The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1905-05-11

The beautifully suggestive GER
emonies of Decoration Day are fast
approaching. The time will soon
be here when, either by concerted
effort of organized societies or by in
dividual effort the, grave OF every
soldier of freedom will be decked with
the emblemetic blossoms of spring.
Ever since the day, when in an in
spired moment, fighting "Black
Jack" the fiery Illinois general, pro-
posed the setting aside this day for
sacredly concentrating the deeds and
perpetuating the memories OF the
soldiers who had received their final
discharge from the great Commander
in Chief of the hosts of earth anti
heaven, by the symbolic strewing OF
flowers over the last bivOuac OF the
brave, even down to the present, the
men who bore the burden of the great
and for the salvation OF the nation,
struggle the burden of resuscitating
the republic, brought near, very near,
the gates OF death, by the mighty mag
nitude of the contest, back to the
fullness of national life, have borne
the burdens of this days observance
down to the most minor matters.
They have borne burdens enough
1t is time now for those for whom
these burdens were borne to relieve
these grisly veterans from the self i'm
posed task, the old soldiers should be
relieved from this labor, even though
it be labor of love by those who
have reaped the manifold benefits of
the great services they have performed.
The old soldiers should be consulted
and their wishes carried out to the
smallest detail with religious fidelity,
but the work should he done by the
younger generation for whom these
men worked when they, themselves,
constituted the younger generation.
The veterans have paid the bills for
even loves labor entails expense, as
with their blood and treasure they
paid the price of the nations redemp-
ton in the dark days when the events
transpired which gave birth to the
observance of these rites of remem-
brance.
They have paid long enough
Let it be the duty now OF those for
whom the price was paid to assume
the expense. 1t is now almost dis
grace to allow single dollar of Grand
Army money, or penny of any old
soldiers meager pension stipend to
be expended in the observance of this
day. Hereafter let the price be paid
by those who received and not by
those who achieved the benefits.
For years, the men have marched
crotch deep through the muck of al
most impossible morasses dragging
after them with ropes the artillery of
armies; men who have swept up
mountain slopes slippery with the
blood of comrades, the SUBMITS of
which were bordered with a cannon
fringe of flame; men who have leaped
over parapets bristling with hostile
bayonets and planted their flags on
the battlements of conquered foe
men; men who have crept through
needle pointed abattis while the rifles
of the enemy spat death in their faces;
men who have rushed headlong across
plains darkened by dense smoke fac
ing charging squardrons while
whistling shot and screaming shell
sang the awful requiem of death round
about them. For long years these are
the men who have marched through
sunshine and through storm, each at
the head OF the procession, on each re-
turning decoration day from the places
of assemblage to the graves of their
comrades, there to participate in the
solemn exercise of commemoration.
They have marched long enough
On all future occasions let con.
veyances be provided at the expense of
the commonwealth that they may
ride in state. On this day let the sur
viving veterans be the honored guests
OF the nation; on this day let us paw
them royal honors for they and their
comrades who sleep the sleep have
Accomplished more for mans hetter
ment than all the scions of ROYALTY
since the world began.
These veterans endured, they paid,
they marched, but the time has come
when the almost limitless reservoir of
their resources begins to feel the in
cessant drain. The veterans are not
SO young as once they were. Old age