prraib Official Organ Of The Slavonic Benevolent Order Of The State Of Texas, Founded 1897. HUMANITY
BENEVOLENCE VOLUME 60 — NO. 6
BR,OTHERHOO D
Postmaster: Please Send Form 3579 with Undeliverable Copies to: SUPREME LODGE SPJST, P.O. Box 100, TEMPLE, TEX. 76501
FEBRUARY 9, 1972
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK cation. A witness descril3ed him as "overtopping by several inches all those surrounding him . . .even more haggard and careworn than usual." Referring to notes that he had scribbled on the train ride from Washington, Lincoln began:
TO ALL LODGE 84, DALLAS, AND DALLAS AREA MEMBERS AND READERS: We wish to apologize to Brother Lada Cerny of Lodge No. 84, who had requested we not mention admission price on last week's Lodge No. 84 ad in the Vestnik. Gremlins got to work and -oops, there it was. We regret any inconvenience it may have caused; we caught it too late. • Many years ago a speech was delivered which echoed around the world. There were no radios or recordings or public address systems — not even copies of the speech handed out to newsmen. Yet, despite the limited means of communication in those days, the speech found its way to alMost every corner of the globe and was hailed by mankind. The speech was made in a cemetery on the barely-cool battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The speaker was the President, Abraham Lincoln. The Gettysburg Address occurred at a critical time in the history of the union of states. They were split into two opposing ideological camps and they were at war. At stake was not only maintenance of the Union but slavery as well. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, issued a few months earlier, had decreed freedom for all slaves in territories under southern
ABRAHAM LINCOLN jurisdiction. Lincoln believed that "no man was good enough to govern another man, without the other's consent." In July of 1863, the Southern Army of the Confederacy advanced north of Washington about a hundred miles. There, in the slightly rolling hills south of the town of Gettysburg, it met the main force of the northern Union Army. Most historians depict the battle as the turning point of the Civil War. The Confederates, suffering enormous losses, retreated to Virginia and many Americans — north erners and southerners — were buried at Gettysburg. The Union Government, a few months later, declared the site a National Cemetery. On November 19, 1863, President Lincoln appeared for the dedi-
"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." He concluded his now-immortal 272 words with these: "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — than for these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." There was no applause. Many had not heard the speech due to wind in the open place and the standing restless audience. Most thought he had not finished and waited for him to continue. Lincoln sat down. He thought that his words had failed. Only when they were printed the next day in the newspaper, picked up and reprinted, did the American people realize the