LeMars Semi-Weekly Sentinel
May 30, 1916

MEMORIAL DAY EXERCISES
Line of March and Program of the Day

This is the day in which the entire community joins in strewing with flowers
the graves of those who have gone before, and it will be observed in the
usual manner. All services pertaining to the annual observance are held in
the morning. Following is the program for the day:

MEMORIAL DAY PROGRAM
The annual observance of Decoration day will be held in LeMars next Tuesday
and arrangements are being made for a patriotic and suitable program. The
usual parade and ceremonies will take place and honor paid to the memories
of those who fought for freedom and union. J. U. Sammis will deliver the
address of the day. Following is the program:

Promptly at 9:30 a.m. Company K., 2nd Infantry, Iowa National Guard, headed
by the LeMars Military band, will march from the corner of the G.A.R. to the
city building on the corner of Main and Seventh streets, where, under the
Chief Marshal W.S. Freeman and his aides, the column will form in the
following order, moving promptly at 10:00 a.m.

Colors.
LeMars Military Band.
Company K , 2nd Infantry, Iowa National Guard.
Veterans Spanish American War.
LeMars Fire Department.
LeMars Boy Scouts.
Mower Post, G.A.R.
Comrades in automobiles.
Woman’s Relief Corps in automobiles.
Flower committee and children in automobiles.
Speaker of the Day.
City Officers.
Citizens on foot, in carriages and automobiles.

The line of march will be south on Main street to Third, east on Third to
the City cemetery.

IN HONOR OF HEROES
MANY ATTENDANTS AT MEMORIAL SERVICES
TRIBUTE PAID TO SURVIVORS
Speaker Asserts Our Danger Lies Within Our Own Border and Likewise Our
Safety and Dwells on the Kind of Protection Needed

As usual the Memorial Sunday services, which were held at the Congregational
church last Sunday morning, brought out a large crowd to pay tribute in the
memory of our nation’s dead heroes. Seventeen of the twenty-two members of
Mower Post, G.A.R. attended the service and the Woman’s Relief Corps were
represented by a large delegation. Co. K attended the service in uniform
with forty-two men. The church was crowded before the hour announced for
services to begin. The program as printed in this paper last week was
carried out without change. Rev. Jos. Steele, of the Congregational church,
preaching.

Rev. Steele took for his theme “The Righteousness exalteth a nation but Glory
of a Nation” and for his text, “sin is a reproach to any people,” Proverbs
13:34. He said in part:

At one time Napoleon resolved upon universal dominion. He caused all Europe
to quell before his vast army.

The world thought he would surely succeed in carrying out his well laid
plans. His plan was never carried out in full. He went into exile. He became
a prisoner at St. Helena. His death bed was the extinguished crater of a
volcano. The glory of his nation did not last forever. The record of this
great leader has gone down in to history to be read by all nations, showing
that God reigns. It is righteousness that exalteth nations.

The Roman nation stood proud one day as mistress of the world. She could
boast of her vast dominion, her well trained army, her strong men, her city,
the world’s pride, her many beautiful highways, which all led into Rome.
Her ashes and crumbling walls cry out “Pride goeth before destruction, and a
haughty spirit before a fall.”

Are we seeking safety in our great combines and monopolies? Do we put our
trust in vast armies and a might navy, in strong fortifications, big guns,
and other destructive implements of warefare? Monopolies fall, wealth takes
wings and flies away, ships of war, though vast they may be, are being sent
to the bottom of the seas, fortifications that were once thought impregnable
are today being torn to atoms. How long will the world be in learning the
fall and rise of nations. Jehovah said, “Them that honor me I will honor,
and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”

Our greatest danger is not in England, Japan, Germany, nor treacherous
Mexico. Great nations have tried us out. We have never suffered defeat. They
are too wise to attack us now. Our danger lies within our own borders, and
our safety likewise. We trust by the time the nations of Europe are through
with carnal warfare, that all nations will sign a treaty of peace and agree
to throw their munitions of warfare into one common junk heap. That they
will convert their great dreadnaughts into ships of commerce to carry food,
clothing and money to the widows and orphans they have made and missionaries
and Bibles to the heathen, proclaiming the time has come in history when
there shall be no more war.

There is but one kind of internal protection that will stand. We must
continue to improve the mind and soul of our nation’s population. The soul
must be lifted up until in tune with the Divine. When we know God better we
will see all men as brethren.

Improve the home. A nation can be no better than the homes of the nation.
Here are the foundation stones upon which a nation must build or decay.
Better schools where our sons and daughters may obtain high ideals of noble
manhood and womanhood. Better churches where the humble life of the perfect
Nazarene is lifted up.

As soldiers of the Grand Army of the Republic we greet you. You are our
benefactors and deliverers in a large sense. We give you a new welcome from
the fatigue of long marches, the campfires and the awful battles where sweat
and blood ran freely down together. In the fierce battles of The
Wilderness, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg you faced the storm, of shot and
shell. You embraced freedom and planted Old Glory in honor forever in the
land of the free and the home of the brave.

All the honor and bravery cannot be bestowed upon the soldiers who fought
upon the battle fields. The women who remained at home had hard battles to
encounter. They fought to maintain in the family and drive the wolf from the
door, feed and clothe the children, plow the field, plant the seed, and reap
the harvest. Whilst they had no open wounds, yet their hearts bled for dead
and suffering husbands and sons who were at the front.

The Master said, “The greatest among you is he who serves.” You are great
for you served well. You will never be called to another battle field, but
may God grant that when mustered out of the battle of life you can say, “I
have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord
the righteous Judge shall give me at that day.”

Henry Van Dyke of Princeton said, “Happy is he who can say, I am an
American. It shall be joy to him who can say, I am a member of the Kingdom
of God.”

 

~Submitted for posting by volunteer, Linda Ziemann