The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-05-31
PAY THE TRIBUTE OF FLOWERS AND
REMEMBRANCE

pie, ana Tor the people, ehoui0 NOT
perish from the EARTH
Blessings to the dead for duties done;
Joys to the living for victories won.
Well earned is the sweet repose of
| those who have gone before. Fully
assured is the fair reward of those
who are following on.
Happily may it be said of each and
everyone who offered his blood for his
| country's life, that nobly he fulfilled
| the injunction of the music-murmuring
Bryant
$50 live that when thy summons
| comes to join the innumerable cara
van which moves to the pale realms of
shade where each shall take his cham
Der in the silent halls of death, thou
go not like the quarry-slave at night,
scourged to his dungeon; but, sustain
ed and soothed by an unfaltering trust,
| approach thy grave like one who wraps
| the drapery of his couch about him and
lies down to pleasant dreams"
The great majority have already
crossed the Valley of the Shadow of
| Death and entered the bounds of the
beautiful Beyond,-while the surviving
| legions, with enfeebling years, but
hopeful hearts, are pressing to the goal
! across whose portals shine the camp
| fires of eternal life.
If there is any sure passport to
that realm of bliss, it is written be-
| tween the lines of the honorable dis
charge of every soldier and every
sailor who stood with unconquerable
determination between his country's
| life and his country's death. That
passport will cary him through If
anything can, and back of that safe
conduct is the fiawless character and
patriotic purpose which led him to en-
| list, and which he has never lost.
| That discharge-that passport-that
safe-conduct many received on the field
of battle, many on the march, and
many in the fever-stricken camp, while
others are patiently waiting for the
| call between the lines; but the glory
| of all is in the end alike, and their
noble lives and heroic deaths will be
| a sublime inspiration and a worthy ex-
ample Tor generations upon generations
| yet to come.
I speak more particularly of the
veterans of the G. A. R., because they
| are the representative body of the citi-
zen soldiery of the Union, the back
bone of the Nation, the men who have
who are the honored organization UNI
| der whose generous and patriotic aus
piees the ennobling and impressive
ceremonies of Memorial Day are sol
beautifully conducted.
We later ones may have done our
duty in upholding the honor of our
| flag; but our sacrifices, our sufferings,
.. our experiences. are meager compared
with theirs. We may rank with the
soldiers of the Mexican and Indian
wars, or even with the sturdy legions
of the Army and Navy of 1872; but
the blood-stained heroes of the Civil
War will stand through all time as the
| peers of the patriots who fought from
the smoking heights of Bunker Hill
till Freedom sang and Victory cheered
on Yorktown's radiant plains.
The heroes of the Revolution
founded in blood a towering temple,
solid and symmetrical to look upon,
but whose carefully laid corner stone
rested upon Slavery's sinking soil in
which 'Man S inhumanity to man
made countless thousands mourn.
The heroes of the Civil War, under
Lincoln and Grant, and Sherman and
Sheridan, and Farragut and Porter,
and Meade and Thomas, and Hancock
and Logan, and Worden and Winslow,
and myriads more of immortal men,
caught the crumbling fabric as it was
: tottering to its fall, replaced its
|, treacherous foundation with rock of
enduring righteousness, girded its
weakening walls with the armor of
truth and justice, and consecrated and
established an immutable Union that
shall be the glory of the world and,
in every nohlest sense, the Land of
the Free and the Home of the Brave
while Nature lasts and Nations live.
But to all soldiers and all sailors of
every American war do we pay just
tribute; not merely IN proportion to
their respective achievements, but in
direct measure for the lofty purpose
and exalted virtue which animated
them to answer their country's call
!, Whether they reached a hero 5 death
on the field of battle, or fell a prey to