Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 40, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1893 — A MEMORIAL SCENE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A MEMORIAL SCENE.

How tho Daj- Is Observed In a Haekwoods Village. A correspondent of a New York paper describes a Memorial day scene as follows: ' Something like an hour later than ad'vertised the procession forms at the Church. First, the band in full uniform, jwiffi the village blacksmith as drum major in a bearskin hat of mammoth proportions, a gorgeous coat on his rather stooping shoulders, and wielding his baton as he would a sledge hammer, while tho small boys crowd thickly about among tho .players and surround the-bass drum like flies around a liogey jar. Next, two diminutivo—drummer boys, very red in the face and very weary, bearing some battered drums wreathed with flowers, which have seent actual service in battle. Then all the sweet girls which the village school con-

tains, with bright, fair faces, white dresses gay with flying ribbons,, and each one, down to tho, tiniest little lisping maid in the pifant clalfe who brings up the rear, skipping along in her haste -tolwepup with the-large-girls-,bearing-a cr< >ss of flowers held against her heart. A squad of Grand Army men in uniform shamble along. lame from rheumatism. still and lumbering from their long marches in the furrows after their plows, and each one taking a kind of go-as-you-please-only-get-tiiere trot, and behind them- one sailor in uniform, the cynosure of all eyes, steps-proudly on alone, a big, iruirdsome, brawny chestedfellow, with a bronzed, strong face, and still farther back a veteran in a buggy drawn by an old, freckled, lame white .horse sits with his wooden leg, which he • has hewed and whittled out of a stick of wood, resting on the dashboard in front of him, the hero of the dayn_ Thhn comes the long We ofcaTriggcs, buggies, wagons, buckboards, any kind of a vehicle on wheels, drawn by lame, tired plow horses, with heavy collars and pieces trf sherpskin er flannel-tied-under the straps o-f the harness, and invariably wjth a tinj’ flag on their heads. Arrived at the cemetery, all are seated in order, and > the exercises open with a prayer. Everything in the country does begin-with a prayer and closes with a benediction. After the prayer, tho captaiii of theG. A, R. post, in the solemn and impreaive words of the military service, proceeds to command the procession to rc-form and march to the graves.

THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH AS DRUM MAJOR.