Connecticut western news., 1911-05-25
THURSDAY. MAY 25. 1911
PITY
More helpful than all wisdom is one draught of simple human pity that will not forsake us.-Eliot.,
OUR VETERANS AND OUR DUTY

With each recurring Memorial Day there comes no lack of reminders that the old soldiers are rapidly going over, in response to the last summons, and that the day is fast approaching when there will be none of them lef5 In newspaper editorials, in essays, from the pulpits and from the platforms of oratory the solemn truths are proclaimed year after year that the ranks of the veterans are growing thinner, their steps are growing feebler, and the ex- tinction of the Grand Army is not far off. These manifest truths have become so familiar through oft-reiteration, that, though indisputable, their impressive ness is largely lost by their regular and almost monotopous repetition. But to the thinking mind, the most impressive, the most eloquent, the most pathetic evidence of their merciless truth is in the contrast of the present with the past of the numbers and spirit of the Grand Army itself.
 Take the present status of our own David s. Cowles Post. Where, only a few years ago, it could muster for it's Memorial bay ceremonies company of two score veterans, all more or less able to withstand the strain and fatigue of the march to the local cemetery, and the work of performing the affectionate duties that brought them there, to-day only handful remain, and if dozen members turn out next Tuesday for the day s observance it will be all that can be reasonably expected, for time has not only thinned their ranks but sapped their energy and their strength.
 And as the years pass, and their com rades answer to the last roll call, the work becomes harder for those who remain. Each succeeding year brings more graves to decorate, and finds fewer and fsebler comrades to decorate them The grass is green to-day upon the graves of some who marched last year and laid their tribute of affection and remembrance upon the mounds that
 
 and some who march next Tuesday will join that silent majority before another Memorial Day rolls round, when there will be still more graves for still fewer and still feebler comrades to visit. This tangible evidence of the great change that is taking place before our eyes is more impressive and more touchingly pathetic than all the fowery eloquence of memorial oratory and all the solemn pathos of the eulogist, the essayist and the writer of mournful editorials.
 The veterans are oing, and going fast And it is reasonable to forecast that even before the last survivors have gone, they will have become, through the infrmi. ties of age, unable to keep up, unass1sted the beautiful custom of decoration.
 Who will decorate the soldiers graves ~ when the old soldiers are no longer able or no longer here, to perpetuate the Day be entirely lost, or forgotten
 The few surviving veterans, those who are still with us, have gone forth year after year, for the last thirty years to strew flowers upon the graves oi their dead comrades. What assurance have they that their own graves vii not be neglected when they, themselves have gone to rejoin the Grand Army i1 the Bivouac of the Dead?
 The fact that this year the community is somewhat more actively interested in recognizing the day, and collaborating with the old soldiers in it's observance, is no guaranty that the community