On Concord Bridge.
One Memorial Day a most significant happening took place in the wonderful little town of Concord, Mass., famous for its historical associations, and as being the home and final resting place of Hawthorne, Emerson, Thoreau, and the Alcotts.
The event occurred at the great little bridge where
“The embattled farmers stood And fired the shot heard round the world."
The two British killed in that encounter are buried at the beginning of the bridge. On that Memorial Day a party of Britishers from Boston went to Concord to decorate the graves of those two soldiers. As on the famous day of 1775, they were met at the bridge by the Concord Minutemen, but this time not with hostile purpose. The Minutemen, bearing aloft the Stars and Stripes, peacefully escorted the British over the bridge, the latter carrying proudly the banner of their empire. Together, a band of brothers, Americans and Britishers decorated the graves of the two soldiers who died so long ago. No thought of enmity remained, but only a feeling of common ties. It was a noble ceremony, symbol of a glorious fact. It is possible for two nations to fight most bitterly, yet in time forget all hatred, and even almost forget that they ever fought.
It is so between the North and South of our own land. It is so, already, between this country and Spain. If it is not so between this country and Mexico, it is only because conditions there have unjustly fomented hatred of our people and continued suspicion of us.
Will it be so in Europe after the terrible war? Undoubtedly. Not for years will Englishmen and Germans regain their ancient amity. Not for years will Austrian and Italian love one another. Individuals, true Christians, in all these embittered lands have been loving one another even in the midst of the struggle; but many black seeds of hatred have been sown, and will spring up and bear their miserable fruit.
But time erases all things except love. Time has a healing for every wound. The knowledge of the All-Father and of our common brotherhood cannot be lost. The battlefields strewn with awful carnage will yet furnish a site for the capitol of the United States of Europe. All enemies will yet live in the town of Concord, and a Bridge will yet be built over all chasms of bitter memories.