Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-06-06

was one of the finest characters Amers.
ca ever produced. Would you like Tn
know what was TO me the greatest net
| of that grand life? find it not in his
| acrions before the war. | find IL NOT
in his wonderful equipoise and gentle
ness and marvellous powers during the
war. But after Appomattox the chief
nobility of that life glowed before his
| fellow countrymen as a single star
might outshine all the other stars in
the heavenly armament. After the war
was over a rich financial company OF
| New York city. in order to catch the
southern trade through Robert E. Lees
popularity, offered Lee $4,000 Der
year at a salary to become its manager.
What said General Lee? "No, | can
not come l must stay among my own
people to help teach them to become
true Christian citizens, to help teach
them how to have faith in their God
and patriotic love for their whole
,, land" Robert E. Lee turned his back
at that time upon the most princeiy
salary then offered in the city of New
York. In order to teach his people to
love q reunited country and to have
faith in God he accepted a humble
position as the president of one of Vir-
ginia's bankrupt schools. Rather than
live for mercenary gain he quietly and
vet nobly and unselfishly went to live
among the shattered walls of Wash
| ington college in Lexington. He lived
| there until the close of his life Some
people may tell you that the greatest
service the American soldier did for
his country was when he suffered up
on the field of battle. i tell you that
the greatest service the Confederate
army and the Federal army ever did
for their native land was when they
dissolved and when their Christian SOL
diers became the earnest, cOnsecrated
advocates of Christian peace So to-
day l praise no less highly than the
soldier who went out in 1851 to fight
his countrys battles the soldier in
1866 returning to civil life and striv-
ing in home and factory and store to
heal the wounds of the nation and re-
unite it's people in the bonds of Chris
tan love.
The Sentiners Call.
Some time ago | stood on the top of
the Washington monument and looked
off upon the battlefelds of America and
dreamed my dreams. l saw hundreds
of thousands of human bones bleaching
in the sunlight, gnawed of the vulture
and the wolf. | heard the muff1ed
i. l. Tot OF Ac
the artillery wagons rumbled away to
the rear, and star twinkled to star,
heard sentinel by the glare of the
campfire call to sentinel: "Alls well.
Ais well along the Potomacw
There go the booming of the can
non and the sharp commands of the
officers, STEADY, boys; steady, steady!"
There is the ping of the bullet, and the
dying soldier clutches at his heart as
he means, MY babies, O God, my poor
babiesr' and then drops dead. There
comes the blood curdling Confederate
cry, Hi! Hi. Hi. Hi! Hir' There is
| the long line of set faces behind the
gilttering bayonets. The heavens red
den and glow The flames leap and
hiss and dance and make merry over
the burning homes. The falling beams
| so crash, crash, crash! The rivers are
deep with flowing blood; the grave
trenches are filed with a million dead.
As l turn and look upon the great
white dome Of the capitol the old ma
tional flag flaps and waves. Its stars
glitter like the eyes of the mothers
| waiting for their boys who never came
back, and like the eyes of the maidens
who. after awhile as old women, read
! and reread the torn and the yellow let
| tiers which their heroes just before the
fatal battle wrote about the bridal
homes which were destined never to
be built. And as | look upon the old
| flag again the white stripes look like
the white bandages which were put
about the shattered arms. The long,
| deep streaks of red prove that its folds
had once been dipped into pools of
human blood. Then the great white
dome of the legislative hall, glistening
in the sunlight, looks as though it were
built out of the broken tombstones
of Arlington Heights and Gettysburg
and the Wilderness.
The War Forever Ended.
| Then, as | look up and down the
great Pennsylvania avenue, l seem to
see the united armies of the boys i'll
! blue and Of the boys in gray marching,
marching, marching. see the lines
melt away. Following with my eye
one soldier. l see him take his dis
| charge. and he starts for home. l
| cannot tell whether this discharged
| soldier is now heading for the Michi-
gan hills or for the Georgia planta-
tions In his civilian dress he has no
| distinctive insignia telling me whether
7 he fought under Grant or under Lee.
| Then l see this soldier coming up to
| the farm gate and being welcomed
| home by his dear ones. Now his wife
| nearly faints away for joy. Then in
| the evening hour | see him gather the
! little children about him. He opens
! the old book; he reads a chapter; the