The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-05-30
THE DAY OF MEMORIES.

Those who preserved MS Nation are
honored in memory today by all right
thinking people throughout the Repub
lie And Justly so, for unless
those honored ones had barred then
breasts TO the storm of war, the Union
would have been dissolved. and tho
country probably split into three frag
ments, the North, the South, and the
Pacific States Happily, however. we
need not speculate on what might have
happened The manhood of the sol
diers of the Republic preserved 1T In
tact; and we rejoice today III Nation
united, strong. and progressive, In the
very vanguard of all the nations of the
earth
A day of memories it is. And what
memories cluster about IL! Not memo
ries of battles pre-emlnently, though
these have their place; but memories of
the service in its general asncct and in
review. Memories of tedious marches
In rain and snow: of camp life, irksome,
crowded. trying; of disappointments at
obvious errors and fruitless endeavors
OF evaporation at blunders and the
efforts of those in high command 10
reap personal fame and advantage, no
matter how wrong the campaign might
be in other fields; the despieable lack
of cooperation OF the various armies,
and the wrangles of their commanders
thereupon-all these are memories that
invoke sadness and gloom, and cause
added grief that so many good men
needlessly lost their lives, and that the
War of the Rebellion was overcostly in
blood and treasure. Not that the
Union was not worth it all and even
more at need; but that there was so
and so much waste where better control
would have brought swifter and better
results at far less cost.
But on the other hand, what Joyous
memories arise! The just pride In duty
we'll performed that no one else could
do! The glorious comradeship of those
who all together and elbow TO elbow
stood smiling and ready to go down
into the valley of the shadow of death
when the sharp command came! The
eXultation at the onward press which
marked the giving way of the foe, or
the grim determination to stand fast
though it had not gone we'll at another
point in the line! 1t is all a mental
panorama, brightly illumined and gaily
colored, though many spots be dark
and shaded of to blackness and despair
where the dead heap up and the battle
is lost. But when it is won, how fair
the recollection; how comfortable the
feeling even though the rations be
thirty miles in the rear, the tents miss
ing. and the heavens weeping for the
slaini
proven and tested as not possible in
any other way, A noble cause, noble
and close comradeship formed in service
therein-what can be higher among
men7 It is worth all the sadness, the
trial, the weariness, to realize such
friendship, and TO cherish it even
when broken by death either on the
field, in hospital, OF by the long wear
of the years.
Fit it is that the day should be ex-
allied by the memories of those dead
who served their country well, and to
whom il owes its unity and life. Fit
it is that from this vital germ of re-
membering the lives and the deaths of
the soldiers of that war, a general day
of memory of the dead should spring.
But it must never be forgotten that
the vital origin of the observances came
from the gratitude and devotion of the
living of that trying time to the mem
ory of their own dead, who were dear
to them. and in honor of whose glorious
sacrifices the memorial observances
were founded, which have now taken
on the general feature of day conse-
Grated to the decoration of the graves
of all our dead.