Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-05-09

increasing earnestness of expression on
the faces of the cadets. and at times
through which they were passing grew
more and more like the Silence OF
death. great enconpa ssinG death,
something more awful and greater far
thar the death of any single individual.
Then the message of Gettysburg to
Louvain, to Rheims. to Ypres, to all
Europe, came forth.
Only fifty years ago. in the reoollec-
ton Of men still active. there was the
slaughter OF life at Gettysburg which,
relative to all the interests involved,
was in a way as big as the present
war in Europe 1t dealt a more cruel
wound to civilization, for at Gettys-
burg there We're not the natural differences
of race to excuse the grievous outcome
of mdeous misunderstanding. 1t was
brother fighting brother; there was
destruction in the south as hopeless as
that today in Belgium: also: there were
north and south, followed upon hate
let loose, and the waste of men and
hope was terrifying.
Today that battlefield is transformed
into magnificent park by the united
and successful efforts of those same
factions which fifty years ago were
slaughtering each other. Wealth and
the restored poise of peace and pros
perity have wonderfully employed
science to make roads and art to en-
noble a locality that then was shocking
with dead and dying men and horses
strewn over the DESTROYED wheat field
ripe for harvest near the umbrella
shaped clump of trees that fixes the
high-water mark of that terrible battle
and of the civil war The grass grows
green all over the battlefield and the
,,
frail anemonae and the violets gloom
ing under the trees of the well-kept
woods in which men so lately sought a
refuge while training their cannons on
their brothers at close range
The stone walls constructed for defense
and shattered by cannon are moss
grown and tiny flowers bloom there in
evidence of the hope in life which tri-
unlphs even against horrible odds. On the
wall of one old house in Gettysburg where
a cannon ball is Embedded a wooden
shelf has been attached and here two
Towering geraniumS are placed by the
household. thus sayly bidding the passer-
by to note how cheerfully one may re-
gard a souvenir of war. Fine productive
farms border the monumental roadways
in Gettysburg. proclaiming how quickly
humanity regains its poise and efficiently
develops prosperity today where yester-
day was only carnage.
But first of all, and most convincing OF
the hope on which Europe in her time Of
stress may seize. was that class of 1863
cadets from West Point, sworn to de-
fend the Stars and Stripes. devoting the
splendid energies and talents of their
young manhood to their heroic purpose
and a unit in purpose, unit in action,
they came from north and south, sons of
Yankee and rebel Today they are splen-
didIy American-all American to the
core. No question among them as to
relative merits Of the north and south at
Gettysburg. With a single impulse Of
youth they loved the beauty Of the
scene; with the training of their four
years at West Point, their minds in the
harmony of truthseekers studied the
science of war exemplified in the history
of the scene, and thus in particular
manner did the visit of 1915 West Point