The Johnson City comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1916-1917, 1916-05-18
SOLDIERS
HOME
General News and Spicy Comment from the Mountain
Branch of Interest to Veterans and Friends.
by KEEL

the board has decided to send Major
Thompson to Ohio was received here
with genuine regret among the mem
bers of the big institution. He has
won a high place in the hearts of the
veterans and is widely popular with
people outside of the Home. Major
Thompson is a trained physician, fine
surgeon and combines those rare
rare qualities of heart with his excel
! lent medical education. He served in
The Spanish-American war.-Newport
| News Press.
A bill providing for the monthly
payment of pensions has been intro
duced in Congress by Hon. L. c., Dy-
ar, of Missouri, Commander-in-Chief
of the United Spanish War veterans.
The bill Oh. r. 1920 also provides
that lin case of the death of a PEN
sioner leaving neither widow nor mi
nor child under 16 years of age, the
pension that has accrued up to the
date of death of said pensiOner shall
become a part of his or her estate
and be payable to the legal represen-
tatiyes thereof upon furnishing the
necessary proof on the form and in
/ the manner prescribed by the Secre-
! taly of the Interior. That in all
cases where check, issued without
voucher and mailed to the PEN
sioner, is received at the post office
after the death of said pensioner,
whose death occurred after the date
ending the period which the check
4 was drawn to cover, it shall eensti-
| tute payment within the meaning of
| the law. and said check shall become
part of the estate of the pensioner."
. =
On the Goth day of May. each year,
is celebrated Memorial Day, our Ma
tional festival of flowers" for on
this day a grateful and remembering
people wend their way in sacred pill
grimage to the cities of the dead
where repose the dust of countless
thousands of Columbia's heroic sons.
and lay floral tributes of love and
respect on each green mound. On
Memorial Day we pay homage to the
vaior Of our departed comrades and
celebrate the triumph of the cause
for which they made the supreme
sacrifice. This is the true spirit and
significance of this day, and it should
be celebrated in a spirit of thanks
giving and patriotic rejoicing. 1t isl
true that the funeral note is i'll our
ceremony, but it is not the dominant
note; for the flowers with which we
decorate the graves of our heroes
who sleep beneath the Sod are not
symboleal of mourning, but of CRATE
full remembrance and exultation in
the triumph of the cause for which
they fought.
The very name by which this day
was first known, Decoration Day,
has a sound indicative of the trium-
plant character of the true spirit
with which it should be celebrated,
and by this name it is designated in
the laws of the various States that
have made it legal holiday. And
the original spirit with which this
day was celebrated was one of
thanksgiving, of rejoicing, of jubilant
remembrance of victory and the tri-
umph of righteous cause. Our
Memorial Day and the Easter Sunday
of the Christian Church are alike in
spirit; for, while we, on this day, cell
citrate no resurrection of the dead,
we have, as it were, a semblance of
that wonderful event in that our
hero-dead live again in our memories;
their deeds and achievements are re-
hearsed; their sacrifices and hard |
ships are retold, for the soldier is |
best remembered in the story of his |
exploits, and these eulogies of our
Giving dead should be delivered in |
a spirit of thanksgiving and rejoicing |
for the triumph of the cause for
which they so nobly and heroically |
yielded the last full measure of de-
votion. The day will be .fittingly OBJ
served in this Home by the member
ship. In next issue the program of
exercises will be given.