The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-06-06
MEMORIAL DAY
ToWNER, NJ. D.

year since It's organization IN 1888
Memorial day, the Sabbath of the
Nation" has been well kept here.
This year the loving reverence oi
the people was beautifully shown.
The day was ideal.
The morning was spent in finishing
the preparations begun month be-
fore
Flags were hung everywhere, many
draped with black and hung at half
mast, as Benjamin Harrison insisted.
The u. s. army hangs them at half
mast till noon, then sends them UP
aloft.
At II a. m. the ladies of the relief
corps served dinner to the old soldiers
and the corps families, The tables
| looked fine, and the viands were finer.
The w. r. c. has reputation for ex-
cellence in that line.
| A little before 2 p. m. the veterans
formed in line, the relief crops ladies
followed, sons and daughters of vet
| ems fell in and the band led the way
from the w. r, G. hall down Main
street to the auditorium of the high
| school,
There a fine programme was given.
| No longer are the veterans able to
make all the preparations! Ten years
ago they made them all, and in the
| evening gathered round the campfire
to fight their battles over again, and
many joke they told on each other.
| But the citizens have been gradually
helping more and more, until this year
our newly organized Young Mems So
ciaI club undertook the honored task.
Finely they fulfilled it.
Never did the platform look so we'll,
SO fitting were the decorations. Fine
busts of Washington and Lincoln
looked calmly down on flowers and
faces. Flags formed a fine framework.
And there was also row of vacant
chairs, draped with black and white,
each directed with a flag and a row
of names above, the reading of which
dimmed our eyes with tears. For
there was our list of honored dead.
How many cherished memory those
named recalled. How many a Memoir
ial day when they marched with us.
There was Marion Pace, who used to
sing a historical song of his own.
There was Judge Ames. Many time
he presided at the campfire. And
IldAly d IOOLLlSOIl6 put VI DSdIlS Ills
cherry wife provided.
There was DR.. Payne. He used to
sing in The Free Land in Our Own
Beloved Home.
And Casper Sternberg. How cherry
his voice sounded, just a little while
ago.
Ezer Cartwright. Just last October
he sat and talked with us and pointed
to Grant and Lincoln, whose pictures
are hung on our walls.
I can't see Abner Hascom, but he
was surely a charter member of Jerry
Rusk Post, although they laid him away
in Minot, where he served as register
of the landoffice, and where his life
long companion makes her home with
her daughter, Mrs. J. L. Devine.
Don't you see the name of Uncle
Jim Pendroy, who used to make so
noble showing when he stood beside
the table with his stalwart sons and
their handsome wives? And there
were his beautiful grandchildren
speaking their little verses SO prettily
Now they cover him, too, with beauti,
full flowers.
And we will never forget Comrade
chaplain, too-who never failed to at
tend, though his years numbered close
to so, and he was on a G. A. r. errand
when he caught his last cold.
See those beautiful young girls walk
up one by one and each lay down her
tribute of flowers and loving words on
an empty chair. =
And Miss Velma Barry gives so
touching a greeting to The Unknown
Dead.
Albert Weber served as chairman,
and it was never better done in Town
er.
The living comrades who sat before
him desire to thank all who did so
well, but him especially.
Surely everybody had caught the
spirit of Lincoln's Gettysburg address,
always so finely rejected by
Malvin Berget, and they are highly
resolved to dedicate themselves to the
unfinished work." so that government
of the people, by the people, for the
people, shall not perish from the earth.
It will not, as long as North Dakota
high schools turn out such boys and
girls as they are doing.
Rev. Hall of Surrey. States Attorney
Donnelly, each had message for the
young and old, too. For there were
widows and dependent ones, and much
kindness is always shown.
How quietly the people slipped out
of the overlooking halls and corridors.
There were thirty-five autos in the
line, and many teams. How tenderly
the veteran comrades decorated the
graves of their comrades so fast slip
ping away. The commander, ]. r.
Nelson, of Granville, was carried from
the service of Sunday to the hospital.
Vice Commander Stokeley could not
leave his wife so frail. His arms are
still doing duty.
But the comrades present were
bright and alert.
George H. Soule, an ex-prisoner of
war; Sammy Jones, Indian fighter in
80; Comrades Hyland Sawyer, Elliott,
Pierce and E. G. Stevens, originally
member of Post No. /, Decatur, ILL.,,
when Black Jack Logan began the q.
A. r. in 1868; founder of Jerry Rusk
in 1893, and acting commander In 1910
in spite of near approach to so.
The ladies of the relief corps always
provide the campfire nov, and this
year it burned as brightly as ever.
The little folks provided the chips.
Comrade Graybeard bids me tell
them he thinks they might all form in
procession next year about 10 o'clock
in the forenoon, and walk past him
and his comrades, and If they repre-
sent the states and tell something of
their story how proud everybody will
be. He says: Let the big men bring