The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1915-06-01
MEMORIAL DAY-APRIL 26, 1915
BY MRS. B. H. HOOD

Sweetly sad celebration of the great
birthday of the dead, Memorial Day,
has again been observed in Dawson.
Once more, bearing the fairest,
sweetest, brightest offerings of spring
in her splendid prime, mother, faith
err, widow, sister, brother, friend, pa
triot wend their way to the city of
the dead to gid with glory the
gloom of their glorious graves. And
why not?
For surely there is no flower so
fair, no lily so wondrous white, no
ivy wreath so purely green, no gar
land so gladly gay, no violet so shyly
sweet. no rose so lovely red, no fes-
toon plucked from garden or from
woodland but takes on a balmler
breath. a finer freshness, a softer
sweetness, smoother sheen,
brighter green, a richer coloring, a
more exquisite purity when laid with
throbbing heart and fearful eye
and gentle hand upon the beau
teous biers of men who made
and freely made sacrifice OF all save
honor on the spotless altar OF the Nv
ing and the loved! The simple plac-
ing of the little grave-marker-th
confederate battle flag''-the only
flag the veterans venerate, the one
that was baptized by the best blood
of thousands of the truest of the true,
the brayest of the brave, who battled
for the cause they knew to he just
and died for the land they loved.
While in the discharge of this duty
nv heart went out to every Confeder-
ate soldier who sleeps beneath the
sod of Terrell county l thought OF
Mr.. Robert Hayes, whose body rests
only a few miles out by the roadside,
killed Oct. 10. 1861; then of Mr.. VIM.
Caldwell. whose arm was shot off at
fine same time at Santa Rosa Island,
Fla . then came trooping up before
me the names of the veterans upon
whom l have conferred the lttIe
hronze CrOss-Dr. Crawford OF SaS-
ser, Mr.. VIM. Jennings OF Parrott,
! Mr.. S. S. Haynes of BronWood, ana
others. Will not some little girl IN
each community volunteer to place
| flower upon these graves next Memo
rial Day for me? Let it be sacred
| day all over the South. Though the
world knoweth not, the Supreme Rul-
or of the universe will witness the
act. The flower will fade and die, but
| the act will never die.
II is my purpose to have the origin
of Memorial Day published In Inc
News. Will not every mother in the
county see that her child reads II!
Nv request | will in due time give
the history of the Confederate flag.
Seven ladies can organize cnap-
fer of the Daughters of the COnfeuer-
| acv Can l not persuade the ladies'
of these places to organize chapter!
MANY valuable records are being Dur-
| led with these veterans when IL Is
your duty to preserve.
| Once more. dear friends, once
more but not with CLEAN Of battle
in vour eyes, for though the solemn
Drum doth speak and saber f1asn ana
hovonet glitter on the mournIul
march the fall of white-winged peace
doth sadly smile above the sacred
SCENE. vet when the marks OF war are
ali gone. the bloody hills OF SIMON
and the fields of charlottesville Will
he remembered; neither will ManaS-
sas Murfreesboro and Missionary
Ridge be forgotten; nor AppomattoA,
where the star OF southern cHl'"i1'
was clouded forever.
Memorial Day! 1t was fixed not Oh
the 9th of April, the day of the sur
rander at Appomattox, but on the
26th the day that Johnston's army
surrendered and the Southern CON
| fadaracv received it's death blow me
! 96th of April was first celebrated III
Columbus. Ga.,-April 26th, 1ooo'
The dav was dedicated to the Con~
tolerate dead. Conservation day
q memorial to our dead, day sacred
IN memories of those who gave thelT
life for country. 1t is not conquest
dav. not for decoration and pomp anu
sound of trumpet, but Memorial Day.
The nation for which our heroes
died is dead. Our dead, our lmpet,
ishable memories, is all that Is ieIs
ms We then honor the memorial VI
ite death as a great family mourhs
for a loved one. Hence 1t IS the
South's dsy---the day for ioYed ones
tn scatter immortelles-a memorial
If the virtues of our dead heroes
Srbair eternal monument is the love