The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-20
MONTGOMERY CHILDREN
 HONOR MEMORY OF R. E. LEE

We see the maiden in the shadow of her sorrow We see the old man bowed with the last grief.
 War Is not all martial music. Haunt ing banners. cheering multitudes. fame and undying glory. The poet sings of the other side of war.
 "All Is quiet along the Potomac tonigh.
 Except now and then stray picket Is shot as he walks on his beat to and
 By riheman hid in the thicket. Iris nothinga private or two. now
 Viii not count in the news of the bat Not an officer Iost--only one of the men
 Moaning out. all alone, the death rat
 tie,
 !" All quiet along the Potomac tonight,
 No sound save the rush of the river, While soft falls the dew on the face
 of the dead
 From out this crucible of war. po- etically spoken of as the child of the whiriwind and the offspring of the storm from out of the focal and fore most fire rises the calm, heroic, com manding figure of Robert Edward Lee. His wondereful career as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia is so familiar to all that any comment would seem to be unnecessary. From Wash ington to Richmond is a distance of about 120 miles and under ordinary circumstances can be traversed in about four hours But owing to the genius, the courage, the intrepid dar- ing of General Lee it took the Yankees | four years to make the journey. That seems to be small achieve ment, but to give the younger gener- alton some idea of the magnitude of the struggle it involved I will call atten- I ton to the fact that in the battles of the Wilderness and Spottsylvania | (which should really be called one bat l tle) the killed and wounded in General Grants army by the army under Gen eral Lee was far greater than the ag- gregate killed and wounded in all the | battles of all the wars fought by the English speaking people on this con tinent since the discovery of America I by Columbus.
 When Lees army crossed the Rap pahannock so war-worn was their as- pect, so indifferent their apparel and equipment that their compatriots on | the other side spoke of them as ''D D.'s"-not Doctors of Divinity. but Dirty Darlings.' And yet in the face of such utter destitution, no soldier in all the worlds history committed fewer depredations or were less formidable to 1 peaceful citizens.
 T. was because of the discipline of I their commander. Said Lee on one oc- casion when advised to adopt the tac- | ties of his adversary and burn and de- vastate and ruin without mercy and without quarter, If I suffer my men to pursue that course l cannot invoke the blessing of Heaven on my arms In deed, his utterances were almost Bib | Heal in their terseness, their hunger after righteousness. One of his max I inns is known to every schoolboy, Duty l Is the sublimest word in our language, and another he uttered during the last | sad scene at Appomattox, Human for titude should be equal to human ca | lamity.
 1 NO soldier was more beloved by his ! comrades. As he lay sleeping one day under a tree for weariness the army of ahe South marched by him in utter si- lence, having passed along the lines the whisper, Uncle Roberts asleep; | don't disturb him..
 | And when the war ended and the South accepted the terrible arbitra- ment and read Gods will in the issue. Lee thenceforth devoted himself with | the same unflinching self-sacrince to | the new tasks of peace. Without hesi- tation and without repining, he entered | upon the humble duty of teaching | school You may talk about the hero ism of meeting the foe on the field, | surrounded by your faithful generals and gallant army. but a man must be | a greater hero than that to stand day | after day before a class of fifty or sixty raw -boned youths from the back woods and get into them love for learning and the love of God.
 And when finally the great warrior and peaceful scholar passed away he won a tribute such as no man has re- ceived before him and nope thus far ] after him. It was the tribute of the late Benjamin Hill of Georgia. He was a foe without hate, friend without treachery. soldier without cruelty, a victim without murmuring, q lvictor without oppression. He was a public officer without vices, a private lcitizens without wrong, a neighbor with out reproach, Christian without hyprocisy, and man without guile He was ohedient to authority as ser want He was royal in authority as a true king. He was gentle as woman in life, and modest and pure as virgin
 in thought, watchful as vestal in
 duty, submissive to law as Socrates
 grand in battle as Achilles
 There is a beautiful legend thai
 the worlds heroes are not dead, but
 sleeping and that in some far-off place they are with the choir invisible wait
 ing but the word to wake again the
 music that is the gladness of the
 world So we are told that in the
 vault at Kronenberg slumbers Holgai
 Danske. waiting the hour of Denmark''
 need. On the isle of Avalon. where
 rough winds never blow sleeps Arthur
 for centuries the hope of the English
 So Barbarossa waits for his counary'' call and in Russia. Ivan, the Terrible looks forward to the reckoning day be
 tween Boyar and Sevf; while Russia awaits the twelfth Imam.
 And so today the peerless Lee lies in his lonely grave amidst the valleys of Virginia he loved so well and above that grave waves proudly the Stars anc Stripes But q million Southern heart
 are looking at this hour toward tha grave and flag and from every lip there breathes this benediction:
 I'm for that flag forever gainst foes
 on sea or shore
 Who shames her? Who defames her
 Give me my gun once more,
 We'll answer when they need us
 when the war fires light the night
 There's a Lee still left to lead us tC
 the glory of the fight.
 We're one in heart forever we're