Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1910-05-24
A Little Memorial Day Talk.


memory paralyzed; if all the past of our
lives were blotted from the book of re-
msmbrance and should be to US as II 1t
had never been; if all the prints and the
pictures on the magic mirror were shat
tered and broken and lost? Can you
conceive Of condition more deplorable?
Each and all of US have our own pri-
vate collection of prints and pictures,
hanging at differet angles on the fresco-
ed walls of our own little art galleries
so to speak-differing as our individual
tiles differ, differing as our experiences
differ. Some were not OF our own
choosing; some were forced upon us,
and some of our own choosing are but
mere daubs, showing, surely, an un-
cultivated taste. Such we would be
proper glad to turn face to the wall and
forget. But they are fixed, fixed as the
walls on which they hang. Possibly
thew may fade away aud disappear
altogether in the light that is coming;
and possibly they may be touched up,
freshened, frightened, beautified and
renovated in the Higher Grade, iu the
Renovating Rooms where the "Old
Masters are, in the House of Many
Mansions. 1t wouldn't DO at all sur
prising.
1t goes without saying, that you who
have worn the blue, have your own
special collection, your own select as
sortmeut Of prints and pictures, that
differ widely from ours. 1t goes with
out saving, that they are more highly
colored than our little blue-tinted films
a crimson sunrise and bloody sunset,
with unspeakable things in the middle
distance. But they are not 90 exhibi
ton, and cannot be, neither can they be
duplicated, for the negatives were
smashed ON bsttletields that have been
washed by the rains and have been swept
by the winds of nearly half hundred
Years. Mellowed by distance and toned
down by the softening touch of time,
although retaining unpleasant features,
vet you would not willingly turn them
face to the wall and forget. You do not
regret, you never have regretted, that
you answered 10 your names when Duty
called you, trumpets tongued. No man
ever regretted because of a duty done
when well done as yours was done. You
do not regret that you went marching on
in that trial of "JOhn Browns Soul,
that YOU kept step TO the music OF the
Union, to the martial music of BILLY
and Phon," and such as they, that you
followed the flag through evil report
and through good report, through sun
shine and shadow, through bitter defea,
on TO final victory, when you could say
with a glow at the heart, and with Il
shout: The stripes are all there, and
the stars uudimmedr' On till silence
fell on sea, ON land, aud the birds of
peace were left free TO build their nests
in the lannon's mouth.
Four long years of agony. A nations
Judgment day for a nations sins.
guess that is about the dimensions of il.
/ fancy that they whose lot was Gus
within the storm center, within the u IL
poiha of perpetual fire, received pretty
practical idea Of hell N the abstract.
And as YOU looked upon il in the rough,
perhaps YOU too might have caught Oh
TO a similar idea. Well, the Judgment,
like a blood dropping cloud, was lifted
at last and drifted away as such things
will; but Time held slow glass aud
Death moved broad swath, and-the
Cause was lost; and both the North
and the South have every reason to thank
God that il was lost and eternaliy lost.
His judgments are true and righteous
altogether, and good follows after every
time, without exception. There are no
exceptions; there never have been aud
there never will be. o, you can take my
word for il all right, for l never tell a
lie-or hardly ever.
The New South is already richer, ADLER
and more joyous than the Old. And
they do say that, of late, she has quite
largely cut whiskey out of her bill OF
fare. They do say that quite re-
spectacle part Of her territory has be-
come dry territory-parched, drouthy
"a. the "Great American Desert" before
b. sgation set 10. That's all right. Glad
Jit. She has awakened from her
1ntury- long, Rip Van Wrinkle slumber,
And has developed her many resources
wonderfully since the storm clouds
rolled away. She has opened up her
immense coal fields and iroubeds and
has become, in manufacture, commerce
and literature, a fresh and vital force
And nothing but the dull thuuders OF
Sinai could have shattered her crazy
dream of empire. The still, small voice
could not enter into ears that were deaf
as the ears of the dead
The swiftness with which the wounds
of war were healed has strengthened
confidence in American government and
American character. Bnt we are not to
be hoodwinked into the idea, into the
belief that our people have crossed over
Jordan into the land of Canaan, into a
land flowing with milk and honey; that
our nation has come 10 its own, into a
state of perfection; that it is a nation
ID Ia ha ord apA
ouite, and IL may not get there until IL
has drunk deep Of the cup of bitterness,
or-until we have turned the rsscals
OUT - turned them inside out, too,
There's a job for you. Can you do III
Can it be done? think SO, unless the
Almighty has lost all interest in Us as q
nation aud has left US to our own blind
devices, and I don't think he has, ex
cept perhaps temporarily. There has
been divine rescue-work in times o.
deadly peril all down the long high
way of the past, even down to the days
of the Pilgrim Fathers.
Sometimes the thought comes home L
us in the cleaning, when al around /:
still, that your Uncle Sam, since hi
head has begun TO swell some, has takeI
altogether too much credit to himsel
for rescue work, and has given altogether
too little credit to Him who rules thu
world. 1t does not detract one iota from
your successful attempts along that line
that the God Of arms was your shield
and buckler in the day OF battle, that h'
stood with you behind tina guns, an'
gave you the victory, and you took !
and were glad. Your defeats were Hi
Victories, every one of which was for
ward movement along the line marked
out on the divine chart, the ultimate en-
Of which was liberty for His, people
Every sound, from bullets that whistlec
to cannon that Numbered ell alopg tn,