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Show Are Rapidly I Marching II Into the Unknown " ttHAMT has become, ptr-Ml ptr-Ml $t& haPM'.,0o common as KrVB Memorial day ap-lC-r proaches to remind the lv lJUDllc anJ the 8urvlv- 'fe&01V'O ing n,TtH!8 ' tne 'CU8 rn,, awVjaaM how fast the army of blue Is marching into the unknown. Flower are strewn upon the graves of the head and statistics of mortality re as freely flung nt the heads of the living soldiers. Possibly til- veterans vet-erans are not cheered by this sober and convincing Information, and certainly cer-tainly their children and grandchildren grandchil-dren give It but cold entertainment. A look at the other side, the living side, of the old soldiers" great day presents something of good cheer as well as a surprising fact that of the extreme youth of tho army of the Union In those days when the life of a nation was at stake. The survivors of the Colon army of the Civil war are known to number at this date G20.000, and a majority of these men are In the active pursuits pur-suits of Industry. Although there are a few very old men among the veterans, vet-erans, the average age of the survivors sur-vivors Is sixty-three years. With the lengthening of life which has become a feature of our time we ought to i have with us for many years at least a fair remnant of the heroes of the great war. The most desperate civil war of modern times was fought. It Is now , realized, by bne In their teens or ; barely out of their tetns. The rec-' rec-' ords of the war and navy departments jhow that of the enlistments 1.151.438 ' were at the age of eighteen years or under, and that 2.159.798 enlistments ' wire at the age of twenty-one years or under, while only C1S.511 of the total 2.7T8..109 enlistments were at the age of twenty two years and over. In decorating Ihe graves of the dead and In honoring the living soldiers of CI the whole nation renews yearly tie .nsplratlons of patriotism. This year irierp are still in the land of the living ird the country they saved more than salf a million of the heroic "boys" of CI. and we are Jut coming to see that they really were boys, and boys well worth remembering those who lave answered the last roll call and ltoe who are yet with us la the bat-lies bat-lies of peace. |