The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1906-05-27
A Manufactured Memorial Day
DIcKERsoN

: built old woman that astonished peopl,
who came in contact with her for tn,
: first time, and generally swept then
away from their own ideas before they
| were aware of it.
Such was the effect on the mayor
An hour before. by nature cynical
| skeptical. and hard-headed he might
nave resisted her. Under the influence
of the joyous warmth he had acquired
next door, he almost wept as he con-
templated the picture of his native
village going down in history as the
unprogressive. 'unpatriotic. and wholly
heartless town where no Decoration ex-
ercises had ever been held
Dim memories of days back east,
when he had visited his grandmother
and had himself marched in childish
professions such as Mrs. Parkinson de-
scribed, fioated before his minds eye.
At last he arose. Madam" he said,
with dignity. you have gained the sup
| port of the church. You have gained
the support of the administration.
| Populace, don't count. You come tell
the boys what you've been telIin' me-
And to the establishment of the whole
| village, where the news was rife by
! evening, Mrs. Parkinson went into the
grocery store saloon, leaning upon the
stalwart if unsteady arm of the mayor,
! and there delivered a lecture not on
temperance, as she had once threaten
ed, but on patriotism
And it took, She had inoculated the
whole town with patriotic fever
! The maiden ladies of the place, Miss
Aurora Leigh Scram. and her younger
sister Sally, remembered that their
mothers cousins husband had been
killed at Bull Run and got out their
black gowns and tied Grape on the door
knob instanter There was a run on
the two hundred volume village
library for stories about the Civil War.
and particularly of Decoration Day,
and the school teachers were told to
teach their children. most of whom
were OF recent foreign extraction. all
their heads would hold of the glories
of that time. the sorrow and the rever-
ence of it, and what was expected of
them in the way of marching and of
songs and of flower strewing and of
tears.
Somehow the reverence and the tears
did not take as well as they should.
Every one persisted in looking upon it
as q distinctly gala occasion. But Mrs.
Parkinson cared not a jot, so long as
her ideas of the correct celebration of
the Gay were carried out.
She was radiantly happy, and her
son. nodding a I I.orel!a, gave forth ex-
asperating, Il told you sos whenever
the subject was preached.
There We're necessarily a few croak-
ers. The town had got along very we'll
during It's ten years of existence with
out any Decoration Day. Why go to
this needless excitement and expense? !
Peter Peterson demanded grimly
where they We're going to get soldiers
to kill and bury to make it all appro
pirate, and Louis, the half breed In
dian, suggested darkly that the gar
rison which kept his tribe in durance,
four hundred miles away, should be
sacrificed and shipped there for the
purpose.
But Mrs. Parkinson listened to no
scoffers. No ridcule reached her, nor
would it have moved her if it had.
Every morning she shifted the frag
rance of her little Gala, now sprouting
forth in an earnest endeavor to emulate
its cousins out of doors, and told the
little eastern plant her plans, and joys,
and victories. And the big. curled
white flowers seemed to understand and
to rejoice with her.
LAS why shouldn't they" she de-
manaed of herself. THE plants from
Buffalo, n. Y, after all and that"
There was no need to finish the sem
tenence. Mrs. Parkinson's highest ,
for beauty, common sense ,
and good manners had
been given. 3
In the preparations, Mrs. Parkinson
vas everywhere. She taught the school $
children their songs. singing herself in /
/ sweet, though somewhat cracked I
title voice, and beating time till her ,
arms ached. +
She arranged for flowers, made cross t
IS and wreaths. packed baskets, tied I
+
She decided who should speak, even Y
raining a promise from the mayor. who
when not under the spell of the grocery c