The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-06-02
MEMORIAL DAY
FITTINGLY OBSERVED
Patriotic Address by Prosecuting Attor-
ney Henry Davis--Picket Post Pa
rades, Children Bearing Flowers

You. too, have come dowr froIa
former generation. Heaven has, in
deed, bounteously heightened out your
lives that you might, although in ev-
er-dwindling numbers, assemble again
on another Memorial Day and pay tri-
butte to yours and the country's dead.
In responding to your invitation to
address you there came to me genu-
inc sense of pleasure mixed, too, with
a tinge of sadness. Pleasurable be-
cause of the feeling of amor patria
aroused by such an undertaking, be-
cause of the noble emotions that must
come to him who attempts, in ever
so weak way, to recount yours and
the dead's unselfish and heroic tasks
in handing down to US this indivisible,
indestructible, united, glorious, happy
and free Republic. Sad, Venerable
Men, because of the thought of the
approach of the last and the final roll
call which all. human experience teach
es can not be inindefinitely postponed.
To me there is personal interest
in you and in your organization. My
father, now nearing his ninetieth
birthday, is one of you. AS the son
of veteran Of such an advanced ago
it is easily seen why there should be
the mixed feeling of pleasure and of
sadness on this occasion.
We have met to pay tribute to those
who sacrificed their courageous lives
for their country's cause. We meet
as we'll to commemorate the services
of those living and dead who did not
| I'll Laf II Ia he
camp, but who offered their lives in
the country's darkest, dreadest days.
May / not pursue the thought yet far
ther? Do we not also meet to pay
our respects to the brave men living
and dead who fought the fight Of the
| Lost Cause? Do we not also gather
inspiration from their heroic deeds ?
And, is there not finally interviewed
in our hearts a noble color scheme
composed of the blended gray and
blue? Is not a part of our heritage
the valor and heroism displayed by
the sons Of Dixie?
The mellowing effect of time, guild.
ed by Gods own hand, has made you
men of the Grand Army and your
brothers Of the South friends and
common countrymen. The bitterness
the strife, the jealousy evinced during
the great struggle, perhaps, as much
on the one side as on the other, has
| by mutual consent ceased.
It is little short of the miraculous
that men Of the border States could
settle down by each oher's side, lay
down wars arlnor and become peace
full business friends and neighbors
After such a bloody struggle to agair
resume the pursuits Of peace with each
other is not far from marvellous.
Heated arguments have been had
over the question as to which had tlie
braver soldiers. Those arguments
have not con3e from the participants
You men who fought the fights against
each other know that braver men new
er trod earth's crust than those whom
you had to fight Ii the actual en-
counters you men met "foernen worthy
Of your steel and you learned to adj
nlire and respect each others cour-
age.
Those Of us who are able to look at
historical records of the stupendous
achievements Of each army with nm
biased prisms accord to each side
equal valor, equal courage and equal
sincerity. We feel that the great mil
! Concluded on last page.