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Show Marching Days Over for Wearers of Blue The soldiers in blue did not march yesterday, a newspaper correspondent wrote from Macon, Mo., last year. The Stars and Stripes were displayed dis-played on all the business streets, from the stall of the federal building and draped from the windows of many homes. But the soldiers in blue did not march. ' Girls with baskets of beautiful flowers flow-ers were out in Oakwood's shaded cemetery with the dawn, placing their scented tributes on the mounds of the sleepers. And many cars laden with spring's fragrant product of rich colors glided along the smooth roadway to the quiet city, and added to the decorations decor-ations until the cemetery was like a magnificent flower garden. But the soldiers in blue did not march. Here and there a gray-bearded man, with time's heavy markings about the eyes and cheeks, sat at a window or in a rocking chair on the front porch, ;and looked wistfully at those going by :with flowers. Some saluted these men !gravely, l.nowing what the day meant ,to them. Younger folks hurried by, jnot seeing the connection. The day so long spoken of by ora-:tors ora-:tors had come at last. The "thinning : ranks" had thinned out. No longer itlo the men who marched with Grant iand Sherman and Ros'ecrans and Thomas meet at the post and plan ,for Memorial day. All the speeches have been made. The marching Is over. The next reunion will be on the other side of the border. |