Song--"Keep the Home Fires Burning" "The Gettysburg Address" "In Flanders Fields" Song--"America" or "The Star Spangled Banner" Preparatory to the making and carrying out of a Memorial Day program, the teacher, a group of pupils or some wide-awake member of the community should talk about the sacrifices made by the soldiers of our country during the different wars in which we have been engaged; what great principles they have fought for, and why we should honor their memory in the public schools of our land. Throughout the preparation and the execution of the program there should be a consciousness of the debt we owe to those who have fought and died for freedom's cause. The simplest program prepared in this spirit will be of lasting value to the children of the school and to the members of the community in which the exercises are held. Pupils and teachers should talk over fully the kind of program to be given. Much responsibility should be placed upon the pupils for the making of the program. They should make all "projects" necessary for the carrying out of the program, and should invite all patrons and friends in the community. The exercises should be a service truly commemorating the honored dead of our land. ORIGIN OF MEMORIAL DAY The observance of May 30 as Memorial Day had its official origin in an order issued in 1868 by General John A. Logan, then commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic. General Logan often said afterward that the issuing of that order was the proudest act of his life. The strewing of flowers upon graves is old in some countries. It is said that the first decoration of graves of soldiers of the Civil War was done on April 13, 1862, by two little girls, daughters of a Michigan chaplain. They had been out gathering wild flowers, and, returning, came across a rough, unmarked mound which covered some northern boy. One of the girls said: "Oh, let's put our flowers on this grave! He was a soldier boy." They knelt down and made garlands of flowers on that grave. This grave was in Virginia, not far from Mount Vernon. The next day they interested their family and friends in a plan to decorate all the graves, and the plan was carried out. Each year afterward, in May, they did the same wherever they happened to be. Others saw them and followed their example. The later date of May 30 was chosen by General Logan so that flowers could be had in all the northern states. From decorating the graves of soldiers the custom has extended to the graves of all who have relatives or friends to remember them. In time the soldiers will be forgotten, but the custom of decorating graves with flowers will doubtless continue for many generations to come. The spirit which prompts it is a noble one, which should ever be cherished.