The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1913-10-10
HARPER VAUGHN IN
ELOQUEACE EXTQLS
SAM DAVIS VIRTUES
WAS THE SPEAKER OF THE DAY
AT THE DAVIS ANNlvERSA-
RY AT ATHENAEUM.
PROGRAM FOR EXPRESSION CLASS
Dead Soldier Boy Held Up AS Mar
tyr to the Virtue of Truth and 10y
atty to Confidence and Charge by
Local Orator.

At the Sam Davis anniversary at
Athenaeum Monday afternoon at 2
o'clock under the auspices of the loc-
al chapters of the Daughters of the
Confederacy, at which the pupils of
Miss Tomlinson's class in expression
made up the program, Harper Vaughn
was the orator of the day. He deliv-
cred most 'creditable address on the
Hero of the Confederacy, and won the
applause of the large audience. He
spoke as follows:
Dughters of Confederacy, Honored
Veterns, Ladies and Gentlemen
This occasion, suppose, is without
parallel in history. Certainly ]
know of no other instance where,
more than half of century after the
death of boy of eighteen, his coun-
trymen assembled in such numbers
as are gathered to-day throughout
the South to do honor to the memory
of Sam Davis.
We meet to-day for purpose that
has the dignity and the tenderness
of funeral rites without their sad
ness. 1t is not new bereavement,
but one which time has softened that
brings us here. We meet not around
a newly opened grave, but we gather
to commemorate those which Ma
ture has already decorated with the
memorials of her love. Above every
tomb her daily sunshine has smiled,
her tears have wept; over the humb-
lest she has hidden sine grass nestle,
some vines creep, and the butterfly
ancient emblem of immortality
wave his little wings above every
sod. To Natures sign of tenderness
we add our own. Not "ashes to
ashes, dust to dust" but blossoms
to blossoms laurels to the laurels.
| will not enter into the earlier
life of Sam Davis, all of you being
so familiar with it. would only
like to leave the thought that his
was a character unlikened to any
ever recorded in the annals of his
tory. That was one of the noblest
speciments of humanity that ever
wore a jacket of gray. That his soul
was as pure as the driven snow, and
his heart as clear as the cvrystal
waters. And, as he hao lived so he
died; as he had fought so he fell. AS
he ascends the gallows he hears his
captors, his enemies, threatening,
begging, and pleading for him to say
one word that he may be free, that he
save his life, one so promising, SO
bright, so full of hope, that even the
general does all in mis- power to pre-.
vent the gallows from claiming so
innocent a victim, yet he absolutely
refuses to divulge the secret. He is
doomed, he must die. AS he looks
upon the empty coffin his thoughts
run down the dim isle of the sweet
bygone, and happy scenes OF other
days come throngng by. He wand
ers again DER the sun kissed hills
of Rutherford county where his early
childhood days were spent Thoughts
ladened with the sweet memories OF
long ago lead him back to the dear
old place and weave again in glo-
rous hues the sacred story of days
gone by. He sees his aged parents
who will hunger to hear his foot
steps that cannot come, and voice
that will soon be hushed forever
He sees them as they sit with aching
hearts and weeping eyes; mourning
his death amid the shadows of their
life's evening unattended, silent,
heartbroken and alone.
He hears the song of the bird that
gladdened his heart in manhood's
morning, and perhaps too, he sees
the face dearer to him than that of
his mother. One who had promised
to make his home heaven when he
should return, either in victory or in
defeat He hears the sound of the
murmuring stream, along whose
banks he had strolled with the girl
of is love, while they watched the
moonbeams kiss the enamored waves
and dance to the music of its flash
ing waters, in that ever-to-be-remem
bered evening before he told her
Goodbye forever, and went away to
fight for the land of his birth, his
own Sunny South.
He sees again the lifted gaze OF
The tear limmed eye; he feels again
the touch Of her dimpled hand, he
hears her voice tender In its pathos
and wondrous In its wooing, as she
made him the promise that on his
return, together they should know
the fruition Of loves sweetest dream