Show MEMORIAL DAY As early as 9 on saturday may hundreds of persons were seen men wending their way into the city cemetery carrying baskets of flowers and floral tributes of various designs with which to decorate the graves of the dead and by 10 at which hour felds band came upon the scene fully persons were present punctually at 11 the public services began in a large wooden structure erected for the occasion the cost of this having been defrayed by private subscriptions the interior was suitably decorated with bunting flags fine palms and flowers the mottoes included the nations heroes may they rest in peace all honor to the pioneers of utah may their sleep be peaceful 10 and we mourn the honored honorea dead Abo above all floated the stars stare and stripes at half mast president george Q cannon was among the company occupying reserved seats mats on the platform the band having played nearer my god to thee mayor scott called the assembly to order and gave a short abort address bearing on the history of the day and its general observance through out the country the harmony glee club assisted by members of the tabernacle choir then rendered the song A tear for the comrades that are gone in excellent style bishop leonard of the episcopal church offered the opening prayer not dead but Slee peth was then sung by the harmony glee club BISHOP WHITNEYS ADDRESS I 1 am glad to meet and greet so many ot of you who have assembled here to do honor to this day and occasion a day which has been placed among the high tides of the calendar and set apart throughout this broad land for the observance of a custom at once beautiful and appropriate appropriate this custom originated I 1 be believe with the decoration of the graves of mignion union soldiers who lost their lives in defense of their country spilling their blood capon the battlefield to preserve intact the great and glorious nation of which we form a part it was fitting to so honor such heroes but subsequently the custom was widened and extended to include in its observance the decoration of the tombs of confederate soldiers those who wore the grey instead of the ba blue ue and fought with equal bravery and equal sincerity for their lost cause but it did not stop there it grew and expanded still until it became a general observance the cu stomas it is today to remember everywhere the honored dead civilians as well as eold soldiers irs and strew their graves with flowers it does not fall to the he lot ot of all men to wield the sword shoulder the musket and shed their blood upon the battlefield yet there are heroes and heroines equally worthy of honor who have worn out their lives contending for the right using pen and tongue or whatever faculties they possessed in defense of truth and righteousness principles esteemed by them divine many of them lie here around us we come together this day to honor them and cover their tombs with garlands it was fitting indeed that so beautiful a custom shoula should not have confined itself to any particular class had it done so we might well have doubted the dicinit divinity of the inspiration which suggested it at it might then have been considered a mere man made custom and like its maker 1 perishable the chief beauty of all true principles is their breadth their chanty their impartial philanthropy because of the breadth and extent of this beautiful observance I 1 loan can see god in it and can therefore believe it will endure it originated like the flame of a candle or a fire on the hearth to give light and warmth to those only within the abuse but now it shines like the sun the great lamp which god lit in heaven to shed forth ferth its warmth and brilliance over allchin all Thin n is proper and right for we are a all I 1 the children of god equally his sons and daughters equally the creatures of his benevolent care I 1 I 1 rejoice that we can meet here upon the plane of our common brotherhood and sisterhood and regardless gard less of religious or political Wal differences join hands in doing honor to the noble dead I 1 can honor any man who is sincere however much hla his opinions may differ from my own sincerity is not always right ri lit but it is always right to be sincere the T hypocrite is despicable but the sincere soul is ever to be admired I 1 honor the men who wore the blue bine who fought under the stars and stripes giving their lives in defense of their count rys for I 1 believe this nation was founded of god that its constitution was written with an inspired pen that the almighty nerved the arm of the patriots whose swords and pens carved out the immortal legend all men are equal equally entitled to life liberty and the pursuit E pursuit of happiness I 1 therefore honor the heroes eroes who struggled and successfully to extend in later years the boon of freedom and maintain the integrity of the union founded by our fathers I 1 believe god was in it that it was written in the great book of destiny that slavery must perish and that the union should be preserved but I 1 turn from them to lay a garland also upon the grave of the confederate hero who though mistaken in fighting against the old flag in seeking to shatter the union did so in sincerity and laid down his life to prove the earnestness nest ness of his convictions I 1 was ordered out of a house in ohio a dozen years after the war for expressing as much that thosa who fought and nies died d for the south were equally sincere with those who fought and conquered for the north but I 1 do not expect to receive such treatment here perhaps it would not again be accorded there for times have changed since then and mens minds have broader grown I 1 was once walking through a cemetery a private cemetery in the city of Lan lancaster caRter pa wandering among the tombs tomba in that silent city of the dead my eyes chanced to rest upon a stone on which was the name of thaddeus stevens stevena once eminent as an american statesman and a prominent figure of that period of our national hist history to which I 1 have referred the period orttie 0 of the civil war underneath his name were engraved these words doubtless doubt lesa penned by his bis own hand in anticipation of death to form his epitaph 1 I repose in this quiet and secluded spot not from any natural preference for solitude but finding other cemeteries limited as to race by charter rules I 1 have chosen this that I 1 might illustrate in my death the principles I 1 advocated in a long life equality of man before his bis creator now I 1 do d not suppose spose that the statesman when he penned penn those lines meant that all men are am absolutely equal in all things life is full of inequalities the very face of nature is rife with contrasts these majestic mountains that tower heavenward areas are as unlike as possible the meek and lowly valleys upon which they frown so too in society some men some women towar aloft like mountain peaks above their fellows by reason of superior intelligence telli tolli gence genee by reason of power and position hereditary or representative some as shakespeare says being born great some achieving greatness and some having greatness thrust upon them there are kings and princes and presidents pres identa swaying power over millions of their fellow creatures there are the strong who oppress the weak the rich who grind the poor the proud and haughty despising the meek and humble life Is too full of contrasts and diversities to convince us that all men are in all respects equal but when the hour comes the inevitable hour to shuffle off this mortal coil when the kinq king lays aside his crown and sceptre tre when the the president descends from the chair of state when the judge doffs his ermine and the rich man at stripped rp I 1 of his millions naked as when he came into the world passes away when with equal steps impartial fate enocks knocks at the palace and the cottage gate and prince and peasant king and pauper stand before god to be judged to render an account of their stewardships steward ships and receive at the hands of a just judge le the reward of the deeds done in the body then will it be seen if not before that all men are indeed equal before their creator and when we lay our bodies down to sleep in these narrow chambers in this thin silent halls of death then too is it seen that all men are equal for death like love levels all ranks and lays the shepherds crook beside the sceptre tre 11 and what is death to the christian merely the dissolution the temporary divorcement of the spiritual part of man from the temporal the return to the elements ments composing him to their separate origins orif fins I 1 then shall the dust return to earth as it was and the spirit unto god who gave it our lives are as the raindrops sprinkled upon the hills they but evaporate to the clouds from which they fell or trickle back to the ocean whence they came let those who will be satisfied with the tinkling poetry of the infidels philosophy that life is a narrow vale between the barren peaks of two eternities 11 but ascend to these mountain tops and tell me what you 8 see one valley no many valleys east west north north south valleys in all directions tio this is rather the symbol ot of life and they who ascend to the spirits heights will see not merely one life but many stretching away behind and and before them this life is but a link in the chain death but an incident ia our eternal career the gloomy grave but bat a mile stone atone on our en endless less journey we may honor the sincerity of the infidel but we cannot from the standpoint of christ wee agree with sincerity in its errors most moat men I 1 belleve believe have a yearning after immortality and that yearning I 1 accept as a prophecy of its realization every righteous desire of the heart will be gratified it is only the evil desires that must be removed eradicated like weeds from a garden most men desire to live again tol to rise like the sun after its setting all the more glorious after the night of darkness which has intervened some men who are called infidels have such desires desire there was a poet once who was thought to be an infidel because he did not believe in god as other men believed yet when that I 1 poet was drowned and his poor dead body was taken from the lake there was found upon him a copy of the holy scriptures the word of god which he loved to pore over and ponder upon he left on record these the one remains the many change and pass heavens light forever stunes shines earths shadows fly 11 life like ia a dome of many colored glass stains the white rad radiance lanee of eternity until death tramples it to fragments and there the poet leaves it like a shattered vase rase but bat god who gave the poet life that creator who is greater than his creature takes up the work where the poet leaves off I 1 he gathers up the shining fragments of that shattered shat ered vase and them into a vessel of honor a thousand times more beautiful and taking the lovely flower which once adorned it which was not dest destroyed roved at death but simply transplanted from a lower to a higher karden garden he replaces it the selfsame self same flower in the selfsame self same vase now new immortal and imperishable to shed forth its fragrance and bloom in beauty forever this my my friends is life this is death and this the resurrection THE REV BEV J B THRALL congregationalist said in substance lot let me first direct your thoughts though ta to that epoch the civil war it is now thirty years since that event which we celebrate took pla place men are not heroes because they died they are heroes who have faith in god glod what makes man a hero is that he has the comprehension to understand gods purposes about thirty years ago a small email army representing one section of our country their hearts if not their feet keeping time to gods desire marched away to battle for their count rys rights what was there to makes such an epoch glorious lurid and red with blood as it was to lift it above common murder and give it a place in inthe the councils councile of god it is true that some of the chief actors in that great drama became vindictive dic tive and hated their brethren when in drawing their swords in defense of gods purposes they should still have loved their opponents it was to give to us this grand country and govern ment which is as the great lincoln said add for tb tho people by the people and of the people the direct cause which led to the great rebellion was the trampling upon the principles of the constitution by certain men then slavery obtained a strong footing upon american soil directly contrary to free government god lie decreed creed it and nd the stain had to be wiped out with a flood of red blood the speaker then gave a history of the rise of the war and traced the course of events down to the present time in conclusion he said let human love american patriotism and universal brotherhood place each year anew above that stern and rugged period of this nations history its fresh crown of laurel and weave with reverent band its garland of rosemary for remembrance aud and of rue for regret the harmony glee club then sang mug when the swallows no eward idyl fly in first rate style president angus M cannon pro bounced the benediction and with this the exercises terminated professor evan stephens presided at the organ which was placed on the one side of the elevated platform from which the speakers addressed the audience and also conducted the musical portion of the service the harmony glee club rendered splendid service and holds felds band was waa quite a feature the latter remained in the cemetery until one and discoursed a good selection of music at fort douglas and elsewhere in the urty memorial day was duly observed |