Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 June 1891 — IN MEMORY OF FALLEN BRAVES [ARTICLE]

IN MEMORY OF FALLEN BRAVES

BY SOL R. SMITH.

Bring flowers, sweet flowers, the fresh and fair; They.fiave'blossomed to shed their fragrance there. Bring hither garlands of sweet perfumes; They arp offerings meet for each herotomb. e Then come with your tributes of sweet spring flowers. And wreath them over these graves of ours, For every heart hojds a thought for you. Of some soldier who sleeps In his suit of blue.

Come, mothers, for you have a soldier-boy here! Come, maid, to the grave of the love who , was dear! Come, s'ster, and bend at the grave of the brother! For dear In life did you love one another. Come, wife of the soldier, so gallant and brave, ff With the laurel and ivy to twine on his grave. Come.*children, your father and brother sleeps here; Bring flowers lor them—the sweet aud the fair. Bring flowers, sweet flowers, oer the bier to shed.« A crown for the brow of the early dead; For thus througlr its leaves hath the white rose burst, % For thus in the woods was the violet nursed; No holler offering our hand can place there Thau the tribute of flowers and song, aud the tear That falls for the brave boys who fought In the blue, And who sleep ’ueath the flowers we this day strew. Bring flowers! yes, pluck them from every hill side, And twine-forthe heroes who nobly have died! Come, then, where they rest, and tread lightly around. For the grave of the hero la on holy ground. Come, then, with love’s tribute, these dear graves aro ours, For the soldier ‘'heroes” bring beautiful flowers! And strew them on the mound where'er they sleep. While the angels from above their vigils keep.