Evening star., 1927-05-29

a paean fashioned out Of their valor.
How young they were, how valiant,
caught like a figure of youth on some
bronze bas-relief Of unforgetting! So
they, these soldier dead, are ever be-
fore our eyes. ever within our hearts.
Stanch and loyal and true, and age
less in their years. a frieZe to liberty
and to victory, in the bronze Of a
remembering people.
On a May 80 the last Union vol
unteer Of the Army was discharged,
and that day became day set apart
to memory, for Gen. John A. Logan
was commander-in-chief of the Grand
Army of the Republic, and on May
5 in 1868 issued an order to the
G.. A. r. to observe May 80 by dec.
Grating the graves of the Union
Army. 1t was fair and fine thing,
there is no national law on the sub
ject, the States have adopted it
singly, making it a universal OBJ
servance.
Gen. Logan could hardly have fore
seen this general acceptance and per-
petuation of his plan, nor it's ex-
pansion into day Of remembrance
for all those who sleep the long sleep
beneath the whispering grass. AS Il
result Of his order, each year myriads
of potted plants are set out to hide
the scars upon the earth, and gar
dens and hedges are stripped of
blooms to drop beside the potted
plants. The day has become a ma
tional ceremony sacred to memory,
whether for the Army or the Navy,
or for the great body of civilians.
whose peace the armed forces have
do
another, builded better than he knew.
AS May 80 marked the discharge
Of the last Union volunteer, some
May 30 will mark the utter absence
Of men in blue in the long process
sions that wend their tribute.giving
way to fame's eternal camping
ground. Their feeble steps and brave
old faces will not be in the lines to
touch the hearts of those who stand
and watch. Noting that strange alb.
sence. the heart of the united Nation
can but know new tenderness and
q stronger devotion to the patriot
cause.
Other hands than theirs will render
the last devoted rites above the
graves, other hearts than theirs will
retell the old stories of camp and .
battlefield.
The men in blue and the men in
gray are brothers now and walk
falteringly side by side to the serried
ranks whose common tent is the un-
conquerable grass. There they scat
ter their gay sweet flowers. and there
they tell a common tale of how the
dead once served his flag. 1t is the
threnody of loving hearts, it is the
eulogy of high endeavor.
Watch those feeble old men, Penn.
nants of the blue and the gray,
mount the white cascade of steps that
leads to Lincoln's matchless shrine
along the Potomac, arm in arm, and
look upon them as they pay a COM
mon devotion to Lincoln. If there is
bitterness in other places, there is
none in the hearts OF the men who
faced each other across the bloody
fields Of war.
They stand today on the common
footing of common reverence for
the patient, weary. lonely man. who
pledged his service to the reuniting
Of dismembered country. And Lin.
coin. from his white marble chair, |
whose arms bear the fasces of power,
looks not at either Of them. but in |
calm. unquestioning loyalty, out past |
them to the halls of Congress-, whose
building was at the h5nds of a united |
Nation. and whose preservatieG9 Is |
for reunited country. He seems
serene and wise and patient still. aRd
oblivious Of the lettering steps Of tie