Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1919-06-06
AMERICAN SPIRIT
Address of Hon. Davis B. johnson at
Memorial Day Exercises wauseon
Cemetery Friday May Thirtieth.
1919

MEMORIAL DAY is peculiarly
an American holiday and comes at
that time of year when nature has
beautifed and redecorated eartIs
barren desert, made waste by dead
and desolate winter.
& At the time, when the air is laden
with the fragrance of hlossoming
flowers and mother earth is wrapped
in its new gown of yerdant green, at
the time, when birds are singing aad
building their nests, when nature is
smiling all the day, we have a day
set apart, in memory of our dead.
To day we stand in Gods Acre and
humbly bow our heads; beneath the
sod we tread, wrapped in the warm
embrace of mother earth lie the
bodies of our friends who have gone
to that far distant Country from
which no, traveller returns.
In their memory we have ceased
our labors for the day and assembled
on this pct to scatter flowers Ger
their last resting places. Two years
ago to-day as we stood In this self
same spot our souls were burned with
the shadows and doubts of War.
Sons and brothers were being called
upon to leave their homes and the
pursuits of peace and to go forth to
establish Justice in a stricken
world.
To-day that. purpose accomplished
many of them are returning home
again to Us, SOME sleep thta lasting
sleep in foreign lands and some are
laid to rest in our own cemetery.
The American citizen has always
loved peace and hated war aad has
only drawn his sword In defense of
his country and human Justice. He
is long suffering. but once he has de-
cided on war his armies are uncon-
querable.a
This Is The American Spirit
can still sea in. nay minds imag-
nation the ragged regimenta1s of
Washington at Valley Forge, their
clothes in tatters, their all hut naked
bodies exposed to terrible winter,
| leaving their bloody foot prints IN
| the snow, yet their spirit never fall
tered and their leader prayed to the
God of all battles there in the forests
in desolate winter.
And then again IN the youthful
days of our Nation I hear tn. veice
of Lawrence in "Don't give up the
/, Ship, these words have rung down
the ages and are still reverberating
down the corridor of time. The Civil
War Veteran is still standing back Of
Cemetery ridge at Gettysburg, cool,
1uiet and determined waiting the at
tacks of the flower OF Lees army,
fsure that this Nation of the people,
by the people and for the people shall
not perish from the earth. To-day
that battle cry Remember the
Maine" is echoing from the stony
1 hills of Maine and reverberating
from the Rocky mountains to the
Gulf of Mexico. And thousands of
/ Spanish War veterans are scattering
/ flowers on the grave of their heroic
idead. This is the American spiit.
And now we come to a day shortly
4 passed. The victorious Prnssian
1 hordes have at last broken the allied
4 line and French Veterans Of four
long bloody years, those whose bat
ttle cry was, They shall not pass"
fare falling back on all sides, throwing
their guns away by the roadside, the
retreat is fast. becoming rout.
The American soldier is thrust into
the gap.
Onward comes the onrushing
i hordess of Pr1ssians with victery in
their hearts and thoughts, of plunder
in their brains they press on. Our
soldier advances and kneels in the
tripening. wheat fields, see him take
calm and deliberate aim as his FORE
/ fathers had done on another June
/ day at Bunkerhill.
l see him again in the shattered
and shot torn forests with deternin-
4 ed face and bloody bayonet the Prus-
j Cor, has of kis tho
fields and woods scattered with his
/ brown and notionless bodies lying
where he fell with his face to the foe
| ever advancing, with q cry Of VIC
|! tory on. his dying lips,s sure. of him-
self and the cause for which he
lights.
/ This is America, unconquerable
America. steeled in the arnor plate
Of Humanity. defending with the
sword of Justice.
n We owe. Memorial Day to the vet
leranss of the. Civil War, their ranks
i have silently thinned as the years
1shave come and gone, yet observing
this. day they have returned year
after year to scatter flowers on the
graves of their departed Comrades
Teaching by their silent action q
lesson Of devotion to the Old Flag
land this their Country for which they
Isacriifced so much, inculcating
patriotism in the rising generations,
which has ever kept alive the Spirit
of Americanism..
To-day on every battlefield of the
nation are the graves of many an
unknown American Soldier. Name
and identity. lost in defense of his
Country Missing in action the only
tidings that haye come to his burden
led and sorrowing family. Life, name
all given up for the welfare of the
many.
\ For such this day we bow ou<
heads and shed tear resolving IN
our own hearts to be better men and
women, better Citizens.
4 Then:
Of with your hats as the flag
goes by
And let the heart have its say;
| You're man enough for tear IN
your eye
That you will not wipe away.
j Lift up your boy on your shoulder,
/ high
And show him the faded shred,
Those stripes would be red as the
/ sunset sky
If death could have dyed them red.
OFF with your hat as the flag goes
by
Uncover the youngsters head,
Teach him to hold it holy and high
For the sake. of its sacred dead.
MIAMI COMMENCEMENT
The "Victory Commencement" pro-
gram of Miami University at OK
,rd Ohio will open Friday June 18th
with farewell Chapel and Recogni-
ton service and close with the
eightieth annual commencement ex-
a,-o;ras ~, T1,ocdoxy T,,x. 1T4L n-1