Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1914-05-08
Entered Ut the ElKo postofrce for transmission
through tho mails as secoud-elsss matter
A VISION Of War and PEACE

@ ~
speech delivered to tho veterans of
the Civil war at Indianapolis on
Sept. 81, 1876, by Col. Robert G.
Ingersoll brings wildly to mind the
horrors, suffering and sorrows of
war. 1t is a picture indelibly en-
graved on the hearts of those who
lived through the dark days of
'61 to '65 the memory of which
should make every true patriot
plead for peace:
The past rises before me like a
dream. Again we are in the great
struggle for national life. We
hear the sounds Of preparation
the music Of b%oisterous drums-the
silver voice of heroic bugles. We
see thousands of assemblages. and
hear the appeals of orators. We
see the pale cheeks of women and
the flushed face Of men; and in
those assemblages we see all the
dead whose dust we have covered
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 1--we. Same are walking
for the last time in quiet woody
places with maidens they adore.
We hear the whisperings and the
sweet vows Of eternal love as they
~lingeringly part forever. Others are
bending W cradles, kissing babies
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.
Kisses and teers, tears and kisses
divine mingling of agony and love.
And some are talking with wives
and endeayoring with brave words
spoken in the old tones, to drive
from their heart the awful fea-.
We see them part. We see the wife
standing in the door with the babe
in her arms standing in the sun
light sobbing. At the turn Of the
road a hand waves-she answers by
holding high in her loving arms
the child. He is gone and forever.
We see them all as they march
proudly away under under the
tluhting flags, keeping time to the
grand wild music Of war march
ing down the streets of the great
cities through the towns and
rUss the prairies down to the
fields of glory, to do and to die for
the eternal right. We go with them
n and all. We are by their side
on the gory ilelds-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 with thsm
in ravines running with blood-in
the burrows Of old fields. We are
with them between %contending hosts,
unable to move, wild with thirst,
the life ebbing slowly away among
the withered leaves. We see them
pierced by balls and torn with
shells, in the trenches, by forts.
and In the whirlwind Of the charge,
where men becume iron, with
nerves Of steel.
We are with them In the prisons
of hatred and femme; but human
speech can never tell what they
endured.
We are at home when the news
comes that they IRE dead. We see
the maiden III the shadow Of her
first sorrow. We see the silvered
head Of the old mar bowed with
the last grief.
The past rises before us and we
see four millions Of human beings
governed by the lash-we see than
bound hand and foot-we hear the
strokes of the whips-we see the
hounds tracking women through
tangled swamps. We see the babies
sold from the breast Of mothers.
Cruelty unspeakable! Outrage in
fnitel
Fonr million bodies in chains :
four million souls in letters. All the
relations of ste, mother,