Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1922-06-20
Historic Richmond Is
Ablaze With Colors of
Lost Cause
MANY NOTABLES THERE
Opening Session of Re-
union Got Under Way
This Morning
lHY hnnssciated PreAal


Richmond, Va, June 20-Surround-
ed by rich traditions Of the old south
in a city hallowed by a history into
which are woven records of high de-
votion, sacrifice and courage, the men
who sixty years ago, fought for an
ideal that is still alive, officially op-
tened their thirty second annual re-
union here today. %
Tuned to pitch of enthusiasm and
sentiment, which perhaps is unpara-
lelled in the chronicles of such reu-
mons in the southland, the United
Confederate Veterans in their initial
session, fired the hearts of young and
old alike by their vigorous loyalty to
cause that seems to stand like a far
beacon in the fading twilight of day
which, for them, gradually is closing.
Looking upon the SCARED, grey
faces of those old soldiers, as they sat
together in the massive city audito-
rum one could not help but feel that
from somewhere. through the cloud
riffs in the heavens, tenderly smiled
the spirits of all those noble Confed-
crate leaders who have gone beyand;
and that as an old veteran raised
ralsied hand to his brow to shut out
shaft of sunlight which, from a Gre
vice in the auditorium seemed to
strike his face like golden lance, he
must have felt, in some way, that the
ghosts of those beloved chieftains
were invoking upon him and his COM
rades an abiding benediction.
Called to order by General William
b. Freeman, commander of the Vir-
ginia division, Confederate veterans,
the opening session of the reunion got
under way in the auditorium at an
early hour. Despite hard rain which
swept the city through the night, the
cid soldiers were in their places fresh
and undauted. Following brief pre-
liminaries General Julian S. Carr,
venerable commander in chief of the
veterans, took the chair.
Upon the eager heads of the men
in grey, Governor E. Lee Trinkle, of
Virginia, whose father shouldered a
musket from '61 to '65, poured the
anointing oil of eulogy and love and
southern patriotism, mingled with a
hope, expressed, that those who bled |
and died sixty years ago, did not go
into battle in vain.
General Carr, in stirring vein, |
saw in the assembly, he said, dreams |
reincarnate of an ideal that still clings
in the breasts of the old soldiers, and I
which will be passed like torch to
future generations. .reg
DR.. Douglas S. Freeman, reunion
orator, discussed the Confederate
contribution to the life of the nation.
"The leadership of character, con-
tinued idealism, unity above class
and a patience in adversely. OF all
these contributions" said the speaker,
the nation would have need" Il
With characteristic word and ges-
ture United States Senator Pat Har-
rison, of Mississippi, warmed the en-
thusiasm of his audience with the
statement that never in the history of
the world was war fought so nobly I
as that between the states and never !
before has cause remained so cher 6
ished in memory, though il be true
that these same men who followed s
Lee and jackson now lift their heads G
as proudly when the Star Spangled t
Banner waves in the breezes of new Q
and stronger nation. III
All the speakers were generously s
applauded. The addresses were fol- Q
owed by brief speeches from promi-
nent veterans, called to the pltform II
BY their comrades. The old soldiers Il
, their joy raised STORM of noise Q