The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-06-08
MEMORIAL GRAFTON
BY EARLE SPAULDING

In behalf of the students Of the II.
r. II. S., ! wish to express TO The
veterans of Candy Post No. Is, our
sincere appreciation Of the honor
conveyed in the invitation TO take
charge of this service. We esteem il
an honor and a privilege and have
accepted the responsibility with full
understanding of the generous anC
patriotic motives which prompted the
invitation.
We young men of High School are
about the same age many of you were
when you VOLUNTEERED to sacrifice your
lives if need be that this Union be nct
severed. We realize to some degree,
the sacrifice you placed on the alter OF
National integrity and individual
liberty. We would not forget the
sacrifice and Spartan courage of youI
mothers, your wives, your sisters, and
your sweethearts, when they resolutely
| forced back the tears from their eyes
and with loyalty and patriotism unex-
celled, calmly bade you go forth tc
the nations defence. And while you
were in the field, the loving, cheering,
patriotic messages which they sent you
from the old home must have given
you inspiration, determination and
courage to do your duty unfinchingly.
But we who are standing as yet or
the threshold os life would not forget
to pay tribute of respect TO you who
are living. To you we wish to convey
the message of appreciation, of honor,
of patriotic homage, Of love. which toe
often are left unsaid. You were faith
ful to your trust. From your hands to
ours this great nation will pass with
integrity unchallenged, its luster un-
dimmed. You fought your battles and
won. We have our battles yet before
us. The responsibility of this great
trust we accept.
Great and courageous men the world
over, see in arbitration, the end of
international war and blood-shed. In
spite of this fact the call OF patriotism
is as strong as ever. The nation needs
men as never before. Every hamlet,
each village, our great cities, our
states and the nation itself are raising
Macedonian cry for patriotic man
hood, for unselfish service, for self
sacrificing volunteers. But we must
win our battles with the pen, the voice,
the ballot and by unselfish civic SER
vice. The mighty forces of right and
wrong are arrayed for mortal combat.
| The young man who volunteers today,
to fight in the nations army for right
for equal justice, for elimination of
special privilege, for unswerving
truth, has fight on his hands for life.
He also will have battles which will
test his courage and his manhood to the
utmost. But, Simple duty hath nc
piece for fear"
We have met with you here to-day
to do homage to those who have gone
before US to the great beyond
especially to those who died on the
field of battle; to those who fell prey tc
disease and privation; to those who
died in the prisons, Hells of the South,
and fill unknown graves today, tc
those who lived through the terrors OF
war and since then have passed away
to the brave women who sacrificed
even as much as you. We would not
forget the South-they also suffered
They had their graves and no laurel
They returned home from their -four
years of war, with nothing to greet
them but devastated fields and broker
homes. And it was too early to catcf
the CLEAN of coming sunlight, or tC
read the prophecy of better days. Wht
can listen to the heart breaking cry o.
Father Ryan's Ode TO the Confederat,
Flag, and yet not bare bis bead:
| E,,~I tha+ hon.,,,, f,s 4. Z! :. ..,.a,...,,
Round its staff It's dropping, dreary,
Furl it, fold 1t, it is best;
For there's not man to wave,
And there's not a sward to save it,
And there's not one to lave it,
In the blood which heroes gave it.
Furl it, hide it, let it rest.
Furl it for the hands that graspit,
Cold and dead are lying low;
And the banner, 1T is trailing,
While around it sounds the wailing
Of its people in their woe
For, though conquered, they adore it.
Love the cold dead bands that bore it,
Weep for those who fell before it;
And, oh wildly they deplore,
Now to furl and fold it so.
Furl that banner, softly, slowly,
Treat it gently, it is holy,
For it droops above their dead.
Touch it not, unfold it, never!
Let it droop there furled forever,
For its peoples hopes are dead.
The intervening years have burned
out our anger and now we keep Mem
orial day. Every year as the beautiful
month of May hastens to a close W,
gather our garlands and far away from
the scenes of strife, in our graveyard,
that never heard the roar of hostil,
cannons, we lay our flowers on tn,
graves of those who fought in tn,
struggle that gave US united people
and united nation. The number o
comrades with US are fewer, the numbe
of graves larger each year. But le
us never forget how this custom O
decorating the graves of the soldiers
of the Civil War commenced. 1t wal
the South that first opened the conflict
and forced the first guns on For
Sumpter. 1t was in the South that tn,
larger number OF graves were dug, ant
it was the South that suffered mos
keenly the ravages of the War. Blu
it was the Southern women who frs
went out over the battlefield and will
impartial hands decorated the grave
of both the gray and the blue.
So we, most of US, the defendants ot
Northern homes with Norhern bloot
flowing in our veins, owe to the SoutI
the beautiful and fitting custom cele
brated on Memorial Day. Fittingl,
has one of our poets sung:
"By the flow of the inland river.
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,
Where the blades of the grave yart
quiver,
Asleep, are the ranks OF our dead.
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the Judgement Day.
Under the laurels the Blue
Under the willows the Gray.
"No more shall the war cry sever,
Our wingding rivers be red;
They Danish our anger forever
When they laurel the graves of 0u
dead.
| Hinder the sod and the dew