Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1921-04-07
SERVICE AT ST. JAMES
EX-SERVICE MEN AND
co. G. MARCH

The remains of James A. and John
L. Burns, both of whom were killed
at the front, arrived in the city last
Friday, remained in the Court House
until Saturday, We're then taken to
the home of the parents, Mr.. and Mrs.
Patrick Burns, 402 Randolph street,
and on Monday morning the military
funeral took place. st. James Ca
tholic church, where services were
held following prayer at the Burns
home by Rev, FIR. E. p. 0'Toole, was
filled to the doors and many persons
awaited the funeral procession, un-
able to gain admission.
Pail Bearers
The coffins We're escorted to the
church by the colors and ex-service
men and Co. G. marched in line. The
color bearer was Joseph Schleicher
and the escorts Robert Gritzmacher
and Harold Homrig. The pail bearers
We're Christ Christianson, Stanley By
chinski, William Lewandowski, Ray
Best, Leo Wojikowski, John Horan,
Roy Morgan, Louis Hinrich, Grover
Jones, Norman Wirin, Arthur Stretch,
all of old Co. c., companions in arms
of The Burns boys.
Requiem high mass was celebrated
at st. James shortly after $3.50 a. m.
Monday and the Rev. FIR. O'Toole de-
livered a sermon, part of which fol-
lows:
"The presence of these bodies here
today, and this solemn ceremony calls
our minds back to the days of war.
We are getting away from the war as
it recedes more and more into the
past, but on an occasion like this, the
few years that have gone by seem to
fade away and we feel that we are
once more in the midst of the days of
war and we feel again the enthusiasm
of those days, This event calls to
mind the stirring things that were
happening all over America when we
became participant in the great world
war and especially the tragedy of
those days of war.
What a Shock!
II remember, my dear friends, the
day we received word that. James
Burns was killed in battle. What
shock it was! We had not grown ac-
sustomed to hearing of our boys fall
sng in battle; we knew that a terrible
war was waging over there across the
seas, and we knew that thousands os
lives had been sacrificed, but it did
not come home to us here in Wausau
and Marathon county, how closely the
cloud Of death hovered over our boys,
but when on The Sth day of June 1918,
The message came that one of our
Marathon county boys, one Of the
members of our own Company G. had
been called on May 2Sth and had paid
The last full measure of devotion to
the Flag that now proudly wraps it
self around his casket, then came to
us a realization of the great meaning
Of the world war. II happened that
the day the message came was our
First Communion Day. | remember
how the little sister of James Burns
was member of the First Communion
class, and / call TO mind how bravely
ne went thru the ceremony with her
class Notwithstanding the shocking
news that had come.
"In the next week on June 18th, we
had a solemn memorial service here
in this church in memory OF James
Burns, the first of our Marathon coun-
iy boys TO fall upon the field of battle.
We were all aroused in this city and
county, and realized then that the
war was not a thing of shouting, and
marching, and music, but that 1t was
a stern reality, full of grim possibili-
ties for every home in This community.
Accustomed
"a few months went by, and we had
grown accustomed to the perils and
dangers of our boys. We had grown
more accustomed TO hearing of the
grim enemy that was daily periling
their lives, and moreover there were
by this time others who had followed
James Burns, followed him just as
bravely. and then there came the mes
sage that the second boy, John, that
lad not yet twenty years old when he
enlisted had been called Though we
had become accustomed to the toll of
losses, there seemed to be an added
poignancy to our grief in that the
same family was stricken twice.
again we had solemn memorial
service for that second boy, John, who
had gone to join his brother in the
ranks of those noble spirits who had
fought for the Star Spangled Banner
VII lOl ntihbs anu iOW tOhdg, dlAtl
nearly three years, we again hold a
solemn memorial service over these
boys, now united, as their remains lie
before the altar Of God, as we trust
long since their spirits were united
before the Interchangeable and eternal
Throne of that same God
Determined TO Win
Another thing this service calls to
mind, my dear friends, Is, that il was
these sacrifices, these trials, these
wounds and deaths of our boys that
made us realize what the war was,
and made us grid up our loins with
the determination to win that war no
matter how long it might take or what
might be the cost. Indeed, until It
was brought home to us in the wounds
and deaths, in the terrible hardships
and sacrifices Of our boys, we did not
realize what 1t was going to cost, but
when we saw written in the blood of
our young men what we would have
to pay, then we resolved that united as
one man we would work, and as one
man, back up these boys, and we prayed
as we never prayed before, that the
a. - L.