The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1911-05-30
Decoration DalI.

oeoui GtioiI uuY'
(The author of this unique toem
is u Kansas lawyer, formerly icom-
missioner of pensions. and s4ryed
through the civil war, being anus
tered cut as captain OF an iowa
cavalry troop. Mr.. Ware has writ
Ten many patriotic poems.)
1t is needless I should tell you
Of the history of Sumter,
How the chorus of the cal non
shook its walls,
How the scattered navies gath
cred,
How the iron ranked battalions
Rose responsive to the country's ur
gent calls.
1t is needless that I tell you,
For the time is still too recent,
How was heard the first vindict're
lannon's peal,
How two brothers stopped debat-
ing
On a sad, unsettled question,
And referred it to the arbitr4 .ng
steel.
1t is needless that I tell you
Of the somber days that fol-
lowed
Stormy days that in such slow sue
cession ran
Of Antietam, Chickamauga,
Gettysburg and Murfreesboro
Or the rocky, cannon shaken Rapi-
dan.
1t was not war of conquest
1t was fought to save the Union;
1t was waged for an idea of the
right,
And the graves so widely scat
tered
Show how fruitful an idea
In peace or war may be in moral
might.
Brief indeed the war had lasted
Had it ragged in hope of plunder,
Briefer still had glory been its only
aim,
But it's long and sad duration
And the graves it has bequeathed
Other motives, other principles, pro
claim.
Need I mention this idea,
The invincible idea,
That seemed to hold and save the
nations life;
That resistless and unblenching,
Undisheartened by disaster,
Seemed the soul and inspiration of
the strife?
This idea was of freedom
Was that men should all stand
equal,
That the world was interested in
the fight;
That the present and the future
Were electors who had chosen
Us to argue and decide the case
Alright.
And the theories of free iOm
Those now silent buglea uttered
Will reverberate with ever glow
ing tones.
They can never be forgotten,
But will work among the nations
Till they sweep the world OF SHACK
Loo apJ Of
1t is meet that we do honor
To the comrades who have fallen
lands Irvine. f.ae
Where they BURIED lie is'sacTrG
Whether the Northern
marble
Or beneath the southern cypress
tree or pine.
Nations are the same as children,
Always living in the future,
Living in their aspirations and their
hopes;
Picturing some future greatness,
Reaching forth for future prizes
With a wish for higher aims and
grander scopes.
1t is better for the people
That they reach for an ideal,
That they give their future nations
better lives,
Though the standard be unreal,
Though the hope meets no fulfill
ment,
Though the fact in empty dreams
alone survives.
If the people rest contented
With the good they have accom-
plished,
Then they retrogade and slowly
sink away.
Give a nation an ideal,
Some grand, noble, central project
1t, like adamant, refuses to decay.
IT'S the duty of the poet,
IT'S the duty of the statesman,
To inspire a nations life with no
bier aims,
And dishonor will oershadow
Him who dares not or who falsely
His immortal fruited mission mis-
proclaims.
One of New England's many
preachers makes the announcement
that American women have ceased
to blush. Pouf! Why should any
woman ever blush at what a good