The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1914-04-26
SUNDAY. APRIL %, 1914.
The Origin of the
South's Memorial Day.

How quietly they sleep beneath me
Those w.so were called. long stnos. 10
Now rest they here, beneath these
ancient trees.
Where, through TIA years, the count
less feet have trod.
of those who come, and n1usfng on
And gfortus end. like to . priest
who strives
"A soul from SIN. they count That these
So nohly, too are stnisss. DeGth
deprfves
life ever of her noOfest Jealous
sdeath!
who comes with silent tread and
calling in voice that none may dis
Aobey:
lay down your guns, and IN the
rusty sheath
i.'Put by your sword. Your enemy am
Nay, say not SO. Sometimes tbs
"a hero fails for him the light goes
out
beneath the canopy of Gods blue
sky,
lbugle call.
The drum beat. and the measured
rise and fall
or marching feet; the lannon's muf-
The battle cry. And then the heavy
pail
or darkness shrouds within It's still
embrace,
Closes the eyes. and on the pa1lid
face
Writes there oblivion. and folds the
hands
"A hero falls and down the halls Of
Fame
A name rings out. and children speak
that name.
Reverentiy, women gently, men with
And all the right to pay their tri-
butte claim.
Come we to pay, throughout the pas
Roses of love and rue of bitter
tears:
blossoms and gariands on the hall
Of those who died so bravely. Time
endears
Our heroes to us. And the bitter
Is bitter still. The anguish must
remain:
1.-THE while we bow before the sacri-
Ace,
We whisper, surely this was not in
vain! Celia NJ. Robinson.
This year Memorial Day, April IS,
halls on q Sunday, and this afternoon,
lat the FIRST Baptist church fitting hon
Fors will Re paid the Confederate dead,
IN the services held in their sacred
memory.
with a united country now engaged
Iin war, the heroic deeds of a valorous
past speak with deep and poignant
eloouence, and those who are today
loyal citizens OF these United States.
who revere the country's nag and are
jealous of their country's honor, are
mot less sensible Of the deeds OF
past that has written tbs names of
southern manhood upon the imperish-
able scrolls OF fame
Every citizen of Pensacola should
deem II a sacred privilege to attend
sthe exercises at the church this after
moon at four o'clock. and. in view of
the sacrecness of the services that will
he held in memory Of the Confederate
dead, IL may not be uniting here to
sgive something of the origin of the
custom OF observing a special day to
pay memorial henors to the men who
$50 bravely met death under the Bonnie
IBlue nag.
The observance of Memorial Day
Alike many beautiful annual customs,
tcame about very naturally from a
Ssinpie deed Of a loving woman, and
tho tender thought of a little child
Mrs Charles J. Williams one spring
iday, in Columbus, Ga, knelt to dec
;orate the grave of her husband an
officer of the Confederate army, who
fell upon the battlefield. As she laid
the flowers upon the resting place of
her heroic dead, she told her little girl
THE story of her fathers valor and why
the flowers were brought to decorate
his grave.
About them, in the Georgia cemetery,
there were other graves of southern
soldiers, and the child. pointing to
these mounds which covered other
Confederate dead asked:
Are these not soldiers? Shall we
not. too, place flowers on their graves ?"
And mother and child covered these
heroes, too. with flowers in loving
memory.
The bereaved woman, impressed
wrote to other women all over the
South, and from this beginning came
the beautiful custom of the South's
Memorial Day.