Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 76, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 May 1903 — MEMORIAL DAY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

MEMORIAL DAY

MEANING OF MEMORIAL DAY. Dc job know what It means, yon boys and Ctrl* Who hall from the North and the Booth 1 Do you know what It means. This twining of greens Bound the silent cannon's month. This strewing with flowers the grass grown This decking with garlands the statues brave. This planting of flags [All in tatters and rags, ■This marching and singing, ■ - " jThsse bells all a-rlnglng, {These faces grave and these faces gay, [This talk of the blue and the talk of the I gray ’■ - Vh the North and the South, Memorial Day* ilfat simply a show time, boys and girls, » Is this flay of failing flowers, . {lot « pageant or play Koc a holiday flf flags and floral bowers; It Is something more than the day that starts. War memories a-throb in veteran hearts; Tw scross the years To the hopes and the fears, To the days of battle, Of roar and rattle. To the past that now seems so far away. To the sons at the blue and the sons of the gray flsst, hand clasping hand. Memorial Day. Ter the wreck and the wrong of it, boys and girls. Ter the terror and loss as well, ©nr hearts must hold ▲ regret untold As we think of those who fell. Bet their blood, on whichever aide they fought, Bonsde the' nation and progress wrought. Wo forget the woe. Tor we live and know That the fighting and sighing. The falling and dying. Were but steps toward the future, the -martyr's way, Adown which the sons of the blue and the gray Look with love and with pride. Memorial Day. —Boston Transcript.