The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1906-01-06
THE VETERANS AGAIN.
Charles A. Smith Makes Suggestion
on a Memorial

a
wall Of the entrance to the City Hail. !
never passed them when ! had time TO
notice them without telling Of regret
that they were there. | think ! was
once told that while the city voted 10
have tablets placed therein, bearing the
names Of those who were credited to
the quota OF the town Of Barre under
the various calls for troops III the war
Of the Rebellion, il did not vote money
to pay for them. I'm the south wall of
the yestibule, near this entrance, there
Is substantial bronze tablet bearing
the date Of the. erection OF the building,
the names Of tile members Of the city
council Of the architect and the builder
Among these names l find that of Lucius
II. Thurston, then alderman Of the fourth
ward.
Surely ihe must have known then
what tablets the city voted to have set
up. What they voted to pay for and
what was bought and set up without
special authority but under the vote TO
raise money 10 build aud equip the
City Hall, and With the zeal lie now pro-
fesses for The honor of the veterans it
was clearly within the possibilities Of
the times for him To have prevented the
seeming neglect OF which he complains.
eannot lok At this matter quite from
the standpoint of veteran, much less
from that Of a copperhead Of tile war
times, but ! have the recollection Of
schoolmates and boyhood associates,
some scarce older than myself, who went
io the front and who are reckoned With
the unknown dead ut charlottesville,
at AHtietam, at Gettysburg and the Will
dernpss. and who fell that day when
Sheridan rode down from Winchester
thirty miles away
Among my earlier correspondents was
lad Of barely 1s Who wrote me from
camp near Washington, then from point
To point during the famous Peninsular
campaign down To near Richmond. when
he was sent home on sick leave but died
OH reaching Fortress Monroe Other let
tiers came from one who was at Fort
Donaldson and shiloh, where gallant ser
vice won him wound and Then after
the season IN tho hospital bars on his
shoulders in place of the stripes on his
arms and later eame from him Il De.
scription Of that famous battle among
thc clouds, fought BY Hooker and his
men at Lookout Mountain.
The war was thus made real to me
and every man in blue coat a hero.
/ know the feelings had about enlist
ing. | knew most Of the men who filed
The quota of troops from my old home
town: they were the choice men Of the
community, and their loss has never
been made good ! have had occasion
TO know pretty well the character of
the men who went out from Barre, and
! am sure there were no better to be
found anywhere certainly none better
than they remained at home.
Truly nn nation has ever 80 gene
roilsly rewarded her soldiers with pen
sions, but no nation has ever had 80
great reason or been provided with So
ample means. Consider for moment
the commercial and industrial condi-
tions OF the country before the war
and the marvellous possibilities which
the dawning OF peace for the first time
discloses. "a II surprising, is it more
than just that those who were able 10
reap the rich fruitage OF these new
conditions should generously remember
those whose endeaVor had made them
possible. OF is it strange that those TO
( whom the reward was offered should
gladly receive it and later perhaps re-
alizing more fully the value of the work
they had accomplished for their fellows
and finding themselves hindered in their
endeayots to realize the most from life
under the new conditions by the wounds
and weakness resulting from their ser
vices in the war should ask for more?
\ The pension evil, such as there may be,
! is not an evil of itself. II is only a
| symptom Of the great money madness
which possesses us--a kindred of the
insurance evil, the trust evil, the land
grant evil. And surely while these are
excused charity may be shown to il.
| Public parks, il has been well said, are
necessity Of cur modern civilization.
and the community that is not provided
with one or has not one mapped out for
early possession is so many points otF
( in her standing as community. Pub.
Tic libraries are deemed necessary ad.
2 junet of our schools and no up.to-date
community is complete without one The
demand for public hospitals is one Of
4 the noblest manifestations Of the devel-
/ opment of the spirit of humanity in this
age, and il is being generously provided
\ for Monuments and memorials OF var.
/ ious kinds all over the land attest the
! peoples appreciation Of the yalor of
1 their war heroes. and the community
in which some, yess, in which all Of
these are not found, has occasion TO
ask the reason why--in some communi-
ties these have been in part or wholly
! provided at public expense. In the pro-
4 vision Of them by this means, If not
easily possible. is at best necessity
which cannot be disregarded, a necessity
which will force itself upon every grow
/ ing community if not otherwise pro-
vided for Barre has not much in parks
but that little Is a gift, and the flower
4 ing Of the intelligent enthusiasm of the
\ Civic Federation and Park Improvement
Association. We hope soon to have a
library, another gift, and still other
gifts are being 80 arranged as 10 give
lis Inter on a public hospital. Private
4 nuniticence has provided something over
hundred and fifty thousand dollars for
| the erection and repair of church prop.
crty during the past 25 years in the
/ city, and IL annually contributing nearly
I $4,000 for the prosecution of the work
of these churches. The story was told
at the rpdedication 81 one Of these
churches how that the fathers in build
ing their first church pledged over 25
per cent of the value of their united
properties for the purpose In the lower
part d the Spnulding school yard there
stands 4 noble monument 70 Il peoples
love ior a man. tho finest statue in gran
4 itc ever wrought, The gift Of the Burns
club TO Barre Back Of all this that has
been and is being accomplished by pri-
vate gifts there is that which gives
lysth the hope and ihc promise Of much
4 more to be accomplished. il Is the e,i.
4 nntlnn ~ innrn fhAn fha nl,nrnfilln nf nm