◆ SpookStack

q eT sere a etintenien a anaes nero a 4 ' beating the long roll, th R. PRESIDENT and Gentléhen of the Rainbow, I thank you for the warmth of your greeting, it moves me AY deeply. It was with you I lived my greatest moments; * it is of you I have my greatest memories. . It was seventeen years ago. Those days of old have van- ished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is a land where flowers“ of wondrous beauty and varied colors spring, watered — by tears and coaxed and caressed into fuller bloom by the smiles of yesterday. Refrains no longer rise and fall from that land that used to be. We listen vainly, what with thirsty ear, . for the witching melody df days that are gone. Ghosts in olive ‘drab and sky blue and German gray pass before our eyes. Voices that have stolen away in the echoes from the battle- fields no more ring out. The faint, far whispers of forgotten songs no longer float through the air. Youth, strength, aspira- ~ . _ tions, struggles, triumphs, despairs, wide winds sweeping, bea- _ cons flashing across uncharted depths, movements, vividness, radiance, shadows; faint bugles sounding reveille, far drums e crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the still white crosses. , And tonight we are met to remember. The shadows are ‘lengthening, the Division's days are multiplying, we are grow- ing old together, but the story which we commemorate helps us to grow old, gracefully. That story is known to.all of you; it needs no profuse panegyrics. It is the story of the American soldier of the World War. a My estimate of him was formed on the battlefield many years ago and has never changed. I regarded him then, as I regard him now, as one of the World’s greatest figures, not only, in the era which witnessed his achievements, but for all eyes and for all time. I-regarded him not only one of the greatest mili- tary figures, but also as one of the most stainless. His name and fame are the birthright of every American citizen. The world’s estimate of him will be founded not upon any one battle or even series of battles. Indeed, it is not upon the greatest fields of combat or the bloodiest that the recollection of future ages are riveted. ° . The vast theaters of Asiatic conflict are already forgotten. The swarming myriads of Timur and Genghis Khan lie in undistinguished graves. Hardly a pilgrim visits the scenes where on the fields of Chalons and Tours the destinies of * civilization and Christendom were fixed by the skill of Aetius and the valor of Charles Martel. The time indeed may come when the memory of the fields of Champagne and’ Picardy, of Verdun, and the Argonne shall be dimmed by the obscurity of revolving years and recollected only as a shadow of ancient | days. But even then the enduring fortitude, the patriotic self- abnegation, and the unsurpassed military genius of the Ameri- can soldier of the World War will stand forth in undimmed luster. In his youth and strength, his love and loyalty, he gave all that mortality can give. He needs no eulogy from me or from any other man. He has written his own history and written it in red on his enemy's breast. But when I think of his patience under adversity, of his courage under fire, mening oe een IRE nn RRA mame,” Melman ESLER Sr eADR ty btn ict Heenan Ne Ae