The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1913-07-05
Is Only There Long Enough
to Make an Address
to 10000.
BIG PARADE Ar DAWN
Veterans Refuse to Go to BED
and Visit Each Others
Camp.

GETTY sBuRG Pa. July at is true
came to Gettysburg to-day and made .
speech: that an even dozen of Cover
nors. trailed by their STATS. marched and
countermarched: that more Senators
cept "A Washington correspondent could
keep track Of assumed stragetical po-
sitions. and that the State Legislators
present outnumbcred the Army Of
Northern Virginia but these things are
not the real story of this last day Of
reunion and splendid friendship between
the old soldiers Of the North and OF tho
South.
That story must tell Of the parade be.
fore sunrise. the singing. shouting pa
rade tina; weavcd between army and
army. while Confederate bands played
Marching Through Georgia" and Fed
eral bands stirred the echoes OF the
Round Tops with "D%ie" of the pa
radc made up of old men who had
found their you;n On the field Of
their hands on one anothcr's shoulders
or their arms around one another's
necks.
Th~ One Mig Fact.
No one episode Of the semi-centennial
celebration testified so finely to the one
big fact that the veterans of the Blue
nd
themselves, that all bitterness. all sore-
ness has passed away and that every
dollar that our Uncle Sam and the
States spent was mighty we'll spent in
bringing them together.
The parade was their last prank the
final explosion of happiness and good
feeling. Until Thursday nigh, they had
been Ike the boys they were when they
first shouldered muskets and went out
behind Grant and jackson and Sher-
man. Army officers who had been so.
licitous n fear that they were over
extending themselves and who had
tried to get them to 20 to bed were put
aside. No. cir, they We're no, going TO
vast" an hour Of their last great holi-
day.
Reckon We can get all the sleep We
wall brigad" man told Major Normoyle
when that omnlprcscn, officer hinted
that i, was bedtime. Reckon We will
all go to have little more visiting
around the ranks"
IAN right. all right" laughed the
Major. II guess YOU Couli put me on
my back at that"
"Wrcstle YOU any time YOU want"
said Virginia. "Wrestlr any young
Yank, or old, for fun or a plug of to.
baccO"
Fireworks On iitir Round Top.
And so the evening and the morning
In Federal and confedora;. camps were
as one day The fun started with the
exhibition of fireworks on Little Round
Top, that slope which saw such terrible
fighting half a century ago
From supper time until nIghtfall tho
veterans Of both armies waited with
eagerness III concealed for the first
Hash Of fire from the hill They did not
want the spectacle to be delayed. IT
must not be forgotten that every man
of the old men had come from homes
where money Is not set on fire and We're
very intent on taking back good stories
to be told on the long evenings.
by the time that the explosion OF a
bomb signalled that the fireworks w~re
to begin thousands OF scterans were
seated on elevations within the enc8mp-
nent or had their weary legs to take
them out ne~- Round Top, where they
could sit on the wheat and clover fields.
Many Of them had soap boxes or camp
chairs So they could witness the specta-
Gle at their ease.
Fifty years ago Tonight We weren't
tOting camp chairs" said Comrade
Grayson OF Front Royal, Va, son. let
me tell you what we were doing. You sec
that ridge over there
And ne waved toward the faint rise
Of Seminary.
We'll, sir, We was hiking south from
that ridge so fast that YOU could have
played seven-up on our coat tails with
out losing n Jack"
I'VE saw you going. said COmrade
Tiddcns Of Pennsylvania. but weren't
none too keen to chase you. Guess
we'd had enough OF gunpowder for one
spell"
Yes said Comrade Grays enough
to last fifty years"
The Veterans Enthrnlicd.
And then, hang, the most wonderful
rocket in the world burst all % pieces
high over Little Round Top and sprayed
red and green over the trcetops. After
that there was no more use to ask
the old timers to tell you stories. They
watched with cleaning eyes, swapping
out little exclamatiOns of pleasure Of
excitement.
At least $4,000 persons saw the hre-
works and took jOy In the pleasure OF
the veterans. Automobiles came all the