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Show Nation's Dead at Arlington i ,niB O a generation that knows it not War sometimes is w nil difficult t0 realize that vIt-'J' there is love of country pte- so great that men will leave wife and children and parents, leave home and its comforts com-forts and business and its promises and endure hardships, suffering and death inself that that country may endure. That there is such a patriotism a Memorial day spent at Arlington, the National cemetery near Washington, is an Impressive reminder. For the men who had that great love and upheld up-held it with their lives lie there in the last bivouac, unmindful of the flowers ' which strew their resting places. Arlington, never at any time to be visited without emotions that are felt by the most impassive, is. doubly a place for reflection Memorial day. Twenty thousand men who offered their lives for their country are buried there, and on each grave on Memorial day is planted a flag, and at each headstone head-stone lies at least one wreath of flowers. flow-ers. Sixteen thousand graves, row on row in military precision, are ranged on a great level plateau called "The Field of the Dead," and the dullest heart Is stirred, the slowest pulse beats more quickly, at the sight of those 16,000 little flags fluttering in the breeze. At the head of each grave is a simple sim-ple stone bearing the name of the Iff -r7fr-l I Tomb of the Unknown Dead. soldier and his number in the Roll of Honor, the roster kept by the war department de-partment of those' who died in the service of their country. This Roll of Honor bears 250,000 names. But not all those who gave up their rtves for an ideal have the poor reward of a headstone and a number. Hundreds Hun-dreds of bodies, gathered from fields over which the contending armies struggled, were never identified. All of these were laid in one common grave under a massive monument to "the Unkonwn Dead." On the face of the monument is inscribed." BENEATH THIS STONE Repose the bones of 2,111 unknown soldiers gathered after the war from the fields of Bull Run and the route to the Rappahannock. Their remains could not be identified, but their names and deaths are recorded in the archives of their country, and its grateful grate-ful citizens honor them as their noble army of martyrs. May they rest in peace. In its effect, perhaps, the most impressive im-pressive feature of the Memorial day program at Arlington is the placing of a small American flag on each and every grave of this silent camp ground. Uncle Sam provides and stores in the basement of Arlington mansion a sufficient suf-ficient quantity of flags, 10 by 14 inches In size, to provide an emblem for each grave, and these mementoes are put in place by members of the G. A. R. posts and remain in position for a Week following Memorial day. There are now about 22,200 persons buried in Arlington and, save in the officers' section, the graves are ranged in long rows, having a precision suggestive of military discipline, so that the spectacle spec-tacle of this vast array of waving flags is bound tu be deeply moving to every spectator who has an atom of sentiment senti-ment in his makeup. |