The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1911-06-01
Memorial Address
by Mr.. R. c. Dunn.
CONTINUED from first page.)

NCOhItHueu IIoAi Ia 81 peScr
might not be required of her, that
duty would not demand that she
send this last born of her noble sons
to swell the ranks of those who had
gone before him, that this tender
boy, her only comfort and conapan-
ion here in the loneliness of that
grief-stricken land, might at least
be spared her for her fast declining
years. The night was ended, the
prayer was finished, the question
was answered. Duty, that duty
which Southern woman has never
been known to question nor yet to
shirk, required this last great act.
Calling this noble youth to her, but
toning around his slight form the
faded Jacket Of gray, already STAIN
ed with the life blood of her hus-
band, with her arms clasped tightly
about him, and binding tears filling
her eyes and coursing down her
wrinkled cheek, she said to him,
go, my boy, the ranks must be
filled" And you tell me, sirs,
that that mothers name is not at
the very head of the list of the
heroes and heroines Of the world?
You brave men, about whose aged
foreheads the locks Of gray are now
entwined, and whose forms are now
bent with the ever increasing years,
tell me, you who fought for the
cause of Southern rights, tell me,
sirs, if you would be willing to &C
cord to any hero or heroine a place
above that of that sanity mother
who pressed you to her heart and
gave you your parting kiss as she
sent you forth to war? Beside a
mothers sacrifice Of her child, the
mighty deeds of Leonidas and his
little band as they defied the Persian
host at the pass of Thermopyla pale
into insignifcance; beside it, the
campaigns Of the mighty Napoleon,
with all their sacrifices, and all their
acts of heroism, are nothing; beside
it, the deeds of bravery of every
soldier under every flag in every
war that has ever been waged by
common man cannot be compared;
beside it history has no parallel, and
can produce no equal.
1t is the final test, the supreme trial
Of self-sacrifice and Of heroism.
For the soldier at the front there
was active participation, for the
woman at home there was naught
save the dread of anticipation. Hers
were the silent battles. For her
there was no beat Of drums, no song
Of the bugles, no excitement of the
charge, no waving Of victorious BAN
ners over embattled hosts upon
the field Of glory. She could only
wait and wait and wait until at last
the dread message came from the
field of battle announcing to her that
her loved one had died for his coun-
try, and then with more than Spar
tan heroism she gave no sign of des-
pair that might discourage those at
the front, but like statue solid set
and nodded in colossal calm, she sat
mute and resigned at the foot of the
red dripping altar of patriotism
wherein lay in hallowed sacrifice her
sainted dead. And when the war
was over and the broken battalions
of the South turned homeward, it
was the Southern woman who met
the returning soldier on the door
steps; and as she had ever been his
on the field of battle, so
now she joined hand in hand with
him and together they took up their
task of restoring a desolated land
and upon the blackened ruins of
battle they have builded a grander
civilization, a larger truth, and a
better liberty. And when, in that
dark night of negroid corruption,
when Shiny carpet baggers, a few
Judas Iscariots in the South land l
want to make due apology to Judas
Iscariot), and half witted negroes
to establish Ethiopian
domination, it was the Southern
woman who stood in the breach of
the Nations honor and with the voice
of goddess demanded Of Southern
chivalry that they remember the
spirit of the cavaliers that had bap-
TIED this continent in rivers of hero
ism, and demonstrate their right to
live and rule. At once came the
response; the unconquered
spirit of the Southern Anglo-Saxon
that had never known what If was tn