
those whose remains could not be removed.
On the fourth day the mournful process
sion was formed: mothers, wives, sisters.
daughters. led the way. and to them it
was permitted, by the simplicity OF ancient
manners. to utter aloud their lamenta-
tons, for the beloved, and the lost; the
male relatives and friends Of the de-
ceased followed; citizen. and strangers
closed the train. Thus marshalled. they
moved to the place of interment in that
famous Ceracius, the most beautiful sub
urb Of Athens, which had been adorned
by Cimon, the son Of Miltiades, with
walks and fountains and columns; whose
groves were filled with affairs, shrines.
and temples; whose gardens were ever
green with streams from the neighboring
hills and shaded with trees sacred to
Minerva. and coeval with the foundation
Of the city, whose circuit Enclosed
''The olive grove Of Academic.
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird,
Trilled his thick-warbled note, the Sum-
mer long"
whose pathways cleaned with the monu-
ments of the illustrious dead. the work of
the most consummate masters that ever
gave life to marble. There beneath the
over-arching plane trees. upon a lofty
stage erected for the purpose, it was or
dained by law that funeral Grafton
should be pronounced by some citizen of
Athens. in the presence of the assembled
multitude. "Such were the tokens of re-
spect required by law to be paid at Ath-
ems to the memory Of those who had fallen
in the cause of their country"
Cheers for the Living for the Dead.
The past, as it were, rises before me like
dream. Again we are in the great
struggle for national life. We hear the
sound of preparation music of the
boistrous drums-the silver voices of he
roic bugles. We see thousands of assem-
blages, and hear the appeals of orators.
We see the pale cheeks of women and the
flushed faces of men; and in those assem-
blages We see all the dead whose dust we
have covered with flowers. We lose sight
of them no more. We are with them when
they enlist in the great army Of freedom.
We see them part with those they love-
H. ~ L.
quiet woody places with the maidenS they
adore. We hear the whispering and the
sweet VOWS of eternal love as they linger-
ingly part forever. Others are bending
over cradles kissing babies that are asleep
Some are receiving the blessings of old
men. Some are parting with mothers who
hold them and press them to their hearts
again and again, and say nothing: and
some are talking with wives. and endeav-
oring with brave words spoken in the old
tone to drive away the awful fear. We
see them part. We see the wife standing
in the door with the babe in her arms
standing in the sunlight sobbing-at the
turn of the road a hand waves-she an
swers by holding high in her loving hands
the child. He has gone, and forever.
We see >hem all as they march proudly
away under the Haunting flags. keeping
time to the wild grand music Of war
marching down the street of tho great
cities-through the towns and across the
praires-down to the fields of glory, to
do and to die for the eternal right
We go with them one and all. We are
by their side on all the CORY fields, in all
the hospitals of pain-on all the weary
marches. We stand guard with them i'm
the wild storms and under the quiet stars.
We are with them in ravines running with
blood-in the burrows Of old fields. We
are with them between contending hosts,
unable to move, wild with thirst, the life
ebbing slowly away among the withered
leaves. We see them pierced by balls and
torn with shells, in the trenches Of forts
and in the whirlwind of the charge, where
men become iron with nerves of steel.
We are with them in the prisons of
hatred and famine, but human speech can
never tell what they endured.
We are at home when the news comes
that they are dead. We see the maiden
in the shadow of her first sorrow. We see
the silvered head of the old man bowed at