The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-05-31
SCRAP BOOK FOR TO-DAY


 Eulogistic oratory has always been 8 feature of Memorial Day, and many eloquent tributes have been paid to the 'theroes dead.n' The masterpiece of all such efforts, however, was the late Col. Robert c. IngersolPs remark able ''vision of war;" which he deliv- cred before an assemblage of veterans called 'the most eloquent speech in the English language" In part, Col. 1ngersoll's address was as follows:
 ''Tl1e past rises before me like a dream. Again we are in the great struggle for national life. We hear the sound of preparation-the music of the boisterous drums-the silver voices of bugles. We see thousands of assemblages, and hear the appeals of orators; we see the pale cheeks of women, and the flushed faces of men: and in these assem b1ages we see cred with flowers. We lose sight of them no more. We are with them when they enlist in the great army of freedom. We see them part with those they love. Some are walking for the last time in quiet, woody pIa- ees, with the maidens they adore. We hear the whisperings and the sweet. vows of eternal love as they finger ingIy part-forever. Others are bending over cradles, kissing babes that are asleep. Some are receiving the blessings of old men. Some are. parting with mothers who hold them and press them to their hearts again and again, and say nothing; and some are talking with wives, and endeavor- ing with brave words spoken in the old tones to drive away the awful fear. We see them part We see the wife standing in the doorway with the babe in her arns-standing in the of nf the road a hand waves, and she ans wers by holding high in her loving arms their child. He is gone, and forever.
 We see them all as they march. proudly away, under the Haunting flags, keeping time to the wild, grand music of war-marching down the streets of the great cities, through the towns and across the prairies-down to the fields of glory, to do and to die for the eternal right. We go with them, one, and all. We are by their side on all the gory fields. in all the hospitals of pain, on all the weary marches. We stand guard with them in the wild storm and under the quiet stars. We are at home when the news comes that they are dead. We see the maiden in the shadow of her first sorrow. We see the silver heads of age bowed with the last grief
 If the weather is propftfous, to-mor- row will be observed as straw hat day. by such male citizens as are strict conformers to the dictates of fashion True, the straw lids" have been on display in the shop windows for some time, and to many men the 1918 Summer toppiece is already an old story. A great deal of Iaxity is now permitted in the wearing of straw hats, and it is now possible to wear such headgear before the first of June without rislking social ostra- cisn or being subjected to the jeers and missiles of rowdies. Even the moving up of "straw hat day. to the first of June is a, comparatively recent concession, for in the old days the time limit was confined to the three months between June 15 and Septem- Der 15. This was the dicturn of New York fashionab1es, and was accepted as law throughout the United States and Canada by all swell dressers.'' Gradually there arose spirit of rs- volt among men who held the anar- chistic doctrine that straw hats were made to be worn when the weather was suitable, without regard to the calendar. These pioneers, who were often martyrs, bravely risking the penalty of a too bold defiance or the conventions and the unwritten law. were at first greeted by hoots and stale vegetables. They persisted, and in the end they won the respect and 1 gratitude of the multitude of men wf 9 had formerly sweltered in derbies and felts until the beginning of the legal l open season for straws. For 8 time 1 the dictators of fashion held out, but in the end they offered to compromise
 by opening the straw hat season on the first of June, and extending it l to the first of October. This is now l the law of the fashionab1es, but in many cities the hoi polloi have made the fifteenth day of May the beginning I of the open season; but let a man aI- pear under a straw lid before that l da4es and he Is rent asunder. fgura~