Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-31
HONOR HEROES
Of THE SEVENTH
MEMORIAL EXERCISES HELD
IN CENTRAL PARK
General Prescott Addresses Throng
at Foot of Monument Erected
for Those Who Died In
Spanish War

Memorial services were held In Cen
tral park yesterday morning at the foot
of the monument erected to the memory
of those members of the Seventh regi-
mnt of California volunteers who died
during the Spanish war. The monu-
ment was appropriately decorated with
floral emblems and the services
throughout we're as impressive as they
were beautiful.
A squad detailed from Company G,
Seventh regiment, appeared in the park
at $3.50 o'clock and fired a salute, after
which Rev. Robert Fisher opened the
memorial services with a simple pray
er. Following this General Frank G.
Prescott delivered the memorial ad-
dress. He spoke in part as follows:
In Eight Fears
Eight years are gone since marched
to war the men whose names are
etched upon this granite. An octave
of time has been sounded and the pro-
cessional march of armies was ac-
comapnied with the measured beat of
cannon. The recessional Of those eight
years is no less majestic. The graves
of our dead comrades at the Presidio
were yesterday rocked With the
tremendous tread of the earthquake as
the grand arm of fate and eternity
shook the fragile earth in marching
past
Living, their brave hearts we're not
disturbed by the engines of destruc-
tion, in the opera ton of which they
had a part. Sleeping the majestic
sleep of the dead, they give no sign
that Isaiah has spoken and been justi-
fled: Thou shaft be visited of the
Lord of hosts with thunder and with
earthquake and great noise, with storm
and tempest, and the flame of devour-
ing fire
Lily of Resurrection
"There are those among them who
died on the journey and whose am
bitions were incomplete and unfulfilled.
Let us place the lily of the resurrec-
tion upon their graves-the resurrec-
tion when let us hope, they shall be
equal unto angels-being the children
of the resurrection.
And there are those of whom we
make memorial-soldiers who died in
battle-to whom belong the emblematic
laurel, for glory won and honors gained.
Yet, nevertheless, let us place upon
their graves the lily-always the lily
of the resurrection for for them, there
can be nothing else.
But the lily upon the grave of a
fallen comrade is a meaningless for
mality If it does not inspire active vir-
tue among the living.
"The day and occasion are especially
designed for the eulogy of the soldier
dead.
Suggests Generous Emotions
ut accomplishes little if it does not
suggest some generous emotion to-
ward the living and especially toward
those whose duties and whose efforts
are the same as the dead this day
remembered.
This monument was erected to the
of 4, of !,
California infantry, United States vol
unteers. Many of us served in that
regiment And it was, and is, typi-
cal organizat ton upon which this gov
ernment of the United States of Amer
lea relies for preservation.
1T was originally of the organized
militia. A national guard body. A
legitimate successor of those minute
men, 1900 of whom, under Prescott, de-
feated 25OO British regulars under Howe
at Bunker Hill. One only of the many
records which the militia has left to-
prove that brave men with just cause
may triumph over every obstacle.
The Seventh
1.-THE Seventh was mustered back
into the national guard, where it still
does its faithful duty. A duty all the
more onerous, all the more difficult, ali
the more thankless because of that
strange quality in human nature noted
centuries back, when a prophet was
not without honor save in his own
country. A duty of disinterested de-
votion. An unpaid and freely censured
attention to the primary duty of citi-
zenship, that of learning the art of
national defense.
"The thoroughness of the instruction
little understood by the layman, its
operation many times hampered by
those who misunderstood or wilfully
misrepresent it's intention and it's eXecu-
ton.
Makes No Distinction
CAS- in the decoration of the graves
of my deceased comrades l make no
distinction between the regular, the
volunteer and the national guardSman,