The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-05-30

feat by Pap Thomas at Nashville; you
see the immortal Farragut lashed to
the main rigging amid the terrific tor
rents of shot and she'll in Mobile bay;
you climb once more to glory up Look
out Mountains rugged slopes, and you
go again like q resistless cyclone with
sherman to the sea-.
A terrible war indeed was the war
of the sixties. It's financial cost of
three billion dollars is its most in
significant item, and yet that was a
tremendous burden upon q nation then
containing less than thirty million
people. But the sacrifice of treasure is
not to be compared to the sacrifice OF
blood and tears There were twenty
battles, in each Of which alone the
Union loss exceeded 10000 in killed
and wounded; and fourteen battles in
each 90 which the loss exceeded 10,-
0O0- Appalling figures. Surely, Gen
eraI Sherman was not irreverent when
ne said War is hell But great as
was the loss of treasure and Of life
sometimes think that the greatest loss
after all was the loss Of opportunity
Those men at the call of duty left
school, left college campus, left pro-
fessional office, left tradesmens shops,
where they were fitting themselves for
future life, left all their ambitions and
placed them all upon the altar of their
country. When the war was over these
college, too old to acqu3rea profession or
a trade. and thus hindered and handi-
capped in the race Of life they have
fioundered in the commercial world
like derelicts in the sea.
What a debt OF gratitude we who
enjoy the blessings OF liberty and ma
tional unity which they preserved for
US, owe to those heroic men and wo-
men. The sweetest flower that buds
and blooms in this world is gratitude
Some years ago visited the sunny
south land; spent a day in historic
Memphis. past whose shores the
Fathers OF Waters now goes unvexed
to the sea. While there / visited the
city cemetery, a magnificent city of the
dead. In one Of the most prominent
parts of that Gem etery. where two
white gravel walks dfverge. 1 saw a
beautiful plot of ground carpeted with
green, encircled by a handsome mar
BILE fence. Towering from the center
of this beautiful plot of ground is a
majestic marble monument, upon
words: Martha Thompson, the
martyr. She died for u.s. OF some
ladies' who were adjoining graves near
by / inquired the story OF Martha
Tn ompson- Briefly it was this: Dur
ing the great yellow fever scourge
when business in Memphis was sus-
pended, when those who could get
away were fleeing the city, when those
remaining were dying at the rate Of
three or four hundred a day Martha
thompson DeaatlTui and accOmp-
lished northern girl, forgetting the sec
tfonal bitterness and animosity of that
time, left her luxurious home Ia the
north and hasteued TO this stricken
southern city and like an angel Of
mercy ministered to the sick and the
dying and tenderly cared for the dead.
Finally she fell a victim herself to the
dread disease. and the people of that
great city got permission to keen her
dust as one of their most priceless
treasures, and in the most prominent
place IN the cemetery adorned the
beautiful spot I have described. and
reared the stately monument to Mar
tha Thompson, ths martyr. who Iied
for them. That was gratitude. and I
have thought that over the grave OF
every union soldier grateful people
might well rear a monument and IN
scribe upon 1t "Our martyr; he died
for US"