The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1911-05-26

~4k6 Edward w. thompson
in Boston Transcript. Men in Boston
told me not to 20. The place, these
acute critics said, vas made ridicu.
lous by multitudes of preposterous
monuments. On may, after getting
safely out of Boston, pity these crit
les. 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 heart Of the American de-
mocracy. Every federal regimental
line of the three days of July fighting
is marked out by bronze tablets and
the immortal army Of northern Vir-
ginia is placed in eternal position by
the government OF the reunited
states. Oh, the wide circled graves
Of the host Of indistinguishable dead
the little nameless tablets for each
persisted soldier! 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 unrecognized slain of Gettysburg.
And what Is a name on any monu-
ment or tablet Of that field? All the
inscribed are nearly forgotten. Visit
ors ask about some hero very famous
IN his time land mine): who was
he?' In effect, the dead there are all
alike. essentially unnamed. becoming
quickly unrecognized. even as the
winds OF 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
Judgment seat nor less applauded by
the shadowy hands of heaven.
There is art, and even great art at
Gettysburg, rarely, in certain shafts
and bronze equestrian and standing
statues OF the marshals OF the hosts
that were. But art is small. insignia.
cant, conce1ted. a toy, a diminished,
c1tlfed idea. at Gettysburg. The grand.
natural spectacle and the sense OF
what they did here" reduce to a sort
OF triviality the memorials which most
obviously celebrate the heroes artis-
tically. Strangely proper seemed the
homelier stone figures OF horse. and
gun, and man, devised lovingly by the
village stone cutter, he striving SO
valnly to symbolic the mar or the
regiment cherished in memory by the
humble folk who gave him his com
mission after putting hard hand down
into poor pockets to pay his little fee.
They saw in his queer work all that
was lent to its outlines by Their vi
slons OF past agony and tears. In
those almost absurd memorials you
shall see the homely. good, awkward.
poetic, loving American people, IL you
1901 rightly. II your heart derides
them, better go away hastily-and
drown yourself-as one devoid OF un-
derstanding. But first try to get right.
That may be possible by gazing from
almost under Father Abraham's fig
ure. high on the central shaft, toward
Seminary Ridge. Your mortal eyes
shall see the distant, lengthy Blue
Ridge Hills. Your soul may behold, in
visibly far. the delectable mountains.
where his spirit ranged for the i'm
mortal address.
A days driving about the great
three days battlefield enables one to
understand clearly what happened. It
was as If the Almighty, even as Ho-
mer understood him to be, had nod
ded to fix irrevocably. at the begin
ming OF the fight, the doom OF its is
sue. 1t is as he had said, Two days
shall b south triumph: every hour
OF that time shall the north, beaten.
Increase In strength; the valor OF the
victors of the first two days shall ir-
resistibly pound their foes into an i'm
pregnable position; on the third day l
will take away the wisdom of the
great leader of the south; he shall
then reqsdre OF his soldiers a deed
that mortal flesh and blood cannot
perform: and great shall be their
slaughter and their rout.' For. stand
ing on Little Round Top, the Federal
left, viewing the ground to Culp's
Hills, where the blue right lay. it ap-
pears incredible that a general so
mastery as Lee could have ordered
the third days charge unless he had
come under the doom, He whom the
gods wish to destroy they first make
mad" That Picketts, Longstreet's,
Hills, Armstead's regiments should
have endured a whole mile of hell. un-
til their relics came to hand-to-hand
fighting, Is either an incredible thing.
or an indispensable instance of hui
man courage. You could weep there
over the dream Of the charge and the
carnage. Yet 1t is all SO strangely blest
to us: r. L. 8. gave the very tone Of
the memories:
We Travelled in the print OF olden warn.
Yet all the land was green,
And love we found. and peace,
Where firo and war had been.
The pass and smile. the children OF the
sword
No more the sword they WELD:
And, oh. how deep the corn
Along tho battle field!
Dost thou love life? Then do no.
squander time. for that Is the stu