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

and a broken column and a field of
graves writes. Edward w. Thomp-
son in Boston Transcript. Men
in Boston told me not to go. The
place. these acute critics said,
was made ridiculous by multitudes
OF prepusterous monuments. One
may. after getting safely out of
Boston, pity these critics. For
the field of Gettysburg is a most
touching spectacle. noble, worth
travelling across oceans to see, as
an epitome of the poetic. simple.
good, generous earth of the
American democracy. Evrey
federal regimental line of the
three days of July fighting is
marked out by bronze tablets and
the immortal army of northern
Virginia is placed in eternal
position by the government of
the reunited states. Oh, the wide
circled graves of the host of in
distinRuishable dead-the little
nameless tablets for each persisted
soldierl One would covet a place
there, so heroic it seemed to have
poured out life's blood for duty
without leaving even a name, save
in the aching hearts of those who
knew that their beloved must lie
among the unrecognize slain of
Gettysburg. And what is a name
on any monument or tablet Of that
field? All the inscribed are nearly
forgotten. Visitors ask about
some hero very famous IN his time
(and mine): VINO was he? In
effect. the dead there are all alike,
essentially unnamed, becoming
quickly unnamed, becoming un-
recognized even as the winds If
night and the memories of war.
And the wholly unnamed, when
the final roll call be sounded. shall
surely be as familiar as any to the
judgement seat nor less applauded
by the shadowy hands of heaven.
There is art. and even great art
at Gettysburg, rarely. il certain
shafts and bronze equestrian and
standing statutes of the marshalS
of the hosts that we're. But art is
small, insignifi can't, conceited, a
toy. q diminished citifed idea at
Gettysburg The grand, natural
spectacle and the sense of what
they did here" reduce to a sort OF
trivialty the memorials which
most obviously celebrate the heroes
artisticaly. Strangely proper
seemed the homelier stone h5ures
of horse. and gun, and man.
devised lovingly by tie village
stone cutter, he striving so vainly
to Symbolic the man or the regi-
ment cherished in memory by the
humble folk who gave him his
commission after putting hard
do "n into poor pockets to pay his
little fee. They saw in his queer
work all that was lent to its out
lines by their visions Of past agony
and tears. In those almost
absurd memorials Won shall see the
homely. good. awkward. poetic.
loving American people, if you
look rightly. III your heart
derides them, better go away
hastily and drown yoursclf-as
one devoid of undertaking.
That may be possible by gazing
from almost under Father abra-
hanm's figure, high on the central
shaft, tiward Seminary RiGpe.
Your mortal eyes shall see the
distant. lengthy Blue Ridge Hills.
Your soul may behold. iuvsibly
far the delectable mountains where
his spirit ranged for the immortal
address.
A days driN ing about the great
three days battlefield enables one
to understand clearly what hap.
pened. 1t was as il the AL night,
even as Homer understood him to
be. had nodded to fix irrevocably,
at the beginning Of the fight. the
doom of ia issue. 1t IL as he had
said, 1.-TWO days shall The south
triumph; ever hour Of that time
shall the north. beaten, increase
in strength; the valor of the
victors of the first two days hal,
irresistibly pound their foes into
an i~mpregnable position; on the
third day | will take away the
wisdom OF the great leader of the