Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-31

so in the duty Of the living inspired by
the pious functions of today ! make no
distinctions in my duty to the living.
Il make no distinction between ma,
tional guard and regular when the'
honor Of my comrade is at stake. That
Is the lesson I draw from the day
That is the spirit that rises within me
as / contemplate the monument raised
to the memory OF volunteers.
THAT is the inspiration In the tribute
Of flowers, of song of eulogy that today
is lavished upon the nations dead on
all the long ranks of graves from where
the Sons of the Revolution cover the
mounds of the minute men in New
England, across the wide stretches
where the millions of the Grand Army
sleep below the emblem of Immortality,
to these lands Of the sunset sea where
our only monument is to the memory
of those who enlisted in a national
guard regiment, loaned for duty to the
federal government.
A Broader Scope
"The sentiment of truth and fair
dealing may take a broader scope. AS
we remember with just pride the pa
triotism of our dead comrades, the
virtues of their living successors and
resent injustice to either, let the gen
erous emotion take a wider field and
make us more just to our fellow man
wherever we find him struggling and
in danger of being misunderstood or
misrepresented. In the great work of
relief let us not forget that It is in
matters of sentiment and of the emo
tons where the greatest and keenest
hurts are felt.
$50 much for the general thought
inspired by the day. There still re-
mains the one particular thought
which the days of 'gS always bring to
me. The one peculiar thing about the
Spanish war attaches itself to every
analysis of the time.
Suddenness of Conflict
"It is the strange and unexpected
suddenness of the conflict. 1t was a
storm out of a clear sky. The genera
tion had gone since the civil war and
there seemed no sign. 1t was as in the
twnkling Of an eye with no preliminary
warnings Like the San Francisco
earthquake, it cast no shadow before.
There is suggestion in the thought
History repeats itself. Human affairs
move in cycles Our only known means
of foretelling the future is to calculate
upon what has already happened. Ii
that is so, then while we strew flowers
on the graves of dead comrades it be-
hooves us not to forget the instruc
ton of living comrades, while graves
are kept green and powder is kept
dry that the flag so ably and spot
lessy preserved by those who have
gone before should be not weakly de-
Tended by negilent or overconfident
and uninstructed citizens.
Education of Defenders
"And in this education of defenders
and citizens to arms the first duty, the
first lesson, is the moral one. Let us
hold tight TO old-fashioned love of
country without qualification. Let us
resent bluntly and in the oldfashioned
way an insult to the flag. Let us say
Amen as we pass the schoolhouse
of a morning and see the little ones
marching in to study with an Ameri-
can flag at the head of each class Yes,
| say it and mean it, there is more
genuine eloquence, more real eulogy to
dead soldiers of the country, more pa
triotic nspira ton in one morning cere-
mory of that nature held every school
day in the year, than in all the set
speeches an old man could make in
lifetime Praise God for the happy
thought and it's careful carrying out;
Ready for Emergencies
with this systematic forewarning
and forearming the unexpected, which
ALWAYS has and always will happen,
will find us prepared and the country
safe.
80 that the hallowed memories of
dead comrades shall be inspired by
hallowed graves and that no harm shall
come to our great fatherland, still so
young, already so powerful, already
blessed with so much abundance, and
whose chief solicitude must now be to
preserve the virtues of its public and
private life so that at the last each
may glory in citizenship in these great
United States of America"
The services were concluded with the
firing Of another volley by the members
of the squad from the Seventh regiment
and the solemn sounding of taps by
Harry Griffith.