Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1870-10-06
THE CENTENNIAL.
ADDRESS OF REV. JAMES DAVE
BUTLER.
Delivered at the Rutland Opera
House, Oct, 9Th, 1870.


years ago, and perhaps on this self-same
day, imperial Rome was celebrating one of
her centenials. The cry of the heralds
was CoaUeRite adj t,sdos spectaados quos
nee spectacle Qutsquam nee Spectat@ru8
est. Assemble yourselves and behold a
spectacle which no one has ever beheld, or
will behold again" The festival lasted
three days, every night was enlivened by
dances, every night and every day was
solemnized by sacrifices. The choral ode
had been composed by the poet Horace,
then at the height of his fame. Its intri-
cacies made Byron, and still make CLASH
cal tyros hate its author, but its patriotic
and exultant strains were equally perspcu-
Gus and welcome to thrice nine youths and
as many maidens, no one Of them bereayed
Of either father or mother, who formed the
choir which rung them out in the Circus
MaXimus. 1t was happy era. Legends
regarding the Trojan origin of Rome had
Just been crystallZed as in mamoth
Kohnoor, in the Aeneid of Virgil. The
city which Augustus had found brick he was
fast Transforming to marble. The temple
of the war god, Janus, was shut for there
remained no foes to conquer worthy Of the
Roman steel. Rome was the only univer-
sal empire the sun ever shone upon, and
hence was greater than all which had gone
before, and all that were to come after her.
She only wore without corrival all its Dig
mites. Such was a centennial in the most
high and palmy state of the Cezars
What is ours to-day7 We celebrate
the arrival Of the first piIgrim-train which
here settled. One centuary ago a dozen
people entered this valley with a view to
make it their home. They brought moth
ing save what they could carry, either on
their own backs or on pack horses. No
farmers OK team had as yet been driven
over the mountain. They had not much of
education or property. Their houses were
of logs, low, narrow, and destitute of furni-
ture. For twenty years the title to their
lands hung in doubt before them. They
were far from markets where they could
sell what they did not want, and buy what
they did. War TO the scalping- knife soon
ragged around them and that for seven
years. Fer forty-nine years there was no
church really in this village. The recruits
who joined the first corners, some of them
out lawed by New YORK, Others deserters
from more than one army,-others leaving
their country for their country's good, or
having lost caste there, remind one OF
David's partzans when ''if any man was
10 distress, or if any man was in debt, or if
any man was discontented," they betook
themselves to his cave in the cliff. More
over during forty years of the nineteenth
century Rutland was notorious as a case of
or 10 hn do
monkeys who were intended for men but
whose creation being begun on Saturday
afternoon was stopped in accordance with
Connecticut Blue Laws, by the coming on
Of the Sabbath, while they were still
Scarce half made up" Hence satirisJ
would say that Rutland was fifty named
after the smallest country IN England, and
one chiefly famous for producing the small
lest specimen of a British dwarf. 1t Is
clear therefore that the pompOuS ceremonial
of this week in honor of the birth of town
so insignificant long after its cradIe-years,
may appear the comedy of Much ado about
Nothing.-llke the sacrifice of an OK on an
altar dedicated to fly. To what purpose
is this waste? Imperial Rome and mfan-
tile Rutland That was to this, Hyperion
10 a Satyr.
Nevertheless, Townsmen, you, like me-
have beheld, with equal wonder and de-
light, the primitive pettiness of Rutland,
after long burial, come forth in better
resurrection and sweled to fair proportion,
thanks to my life long friend, Henry Hall
Mhnutia picked from the worm-holes Of
long-vanished days, and raked from the
dust of old oblivion, struck by his wand,
rejoice like Pompei in newness Of life.
His historical regenerations brought to my
mind the mosaics in St. Peters, IN elabor-
ating which, there was keenness discrimn-
ating multitudinous shades Of color, patti
ence initiating them all in sort of porce
lain types-engenuity ranging them hit by
bit, Til all jagged atoms are fifty joined
together, and a species OF genius sprink
ling curious touches even to the perfection
of a f4ultless picture.
But how has MIR. Hall been able to
discover all things from the very first p?
This is a hard"qgestion, and yet | can an
swer it. Drowning men remember great
deal they had forgotten. Therefore, Mr..
Hall has had all the oldest inhabitants
ducked in Otter Creek, and held under
water till near the drowning point. When
they come TO from strangulation, be sets
by and wrote down their revelations from
first to last. ......
Your pleasure in surveying Mr.. Halls
porlralture Of Rutland prlmeral-perhaps
| ought to say paradisaical--has been un
mixed. But NINE has not. On the other
hand, my thought has been, 9 What shall
the man say that cometh after the Kng2"
Tie truth is, that Mr.. Hall, and he only,
holds the keys TO everything worth know
ing regarding antiquarian Rutland, while
| have long been, not only far from such
keys, but divided by oceans and continents
from the very key holes. Accordingly,
when invited TO speak on this anniversary,
| could not forget a minister who had
agreed to preach on a text sent him in a
sealed envelope, and which he was not to
open until he had stood up for his sermon.
The envelope contained nothing but a
sheet of blank paper. One blank page
betokened my ignorance Of Rutland ar
chives, the other my inability to unroll
them. Concerning that preacher the story
is, that gazing on one blapk page, he ex-
claimed, '~Why, here is nothing !" and
then, turning the sheet over added, "And
Lo! here is notbiogn' But then, bis good
angel coming to his rescue, inspired him
to add, " Nothing Nothing !! Why, out
of nothing God made the world, and so
my subject shall be the Creationr' I can
not boast of such opportune inspirations,
and, in my Western home, striving to vie
with Mr.. Hall in reference to those local
details by which he has made the past re-
live and look us in the face, / should be
dropping buckets into empty wells, and
growing old with drawing nothing up,
while my chronicles of Rutland, through
lack of local coloring, Ewould resemble
that picture of the Israelities crossing the
Red Sea, which was all one dead wall or
barn-door of Spanish brown. When the
artist was asked, "Where are the Chill
dren of Israel z" the answer was, 'sTbey
have all passed over ~ and when the