The mirror., 1923-05-24

lima. John Redpath, a young man of
great ability as a reporter, had been as
signed by his newspaper, the New York
Tribune, to accompany General Sherman
OH his march to the sea. He sent the first
lews of the fall of Charlestown, and when
the Northern troops occupied the city,
Colonel Woodford, the commander, asked
him, in addition to his reportorial duties,
to become the temporary superintendent of
schools. This work was not difficult, for
the people of the city were very anxious
to get back on peace basis. What he
had to do however, was to help found
the first public schools for negro children.
One of these schools was just outside the
town, and to reach it, John Redpath had
to pass what had once been the race track
Of the community Passing this place was
always an unhappy duty, for after the
fighting around Charlestown, the grounds
had been used as a general burying place
for the brave men of the Union and Con-
federate forces who had fallen in battle.
And to make this unhappineSs bitterer,
the graves were sadly neglected.
One day. it was during April, which is
late spring in the South, he passed group
of children picking flowers, and the idea
suddenly came to him that if they would
only put some of those glorious blossoms
on the graves, they would not look SO
desolate. When he reached the school he
made a short address to the pupils and
suggested that it would be nice for them
to pick all the wild flowers they could,
and decorate the graves in the cemetery.
"Why, we'll all jest git armfuls and
armfuls of posies and smother the graves
from sight" one negro girl told him
quickly, and the idea of "armfuls of
flowers" made Mr.. Redpath wonder if it
would be possible to interest enough peo-
pie in the idea really to gather "armfuls."
AS he went about the city in the days
that followed, he spoke Of his idea to
decorate the graves, and with everyone
the plan proved. to be popular. They
finally decided that May first would be
good day for the decoration, and ON that
day over ten thousand men and children
met at a central spot, all of them carry
ing flowers and after singing hymns and
patriotic songs, marched to the race track
cemetery.
Such was the first Decoration Day.
Three years later, the custom of decor
ating the graves of men who fell during
the Civil War had grown so popular that
at convention of the Grand Army of the
Republic, General John A. Logan, who
was the head of the Grand Army, sug-
gested that the day be officially recog-
nized, and moved from May 1st to May
3Oth, because of the weather conditions
in the North. Late. state after state
passed legislation making that day a pub
lie holiday, and the official title, Memorial
Day, was adopted.
After he had finished his work with the
4NCN Ioik ilOuHc, JohH NcuPdtil lOunueu
the now nationally famous Redpath Chau-
tauqua Circuit, which has brought edu-
cation and entertainment to thousands of
people, but he always considered the man
agement of that first Decoration Day
celebration his greatest work. Certainly
no one act had any greater effect in heal
ing the open wound between the North
and the South. Francis Miles Finch, in
his famous poem, "The Blue and the
Gray" expressed the spirit Of the day
and custom when he wrote:
"No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They Danish our anger forever
Under the sod and the dew,
When they laurel the graves of our dead;
Waiting the Judgment Day;
Love and tears, for the Blue,
Tears and love, for the Gray"
Since those lines were written the blue
and the gray have twice fought side byS