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Show j "' " T1 i Gettysburg Now, as Seen I by One Who Took Part in the Battle ' i i 1 Tr-XTr?-?!?' T T Y S IJ U K Gt The ftfTsi) namo Is as a sword Fvtfk''- Hl", a ,"ul",'r O glory unil woe and a K.Vipv broken column and a uft&jjf&i''' ,5,'M "f Klines, writes phvi'ilJiM Kd ward W. Thompson in Itoston Transcript. Men In Huston told me not to go. The place, these acute crllles said, was made, ridiculous ridicu-lous by multilinles of preposterous j monuments. On may, after getting ' Mfely out of lloston, pity these critics. crit-ics. For the field of Ccttysburg Is a most touching spectacle, noble, worth traveling ncroes oceans to see, as an ppllome of Hid poetic, simple, good, generous heart of the American democracy. de-mocracy. Kery fedi ral regimental line of the three days of July liKhtii'K Ik marl.eil out by bronze tablets and i the Immortal army of northern Vir ttlnla l-f placed In eternal position hy llm Kovcrnnient of the reunited talis, oil, the wide circled graven of (he IidhI of Indistinguishable dead -the little nameless tablets for ca.ii perished Mildier! Olio would covet a place there, so heroic It s eiut il to have ioiin d out life's blood for duty without leaving even a name, save In the aching hearts of those who knew hat their beloved must lie among the unrecognized slain of (Gettysburg Ami what Is a name on any monu meat or tablet of that field? All the j Inscribed are nearly forgotten. Visit ors nsk about some hero very famous In his time (and mine): "Who wast ho?" In effect, the dead there arc all alike, essentially unnamed, becoming quickly unrecognized, even as the winds of night and the memories ol war. And the wholly unnamed, when the final roll call be, sounded, shall surely be as familiar us any to the Judgment bent nor less applauded b) (he shadowy hands of heaven. There Is art. and even treat art at Gettysburg, rarely, In cert:iln shafts and bronze equestrian and standing statues of the marshals of the hosts that were. Hut art Is small, Inslgnlfl cant, conceited, a toy, a diminished, citified Idoa, at Gettysburg. The grand, natural spectacle and the sense ol "what they dtd here" reduce to a sort of triviality the memorials which most obviously celebrate the heroes artistically. artis-tically. Htrangely proper seemed the homelier stone figures of horse, and gun, and man, devised lovingly by the village stone cutter, he striving so vainly (o symbolize the man or the regiment cherished In memory by tho humble folk who gave him his commission com-mission after putting hard band down Into poor pockets to pay his Utile fee. They saw In his queer work all that waa lent to Its outlines by tbe'r visions vi-sions ot past agony and tears. In :hose almost absurd memorials you shall see the homely, good, awkward, poetic, loving American people. If you look rightly. If your heart derides them, better go away hastily and drown yourself as one devoid of understanding. un-derstanding. Hut first try to get right That may be posslblo by gazing from almost under Father Abraham's fig tire, high on the central shaft, toward Seminary Ridge. Your mortal eyei shall see Uie distant, lengthy Hlne Ridge llllla. Your soul may behold, In visibly fur the delectable mountains where his spirit ranged for the Im mortal address. A day's driving about the grea' three days' battlefield enables one t understand clearly what happened. 1 was as If tho Almighty, even as Ho mer understood him to be, had nod ded to fix Irrevocably, at the begin olng of the fight, the doom of Its la sue. It Is as he had said, "Two day shall the south triumph; every hou of that time shall tho north, beaten Increase lu strength; the valor of th victors of the first two days sha!l li r slstlbly pound their foes Into an In' pregnable position; on the third day will take away the wisdom of th great leader of the south; he sha (hen r;lre ot his soldiers a dee that mortal flesh and blood t-annc. perform; and great shall be tbel slaughter and their rout.' For, stan. lug on Little Hound Top, the Federi left, viewing the ground to Culp' Hills, where the blue right lay. It a peira Incredible that a geueral materly as l.ee could have ordere the third day's charge unless be ha com under the doom. "He whom th gods wish to destroy they first tnak mad " That Pickett's. lngstreet'i Hill's, Arnisltad's regiment shou! hare endured a whole mlie of hell, m til their relics came to hand to ban 'T figlitlng. Is either an Incredible thini or an unsurpassable Instance of h man courage. You could weep thel over the dream ot the charge and O carnage. Yet i Is all so strangely blei to us; K. I S. gave the very toot the memories: We traveled In th print of nlil-n mu Yt all ilia !"! '"n. Atel lv we found, nd !- -e. Where flr nU r h4 ten. They pwi nj smile, the children ot t awnnt No mr the wurj thef wlelj. And h, how dep the euro A tunc th bait I ttrWl! Host thou love life? Then do n nquandcr time, for that U Ibe st lUt u iua4e oL |
