Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1911-06-06
MEMORIAL OBSERVANCE.
Large Crowds Turn Out to Pay Homage
to the Nations Dead.

agreeable to most people, yet 1T did
not keep them at home. The day
was quite cool and cloudy, up to
about four O'Clock in the afternoon,
when the sun showed his face and
warmed the atmosphere. Never be-
fore did SO many Wausau people turn
out to pay reverence to the dead as
on this day, and the result was graft
flying to Cutler Post and to every
loyal citizen. Several thousand peo-
pie gathered at the court house
square at an early hour after dinner,
and thousands more went to the GEM
etery. The warm rains and sunshine
had supplied an abundance of flowers,
and the hand of Nature never worked
more deftly in putting green tint
on the surroundings.
The program was carried out with
out break, and everything passed
off clock-like in its precision. The
ceremonies opened with a prayer by
Rev. E. G. Grauer at the soldiers
monument On the county square.
This monument, as more than half
of our people are not aware, was
erected in honor of the civil wal
soldiers who gave up their lives
and were buried in southern lands,
and whose graves are marked with
the single word unknown 1t is
therefore fitting that services should
be held at this monument each year.
A dirge was played by the band
while flower girls decorated the base
of the monument with floral tokens.
A wreath, contribution of the
German war veterans society, was
also placed on it. The Grand army
ritual service was then read, followed
by vocal music by members of the
Choral society and the reading by S.
b. Tobey of the address of Abraham
Lincoln delivered on the battlefield
of Gettysburg Louis Marchetti then
made an address. We have not the
space to give detail to the remarks of
Judges Marchetti and Reid, and can
only give very few of the salient
points of each.
Mr.. Marchetti said that while the
civil war is generally characterized as
war for the freedom of the black
man, it was in reality more than that.
1t was to determine whether repub-
lie could govern itself in time of in
ternal strife, and come out strong in
the end. Had we failed in putting
down the rebellion, there is no tell
ing what our map might have looked
like at the present day, for there was
monarchial powers north and south
of US, and vast expanse of wilder
ness ON the west of US, which we
might have lost later, had we failed
in this struggle.
The common soldier is the one, he
said, we should honor on this day, for
the officer is always in the public eye
The one is nerved to duty through
the knowledge that if he sue
ceeds his fame will spread throughout
the nation; the other, suffering all
the hardships of war, unselfishly puts
his life between his country and the
danger which threatened it.
When the cost in blood and suffer
ing which was incurred i'm the max
ing and preservation of this country
is summed up, the conclusion is
forced on us that we owe vast debt
of gratitude to the dead and living
soldiers whom we are honoring to-
day.
The march to the cemetery was
then taken up, being led by ST.
Stephens church band, followed by
Co. G., the German war veterans and
citizens. A committee of old soldiers
had previously visited the cemetery,
and, guiding party Of little girls and
boys, each soldiers grave was decor
ated with flag and bouquets of
flowers.
AT THE CEMETERY.
Judge Reid, addressing the Post at
the soldiers monument in the ceme-
terry, said that the days ceremony
had the semblance of funeral rites,
without the sadness, without the
newly opened grave. That no custom
could be more touching and beautiful
than memorial observance, created
and fostered by the veterans of the
civil war We are too prone to give
our time to commercial activities and
forget our government, but Memorial
day brings us back to our duties and
rekindles the spirit of national life
and love of country.
Memorial exercises are not for the
dead alone. They see and hear not,
nor can they smell the sweet fragrance
of the flowers on their graves. But
every word of affection and reverence
uttered awakens spirit and rekindles
a love of country among the living,
and we re-baptise our faith in our
government. No other country is