The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1919-06-06
IT WAS GIVEN BY OWEN NOR.
RiS OF ST. PAUL
Impressive Ceremonies Were
Held At Lake Crystal Yes
terday Afternoon

veterans, women OF the Rellef
Corps, and Friends: 1t is gratifying
to be with you on this occasion, in
dear old Blue Earth county, the
paradise of America, and the spot in
which / spent the happy receptive
years of my childhood Childhood days
are great days. full of great things,
days we love to recount and recall,
though they be days that are past.
This is Memorial Day, and memory
deals exclusively with the past and
the absent. We never remember an
event that is now transpiring, nor
commemorate a person who is pres
ent. The event must be past and the
person absent. We can honor the
living or the present, but cannot
commemorate them. On this occasion
We necessarily must deal mostly with
the past and the absent. Some of
the brave soldiers of 81, themselves
entitled to the highest honor, today,
with backward glance, unite to pay
tribute of deepest affection, admir-
alton and respect for the heroic dead.
How little the living can do for the
dead. How circumscribed any token
beautiful flowers signify to the living
to us, and to the rising generation.
They stimulate inquiry, quicken the
memory and continue the interest.
When God cut off the waters of Jor-
dan of old, and led his chosen people
Israel to Canaan on dry land, he COM
manded that twelve stones be taken
from the midst of Jordan and set up
as a memorial unto the children of
Israel for ever. He said unto them,
When your children shall ask their
fathers in time to come, saying, What
mean these stones? Then We shall
let your children know, saying. Israel
came over this Jordan on dry land.
For the Lord your God dried up the
waters of Jordan from before us,
until We were passed over, as the
Lord your God did to the Red Sea,
which he dried up from before us,
until We were gone over: That all the
people of the earth might know the
hand of the Lord, that it is mighty,
that ye might fear the Lord your God
forever" How beautiful is this OBJ
seryance of Decoration Day to re-
mind us of another great army of the
chosen people of God, who in the fast
receding Rebellion waded through
rivers of blood. fighting for princi-
Piles of integrity, proving to the
world that the Declaration of Inde-
pendence is not an idle thing, and
to generations yet unborn that the
great American Constitution is not
mere scrap of paper. This custom,
am told, was started By the noble
wives and mothers OF the sunny
South, where flowers abound. This
beautiful custom, like so many of
the tenderest things of earth, is root
ed In suffering, grew out of sorrow
common sorrow. The mourning wo-
men OF the South, to express their
thoughts too sacred for tongue, too
deep for tears, planted flowers and
strewed roses on the graves of their
OF their loved ones, own loved ones
and those of the Confederates, but
placed FLOWERS on the graves of the
boys in blue who bled and died on
Southern soil, fighting for principle,
fghting for liberty, fighting for the
Union. The hearts of the Northern
women were deeply moved by this
touching attention to their dear
dead, and copied the custom. and
beautiful. impressive, inspiring Dec
Grafton Day throughout our fair land
is the result.
When | was invited to make an
address here, l hesitated, and were
1t not that the invitation was so
earnestly seconded by a tried veteran
your honored fellow citizen, Edward
II. Jones, in whose judgment I have
always had the greatest confidence.
l doubt that / would have had the
temerlty to accept. You know that
hearsay testimony amounts to but
little in court,-sometning somebody
has told you. You always want evil
dence at first hand-frCm. the lips of
an eye witness. / am not an eve wit
ness. L was born in Wales, the land
OF Lloyd George. / was coming TO
America just fifty years ago this
very day. The war had been over
four years at that time; so you see
1 have to depend on what others tell
me, and what l find in books. It is
only the old soldiers here that can
thrill you with personal experiences,
Will Jul HihS SJoIleS OF what they
have gone through themselves.
l never attempted to make a Dec
Grafton Day address before. 1t puz- .
zled me to know what course to pur-
sue. We have three periods of time.
the past, The present and the future.
I'VE cannot change the past. 1t is al
ready gone. We cannot change the
present. 1t is already here-just as
1t is. We can. however, help shape
the future. We can be guided by the
past, and use the present in framing
the future. Whatever there was evil
In the past we can try to avoid;
whatever there was good, we can con-
tinue, or, if abandoned, endeavor to
have reinstated
Old men. among them, old soldiers
are inclined to live in the past and IL is
well to do so to the extent that il pre-
pares you for the future. However.
OF you old soldiers in the audience.
] venture to say that there is not one
of you SO old, but that you are at the
same time young. There is not one
OF you that is so taken up with the
past but that you keep an eye on the
present and especially on the future.
There is not one of you who does
not deem the future of paramount
Importance, and who does not desire
that all the goodness and blessings
OF the past shall be the precious