The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-05-29
DECORATION DAY.

r IhrOughOuC the greater part or the United States. tomorrow will be ecel- brated as Decoration Day, when the graves of the dead soldiers will be decorated with. flowers. The thirtieth of May is the date adopted for this service of love in all the states of the Union except those of the South. Confederate Memorial Day is observ- ed in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Virginia oA the 26th of April, in the Cafo1inas on the tenth of May, in Tennessee on the second Friday of this month, and in Louis jana on the third of June. The 30th of May is a legal holiday in Porto Rico and Hawaii, and an impressive memorial service is also held each year in Shangai, China, where lie the Bodies of many American sailor boys.
 Among the holidays observed by Uncle Sam's subjects, Memorial or Decoration Day is the most solemn and impressive. While sports and amusements occupy the attention of large numbers of people, few are so lacking in gratitude as to neglect to give at least a passing reverent thought to the heroes who died in the defense of their country. Whether they wore the, blue or the gray makes little difference in the respect ac- corded to their memory by the pres ent generation.
 The Decoration Day movement had it's origin just half a century. ago, a memorial service for the dead so1- diers. having been held in Philadel- phia in 1866. The following year Cincinnati held a similar observance, commander-in-ch chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an or- der calling upon all veterans affiliated with that organization to repair to the cemeteries on the 30th of May and there spread flowers on the graves of their dead comrades.l
 Decoration Day is distinctive1y an American observance, and no other nation has a similar holiday. It is not this war the European countries may adopt a similar custom in tender re- membrance of the vast multitudese of their valorous dead.
 The most, impressive of the annual ceremonies are those which are held at the national cemetery at Ar1ington and on the battlefield of Gettysburg Arlington cemetery on the Virginia hillsides, rising in terraces from the .Potomoc and overlooking the capitol of the republic, is the last earthly home of thousands upon thousands of Americas soldiers. On Decoration Day a little flag flies from every one of the multitude: of small white head stones which mark the last resting places of the noble dead: Even more touching than this sea of marked graves is the massive block of granite which bears this Inscription:
 Beneath this stone repose the bones of 1,111 unknown soldiers, gathered after the war from the fields of Bull Run, and the route of the Rappahapnoc Their remains could not be identified, but their names and deaths. are recorded in the archives of their country and it's grateful citizens honor them as their noble army of martyrs. May they rest in peace. September. A. D. 1s66.'s
 The ceremonies at the Gettysburg cemetery are equally impressive. The exercises of the day center at the ros- trum which stands on the spot where, President Lincoln delivered his Get tysburg speech. which has been prais- ed by men of all nations as among the masterpieces of modern oratory.