436 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



thought of death does come, with it comes tlie thought of a grate- 

 ful nation that will, with parental care, sustain the loved ones 

 he leaves behind ; thought of the world's applause, a sweet 

 refrain that will herald his soul to the hither shore; thought of 

 song and story that will tell of his heroic deeds in history and on 

 marble shaft. 



While we would not pluck a single leaf from the crown of laurel 

 that the soldier nobly wins, yet it is only fair to contemplate the sur- 

 roundings of the heroes arid the setting of the heroic deeds of the 

 soldiers who fought in the wars of peace and especially in the wars 

 of peaceful conquest — the wars that have for their object the ex- 

 tension of civilization, the enlargement of the realm of civilized op- 

 portunity, of civilized homes and their surroundings of schools, 

 churches, highways, fruits and the other characteristics that dis- 

 tinguish the wilderness from cultivated fields, civilization from 

 barbarism. 



In such wars heroic deeds — and they are myriad in number — are 

 performed after studious contemplation of all they imply in hard- 

 ship, deprivation, danger, uncertainty and possible defeat at the 

 end. There is no pomp and circumstance of the other sort of war- 

 fare to inspire, thrill and excite the soldier in this sort ; there is no 

 affluent commissary for him and his dependents to draw upon ; no 

 well equipped hospital as a refuge if stricken with injury or disease ; 

 no hope of a place for his name in song or story if he falls a victim 

 to his courage and his hopes ; no marble shaft to carry an imperish- 

 able record of his achievements down to distant posterity. Still he 

 struggles bravely, fights manfully and faces disappointment and 

 disaster unflinchingly. And all this he does alone, probably remote 

 from the haunts of man, save the members of his own family, to 

 make a future home of comfort and refinement for them being the 

 only glory he covets. He battles against many foes that no valor, 

 heroism, strength of arm, power of will or cunning of brain can 

 overcome. And he may be confronted by other foes, wild beasts or 

 wilder men, whose attacks can be avoided or repulsed only by the 

 exercise of eternal vigilence, and the skill and courage of successful 

 defense. 



In all of these environments disease and possible, even probable, 

 death confronts him, yet he toils on, struggles on, battles on, hope- 

 ful, smiling, undaunted, though he knows that if he fails in the con- 

 flict there will be no applause of world or nation to accompany him 

 to that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveller re- 

 turns, and that the only music to cheer his tired soul upon its weary 

 way will be the pattering rain of loving tears upon his coffin's roof. 



It is under such circumstances and surroundings that the highest, 

 noblest type of heroism is developed. Doubtless each one of us has 

 known a widowed mother, distracted by grief and in the depths of 

 poverty, take up the gage of battle thrown down by fate and prose- 

 cute to ultimate success a struggle for the support and rearing of 

 her children that the most valiant soldier of historv would have fled 



