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of the United States of America, and to our glorious flag, under whose folds every union soldier's or sailor's grave is the altar of patriotism.

The salute to the memory of the dead was then made, consisting of three volleys fired over the grave.

Decoration of the graves of all known deceased Soldiers, by Posts, in columns of four, under the charge of the Grand Marshal, was then proceeded with. None that were so known were left unattended to. Many of our citizens who were present, no doubt, remembering with tenderness those loved and lost ones laid away to their final rest, proceeded to decorate the graves throughout the grounds. It seemed that each actor in this scene was thinking of the injunction of some departed one like that expressed in the old song:

"One little wish, darling, grant me:
See that my grave is kept green."

When the formal ceremonies in Lone Fir cemetery were concluded, the Emmet Guard, City Rifles and a detachment of the G. A. R., passed into the Catholic cemetery, near by, and proceeded to decorate the graves there.

There was estimated to be over 6000 people present on the grounds during the afternoon, and the ferryboats were kept busy transferring the crowds back and forth across the river. .About 6 o'clock P. M. the procession returned and disbanded, while at the same time the excursion steamers and barges from Vancouver discharged their living freight upon our streets, giving the city an enlivening appearance.

Evening Exercises.

At about 8 o'clock the comrades assembled and took up the line of march to New Market Theatre, where the closing ceremonies of Decoration Day were held. The public turned out en masse and the building was filled to its utmost capacity. The stage and auditorium were handsomely and appropriately decorated with flags and shields and festooned with evergreens. In the center was a flowerdecked monument, while the scene at the rear represented a cemetery with a bust of Lincoln in the foreground. The stage was occupied by members of George Wright, Garfield, Stonemen and Meade Posts of the Grand Army. The decoration of the theatre was under charge of Comrade R. C. White, whose opinion and taste in matters of decoration and art are always considered an fait.

The exercises opened with the rendition of a requiem hymn by the band, after which came the ritual opening of the Grand Army of the Republic, as follows:

Commander Sears: Friends—As Commander of this Post I welcome you in the name of my comrades to this public service. To us Decoration Day is the memorial day of stalwart bravery, of patriotic heroism, of national faith. It is the freedom day of a race emancipated from bondage and a nation redeemed from iniquity. It is clear to every soldier. It deepens in our hearts a memqry of our brave and our beloved—the grand army of the immortals; and that memory makes precious to us the badge of the G. A. R., which we wear on our breasts. May we join so reverently in these exercises that what we call decoration day may be to our dead their day of coronation.

Adjutant, for what purpose is this meeting called?

Adjutant Caukin—To pay our tribute of respect to the memory of our late comrades.

Com.—Have you a record of their services in the cause of our country, and in the Grand Army of the Republic?

Adj.—Commander, I have. ,

Com.—You will read it.

Adjutant then read the Roll of Honor, as follows:

1. T. J. Sloan, Col. 124th Illinois Vol.

2. H. A. Bodman, Surgeon U. S. Navy.

3. J. W. Clayton, 1st Serg. Ohio Vol.

4. J. A.English, Private 17th Penn. Cav.

5. H. Smalden, Private 23d U. S. Inf.

6. C. E. Jackins, Private 11l. Vol.

7. Thomas Chapman, 1st U. S. Cavalry.

8. Charles Haunstein, U. S. Navy.

9. D.F.Smith, Capt. 9th U. S. Cavalry.

10. C. F. Meserve, 1st Bat. Col. Vol.

11. Oliver Hatch, Priv. 1st Ogn. Vol. Inf.

12. J. M. Mack, Surgeon Illinois Vol.

13. E.M.Bradley, Corporal 17th Pa, Inf.

14. T. W. Green, 4th Ohio Cavalry.

15. Charles Krouts, Private Illinois Vol.

16. John Grade, Serg. 9th U. S. Inf.

17. W. F.Cougill, —Illinois Volunteers.

18. M. E. Biglow, Lieut. Col. Mass. Vol.

19 J W. Barker

2o! Wm. T. Campbell, —. 3d Iowa Cav.

21. T. Coleman Brown, Chicago Board of Trade Battery.

22. Dan Girard,

23. James Ford, Nevada Volunteers.

24. Henry Strose, U. S. Infantry.

25. Fred. W. Godard, Ohio Volunteers.

26. Henry Walton, 1st Lieut. 34th Iowa (Mt. Tabor).

27. P.S.Williams, 1st Serg. W. T. Inf. (St. Mary's).

28. Brian Brady, Private 4th N. Y. Cav. (St. Mary's).

29. Pat'kDaly, Batty. C, 3d U.S.Artillery (St.Mary's).

30. Barnard McCabe, Mass. Volunteers (St.Mary's).

31. Grant Fagen (St. Marv's).

32. Mike Malone,— 4th N. Y. Cav. (St. Mary's).

As the names were read, three rolls were beat upon a muffled drum by Comrade Thos. A. Linn.

Com.—The record is an honorable one; and as the memory of all faithful soldiers of the Republic should be cherished and their record preserved, I direct that it be placed among our archives for future reference.

Chaplain A(ton-^" What man is that liveth and s-hall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? If man die shall he live again 1"

Comrades—Jesus Christ said, "I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth in Me shall never die."

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Chaplain—" Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe

also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions. I go to prepare a

place for you."

Comrades—" Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Yea, saith the

Spirit, that they may rest from their labors."

Chaplain—"They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more."
Comrades—" Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat."
Chaplain—" For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne,shall feed

them and lead them unto living fountains of water."

Comrades—"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes."
Chaplain—" There shall be no more death; neither sorrow nor crying;

neither shall there be any more pain."

Comrades—" For the former things have passed away."

The comrades then formed a square around the altar and prayer was offered by the Chaplain, Rev. J. H. Acton, closing with the Lord's prayer in concert, after which the comrades returned to their seats.

The following was then announced as the programme for the evening:

Music, Quartette Club; Oration, Hon. H. Y. Thompson; Music, "Auld Lang Syne," Band; Recitation, "Our Army of the Dead," Misses Katie Pierce, Laura Watkins, Josie Buchanan, Cora Braden, Mary Morse, Lavina Jones; Poem, "In Memoriam," Comrade R. C. White; Music, Quartette Club; Recitation, "The Drummer Boy of Mission Ridge," Miss Belle Castleman; Music, "America," Comrades all.

Hon. H. Y. Thompson was then introduced as the orator of the evening, who delivered the following oration:

Commander, officers and members of the G. A. R., Ladies and Gentlemen: "The sorrow for the dead is the only sorrow from whicn we refuse to be divorced. Every other wound we seek to heal, every other affliction to forget, but this wound we consider it a duty to keep open; this affliction we brood over in solitude. Where is the mother who would willingly forget the infant that perished like a blossom from her arms, though every recollection is a pang? Where is the child that would willingly forget the most tender of parents, though to remember be but to lament? Who, even in the hour of agony, would forget the friend over whom he mourns? Who, even when the tomb is closing upon the remains of her he most loved, when he feels •his heart, as it were, crushed in the closing of its portal, would accept of consolation that must be bought by forgetfulness? No, the love which survives the tomb is one of the noblest attributes of the soul. If it has its woes, it has likewise its delights, and when the overwhelming burst of grief is calmed into the.gentle tear of recollection; when the sudden anguish and the convulsive agony over the present ruins of all that we most loved is softened away into pensive meditation on all that it was in the days of its loveliness—who would root out such a sorrow from the heart? Though it may sometimes throw a passing cloud over the bright hour of gayety, or spread a deeper sadness over the hour of gloom, yet who would exchange it even for the song of pleasure or the burst of revelry? No; there is a voice from the tomb sweeter than song. There is a remembrance of the dead to which we turn, even from the charms of the living. Oh, the grave! the grave! It buries every eijror, covers every defect, extinguishes every resentment. From its peaceful bosom spring none but fond regrets and tender recollections. Who can look down upon the grave, even of an enemy, and not feel a compunctious throb that he should have ever warred with the poor handful of earth that lies mouldering before him?

Such were the reflections of one who in early life had witnessed the delicate and beautiful rite of strewing the beauties of nature about the graves of loved and honored ones in other countries, long before the desolating hand of war had brought tears and mourning to our homes, and honor and death to the 300,000 whose deeds we this day commemorate. Indeed, for a time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary it hath been the custom to

"Bring flowers, pale flowers, o'er the grave to shed,

"A crown for the brows of the soldiers dead;

"For this through the leaves hath the white rose burst:

"For this, in the woods was the violet nursed.

"Though they sigh in vain lor what ouce was ours.

"They are love's last gift—bring flowers—bring flowers."

It was appointed by the laws of Athens that the obsequies of the citizens who fell in battle should be performed at the public expense, and in the most honorable manner. Their bones were carefully gathered from the funeral pyre, on which their bodies had been burned, and brought home to the city. There they lay in state for three days under tents of honor, to receive the votive offerings of relatives, friends and surviving comrades— painted vases, weapons, precious ornaments and flowers—the last tributes of surviving affection. Ten coffins of funeral cypress received the honorable and honored remains, one for each of the tribes of the city, and an eleventh was provided that they might do honor to and hold in remembrance the unknown dead, and there in the most beautiful suburb of Athens, adorned by Cimon, with walks and fountains, and columns; whose graves were interspersed by altars and shrines and temples, and whose gardens were kept ever green by streams over whose rippling waters waved the branches of treessacred to Minerva; whose pathways gleamed witli the monuments of the illustrious dead. There beneath the over-arching plane treesjt was ordained that a funeral oration should be pronounced by some citizen of the republic in the presence of the assembled multitude. Such were the honors which the laws of Athens required to be paid to the memory of those who fell in theii country's cause. How much more sublime is the spectacle of a great nation making its annual voluntary acknowledgement of its gratitude to the living and its remembrance of the dead soldiers of the republic.

The late tremendous war was the natural penalty of a great national crime. It is not possible to violate any of nature's laws, physical or social, without suffering the resentment of her majesty. The time for the great conflict between freedom and slavery, light and darkness, had come. The awful encounter had been ordained by the majestic cabinet of events, and the wisdom and justice of God did not choose to disturb the natural order of things. In the course of its rapid advancement, our country had arrived at that point where a wicked and shameful barbarity must be given up to extirpation, and so eagerly did selfishness and avarice cling to it, that it had to be wrested away by the mailed and bloody hand of war. Then all divisions ceased, all loyal lips were outspoken, all loyal hands were active, all loyal hearts feared, yet hoped and prayed for the end to come. Then was heard throughout all the land the tramp, tramp, tramp of the soldiers, who were ready to do and to dare, and, if need be, to die. We sent them forth with our benedictions and promises of everlasting remembrance. We cheered them with the assurance that every scar they received should be a badtre of honorable distinction ; that if disabled they .should be made comfortable by a grateful country's bounty; that the names of the battle fields upon which they should fight should be associated with their own; that on our gala days and national festivals, they should be honored guests. And we promised that if they should fall in the service they should not be forgotten ; that places stained with loyal blood, and graves of fallen braves should be the shrines of patriotic pilgrimage. Under the inspiration of truth and justice those heroic men went forth to do battle for liberty and to die for free'dom and country. But what an awful libation of the warm young blood of our republic! What vast heckatombs of heroic manhood and hopeful youth were piled round the smoking and sanguinary altar! How the hotin-e ravens flew in swift circles over the harvest field of death! What woful lamentation in the homes of the people from the Saco to the Santee, from the historic landing of Plymouth to the lonely solitudes of Cape Disappointment.

But the end came. Our silent cities were peopled with the nation's dead. The overwhelming outburst of grief has at last been calmed into the gentle tear of recollection, and with sorrowful though grateful he iris, we gather about the graves of those we loved, and in contemplating their lives and character, gather hope and courage and wisdom for the conflict yet to come.

While we thus hold in grateful remembrance those who fell in arms, we cherish also the memory of those who survived the actual conflict. They too, are passing away and each recurring Decoration Day flowers are brought, to the graves of members of the Grand Army of the Republic, who themselves delighted to participate in these hallowed exercises. It was upon an occasion like this that your fallen comrade, the gre.it, the good, the immortal James A. Garfield said: "Could a hand bear our banner in battle and not be forever consecrated to honor and virtue? But doubly consecrated were these who received into their own hearts the fatal shafts aimed at the life of their country! Fortunate men! Your country lives because you died I Your fame is placed where the breath of calumny can never reach it! where the mistakes of a weary life can never dim its brightness! Coming generations will rise up to call you blessed."

James A. Garfield! how bravely he lived; how memorably he died, and how imperishable is the luster of his name. The signal of his departure was carried by swift couriers around the circumference of the globe,and when the eternal gates were lifted up the friends of humanity everywhere united in one sublime and universal benediction. I doubt not that James A. Garfield was conducted through the portal of the gates of the "City of Light" by a comrade detailed by the great commander of the universe to bid him welcome, one who had been purified by fire, baptised in blood and called to heaven through the agency of an assassin—Abraham Lincoln—another of the world's immortals who have reached heaven through martyrdom, and who have mounted from the toils and cares of a lowly life to the ramparts of an eternal fame. Let Garfield lie as he fell, like the sturdy northern pine cast down by an evil wind in the midsummer of its pride and glory; let him live in history as the representative of his age and people, without one ficticious adornment of the sculptor, the painter or the historian. His deeds of patriotism and humanity are hissublimest monument, which shall remain white and beautiful when marble itself shall be wasting under the mosses of time. Beside it, freedom will keep guard perpetually with battered helmet and crimson ax, and under its shadow as often as the orbit of the year shall have been completed the Genius of Liberty shall weep like a tearful Xiobe until the fleeting angel shall have sounded the reveille of the great, the good and the just. As often as Decoration Day shall return, after the relenting months of winter, or the birthday of our nation shall come with the fervid sun of July, let each soldier and each citizen, like the pious Moslem, turn toward the holy shrines of Springfield and Mt. Vernon and Lake View, saying, "God is Great!" Washington! Lincoln! Garfield!

"They are Freedom's now, and Fame's,
Theirs of the few. the immortal names.
That were not born to die."

There is not time now to eulogize the character and draw lessons from the lives ofBurnside and Hurlbut or to even call your attention to names of those who have been called to the unknown country during the last year, but all around are graves bearing to-day their first floral decorations,whose occupants have come from the army, the navy, from high stations in social and political circles and from the lowly walks of private life. They lived to enjoy some of the blessings of liberty and union which they helped to preserve. They lived to sec peace restored and mighty armies of heroic soldiers resolved into peaceful citizens. They witnessed the reorganization of the great republic, and saw the disappearance of the bitter feelings which made a civil war possible in the LTnited States.

"In the spring of 1863 two great armies were encamped on either side of the Rappahannock, one dressed in blue the other in gray. As twilight fell upon the plain, the regimental bands upon the union side began to play "The

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