There's a special Providence that watches over idiots, drunken men, and boys. - Thomas Bailey Aldrich

That was indeed to live—
At one bold swoop to wrest
From darkling death the best
That Death to Life can give!

Books that have become classics—books that have had their day and now get more praise than perusal—always remind me of venerable colonels and majors and captains who, having reached the age limit, find themselves retired on half pay.

Decoration Day is the most beautiful of our national holidays.[…] The grim cannon have turned into palm branches, and the shell and shrapnel into peach blossoms.