Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1919-06-06

Skowhegan
meet the supreme sacrifice. With
that resolution characteristic only
of American soldiers you marched
and our hearts thrill with pride and
burn with emotion as we recall your
countless deeds of heroic bravery
that again placed the old flag at the
altar of freedoms cause and built
anew its illustrious traditions.
ut was your destiny, your privi-
lege, to enter at the darkest and
most tragic hour of the war. 1t was
your never retreating valor that
saved the day. that saved the ma.
ton, that saved the world.
You protected American woman.
hood against unspeakable outrages.
You protected prattling babes from
bomb and bayonet. You protected
the Stars and Stripes whether it
was on the high seas or in the
trenches of a foreign land, and the
annals Of the past. the pages Of his
tory. offers no parallel.
Your imperishable honor Is al
ready nodded in a diadem of glory
with 1uster that time can never
dim-deeds not inscribed in fragile
clay or written in the shifting sands
but chiseled in the hearts of your
countrymen.
whether it was on the fields Of
No Mans Land or in the forest of
Chateau Thierry. you took detectives
until envied by the armies of the
world. Your country's flag with
its tattered folds of red. white and
blue and its every star beacon
light reckoning to you was always
in the vanguard leading the way ant
you brought it back with its es-
cutcheon still shining, its shield ever
ringing for peace.
Your gallantry began on that day
when loved ones stood at the gates
bidding you a last goodbye and you
never faltered until our unsuitable
shores danced with joy at your re-
turn. And It would be just as i'm
possible to single out one glorious
deed from all the rest as it would
be to pluck from heaven her bright
est star.
"Yet, I believe the world will de-
cree that the fearless, unrewarded
and unprotected Private. who stood
on the firing lines and blazed his
way from top to top will be awarded
the victor's crown, and of US who
remained at home, to him who
sacrificed life's necessities to aid and
comfort you boys will be given this
noblest reward.
I'm commemoration of those manly
young men, Gods noble sons, who
have responded to the last call and
are now sleeping beneath those silent
markers of eternal rest, we need
only to bow in sacred respect, for 1t
Is not within the province Of man to
add or take from their never fading,
ever-shining glory.
Medals that adorn the uniform
tell Of courage and endurance that
the most majestic and distinguishing
decoration is the commonest one Of
them all, the Wooden Cross, and
somewhere in the mysterious future,
where the flowers always bloom and
the birds forever sing. the spirit of
Justice is solving their final reward,
for the star that sets must rise
again.
Last but not least. there are those
souls of anguish, these hearts Of
loneliness, the mothers and fathers.
who find consolation only in the
realization that they have laid the
worlds most costly gift at the altar
Of their country, and while it is a
tragic gift, terrible price to pay for
the ewjel Of liberty yet the serene-
ly consecrated with emotional pride
their .life's hope, and to my mind
they are the noblest veterans of the
war, for their sons lived to die and
died that we might live.
"All that we can say and think
and do will not alleviate the sorrow.
or bring back the boys, and Of all
the tokens we can offer the living, q
ceived than the coming Of these
veterans of other wars that left for
them the same trail Of pain and woe.
"These old veterans have come in
the twilight Of their lives with the
old camp fires burning low and their
ranks fast thinning to keep pace with
you as you have kept pace with them
and with all that mans most vivid
Imagination can portray, no artistic
touch can fashion a more splendid
spectacle, a more inspiring revela-
ton than to observe these old SOL
diers in blue, saluting you young
soldiers In khaki.
Both Of you unbeatable and in
vincible fought and bled for the one
flag. both determined that no human
being should own the soul of anoth-
er. One bore the standard Of lib
erty onward for the nation, the other
carried 1t forward for the world, our
comrades they were. our comrades.
they are.
Officers and soldiers Of our Great
Republic. admiring friends and loved
ones are gathered here To express IN
some degree their esteem and re-
spect for you boys. you, who have
been spared to mold the destinies of
one hundred million liberty loving