Year: 1879




banners in their hands woven their own delicate fingers
stimulated them to heroic deeds They felt that all that
makes home and country dear was az STAKE ana that e
would lose all it's charms if the Union dismembered
and the prospects of future glory and prosperity
blasted Tender-heared and softlimbed women followed
the Union soldiers to the ed hovered around them ike
mnisterng angels uursed the sick bound the bleeding
veins of the wounded noushed the dropping admins
tered consolation the dying and conveyed their last
resting place the fallen brave Others renonced the lux
ures Of elegant homes for the fed atmospheres of mill
tay hospitals gathered funds for the relief Of the widow
and orphan prepared bandages, lint and deicaces for
the sick and wounded and did other good offices grateful
in the eyes of God and They worthy of you,
and you Of them. They rewarded you with ther hands
lovers, and they welcomed you home husbands who
had reflected unadng glory their and offspring
If they widowed they consoed themselves with
the bright fame your comrades left behind Them and they
taught their children to emulate their herom and patr
osm. Never did American pre-eminent as they
for all the qualities which dignity and embesh their
sex, shine with pureT lustre than in these dark and
troubous scenes of havoc and slaughter.


We have not to these sacred precincts to glory
defeated foe foment evil passions and secarian
feuds, to defame the living, wrong the dead We
knowledge that bad stoutly champoned and
that it illustrated by deeds of lofty courage. We
oce that it did not succeed both for the welfare of those
who espoused it, sake, and the cosmopolitan in
teress Of liberty and civilization We have been enemies
for time, but there no reason why we should not be
friends and hereafter why should forget every
thing but that citizens of the same country shar
ing alike in all its benefits and blessings, and dwelling in
equal security under the shadow of its mighty IT
there is to be rivalry let it be rivalry of devotion to
native land and its institutions rivalry of loyalty to
sound principles Of government and generous emulation
for the sodicaon of the Union and the promotion of
mutual happiness and prosperity Come what may how
ever, long the remembrance of your unselfsh
patriotism shall last long these tombs shall be
secrated shrnes where the woshppers of liberty shall
annually repair to offer their obatons and to them
with floral tributes so long the re OF PATRIOTISM Will
burn with unbenched purity, and there never will be
wanting defenders to the Republic should it's unity
sence be again assaled and who like you will be ready
to lay down their lives in its behaf


AT Chester, Pennsylvania, it generally OBJ
served. The mills all closed and the operatives
turned Flags flew at half-mast from nearly
every housetop in the city. Post Wilde, G. A. r., began
their preparations two months ago and they most
successfully carried out to-day Besides the procession
composed of the different civic and military organiza-
tons the fire companies, the cergymen, Mayor city of
fcers and members of Council, there something
tirely in the chorus of two thousand
children from the Sunday schools of the city, under the
direction of Professor John r. Sweeny, of the Penn
sylvania Military Academy sang two hymns composed
especially for the occasion.


Ia Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, there the usual
monies of decorating the graves in the various cemeteries
street demonstrations, and religious services Business
during the forenoon partially suspended All the
banks government offices, and other public buildings
closed and in the afternoon the suspension of bust
general


The day was more generally observed at Baltimore than
for many years The graves of the Union dead Loudon
Cemetery decorated The procession composed
of troops from Fort McHenry and the Grand Army posts
The graves of the Confederate dead in the cemetery
were also decorated.


AT Boston the ceremonies akin those carried
at Philadelphia The various posts marched through the
streets bearing gaands and bouquets and accompanied by
bands of music All public business suspended and
the national flag displayed in every part of the
city From oration pronounced by the gifted Colonel
Higgens extract the following sentiments


''We together for task that has for peculiar
sacredness To others It'll simply poetic service little
in common with their accustomed ways; but to who
served in the late war; however humbly it is if we
again grasped departed comrades by the hand. To
they yet they when they answered their
last roll-cal-stil young, still ardent Our hair grows
gray but theirs does not. This rite is memorial
that they and belong to fraerntythe fraternity
of veterans of the Great Civil War When all have
died the immediate record of that will have died with
us and the next generation will know it only know
the American Revolutionremoey, of something writ
ten in books. Let ask ourselves to-day what
all for? What did the accomplish For what
did brothers die ep