The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1911-06-03


sity of the long struggle. Perhaps
slavery was as cancer that had
fastened itself in the very vitals OF
he southern life. Perhaps it was
necessary for God to anoint the
surgeon of war with the oil that was
dark. that with knife made sharp and
cautery Of FLAME the stern surgeon
might cut out the disease that threat
ened the national life itself.
Perhaps also the North was young
giant, growing coarse and materialistic
and oyerstrong. Or, perhaps. who can
gainsay it--that our nation like the
Captain of our Salvation, had need to
be perfected through suffering,
This we do know: that notable war
focalized the thought of the old world
monarchies upon the young republic
Previous to the attack ON Fort Sump-
ter the English and Continental
newspapers scarcely ever had line
about American affairs. The old
! world scoffed at our ideals of liberty.
Latterly all that is changed. Old ma
tions initiate us. Students from other
capitals come to our shores to study
our Institutions. All the world ~
going to school to our Republic to
learn liberty. But it was the gTca;
war that first caught and held the at
tention OF the monarchies for four
years
la letters of fire God wrote the les
sons OF the Republic so large that the
peoples across the seas could see ana
read Long ago the Austrian emperor
listed Innsbruck. Above that little
i city rise the mountains of the Tyrol
Alps Climbing the steep mountain
side the people hewed down the for
est and piled the trees in the shape
of letters. One dark night a. ten
o'clock tn. emperor's suite arrived in
innsbruck And, suddenly across the
ountainside there famed forth these
worGs: welcome to Our Emperor,
written in letters of fire. So, when the
providence of God would fix the eyes
OF foreign nations upon the republic,
| He needed a large canvass. He wrote
the lessons of liberty in letters OF
flame that reached from Bull Run to
vicksburg. What a canvass was that,
involving in a battlefield thousand
miles long a million men in arms.
| But among all the lessons of that
awful period there was none greater
| thai, the worth of the common man.
particularly of the common American
soldier.
been impressed by the unselflshness
| OF this American soldier. E
When Napoleon Bonapare led his
| Frerch battalions over the Alps al
most inundating Italy; and when he
ltewilderingly defeated the Austrians-
lin the famous battle Of Marengo;
when Alexander the Great subdued
Greece and planned for the expansion
of his kingdom on the Atlantic coast,
and the union of Europe and Asia;
| that which inspired these conquerers
was selfish ambition, and their battle
cry was Napoleon! Napoleon" and
| Alexander Alexander"
| But when the Boys in Blue marched
from their northern firesi1es to meet
| q multitudinous foe on a thousand
battle fields no thought of selfish glory
filled their breasts. They went 1ortn
in the name of God and home and ma
| tive land and in the name of that trim
| ity they fought and died.
If as the old Germans fondly be-
| lieved, the spirits OF the heroic dead
return again to the place OF their
| CORNER abode and hover anon about
the cid familiar places; methinks, that
| today, this this thirtieth OF May, the
spirits of the brave men and true VIII"
| died for their country and their coun-
| try's veal are broodlng Ger us even
now and urging our aheglencl 10
these same noble ideals-God, and
home and native land.
| And these men were not old men,
anf mature They were young, too
young!
The average OF their ages was but
nineteen.
A glance at the official figures stag
gers one, for it is seen that OF the more
Than two and half million men who
partook OF the dangers and the glories
of hat awful war only one in five
was more than twenty-one years OF
age The exact figures are these
GS2,117 were over twenty-one years Of
age. ,5S9,7S9 were twenty-one years
of are and under, 1,151, ,43S were eight
cen years of age and under, S44.S9l
were seventeen years of age and un-
der, 231 ,051 we're sixteen years OF age
and under, 104,9S7 were fifteen years OF
age and under, 1,523 were fourteen
years of age and under, 300 were thir-
teen years of age and under, 278 were
Twelve years of age and under.
And the cost of the war; what was
that Oh! my countrymen, you can
rot reckon that-God alone can COM
pute the cost! In money. the expense,
after the war was well on in It's
scourgeful way, was a million dollars
dav-somewhat more than six bill
| lions for the four years.
Those slain in battle numbered a.,
23S. and 49,205 more, later succumbed
20 mortal wounds. But this is not all,
| 2SO, ,24O received wounds more or less
serious: 1874, 791 were missing or cap
tured; 2616S died as prisoners Of war
out of 900 so incarcerated.
This hints at the cost, but as I have
previously said no mortal can ade'
uuatelv exrress the terrible price that