The Newtown bee., 1905-06-09

l up because the militia would not march behind the Grand Army. Oh, no; l do not believe there is much danger of too many bands turning out on Tues day to do honor to our surviving braves. Flowers are never sweeter than when placed upon the graves of our soldiers dead. Eulogies never find happier mission than when spoken in memory of those who preserved us a nation. The great pension list is a | scar; but God bless the scar, since it enables us to repudlate the charge that | republics are ungrateful to those who | war fell nightly upon the sunny South. Those who dwell in warm climes do not quickly feel the rebound that comes to those whose SineWy strength is toughened by the rigors of long winters and scantily producing soil. The war dealt staggering blow to our brothers below Mason and Dix on's line. God cheer them and help them as the New South now asserts that the tardy hour of her renaissance has come.
 I look to-day upon land still scared, upon you, men, bearing yet the scars of the bloody scenes through which you passed. Scars here, scars there, scars everywhere except upon our flag! Oh, no, 1 mistake, there was one scar, but when this flag was surrendered, it was
 SURRENDERED TO AMERICANS ALONE. When traitorous men sought to raise tyranny, of oppression at the South, they had to find another flag than Old Glory under which to do their work. When thoughtful men look upon a flag, they see not the cloth, but they
 see government, principles, truths, history, they see nation. When
 we see the tri-color flag of France we see not the
 cloth, but France. When we look
 upon Italy's ensign we see not the
 cloth, but resurrected Italy. When
 we see that other three-cOlOred flag we
 see not the cloth, but the struggles,
 the hopes, the tears that have made
 crosses of St Andrew and St George appear upon fiery background, wesee not the cloth, but the ideas that have
 made possible that little island and
 mighty empire upon which the sun never sets.
 Whatever the symbols, whatever the
 insignia, placed upon our flag, there is
 but one message which it reads out to
 the world, and that is
 THE MESSAGE OF LIBERTY.
 No flag was ever sent upon such an er-
 rand, no flag ever had such a mission of mercy to the world. To the galley
 slave at h1s grinding labor it has meant
 liberty; to the oppressed conscript its
 folds, shaking out to the wind, have
 said liberty; to the creature hardly
 claiming for himself the right to own
 his soul our flag has given an emanci-
 patton proclamation. It has been
 everywhere it has gone the very prom
 ise and prediction of God who sent his
 Son to redeem an enSlaved race. It has
 meant just what Lexington meant. It
 has meant just what Concord meant.
 the colonies it traced it's pathway O1
 freedom through the Revolutionary
 War. It seems to me nothing less
 than the rising of a valiant young peo-
 pie against a foreign tyranny. That
 war established the imperishable fact that men have right to their OWn
 selves and to their liberties. Our flag
 carries with it American ideas. Amer
 ican feelings, American history. Its
 one motto has ever been the divine
 right of men to liberty; and that fiber
 ty has been liberty under law, moi la wlessness; constitutional liberty, lib erty through law, and laws made for liberty. Every star upon it's field o1 rings out the clarion notes of liberty. When men have sought to make op l pression nestle under it's folds, it's } bright bands have Streamed forth their lightning flashes like arrows : shot from the bow of God. We are proud of Old Glory, for it has evel been unstained by disfgurement ol disgrace. Advanced full against tht
 morninglight, gathering in it's folds thu
 growing and glowing day, it shall take
 in it's rich embrace the last rudd, beams of the night, and shall sweeI with triumphant note clear across thi! beautiful.land from the A tlantic to the Pacific, and from regions where the , mountains lift up their rugged form in icy solitaripesS to the warm water! of the Gulf, ever proclaiming that IT IS THE BANNER OF THE FRKE. Fl Our states grew up under this flag When the imperious Englishmer sought to intrude their search war rants upon American decks our flag shook out from it folds the words "Hands off! We are free men here. Have you forgotten the gallant fleet or Lake Erie, and how it's guns pealed out ! u44C1 UuC O1Odu 1OIOo O1 JUL flag? I am glad that the old ship is alive to-day. Once traitorous mer threatened to destroy her. They might as well have tried to destroy our con : stitution. They could not burn her they could not sink her. Bless the name, bless the memory, bless the mer who fought so we'll. Bless the flag : May such grandeur of spirit as was theirs be ours in unbroken line until this nation ceases to be. Our flag wal born ID liberty, was made for liberty and dear to liberty it shall eyer be. speak Of tbe land that is scared still scared, though four decades have rolled away since the war was over. l look into the faces of men who came scared out of the fray. A comrade oi ,, the days of '6l is riding with a com panion near the Creek Antietam It is beautiful May morning. The birds singing 'mid the tree-tops, the : flowers throwing up themselves in fra grant clusters from the tangled grass
 the fleecy clouds sailing like airy ships | across the sky, all serve to take away
 from the mind all thought of that | terrible day when men Waded ankle.