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Show DECORATION DAY. Tomorrow Is Decoration Day, and to the many who lost sons, husbands, hus-bands, fathers, brothers and sweethearts sweet-hearts In the great stiuggle between the North and South, the day will hold a hallowed charm. Tomorrow all over this grand country of ouis, blue coated veterans, bowed down under weight of years, faces wrinkled, halrgicy, the result of suffcilng, will wend their way to the different cemeteries where their comrades He, and though battle-scai led and seared by life's trials, will shed many a tear. And with them will go tho faithful wife, the loving mother, son and daughter, and the never-changing sweet-heart who will seek somo grave and theie let pent up anguish diffuse Itself In Mowers and tears. Herein thcfpilct peacefulness and hallowed calm, memory and affection will bildge the dlstanco and heart will speak to heart. Nor will the observance of Decoration Decora-tion Day be con lined to the veterans who are left, and tho wives, sons and (laughers of those who have gone before. be-fore. Although the day was set apart primarily for the remembrance of those heroes who at onetime or another an-other served tho stars and stripes, the beautiful custom of strewing lloweis has become so universal, and the Decoration day sentiment so perfect per-fect In Its entirety that seldom Is any grave neglected. And how very commendable com-mendable this Is. The placing of a Ixxpiet of (towers, a wreath or Hag upon up-on the giave means little or nothing except In the sentiment expressed and that this sentiment Is kept alive and continues to grow with Inci easing yeais augurs well for other sentiments sublime hi their ntituie, tending to lift the mind from sordid and earthly affairs to the etheieal. We call to mind at this time a little cemetery, two miles from a small town in Indiana, and though not having seen that graveyard during the past seven or eight years, we know what will happen there tomorrow, we know what has been done there to-day.The to-day.The the people In that town would not rank as scholars; few of them have amassed much of this world's goods, and possibly few would servo as models foi fashions, yet their feelings aie true, deep and strong. That little lit-tle gi.ivey.ud has been cleaned up nicely, sunken graves have been tilled, bare places have been sodded, no grave, known or unknown,has been neglected and even today many arc wearing either wreaths or boimets. Tomor-iow Tomor-iow morning, tiny Hags will be placed on thirty or forty mounds and one of these contains tho father of the writer. In the afternoon the old veterans, together with the Odd Fellows, Masons and IC. of P.s will march tothe little cemetery and hold services sublime in their nature. More than a thousand people will assemble at the little grove at the south and local speakers will touch the hearts and stir the affections. Dvery giave will Iks ladencd with lloweis, the loving lov-ing expressions of tcndei hearts. And tomorrow over one of these graves will bend a little woman very dear to us only a step-mother but one who hasalways been as much as a mother could be, and with saddened heart her memory H1 revert and our heart goes Hut this Is personal and is not different from scenes In thousands thous-ands of cemeteries tomorrow. And why Is it that on this day above nil others, when the very air seems to possess a holy calm, when millions of hearts aie soirowlng; a day that wakes the passing of the preservers pre-servers of our union and liberty,vvhy is it that a greater ntunbei of millions make of it a day of hilarious pleasure? We cannot condemn, we only ask, why? |
