Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1911-06-02
DECORATION DAY

great war, LOT ~hlsD nOnOr and
for an everlasting reminder of
which. the sacrifices of that war.
the day was created.
In his first inaugural address
Mr.. Lincoln said:
I'VE are not enemies. but
friends. We must not be enemies.
Though passions may have strained
it must o break our bonds of
Affection. The mystic chords Of
mem ~, stretching from every
battlefield and patriot grave to
every living heart and hearthstone
over all this broad lard, will yet
swell the chorus of the Uni0n
when again touched, as surely they
will be by the better angels of u
nature"
In passing we may stop a
moment tn wonder how il was.
when that inaugural was spoken,
that the men around Mr.. Lincoln
who had thought his election was
a mistake dill not realize that in
his IhciIth form the master spirit
of them all was disguised; wig,
when beyond the sea that inaugural
was read. the men of England did
not stop r. say: What is this
thar we have been told, that the
Unsolicited President of the
United States is a clown and
bufAon? WY, in all our litera-
ture. of which we are so proud.
There is not a paragraph compar-
able with that-so high. so deep,
so pathetic, 50 strong, 81 set to
celestial music!"
BIT, returning t. oar theme
1t va jIst fifty years ago that
those words were spoken. Have
'the better angels of our nature"
at last asserted themselves and
forced aside all the dark thoughts
of the past, until We can realize at
last that what happcne then haa
to be, and tiat the men who
struggled thr0 were each hut
acting MS rJle As Fate called the
mighty acts Of that tremendous
tragedy?
If We havt, thea we can. with all
appropriateness go out and dress
the soldiers pfEvCs with fCvus.
Twenty-Five years < there were
not many graves to decorate save
the graves of these that went
d wn under the canopy of battle.
and the steps Of the veterans Tho
marched to perform that duty had
much Of the OIL elastic spring OF
the naf.hefs of the ~iunotta, four
ySirs OF we. rJlay they af,
well-nigh all gone. and it is with
halting and feeble steps that those
who remain strHEelc ola to per
form that Ia5ir of love. Bat the
hanis nat are held doTn u them
from above. have grown to 4 most,
and ~ nav at sh axe off the be
lief that Oh Decoration day they
are not Indifferent to what is done
here; that the shining ranks are
al hlIel; Nith tn, Ili commanders
at t"oir heat; The old flags rleanC0
of every stain are aIDyr them;
that silver ii giss are snundiak the
call Mingled with the roll of
mIffled phantom drums; for the
psectacle of a great nation stop
ing TO streH flower upon the graves
Of their heroic dead is splendid
enough to arrest the attention Of
the universe.
Our nation was but a second
class nation until those men went
out and died. They hallowed its
soil. Their acts were a witness to
the world of What they could do
when divided, the world contem-
plating the spectacle said: what
would they do united, should the
call Gomez Ard since then there
has a halo gathered over the Stars
on the old flag.
Since then the two thousand
miles of wilderness that divide
the east Of our country from The
west, has vanished away. great
many new states have rounded INTO
form; the work performed has
been Titanic, but every one Of
those new states has been made
sacred by grave. of those veterans.
and or Tuesday next they all will
be wreathed in flowers.
The desert touched by the tears
of devotion to them has awakened