The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-29
Letter to The Editor
SOME AFTER REFLECTIONS.
As to the Part Veterans Play in Pro-
 cessfons.


 Editor The Advertiser:
 Dear Sir-Kindly permit me to offer a few observations on the memorial of The day has now closed and 1t will be another twelve months before we are again forcibly reminded that few are the ties and the souls that con-
 The weather was all that could be desired: the sunshine was, glorious and the breezes cool. All nature seemed to invite the veterans and those who hold them dear to bend their way to Oakwood. and pay tribute of love to those who went down amid shot and flame. Glorious, we say, was their death; oea 1 glorious their example of ,,sd va,or eyes never saw the flame. and whose young ears never heard their sfghs. that struggle seems afar off and un- real. We are growing more and more to look upon the memorial as a holt- day; as an occasion for us to see and to be seen, and in which it is our high est ambition to fill some prominent place, be 1t only to ride in carriage least so 1t would seem.
 ! Could Lee and Johnston, Jackson and Bragg have been here today they would have been proud of the young South erners who marched in blue to honor the gray of their fathers. They were goodly sight, as were those few old veterans. on horseback or in carriages. upon whom fortune has smiled. Grand old men they are, and our hearts felt sincere pride as our eyes rested upon the suits of gray, or on faces that we know had once stood before the can non's belching mouth. All now rode under the Stars and Stripes, and the rankest rebel in the throng felt pride in our reunited country.
 Proudly, yes. proudly. the procession swept up the street, proudly their flags fiuttered and their finery glinted in the sun.
 But who is that handful of totter- ing old men crossing Dexter Avenue and taking their stand before Levy stein's store? Some are stooping un- der the weight of many years; some are leaning on canes as they hobble In line; all wear the look that they must have worn when the cause was lost, and they saw before them surrender, the horrors of reconstruction, and the fate that now is theirs. Surely Lee w9gid have clalmed .ths them as his s,o own. m foot to the cemetery? No. the way is too long, and their strength too small. They have been placed in that see and honor them. Then they will enter carriages and fall in with the procession.
 But mol The cavalcade has passed. lovely ladies. the happy children. all riding in proud array. Still the vet. erans stand. their grand old flag furled in their midst. Are they waiting to waiting for the street car! There 1t comes! In the mad scramble for the car the feeble old men are pushed aside by the young and strong. and the car is flled-not with veterans. They wait for another, and this time some of them are almost pitched head- long from the car. Even the standard bearer is almost pushed from his few fx.1l ~e AhA Iatf I. old mems pollteness and chivalry is commensurate with their courage on the battlefield. They stand back for the women and children, and, yes, for car. Another comes. and another, and another, until, at last, these grand old men, few at a time. are on their way to honor their dead comrades. Truly. they are the survivors of Lost Cause
 I feel like cryng with Cicero. 70 tenn pores. o mores It is enough to make the dead old soldIers rejoice that they are under the sod and out of the
 Why were not Lnese old men es- corted in honor. as .befits their ser vices? A place of honor was theirs, aiares and snsx sionr %tb tbe oer Are the people of Montgomery too poor, too parsimonious. or too care- less to provide vehicles for them? Sure ly not Perhaps we only walt for some ence. If so. your correspondent will break 1t by pledging to the Memorial Association the hire of carriage for their next parade, provided that some of these old soldiers occupy the car- riage. I know that others feel as do. Let them follow me in :his, for the spectacle of today was a disgrace to the South.
 Our veterans are now but a pitiful handful, and they are rapidly growing less. When we honor one, thus, let us honor all What patriotism is 1t to honor the dead, and. in so doing, to .infltct in their living comrades a bitterer pang than that of death by bullet or sword?
 Spectator