Newspaper Page Text
&he SUNNY SOUTH OFFERS $250 IN
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VOLUME XL
Atlanta, Ga., Week Ending April 26, 1902
NUMBER EIGHT
Lost (&L
By Frank L
tHe Victory Won
Stanton
Spring, with her banners gold and green,
With her splendid suns and her stars serene,
Smiles in the peace that comes after the fray;
And under the arch of the April skies
The starry tlag of the Union flies,
Comrades! over your breasts to-day.
Forward! March! to the roll of the drum
The loyal sons of the Southland come!
Not to the battle!—the cannon’s roar
Is heard in the forests and fields no more;
The sweetest roses in all the South,
Blossoming up from the stainless sod,
With incense sweet as they smile to God,
Have sealed with silence its iron mouth.
Your guns are stacked and your swords are sheathed,
And your brows with the laurels of Peace are wreathed.
Here are they lying, the ones that shed
Their blood for the South till her vales ran red.
And her rivers blushed with the crimson tide!
Honor them! Over their graves the years
Have scattered their roses and showered their tears
And Southern women have knelt and sighed.
Honor them! Honor was theirs, and fame
Enshrines in glory each deathless name.
The flag that they bore to the fight is furled,
Hidden avr^y from the new-made world,
And ;fai!ed in the dust are its crimson bars;
The beautiful tlag! and they loved it so,
But that is now in the long-ago,
When the heavens were beaming with hopeful stars
Yet rare is the garland that o’er them waves—
Whose crimson shadow falls on their graves.
And Peace, like a beautiful angel, broods
O’er the fertile fields and the solitudes
Of a land made bright by the smile of God;
And—dearest blessing of all—to-day,
The foes who fought in the far-away,
Are re-united on this dear sod,
Which blossoms over the slain of war—
Friends! was it love we were fighting for?
Oh, love is ours. Though the fight was sore,
It is ended now—we are friends once more!
Once more—thank God!—we can proudly stand,
And looking back on the bloody past,
Say: “It is over at last—at last!”
With heart to heart and with hand to hand,
Over—and here, in the sight of heaven,
We do forgive, as we are forgiven.
And thus forgiven, brave hearts and true,
The boys in gray and the boys in blue—
Your higher mission at last is done.
And though o’er the graves of our dead we weep,
We can trust them all to the tender keep
Of the God who guides us and makes us one!
One in the union which shall not cease
Till the flags are furled in the Port of Peace.
It is after the battle; what sounds are here?
The songs of birds on the scented air;
The murmurous sigh of the inland gales;
The voice of the rivers that dashing free,
Move in melody out to sea
By murmurous meadows and violet vales;
Where once, in the strife and the passion and the pain,
Rose the shout of the victor, and the cry of the slain.
It is after the battle; the fight is done;
The victory lost and the victory won!
And ye, who fought for the South and shed
Your blood on the battle fields, come today,
Where your comrades sleep, in their coats of gray,
Under the grasses that hide your dead!
Halt! there are heroes that slumber here,
And ye are such for the wounds ye bear!
Beat, ye drums, with no muffled sound!
Let the bugles echo the camps around!
And still three cheers for the boys in gray!
For whether they lived, or whether they died,
The South by their valor is glorified
And rich in her record of love to-day!
Sons of the South! there’s a victory sweet
That comes to the brave in the ranks of defeat!
Photo by
Moore <fc Stevenson.
THE THINNING COLUMNS
OF SOUTHERN VETS
GATHER AGAIN
By J. C. McMealus.
NEXT PLACE OF MEETING:
New Orleans.
OFFICERS ELECTED:
General John B. Gordon, com
mander in chief.
General Stephen D. Lee, com
mander of the Army of Tennes
see department.
General. W. L. (“Old Tige”)
Cabell, commander of the Army
of the Trans-Mississippi depart
ment.
General C. I. Walker, com
mander of tin? Army of Northern
Virginia department.
ALUS. Tex.. April 25.—The
twelfth annual reunion of
the United Confederate
Veterans, which opened in
MMWS this city" on April 21. closed
< /U\ last night. In reunion his-
tory i..e Dallas meeting
will be known as “Albert
IhH f Sidney Johnston Cantor.-
ment, Dallas, Tex., 1902."
I lip The stereotyped phrase.
I 1 “greatest ever held,” can-
not be barred, from the
fact of over-use or by
• pleading the statute of limitation. The
truth should never be barred; and a
strict regard for the truth compels the
re-use of the old. time-honored, wrinkled
and seedy reportorial staple, "greatest
ever held.” More southern men, more
southern womon and more southern young
folks were visitors to Albert Sidney
Johnston Cantonment than ever went t:>
any other confederate reunion since the
disbandment of the armies of the south.
And more veterans who followed the for
tunes of the Stars and Bars during the
four years and more of bloody war were
present at this reunion than at any pre
vious one.
The fast-disappearing human relics of
the “Land of the Wreck and the Tomb,”
grizzled and time-worn, mustered in Dal
las in larger numbers than had been
counted at Richmond, New Orleans, Mem
phis or elsewhere.
When the war closed in 1S65, Texas at
once became a haven of refuge for tl\-u-
sands upon thousands of the heroes of
the south who had risked and lost all
save life and honor in the grand struggle
for state sovereignty. Reliable statistics
to se*o loved ones who left them a gen
eration ago or at later times; the new
generation, born since Appomattox, took
its place In history, wished to see Undo
Billy and Aunt Sarah, or big brother
John or other dear ones.
The low railroad rate of 1 cent per mile
was procured largely for their conve
nience by the Dallas promoters of the
reunion, and it drew the visitors in multi
tudes.
Then, again, there is good reason for
believing that at this time close to one-
fhird of all the survivors of the con
federate armies are permanent residents
of Texas. The cheap rate within the
limits of the state made it possible for
many thousands more of these veterans
to journey to Dallas than had ever be
fore found it possible to go the longer
distances at h'gher rates of fare to the
reunions held in other states.
And they all longed to see once again
their old comrades of the days militant
before age and attendant feebleness and
poverty shall make it impossible for most
of them to answer at reunion roll calls.
It is not exaggeration to estimate that
during the last eight days the railroads
centering at Dallas hauled in and hauled
out a total of 100,000 reunion passengers.
One week from the day set for the open-
Contlnaett on sixth page
lyilSS LUCY LEE HILL, who was the sponsor-in-chief at the confederate
‘veterans’ reunion at Dallas, Texas, is one of the handsomest women of this
country. Her home at present is in Chicago. Her mother was a sister to the
confederate raider, John H. Morgan, and her. father the noted confederate gen
eral A. P. Hill. She was born during the war inside the confederate lines and
was a ]# ay mate. and friend of Winnie Davis, daughter of the confederate leader,
Jefferson Davis. Miss Hill is much admired and widely known among' con
federate soldiers.
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