Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1911-06-01
THE AGING VETERANS.
Are They Really as Old and "Griz-
zied' as Some imagine?

say, as these, quoted from your Me
mortal day editorial:
Half century has passed, and the
boy who was sent forth from a moth
er's breaking heart, is now a griZzled
wearer Of the blue. stopping to drop
Ia flower and tear over the comrade
he loved.
1T is only few more years,at most,
when not man in Grand Army uni
form will stand above the fast in
creasing mounds
As one who might be included in
the paragraph quoted l am entering
an earnest protest against such too
frequently chanted observations.
What are the real facts? Many
people imagine.
The latest estimate as to the num-
Der of the survivors of the Civil War,
placed ii at tritie over 600, 900.
Quite a shrinkage, truly But. recall,
that is Just twice the three hundred
thousand more" with which, in the
wartime, we were accustomed to ter
rify the noncombatants in the South
ern villages. screened behind doubiy-
blinded windows, as We rolIickingly
went marching through.
II in fighting trim, quite a sizeable
army-and when considering pension
legislation there seems to be uni
versal aequieseence in that fact, not
ably as these on the roll are, not only
he that hath borne the battle" but
also the widow and orphan as we'll.
But this menotonous wall has been
in vogue a great many years. Won
dor h.x
The absurd idea appears to have
somehow got abroad, at the close of
the war. that a man who had been a
soldier and through the wars" must
necessarily be an old soldier" and
rank as venerable" l have in my
box of numerous clippings the report
of a memorial address given by an
eminent man in Maine city in 1882,
or nine and twenty years ago. 1t
was replete with such expressions
the legions of the Grand Army are
passing away" gray hairs" grizzly
boards. trembling limbs" The au-
thor, an eXnaVal officer, was per-
haps of age 80 when the AppomattoX
incident occurred: he was % to 25. the
age of the larger proportion of civil
War veterans. at the final muster out.
Il, II years later, or at age a. he was
of grizzly beard" characteristics.
quite likely he needed the services of
a knight of the tonsorial profession.
1t is now conceded that the great
bulk of army enlistments were at ages
is to p. To the man of 1861. as TO
age. this would mean is and II in
1911. But, you recall enIistments
were going on close up to April 8,
1865. and the l3year- boy of 1861
was of enlistment age the last men,
toned year, and, as TO some of the
later regiments, we seem TO have
drawn upon the cradle if not the
grave"
Remembering that there were as
many enlistments in 1S64-5. as in
1872, you will see the Importance of
the year when speaking
of age. Ny claim IS that the great mass
OF Civil War veterans are today from
IS TO 6S, and therefore in life's prime.
1t is not true as heretofore held, that
one beyond age so is to be rated as an
old man. BY innumerable illustra-
tons in the ranks of the G.. A. r., and
without as well, we can easily
that. Take, for example.
DR.. Smith Baker-the Incompatible
the Henry Ward Beeeher of New
England! At age 10. doing the best
work, and more of it. of his entire
professional career. Indeed. in these
latter years, four score is the fair
term of life's duration, and every vet
eran who was a good soldier, and is
an exemplary man as to habits. is en-
titled to as much as that term, as well
as to liberal pensioni Again, as
to aging, it has been truly said, by
a gifted preacher, "old age is really
part and parcel of scheme of life
designed to be beautiful from begin
ming to end, and there is nothing more
lovely than serene. yirtuous, happy
old age"
OF course, eonceding that in the re-
mote future. our then surviving G. a.
K veterans must reach the borders of
this happy old age. let that be the
ideal we should all strive for. Repel
any suggestion of actual retirement.
Be on duty every day. wrestling
herocally with life's problems! Be
found just there when the Angel
Gabriel gives his bugle CALI
And | have no apprehensions that
we shall not be able to keep the bea-
con lights in the G. A. X. temple
brightly burning for from ten to d
dozen years longer
Meanwhile let us educate the sons,
and their prospective resources, the
grandsons, in the custodianship of the
Ark of the Covenant of patriotism
Then may the last one of the sur
Vivors take rightful place in the ranks
of the Phantom Army, with the
blessed assurance that, having fought
good fight, he shall surely go over to
discover the much talked of Ever
green Shore, "a land rich, beautiful,
glorious"
II. A. SHOREY,
G. A. r. Veteran, but "ungrizzled.'
HOW LICENSE WORKS.