Port Hudson, Vicksburg, New Orleans, A hundred fields, a thousand scenes On fields with Grant, whose grave is white And there with Hancock, soldier true, Brave captains, noble comrades, rest! Your ranks are thinner, boys, to-day, And fewer comrades, year by year, The twenty years have left their trace Since you returned the homeward route; Twice twenty more your ranks efface; Who kept the faith and fought the fight; They earned the crown, the hero's right, MEMORIAL DAY MESSAGES Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations, that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided Republic. General John A. Logan. We honor our heroic and patriotic dead by being true men, as true men by faithfully fighting the battles of our day as they fought the battles of their day. David Gregg. The supporters of religion gave their lives for a principle. These martyrs of patriotism gave their lives for an idea. Schuyler Colfax. As a basis for permanently satisfactory results of the war, we should recognize the claims of justice and equal rights to all classes and sections, a fair apportionment of public burdens and benefits, with special privileges and exemptions to none. Careful and practical teachings along this line will be a patriotic work. Judge James W. Lapsley. Memorial Day, in my opinion, is one of the most significant and beautiful occasions of the year. It shows the sentiment of the people toward those who gave their lives for a good cause, and it teaches a lesson in patriotism which is without a parallel. Memorial Day cannot be too tenderly revered by old and young, by those who participated in one of the Nation's great struggles, or by those who simply know of it as history. Our common country each year is paying a greater tribute of respect to the soldiers, living and dead, and it is my hope that this rule may be expanded still more in the years to come. Anonymous. ARE DEAD HEROES PRESENT? ANONYMOUS Why may not the men themselves, who died beneath their country's flag, be now among their homes to which their last living thoughts were turned, and here with us to-day? We do not know, but can we not in hope believe, with a solid, substantial, reasonable belief and hope, that our heroes now stand about us, unseen and unheard, as we join to do honor to their memories? The naked human eye is not made to disclose the presence of the myriad forms that exist about us, and the human ear is not attuned to note the solemn symphonies of the music of the spheres. TRIBUTE TO THE UNKNOWN BY SENIOR VICE-COMMANDER BURRAGE We pay the tribute of respect and reverence to the gallant men who sacrificed their lives to the perpetuation of the Union, and who now lie in common graves marked "unknown." It was fitting at this season of vernal bloom, when nature is joyful with life, that our thoughts should turn to those who gave their lives, as dear to them as ours to us, and that their memory should be honored and reverenced. ODE FOR MEMORIAL DAY 1 BY PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR Done are the toils and the wearisome marches, Shelt'ring a land where Rebellion is dumb. 'From "Lyrics of Lowly Life," by P. L. Dunbar, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1898. Ah, but this joy which our minds cannot measure Bought at the price of the heart's dearest treasure, Out of the blood of a conflict fraternal, Out of the dust and the dimness of death, Burst into blossoms of glory eternal Flowers that sweeten the world with their breath. Flowers of charity, peace, and devotion Bloom in the hearts that are empty of strife; So, with the singing of pæans and chorals, |