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WAR SI Col. Griffith's Andres the Annua' News and The annual oration before the South j karolina Division, Hinted Confed erate Veterans, was delivered by Col. H. T. Griffith, of Cherokee. Col. ?Griffith wan introduced by Geo. Car wile and spoke as follows : " 'The years teach much which the days never knew.' So ppake one of the closest thinkers of this country fifty years ago. My comrades, we have come together again, imbued with the lessons of the years. The lurid days of our young manhood knew inuoh, but the years of your prime and of your old age have known infinitely mort, in thc darkness that w?9 lit only by lurid cannon's glare or piercing rifle's flash there were mo mentous secrets hidden, which tho slow years only could reveal. Out of ?the fierce storm of passion, out of the black clouds of despair, out of the glowing furnace of hate and the wild whirlwind of battlo, thc years have ted us slowly along tho highway tf life, while thc skies have smiled above us and the sunlight of peace and hope has again shone upon our pathway, and now the soft, mellow, peaceful light of evening is gathering over earth and sky. "The years have revealed a phenom enon to the nations of the earth not ^witnessed before since the dawn of history-that of a people overpowered in battle, branded as rebels, plunder ed of the possessions acquired by honest toil or inherited from a noble ancestry, taunted with every oppro brious epithet passion could ooiu ur hate could invent, harried and hound ed by the minions of power, their citieB wrecked, their fair lands swept with fire and sword, patriotism and honor, integrity and virtuo trampled in the dust, and the black myrmidons of ignoranco reinforced by hordes of hungry miscreants from foreign lands, that gathered like flocks cf carrion crows scenting their prey from afar, marched over all that was dear and sacred and holy to a high carnival in our State Capital, whero they feasted and fattened for ten long years on the lifo blood of a prostrate but yet heroic people. "The years have taught how a peo ple thus crushed can riso up out of the depths of their poverty, humili ation and an apparent hopelessness, shake off the horrid nightmare, chase the flocks of vultures and harpies back into the darkness, and stand forth in the broad light of heaven, look the whole world in the face and say: 'Our cause was just and right; our principles were those whioh in all ages have fired the patriot's heart and nerved the soldier's arm; we have bap tised them in rivers of preoious blood and they are embalmed and sanctified forever. We will build monuments co onr martyred heroes; wa will keep the graves of our fellow com rodeo bright with the flowers of spring, and cherish their memories as a sacred and holy trust; we will teaoh our children and ? grandchildren that their fathers and grandfathers went to war for prin ciple a that were dear to the heart of mankind, and that for these principles they upheld the Southern Croos through four long years of smoke and flame and blood, and sacrificed all but their sacred honor. " 'And as the story shall be told and retold to the coming generations it shall keep alive the flame of patriot ism, cherish an admiration for deeds ef deathless valor, and causo tho heart of every man worthy of his birthright to swell with pride at the thought that his ancestors were fol* lowers of Lee and Jackson and Hamp ton/ "That is the speech that the surviv ing Veterans and the true sons and daughters of Veterans make to the living world to-day, and the world no longer replies with jeers and taunts and vituperation, but hears with re spectful silenoe or responds with slow aud enforced approval. The ablest historians of the North now are say ing and the ablest professors of his tory in the great Northern universi ties are teaching that the South was "?Jogtlly and constitutionally right in ? thereat struggle, but, as if unwilling - ... fco-abaodon every plea of justification ?of thc course of tho Federal Govern - -ment, they wiggle and shunie and add: 44ut the country had outgrown the - Constitution; the Sou'h had not kept ? np with the progress of the age; she * was enervated by slavery, a dog and a \ hindrance to national development, .- and it was necessary that there should \<fe0*M>ew order of things; the time was ripe and the war had to he.' O, how hard it is to tell an unpalatable truth 1 How . persistently the human mind will cling to an error that soothes and s. avoid a truth ines "stings. Yes, the war had lo be. And so long as good /and evil, right and wrong are antago ' nistio in their natures, so long as the spirit of injustice and oppression, of ORIES. is j\fade at Opening of I Reunion. Courier. arrogance and hatred, of greed and fanaticism, can find men who will re sist and die, if need bc, rather than surrender their manhood and all that they hold dear, just so long will there always be war, and the aggres sor will be the nation that makes war necessary. "Hut one of the cleverest lessons taught in this slow vindication of the South in the judgment of mankind is that truth is mighty and will prevail; that wrong will eooccr or later recoil upon the doer; that might never yet gaiaed a complete victory over right. Well did the poet say, 'Truth crushed to earth will rise again. The eternal years of God are hers!' Ah! how the truth is rising in theso slow-moving years! How tho right, once spurned, re jected, trampled under foot, is lifting its head again and calmly asserting its power! Three millions of soldiers trampled over its grave and lofty pyra mids of money commemorated its death, but the gravo cannot hold tho divine, and money has never yet con secrated and crystallized a wrong. Be hind ti e glare and glitter of our so called national prosperity to day thcro is a dark shadow in tho background; in the track of thc grand maroh of ex pansion and commercialism there are the signs of a gathering HI o rm; amid all the shouts of progress and conquest the prophetic ear can catch the souni of thc moaning tempest and the rumb ling earthquake "I know not whether the storm will burst in its fury, or the earthquakes leap into terrible fire, but I do believe, and the future years will vindicate my bolief, that if this huge national structure of Government shall stand and furnish a permanent home for I freedom on this continent, it will be because its foundations aro laid in the principles for which thc Southern Confederacy fought and fell. These principles arc the only safeguards in this country to-day against tyrannical oppression and despotism. "My comrades, the years in all their tcachiugs have dealt kindly with you and me. Old ago has como on us softly and silently, as ever the shadows of evening crept into thc wake of thc sunbeams. The snowflakes of winter havo fallen on your heads as gently as the caresses that a young mother gives to her first born. But the imponder able snowflakes, by constant falling on the mass beneath, acquire an ac cumulated weight that finally starts the avalanche down tho mountain side, which prostrat es the trees and over whelms the plains. So, however soft have been the touohes of time, how ever light the snowflakes of the win ter, the furrows have deepened, the weight has aooumulated, and we calm ly await the crash of the avalanohe ? that shall hurl us from the mountain peaks of time. Your bodies have bent under the aooumulated weight, but the firea of youth and manhood atill glow in your hearts-hearts that never again ahall be thrilled with the fierce joy of battlo. I shouldn't like t > fool with you to-day if you had guns in your hands, but if I could run like I could forty years ago, when run ning appeared to me to be the best to do, I shouldn't be muoh afraid of you on an/open field, with no obstruc tion in the rear. If you didn't bring me down in the first fire you'd never get me. Tbe long march and the run ning fight, the nimble skirmish line, the bivouao in sleet and snow and thc weary hours on the sentry's post, are all among tbe things that have been, but for you they will be no more. "It is one of the wonders among the revolutions of the years to-day that so many Confederate soldiers aro alive. According to the closest esti mate that can be made from the sta tistics of the camps aud an approxi mation of the numbers outside of the camps there are yet 100,000 left, forty years after the last gun was tired at Appomattox, of tho men who .wore the grey and upheld the Southern Cross through four years of the most gigantic and destructive warfare of modern times. "It is really wonderful and looks like the approving seal of God.. Yet they said the South was effeminate, enervated by slavery, debilitated by luxury and lacking in the physical vigor and endurance so necessary to the soldier. "Two yeera ago when we met at Greenville, I went to the Auditorium early and took a seat near the front, by a gray-haired veteran whom I didn't know. There were only a few little squads that had gathered here and there in the hall, and my com rade and I, not having the pleasure of an acquaintance with each other, sat in silence. But as the hour for the exercises approached other squads began to arrive, and soon there was a Continuous stream of Veterans flowing into tho hal!. They poured io, some on crutches, ??orne limping on wooden pegs, some one-arm -d-a motley host, worn and buttle .scarred, and uniform* cd only with gray hairs aud bald heads. As the procession weot on I noticed that my old comrade became restless and fidgety and more and more excited. He turtled in his seat, looked this way and that and by and by, when the house was filled, gal lery and all, and there was a great sea of wrinkled faces and sleek heads be fore him, he could restrain himself no longer, and be Bprang from his seat and exclaimed: 'By George! There's a good many of us yet!' A gleam of triumph spread over his furrowed brow and thc fires of the sixties glowed for a moment in his faded eyes, and bow the picture reminded me of thc true Confederate soldier.the mao whose festive spirit led him to go in with the chances heavily against him, and, by George, "to come out on top.' In bis youth, no doubt, my old comrade's heart had often leaped with wild triumph over the dangers of battle; now it leaped again to sro so many of his comrades still holding thc ground after a battle with forty years of life. "God forbid that I should speak lightly or irreverently or ungrate fully of that mercy that has sparc, the lives of so many Confederate sol diers. It is a subject for tho pro foundest gratitude and deepest ap j preciation that ever stirred the depth I of the human heart. But there is no I a tinge of irreverence or ingratitud in this spirit that I am trying to illus trate. "It ?B usual on such occasions a this to speak of thc trials and su f?e i inga, the heroic endurance, the mulei: less courage and the lofty patriotic of the Confederate soldier. I want t depart for a few moments from th beaten track and throw a light on tl gentler side of his nature. His e: perience was not all of stern trial, < sutferiog, of danger and sorro\ There were many periods of relaxatic from thc tension of marches and ba tics, and during one of thone pcrioi the typical Confederate soldier Wi ono of tho most happy-go-luoky, devi may-care sort of fellows in the worl He was unique in his whole make-u and there was nobody else ia t world liko him. It was astoundi how quickly and how perfectly learned to take care of himself, hi fastidious he became iu his domes tastes and how resourceful he w under circumstances that appeared shut him out from all resources. Wi his bayonet for a pick and a tin c for a shovel he would effectually trench himself against the enemy 1 fore one hardly knew what ho v doing, and when the enemy opec fire on him ho would lio in his "hoi as he called it, and laugh at I shrieking of shells and the whistli of bullets above him. In camp, during a period of in ti vi ty, his instincts broadened boye the domain of self-preservation, i his thoughts turned to projects t promised conveniences, comforts i luxuries. He usually had >as his o when he went into winter quartern Virginia a "fly tent" or rubber ole a blanket and a United States 01 ooat, all captured from the enc during the previous campaign, also owned a pooket knife, and ncoaaa to a battered pole axe anti army spade. With these impl?me he began a campaign offensive and fensive against the rigors of a ginia winter and usually carno victorious. He dug him out a 1 and commodious basement in ground, smoothed and polished walls until there was neither wrii nor crease to be seen; out out a hi some fireplace in ono end and shi it after the most fashionable mot built a wall two or three feet 1 around the top of the whole per dicularly to tho walls of the I ment with the afore-mentioned axo; extended his chimney from top of the ground with tho same tcrial; ercoted a ridge pole over centre, stretched his "fly" ovei pinning the edges down securely the side walls, and dosing the ? ends with whatsoever his good for had thrown in his way or his shar ed ingenuity oould devise. If ho not been on many long marches i his last battle and thus compel?* abandon a large part of his capt stores it was probable ho had oih enough to close the gable ends o habitation, if not there were i other things that would do. "When this domicile, which bined thc host qualities as both a and a house, had been compl?t?e the owner was pretty well set against the assaults of the w weather, then in his leisure he tt his attention to conveniences and uri es. He was minutely acqua with the topography of the cot for miles around, knew exaotly ^ some hay stack stood which the f wagon had not yet found, and fros or from some hay loft, he prooui soft, dry covering for his ?oor material for a bed that const wooed him to gentle and pei slumbers. Then as he had fe leisure he manufactured arra < sod camp stools, fancy button his sweetheart at home, and vf articles all nut of huge poplars or ' other trees, which he hacked down ant5 hewed into slabs with the indi.^- ! pensable polcase. Ile fashioned these chairs according to hhs own fastidious tastes, bored round holes io them somehow and furnished them with legs, arma and backs that looked like they bad been through a planing ma chine and turning lathe. But per haps it was on briar root pipes that he exemplified the perfections of his tastes and retched the highest achieve ments of bis art. Many of there ' pipes, fashioned and finished with a pocket knife, would have looked well in Von Santsn's bazaar or done honor to a showcaso on Broadway. If he did not smoke himself some favorite officer would probably be compliment ed with thia exquisite production of the pocket knife; otherwise be enjoy ed it hi. i,.elf and seated in bis arm ohair bei'oro a good fire in his quar ters with plenty of tobacco, which the army usually had, he whiffed away the wintry hours; with apparently nothing to disturb bia equanimity or rufHe his serenity, except pernap? the dread of a call to guard or picket duty. "Such was the typical Southon soldier in camp as I kne rt him in 1863 What be was in'battle the world bai ! already beard and tho world will con tinue to hear for ages to oome. Fo though the pen of the historian ma; bo uipped in gall and guided by tb h-nd of prejudice to ditcort, diocolo and suppress the details, there aro ye some stupendous facts that tower liL gigantio pillars of cloud before th gaze of mankind that can never b distorted, discolored nor dissipated The partisan historian may sooth his wounded pride with the barmlec looking euphemism that Modella only changed his base from tho Pi munkey to the James when his io meuse and superbly equipped army wi hurled out of ita formidable intrenol men tn, driven in a confused mass fro the Cbiokabomioy and left huddle and cowering under the protection a fleet of gunboats at Harrison Landing; ho may deny the Oonfe crates defeated two combined armi at Second Manassas; they s*?ept fro the plains of Fredericksburg tl mightiest army yet brought into tl field, and whipped three to one Chancellorsville on ground chos and fortified by their antagonist-! may distortor deny all this and mo in tho same category, but so long thc world gazes upon the stupendo and all-convincing facts that the Fe erais brought into the field 2,679,5 men against an army of lesa than 60 000 Confederates, that> the war o< thc United States ten millions of d lard and nearly one million of hum lives, and that it took this immec host, supported by thia fabulous s\ of money, four years to oru9h the 1 out of the little Southern Confi eraoy-so long as these facts stat and they will stand forever, just long will the brave and generous of nations and of all times oontempli with wonder and admiration I name and fame of the Confeder soldier. . "I have attempted to give you slight pi ct aro of the typical Conf er ate when off duty; there was ano er type wbioh two of onr South poets have embalmed and immoi lised in song, that of the boy soldi Nearly every company had him in ranks, a fair-haired, tenderly-rai boy, often of fewer than sixteen st mers, the pride of his mother and ters, full of tba simple faith and i less ways of childhood, a pet an favorite among the men, enliven 1 the weary march with his chile ! glee and proving a veritable her battle. He was not demanded, hi ly wanted, in the army during first years of the war.' But he n aged to get there in spite of iuspeo offioers and anxious parents. "Young aa the youngest he donned gray, True as the truest that wore lt, Brave as the bravest, he marched a\ (Hot tears on the cheeks of his mc lay,) Triumphant waved our flag one day He fell in the front before it. Ia the Holomn shades of the wood swept The field where his comrades fe bim. They buried him there, and tho'Hdg I crept Into strong men's eyea that bad sel wept, (II 1B mother-God pity her-smiled slept, Dreaming her arms were around hi "But not alway? did he meet su fate. Perhaps I cannot give a bi idea of bia indomitable pluck tha relating an incident thai carao u my own observation. Near .the er the swift nod stealthy rnarch of J ion's corps around Hooker's ara Chancellorsville, there carno a ct.g. man dashing to the rear of MeGov brigade, and the men, always read have fun nt the expense of the c, ry, began to call out: / We're toil have a fight, boya, for tho - caval going to too mri* The eavelrs replied: 'You're right this lim? our 'men ira advancing ca ? right now.' HQ had sc aro ely uti the words when rapid volleys of kctry, followed by a vigorous yell,, raog oat not more than I hundred yards ahead of us. Ott! ? : WMk $M * ? ' ? ? rr.- shouted 'double <juiek' and we I started on a run for the scene of ac- I tion. Justa little afterwards, as our i brigade was coming in the plank road at the 'double quick,' one of those in cidents occurred so frequent in war which strangely mixes the ridiculous and the pathetic with the sublime and the terrible. "Une of these littleSoutheru boys a mere stripling-passed us on his way to the rear. Ho was of slender build, ragged, dirty and bloody. He had a knapsaok strapped to his back big enough for a pack saddle. He oarried an army rifle in hie hsnds of greater length than his body. He also had a large blanket hanging in a roll from one ?boulder and a plump looking haversack from the other. And a cartridge box and a bayonet scabbard buckled to his waist, and you have bim in his complete equipment. He had been in the charge just made aud had been shot in the face or about the head, and he was as bloody as a butch ered hog. As he passed us he called out: 'Oh. boys, they are running, they are running. They've got the shoes, too, and I got a pair!' As he said this he flourished a pair of brand new shoes over his head in an ecstasy of enthusiasm. Our men gave him a rousing cheer as they rushed pa?t him and I could hear the cheer prolonged by the troops behind us. "Unconquerable scrap of a hero! It was only a glimpse that I had of him, but that glimpse was as vivid as light* uing's flash in the darkness of the storm, and his childish faoe, covered with dirt and blood, was pictured OD my memory in colors which the shad ows of forty years have not dimmed. I can only fondly trust that he passed on into life and health and happiness -on to the front in the battle of lift -and that fortune has lavished upot him her ohoioest favors and her sweet est smiles. "Ob, those wild, grand old days o glorious life! Wrapped now in tin shadows of tho yer -o, gone glimmer ing with the gallan ? spirits that mad< them radiant with glory, yet it wer worth many years of these dull plod ding tim is of se!Gah greed and soi did gain to feel once more the hear le?*) to their wild stiiring music an? t J soul swell with their gloriou inspirations. But they are gone foi ever. "I have read somewhere of twelv young men who were dining togethe on the first day of one year, and bein engaged in permanent pursuits, au expecting to spend their lives in th same community, they agreed to 01 ganize themselves into a lifelong sock club, on the condition that they woul never admit a new member, that the should dine at one another's house on the first and the last day of eao year, that when one died eleve should meet, and when two died te should meet, and so on to the enc and f hat the first bottle of wine ut corked at this their first meetin should be recorked and laid away, an the last surviving member on the at niversary of their first meeting shoul sit at the table the usual number ( honrs, and should uncork the bottle t wine and drink to the health of tho? that were gone. "Thirty years passed and two < the number bad fallen. The reniait ing ten met and they drank and talk? of business and politics, of wide plat and bright prospeots for the futur Twenty more years came and went mi only four of them assembled. wi( bowed heads and tottering. step wrapped in great coats and thiok mn flers, and when they took their sea at the table they talked about tl great changes that had Some over tl oountry, and they chirped cheeri over their glasses, though they oou soaroely carry them to their lips more than half fall. They craoki their jokes, though they articul?t their words with difficulty, and bea each other with still greater difficult I They mumbled, they chattered, th* i laughed, and as the wine sent thc icy blood in warmer pulses throuj their shrunken veins they talked their past as if it were but yesterd that had slipped by them, and th? future as if it were a busy century t fore them. "At length came the last dinn< and the solitary survivor, with t snows of fourscore and ten winters his head, ate his solitary meal. T bottle that had been recorked fif years ago stood beside him, and as took the frail memorial memory foi few moments was faithful to her offit She threw open the long vista buried years and his heart travail through them all. Their lnsty it blithesome spring, their bright, ferv summer, their-ripe and temperate i tumo, their chill but not too frot winter. He aaw as in a mirror ht one by one the laughing comp anio of the first dinner had dropped ic eternity, yet, true lo his early vo he uooorked the bottle, and wh tears triokled down the deep forro of his aged face he drank to tho me ?tv oj those Us?t were gone. ** "He bad fulfilled one part of 1 vow ind ho prepared himself to fal the other by sitting the usual numl of hours at bis desolate table. Wi a heavy heart he resigned himself the gloom of his own thought; n lei argie sleep came over him; his he ell upon his bosom; h,e babbled to hiuise.f, and when his servant enter ed, alarmed by a noise he had heard, he found his master stretched upon thc carpet, the vital spark extinct the last dinner over, the last member of the olub passed away forever. "My comrades, that story epito mizes the history and the destiny of the United Confederate Veteran. No new recruits can ever be enlisted in our ranks, and the thin gray line is steadily growing thinner. Every year the furrows are ploughed deeper; every year the snowflakes fall thicker and faster. The battle with the years is drawing to a close and the Confed erate soidior is hastening to the eter nal camping ground, "But the truer life draws nigher Every year, And its morning stars climbs higher Every year; Earth's hold on us grows slighter, And the burden grows lighter, . And the dawn immortal brighter, Every year. "And when the lasii Confederate soldier shall have orossed the silent river a study of his life and oharaoter will set the seal of eternal truth foe all generations on that sentiment for? mutated by the Irish poet: 41 'The sword may piero? the bearer; Stone wails ia time uo?y f~ ? 'Tis heart alone, worth steel and stone. That keeps men free forever.' " - What a good many ohuroh-goers need is a praying machine than will wind itself. tlT.lli..,:.......,-.-1.-11 ." Ll -'1 ..I.,.J1..1. .-.,...^1 AYegetable Prepacationfor As simila ting the Food andBcgufa ting the Stomachs andBowels of If For Infants and Children. The Kind You Have Always Bought lNh.?: IS /( H 11.4)Kt:N Promotes DigesHon.Cheerfur nessandRest.Contains neither Opium>forpliine nor Mineral. NOT "NARC OTIC . fltape afOldnrSAMUn.PiTCinm FKrxfJax Seed-' Jlx.Smntt * jjmm Smrtt <. }Krh?Stsd lit??in^ ?mt riansr. A perfect Remedy for Constipa tion , Sour Stomach,Diarrhoea Worms .Convulsions .Feverish ness and Loss OF SLEEP. 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