The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1904-06-09


North and South were torn asunder.
Passion outdared Providence. Stump.
ter fell and a half million graves
and million men in arms is a record
unsurpassed in the history of Nations,
and when at last the victory was won
1t found the North haggard and weary,
the South stricken with poverty.
Then we realized what we had lost.
We thought then, as we do to-day, of
our soldier dead. We called their
names and they answered not, and
framed in love we hung their pictures
in memory's halls.
In few short years there will be
no Union soldiers for US TO homer.
They will have answered the roll cali
above where angels sing. Welcome,
soldier, welcome home and their deeds
will live only in memory. None live
to-day who charged up the heights of
Bunker Hill, and but few who we're
with Scott in Mexico. Grant, Sher.
man, Sheridan, Meade, Hooker and
all the great leaders of the Civil War
have gone, yet their names live in
the hearts of patriotic people. The
mothers are few, but the children are
many who remember, as l do, that
their father was soldier. When we
say soldier there is no hypocrisy in
the word. It means much. Men pro-
fess their love for the great leader
worship his name in the public and in
their private lives are hypocrits. But
when a man says he was soldier and
followed the flag, no matter what his
private life may be, the world must
honor him for that proud name-a
soldier. History supports his claim.
No amount of good deeds, no amount
of advertising can make soldier as
it can make men great regulations.
| There is a record written in blood to
prove that you have earned the title.
A record SO clear that only once in a
thousand times does 1t prove false,
and when a man assumes to be SOL
dier and truth proves him otherwise,
the world Furnishes him as he deserves.
A soldier is the proudest title man
can wear, and II matters not whether
he c a General or a private he is a
soldier, and we honor him for his
deeds. To-day we think of soldiers
life and a soldiers peril. Memorial
Day brings the past vividly before us.
To-day we honor the man who was a
soldier for his LOYALTY in the past.
The silent mounds in your city of
the dead have been covered with flow
ers and the graves that is marked
with a miniature flag has been deco
rated as beautiful as the one that is
marked with an imposing monument.
To-day we think not of what the
immortal dead had been on earth; we
pay our tribute of love in memory of
their deeds. To-day SANDER is hushed,
the heart of hatred stilled, and we
meet to honor their patriotism. Their
deeds have reen sing in poetry,
chiselled ir marble and painted in
every tint, but no picture is SD in
spring as the one We see here to-day,
a patriotic people strewing Gods
choicest garlands upon our heroes
graves.
To-day patriotism rules the land.
1t robs no one of their faith, molests
no church, desecrates no altar and
profanes no sanctuary. Our souls all
worship at one shrine, and the spirit
of love reaches the children, who,
learning the lesson Of patriotism now
will continue the glorious work after
we have gone.
To-day we look with pride upon the
iag these heroes fought for. 1t has
never ioated over a cause only to
elevate. You have seen it fly over
the forts of an enemy and win the re.
spect of vanquished foe. In the
Revolutionary struggle, the Civil
war, at Manila and in far.off China
the flag these living and dead heroes
fought for thrilled every heart who
saw 1t unfurled. 1t tells the story
that the men who followed its bright
stars and stripes have always been
the bravest and most devoted ia
principle in the world.
To-day we look back in history
upon the path taken by our flag. II
has been moistened by the crimson
dew of many hard.fought field and
flung to the breeze in many lands as
the emblem of liberty. To-day we
hold 1t dearer for the brambles that
has rent it and the anguish it has
caused. To-day we point to its stars
and stripes and tell how down
trodden and oppressed people were
released from bondage by the heroic
deeds of the men who wore the blue.
The red upon its folds has been sancti-
fed by the blood of thousands who
sleep in unknown graves, and the
white made purer by the tears of the
widows and the orphans. We look
back at our battle-felds and we
cherish our flag. Our mountains are
not firmer than our love of country
and we feel safe, knowing our flag ii
honored and respected by the nations
of the world. Year by year. as we
gather at our heroes graves, the
| of lA.a%inr 30. A. t..