The Marshall republican., 1909-06-04

The Old board was reelected for
the seventh year as follows J. Fl.
Kenner, ]. G. Hyde, Ernest Ken
needy, Monroe Mead, ID II. Haw-
kins Henry Watson and p J Grad
dock.
The cemetery was in a very good
condition and the graves nicely
decorated.
Rev. Reeves said in part;
The first Decoration day was oh
served in 1864, ~forty-five years ago.
There were two hundred and forty
nine soldiers killed on the battle
field at Charleston, s. c. In 1886,
the next year, their graves were
decorated by some friends. In the
same year the president OF the Uni
ted States asked such men as Henry
Ward Beecher, William Lloyd Gar
rison and James Ridpath to cup
ervise a National Decoration Day.
One OF the most touching scenes
in connection with the origin of
decoration day was when some of
the negroes stole out by night and
gathered wild flowers from the
woods and fields and decorated the
graves OF the union dead. So II
came to be a National day. There
were about 1900, 900 soldiers enlisted
in the army during the civil war on
the Union side. Out Of that num-
Der $4,000 were killed on the battle
field, $4,000 died in hospitals from
being wounded, 1874, 900 died In hos
pitfalls with different diseases. To-
tol number OF men that were lost
was 275,000. This number OF men
would form q line $50 miles long
by joining hands. It would require
a trench 1913 miles long to bury
them all allowing three feet to
the grave.
For every six negroes set tree
in 1885 1t cost the death or one sol
der. Next we will notice the war
debt. The civil war cost the gov
eminent $4,000, oOO, 1000. 1t would
require 64,102 freight cars, holding
10000 lbs of silver each to haul the
money from st. Louis to Kansas
City. Or in other words 1t cost
the country $4,000 a head for every
negro set free in 1865. In view OF
this great sacrifice on the, part of
the government and such costly in
vestments OF men, money and blood
! hold that,i would be worse than
treason to make a'fai.uce. The only
way that we cah ever anything
like justify the government for
such costly liberty is to make good
citizens of the country and to prove
ito them that we are worthy OF free
dom, franchise and OF all the privi-
leges that freedom implies.
In view OF the fact that we ne
groes are yet on trial In the esti-
nation OF a great many people of
this country as to whether it was
a wise thing to do to set us free here
1t now depends on US to Prove
whether it was wise or unwise. In
view of this we car least afford to
make a failure than any other ma
t~ionality in the country. The
Chinaman can afford to fail here,
the Italian, the Swede, but the ne
gro cannot afford to fail for all
other nationalities have been put
10 a test and have proven what
they are but the negro has not.
Heaven will frown on that class of
negroes and the country viii scorn
them that follow crapshooting,
drunkenness, sabbath-b-eak'ng,
laziness, idleness, and in so doing
become a regular nuisance in. the
country and become a hindrance to
progress.
That class OF negroes is in Heav-
ems way, in the country's way and
in the way OF the enterprising ne
gro. Let us prove ourselves worthy
OF freedom by making good use Of
school houses, churches, trying to
be honest, decent and upright good
citizens or else decoration day and
scattering flowers over the graves
OF the dead will be a mockery to us.
We have n suggestion to Of
fer-there ought by all means be
more stones to mark the graves, al,
the wood markers rot off and
there Is quickly confusion. The
stones need not be expensive
JAKE THOMAS died at his
home in Malta Bend last week at
ter a long illness. His remains
were laid to rest Sunday under the
auspices OF the colored Masons. of
which order he was a member, He
was considered a good man and
had many friends both white and
I..1Vo.oI ar sfaf4 49,