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Show 3 Memorial Day, 1910 ft ft ft Country's Duty to Heap Honors on the Thinning Ranks of the Veterans i , " fmmm N the armies during the n progress of the Civil war there were enrolled a total of over 2,000,000 men. mmmmm Tens of thousands of these perished from wounds re-j&j&gSB re-j&j&gSB ceived in the struggle or TPTtN from diseases contracted ii i .77.1 through the exposures and hardships of the campaigns. cam-paigns. Other tens of thousands returned re-turned maimed in limb or shattered in health, never to become again capable of carrying on the natural I struggle for existence and supremacy in the peaceful pursuits of life. Since the close of the war, the ranks of the remnants of the Union army have been thinned out constantly con-stantly by the hand of death. The expectancy of life left to these survivors sur-vivors of the war, taking them in the mass the day that the great review was held at Arlington Heights after peace was restored, was much less than the normal term of human life. Still in spite of the thinning out of the ranks there remain with us today a vast, host of the "old boys in blue" who left their homes and the peaceful pursuits of life to go to the front and protect the homes of those left be hind, hold up the flag of the country and preserve the Union of the states. This great' "gray host" of the old soldiers sol-diers presents a pathetic but inspiring spectacle to all of us this latest Memorial Memo-rial day, when we are called upon to commemorate their deeds of valor, ; their patriotic devotion to the flag ! and and to the Union, and to fill our souls as at a pure fountain with a re- newed spirit of patriotism, of greater love for our country, greater appreciation appre-ciation for our admirable institutions and a deeper and more devoted determination de-termination if the occasion should arise to emulate their deeds and to be as true to the flag and the country as they were, handing down to succeeding suc-ceeding generations the Union intact, its institutions unimpaired, as they did for us. The United States has certainly stamped the old maxim, "Republics are ungrateful," as false. There never was a country under any form of gov- eminent which showed the measure of gratitude to the men who defended the flag and preserved the nation at all comparable to the United States of America as shown by the history of the treatment accorded to the soldiers sol-diers who fought in the great war. Year by year from that time to this, the scope of the pension list has been steadily enlarged. Almost a half-century half-century after the first call for troops by President Lincoln in the spring of 1SG1, in spite of the hundreds of thou-in'm thou-in'm sands of the old army who have , crossed over to the other side, the I government Is paying this year a larger sum In pensions than was provided pro-vided the first year after the war anil i almost as much as in any previous ! year in all that have passed by. i As the years roll by we all should cultivate the splri manifested by the government in enlarging the scope of the pension list. As intimated above, this proves that the grateful hearts of Americans are touched more tenderly , i with a sense of the debt that we owe the old soldiers as the years roll by. Those of us who see the "old boys in bkie" marching through the streets on Memorial day year by year, can scarcely miss being struck by a sense of the weight of years that rests upon the shoulders of this "good gray army." Remember it is more than a whole generation ago, as human life goes, almost a generation and a half, since the last recruit was enrolled in the volunteer army of the Union just before the war came to its close. There are very few members of the Grand Army, very few soldiers of the Civil war, who are only at the threescore three-score mark. Indeed, there are not many of them who are not at the psalmist's term of life, three score and ten. There are but few alive who answered the first call of President Lincoln. If the new recruit were only twenty when that call went out, ho is sixty-eight now. The soldier who was thirty is nearly eighty. It is a touching thought to think of this noble army and look back through the half-century that is gone by and think of the bright, promising, sturdy youths with life all before them, with quickened pulses, with firm, unwavering unwaver-ing tread that shook the earth in the first army corps and brigades organized organ-ized in the early days of the war. When the great revisw was held near Washington, after peace was made, the eyes of these "boys in blue" were still bright with hope, their steps still firm and their hearts resolute. Unlike Un-like most other armies, they went back to their homes glad the war was over. They returned to the occupations occupa-tions they had laid down when the call to arms reached them. They have been through all these years of business busi-ness good citizens, law-abiding, industrious indus-trious and self-respecting, taking care of themselves and of those dependent upon them as generally and as efficiently effi-ciently as those who never heard the rattle of musketry or the roar of artillery, ar-tillery, nor the shock of cavalry charging over the plain. Year by year their ranks are thinning thin-ning out now very rapidly. Year by year, thousands of them drop. They may never have another opportunity of experiencing a little joy begotten of the respect and gratitude shown by their countrymen. It is fitting that the graves of those who are gone should be decorated with flowers in memory of what they did and endured, but it is still more important that we should show to those who still remain among us our high appreciation ol their patriotism and valor. Long live in thousands and tens ol thousands "the "boys in blue." May their ranks thin slowly. May many years pass by before "taps" is sounded sound-ed over the grave of the last of this great army of grizzled heroes. And while they live may Americans of the present and of coming generations never lack in their admiration and gratitude to the men who protected the homes of America, who upheld the flag of the country, and who preserved pre-served the Union of states intact, with all the admirable Institutions framed by the fathers of the republic i |