The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1915-05-27
BY EDGAR ILlEF.

Mrs D. M. Jordan, whose soul was
heart were always open to the Boys
in Blue" once wrote this beautiful
stanza in poem on Soldiers
Graves:
above their dreamless slumber, in
The low tents where summer winds
Stir not the heavy curtains. and at
Whose doors the snowy symbol OF
Truce is set. we walk with reverent
Tread. No more the loud alarm or
Bugle call shall rouse them to the
charge"
1t is interesting to know that our
customs are deep-rooted and date back
to the very childhood of the world.
We love to feel that we are related to
all the brave that have gone before,
and who make up 1.-The choir invisible
of those immortal dead who live again
in minds made better by their pres
ence." In history, in the records OF
brave acts, we live in pulses stirred
to generosity, in deeds Of daring recti-
tude, in scorn of miserable aims that
end with self. in thoughts sublime that
pierce the night like stars, and with
their mild persistence urge mans
search to vaster issues"
Enhance LIES Joy.
We are living a life which martyred
men have made more glorious for us
to strive to follow" and these martyrs
should never be forgotten. Flowers,
tears, memory, love for them all.
And as Mrs. Jordan wrote in her beau
tiful poem. "Soldiers' Graves" we
should with reverent step strew the
white and crimson roses to symbolic
the stripes Of the dear old flag for
which they fell, and rare blue violets
for the starry field Of the bright ban
ner they upbore mid smoke and car
mage"
To love- to keep alive the sacred
fires of memory, to scatter fresh flow
ers upon the graves Of dead heroes,
dropped from the hands Of little chill
dren. is to make symphony whose
music is the gladness Of the world"
Long, long ago, On the sixteenth of
each December, just at the break Of
days, the ancient Greeks walked in
solemn procession preceded by a
trumpet that sounded to battle. This
was to announce the dawn of Memorial
Day. No sports or races or coarse
and vulger festivities were allowed to
desecrate this most sacred day. Fol
lowing the trumpeter were chariots
filled with crowns and branches Of
myrtle. Behind the chariOts came a
black bull. Then came the surviving
warehouses who were kept in fresh
green pastures at public expense. No
horse whose labor had been given to
war or the building of temples was
ever neglected or abused. Then came
young girls carrying in their hands
pitchers of wine and milk, the ordinary
llbations offered to the dead. Then
came younger girls with phials of oil
and perfume. All Of the young persons
were free, for no slave was allowed to
take any part in this ceremony which
was instituted for men who had given
their lives for liberty.
Honored Greek Heroes.
In the rear of the procession came
the Archon, or chief magistrate, for
whom it was unlawful at any other
time to touch iron or to wear any
thing but white robes; but on this &C.
casion, being clothed in purple raj
ment, having sword by his side, and
holding an urn in his hands, which he
had taken from the place where they
kept the public records, he marched
through the city to the tombs of the
Greek heroes. AS soon as he came