Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1914-05-30

tones it falls upon your ear. ana you
recall weary march or the wild grand
music of war You hear rev shots
fired in the distance. and now you are
in the whirlwind of the charge or the
trenches of forts. Only chance thoughts
are these, called up by mere accident
an hour or two, you live over again in
memory the struggles, the hardshlps,
the triumphs of those days. You re-
count, in reverent mood, those shigh
deeds and drop heartfelt tear in graft
tude for what such courage wrought:
You greet your comrades living. and
pay tribute to those who are dead
Marks of Many a Field
1--WE, the sons and grandsons of the
sires of the sixties, are mere not only
TO YOU. their comrades who are still
with us. Heaven has smiled in favor
upon you and graciously Iengthened
your lives many years since those Bit
Ter DAYS You bear the marks of many
a hard fought field-of Bull Run,
Chattanooga, Vicksburg, Gettysburg
and AppomattoX. You were spared 70
vain You have lived to see the nation
free from sectionalism and slavery to
see her rise from all the want and
place in the forefront of the nations of
the world, and reach her highest state
of peace and prosperity. We rejoice in
your presence, to-day, as a remnant OF
rejoice too, that there are already vet
Grams of our later struggles - of that
Spanish american War that came up
like a gale from the South, ragged like a
hurricane. was soon over. and left the
nation richer in territory and stronger
in position in the councils of the world; ;
and veterans of the insurrections in the
Philippines and in China. where men
braved much, not alone of warfare, but
of that more deadly enemy. disease and
pestilence, and distinguished themselves
SO courageousIy and so boldly. All
honor to those valiant heroes, who, at
a moments call, gave their services to
the cause of the nation, to the cause of
Few Years More
"a few years more and only few
tottering figures will represent the files
of the Grand Army. They have pitched
banked their fires for the long, long
night. Each year an army of forty and
more thousands march to their last
bivouac.. The members of the Grand
Army who now take the active part in
arranging for each Memorial Day cele-
bration will soon be gone; and the fu-
ture of this day remains with the Sons
of Veterans, and other patriotic orders
and associations. but more particularly
with the Sons of Veterans. In their
veins course some OF the same heroic
blood that distinguished our armies on
many of the great battlefields. They
have caught the true spirit of loyalty
and valor by the firesides in the homes
of our heroes. Much do we owe to them
to day for the great reverence accorded
TO our Memorial Day celebrations. And
much shall we look to them in the fu-
ture. Whether this day shall degener-
ate from a holy day into a holiday will
depend largely upon them.
"In ancient times there was a game
in which men ran with lighted candles,
and the point i'm the game was not see
which runner ran the fastest, but which
runner ran the fastest without putting
out the light. tt Is as true of the
courses of nations as 1t was of the run
ners Of old. ! look TO the history of the
nations. ancient and modern, that stand
in the line to-day | look to China |
see the great dragon In the shadow of