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Show ceded Its mitlomil companion thought, Memorliil day. linker was' born of tlioutrk'til parents Id New York 111 IS'M, and acted with Laura Keene and John BrmiRtinm, his' adopted father, and In 1801 whs a member of the stock company which played In the Washington theater. Among Ills close friends at that period was Capt E. L. Ilartz, an assistant to Col. D. B. Ruck-er, Ruck-er, depot quartermaster. One Any Baker and Ilartz while riding rid-ing In Seventh street, Washington, witnessed the burial, just off that thoroughfare, of n soldier of the Sixth Massachusetts volunteers. On the Instant the thought came to Baker that there should be In every large city a cemetery for the burial of soldiers, sol-diers, owned or controlled by the government, gov-ernment, and that there should be a bureau to keep a record of the buried. Hart disapproved the Idea, declaring declar-ing that a soldier should be burled where he fell, and that Baker's plan was an Impracticable one. Baker received re-ceived a like answer when he laid his suggestion before Simon Cameron, then secretnry of war. Cameron listened lis-tened Impatiently, then brusquely dismissed dis-missed hla caller with a declaration that such a plan had never been adopted adopt-ed by any country and never would be; that soldiers should rest where they fell, and that civilian cemeteries supplied graves for those who did not fall In battle. Arlington Established. Baker did not give up the fight fot his Idea, and finally found a wholehearted whole-hearted supporter In General Nichols, Nation One in Services of Memorial An order, Issued by General Logan, as head of tbe Grand -Army of the Republic, Re-public, dated May 5, 1808, set aside May SO for the strewing of flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of dead comrades In every part of tbe land. This order, which was penned by N. P. Chlpraan, then adjutant gen-1 gen-1 era of the Grand Army, Is known as ; No. 11 and Is always read with Lincoln's Lin-coln's Gettysburg address at services held by the Grand Army on Memorial day, Rufus R. Wilson writes, In the New lork Herald Tribune. General Logan's order was generally general-ly obeyed by the then existing Grand Army posts. On May 80, 1808, the ceremony was observed through New England and the middle and western states, while In the South the day was celebrated by a considerable number of Grand Army posts. At Arlington, Va, the services were especially Impressive, Im-pressive, Gen. James A. Garneld, then a member of congress, being the principal prin-cipal speaker. He reached what was regarded by those who heard It as bis finest oratorical achievement, at least on a subject not political. Another year found Memorial day firmly established es-tablished as a national Institution, "The Blue and the Gray." A poem, written and punished in 1807, gave Impetus to the Idea ot Memorial day. The poem was "The Blue and the Gray," and Its author, Francis Miles Finch, a then little-known little-known lawyer of forty, living on the shores of Lake Cayuga at Ithaca, N. T. The morrow of Lee's surrender found both North and South weary of conflict and longing for peace. In a thousand pulpits an oft-used text was tha words from MIcah: "They shall beat their swords Into plowshares and their spears Into pruning hooks; na- 1 tlon shall not lift up sword against ' nation, neither shall they learn war ' any more." In each of a million homes there was at least orie vacant chair. Hatred still smoldered, a hatred ha-tred made more Intense In the North by Lincoln's assassination and rekindled rekin-dled In the South by the "carpet-bag" government which followed It, and by the course of President Johnson, which led to his Impeachment. And so counsels of moderation and forgiveness only served to temper, not to appease, the bitter recollections recollec-tions of four years of strife and carnage. It remained for Finch, by appealing to the memory of the dead In bis verses, "The Blue and tbe Gray," to strike the note of reconciliation. Written at Ithaca and published first In the Atlantic Monthly, the poem Instantly In-stantly touched the popular heart Within a month It was being reprinted reprint-ed and quoted In every part of the land. National Cemetery Idea. Another man who deserves an honored hon-ored place In this brief chronicle Is Thomas Brongharo Baker, father of th national cemetery Idea, which pre- later snerman's ciuef-of-staff. They worked together and when Edwin M Stanton succeeded Cameron, Baker's plan was laid before him. He approved ap-proved of It. Six acres In the rear of the Old Soldier's home at Washington Washing-ton were set aside as a national cemetery, ceme-tery, and the first burial was made on August S, 1802, although tbe formal order making It a national cemetery was not Issued until 1804. Baker was appointed a clerk In tbe quartermaster's office with charge of the burial records of the army and held that post until 1809. Later foi eight years he was employed In and around Richmond, compiling cemetery records and Inspecting matters connected con-nected with the burial corps. Then he was transferred to a clerkship In the quartermaster's office at Chicago, Eighty-four National Cemetarlea. Before he died Baker saw the system sys-tem spread to thirty-one states and territories and across the border to Mexico. National cemeteries now number eighty-four. There are seven teen In Virginia, seven In Tennessee, six in Kentucky, four each In North Carolina, Ioulsiana and Illmoix; three each In Maryland, Mississippi Arkansas and Missouri; two eacb In the District of Columbia, South Caro Una, Georgia, Florida, Texas, New Tork, New Jersey. Pennsylvania, Id dtana and Kansas, and one eacb In Alabama, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Nebraska, New Mexico, Montauq, California Cal-ifornia and Alaska. The eighty-fourth cemetery Is In Mexico City, where are burled the soldiers who fell In the ( war with Mexico. j They contain the graves of a great 1 army composed of 240,279 known and 153,116 unidentified soldiers. In ' France, Belgium and England there ! sleep 30,513 soldiers killed In the I World war, so that In these latter times the observance of Memorial dnj has become a ceremony of International Interna-tional significance, sacred to the mem ory of all our soldiers who died in defense of the nation. Beauty Tempers Sadnesa. Arlington Is easily the most beaut! ful of all our national cemeteries. N01 Is It an altogether mournful place The breeze always slugs through its trees, most days bring sunshine in their train, the view of the river and distant capital moves and appeals, and the birds make It their home In all seasons, for they know In ceme terles they are safe. Tbe Kentucky cardinal Is there winter and summer, whistling as cheerily as any fife at reveille, and with It, an equally Joyous sprite. Is the tufted titmouse In its Confederate gray. Gettysburg, In addition to Its use as a national cemetery, Is probably the most clearly defined of any of the great battlefields of the world. Nearly all of the regiments and brigades which fought there long ago located with monuments the precise positions held by them at the most critical mo-menljr mo-menljr of three doubtful and momentous momen-tous days, so that It Is now easy, even for a layman, to trace the course of the conflict which marked high' tide for the Confederacy and the beginning of the end of the war between- the states |