Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-01-22
&c Arl,NrA rl..M Ma.ALY JouKNAL

ished, Robert E. Lee will be staged among
the actors who, with him, produced the
greatest drama of Americ / history; gigan-
tic figures on the face Of a mighty noun
tain, the only stage that can hold them.
There is a story familiar to the past gen
Grafton Of an old English blacksmith, to
whom was given the task of forging a gi-
gantic ship cable; of how he labored. over it
mer, adding link to link; finishing each with
perfect honesty; so that when the work was
done, in all it's length there was no flaw.
The time came when the ship that carried
this chain, it's sheet anchor at its end, was
driven at night in hurricane toward the
rocks. Anchor after anchor was let go,
only to be torn from their cables, and then
down went the mighty sheet anchor. 1t
caught and the blacksmith's cable held A
cable is no stronger than its weakest link;
this one had no weak link. 1t held because
of the character Of the old smith who was
faithful. When morning came and the sun
rose the good ship loated safe on waters
grown calm.
When the storms of battle left the South
almost on the fatal rocks, and clouds bIotted
out the stars, It was the character of Robert
E. Lee that saved her from utter wreck. He
had won not only the love of his own people,
but the respect and admiration Of their late
enemies. He had signed the parol of a ma
ton and not one man of that nation ever
broke the parol. He counseled peace, and
a new Union, and set an example of indus
try and left the vaporings Of fanatics to die
in the proud silence which was his shield
Lee was immovable in his grandeur, and the
chain that linked him to the South was
without flaw.
The sculptor, Borglum, is above all things
poet. We have it from him that as he
labored by night and day in the heat of the
sum- in the cold Of the blizzard, clinging to
the mountain far up above the tallest pines,
he sensed something going into his work,
more than the image Of his model. He sus-
pected what the mystery concealed, but
shrunk from oonfding it to the careless
world. He was in the midst Of his great
dream; around him were the men who had
written the greatest page Of history; the
men who had marched and fought and starved
for four long years and faced death on
a hundred battle6elds, inspired by Lee. He,
achievement; he vas among them all, a
Confederate soldier that did not know when
he was whipped. And in the storm, and
the stress, he labored on by night and by
day, cheering his men to prodigies of vic
tory, sleeping only when his eyes would
not open; eating what his script held, That
which he sepsed as going into his work, was
the unconquerable spirit of Lee and his
gray heroes.
And by this we arrive At the supreme
thought, in the mighty Memorial on Stone
Mountain-Lee with his generals, and the
marching line Of infantry, cavalry and artil-
lery-gigantic figures all. Before it, through
all the centuries, boys and girls Of the South
land are to stand and thrill over the
thought, that among the immortals on that
mountain are their ancestors; that to b"
worthy of Lee and the gallant men who fol
lowed him, must be the sum Of their ambi-
ton; that the new Union is theirs to fight
and die for if need be; that if this great
country be at length oyerrun with foreign
races whose ideals war with ours, then, here
in the South their backs to the eternal
mountain, their great chieftain above them
the children of the old Confederacy will
make the last stand for liberty.
May this never come to America Rather
let us pray that all the generations of the
land will pass as in review beneath the rec
ord of this mountain, and JOY that it per-
petuates the glory of our common country;
the manhood of America; the ideals which
make for Christian civilization; the hour
when enemies became brothers and the
Union and the Gag came back
Yes and pray beyond, that here may cono
the best Of those who suffer from age-old ell
rors and long for peace, in lands other than
ours, and from our carven records may
draw new hope, new faith, new Inspirations
and, seeing, may take heart agajn.
The Master-Builder works from plans too
vast for human vision, but we know that
He doeth all things we'll. We can only wait
and trust; and some of us may dream along
the lines of faith. But it is not all dream
that long after the youngest of us have