The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1913-05-14
Entertaining Address by
DIR. s. A. Steele.
GRAVES DECORATED
BY SCHOOL CHILDREN
Impressive Ceremonies ut the Ceme-
terry when Honor Rol lis Called,
Graves Decorated by Women and
School Children and Salute Fired
by Traynham Guards.

Memorial Day was fittingly observ-
ed here Friday, when the principal
address of the day was made by Dr.
S. A. Steele, of Columbia. The exer-
cises We're held in the opera house,
Dur, III. K. Aiken presiding. Rev. NJ.
l.. Lawson, pastor of the First Bap-
tist church, opened the exercises
with prayer after which the graded
school chorus sang a patriotic air
DIR. Steele then responded to the in
PRODUCTION by DR.. Aiken.
The address of DR.. Steele was diff
ferent from the usual order of ad-
dresses delivered Oh such occasions,
both in the title and subject matter.
He said that the soldiers of the Con-
federacy had been eulogzed and
praised, that the women of the Con-
federacy had been lauded in no lesser
degree, but that the boys of the war
had not received the attention due
ject "A Boys Glimpse of the War" 1t
was unnecessary, he said, to state
what war war intended as everybody
in this country and at this time under
stands what is meant when is men
Noned the war;. AS for him, he
would never call it the Civil War
nor the War of Secession. He would
call it the ''War of Misunderstand-
lnP' hnnpnCp a Toic ton
the fighting qualities of the opposite
sections was the one thing that did
most in bringing on the trouble.
by reciting many of his own expert
ences at the outbreak of hostilities,
DIR. Steele showed that the South had
small opinion of the mettle of north
ern soldiers, believing that a south
ern army could sweep the whole
north in a few months. Many of the
soldiers, he said went north with
their party clothes" expecting the
war to end in few weeks with a
glorious victory for the SOUTH this
to be followed by fetes and frolics
in Richmond. Every soldier expected
to come back home with glory won
in few short conflicts. That the
north had no better opinion OF the
lighting qualities Of the south, DR..
Steele showed by reciting an instance
where a young Vermonter came
south in 1861 and finding that the
people were at a fever heat over the
approaching conflict and that the
young men were flocking to the flag,
returned through the lii es to his
native state. Here he found the same
activity and the same war-like atmos-
phere that prevailed in the south and
like distrust Of the fighting quail
ties OF the enemy. Arriving at his
home town, he got off the train in
time to be present at an enthusiastic
rally. Here he tried to correct the
impression that the southerners were
nothing but busters and blowers.
The result was that the crowd wanted
to lynch him and he had 10 make a
hasty escape for saying that the
south would fight So, DR.. Steele said,
the north had the idea that the south
would not fight and the soIth had the
idea that the north would not fight
and both OF them rushed precipitate-
ly into the conflict without respect
for the strength of the opposing side,
feeling that it would be Of short du-
ration but full of glory. If either
nation had really understood the
strength or appreciated the fighting
qualities of the other, doubtless
some other method than war would
have been resorted to to bring about
an understanding.
DIR. Steele recited numbers of anus
ing instances showing how anxious
the boys of the south were to get into
the conflict, how he himself made
more than one attempt to get away to
the war and was only subdued when
Gen. Forrest settled the matter by
telling his mother to keep him at
home as the army was no place for
children.
The address of Dr. Steele was
closely listened to and greatly en-
ioyed by those who came out to hear