Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1871-04-12
Christening a New Town.

Groton Junction, Mass, having out
grown their village bounds and become
a town, petitioned the Legislature of
the State, and the village of Groton
Junction became the town Of AVER,
named after DR.. j. G. Aver, name fa-
miliar with every household in the
country. Not long since the people of
Aver gathered en- n1asse to celebrate
the important event, and the new town
was christened amid general rejoicing.
Upon the occasion DIR. Aver was pres
ent, as well as many distinguished
gentlemen of the State; and when. the
Doctor was introduced, he responded
as follows:
Ladies and Gentlemen:
On the western coast of Scotland where it
slopes into the Irish Sea- a river, rising on the
mountains Ct the inner land, winds down
among the hills and empties into the Firth of
Glide. From remote time it has been called
Ayrfrom an old Scotch word "Ayry, meaning
an eagles nest-the river of the eagles nest.
Near it's mouth and contiguous harbor, long
stood hamlet which became royal burg or
town named from the river, and now about
one-third as large as Lowell-the city of Ayr.
For more than a thousand years it has been
noted in the history of Scotland During the
wars of Robert Bruce it was one of his re-
sorts, and was especially favored by him be-
cause he was there cured of leprosy. Oliver
Cromwell made it one of the depots and head
quarters of his army in his attack upon Scot
land, and one of his old forts is now the eta
del of Ayr.
But above all its distinctions, Ayr was the
birthplace of the poet Burns. And what a
poet. What a voice has he given to all the en-
dearments of home! How has he hallowed the
cottage and all it covers-weans and wife,
patches and poverty, beans, barley, ale hard
ship and the poor mans toll. How he wraps
with tenderness whatever he names, even his
bleak leagues of PASTURE the stubble field, ice,
snow, sleet, and rain, brooks, BIRDS mice, this
ties and heather. His Bonny Doom, John An
derson, my 10 John, Aud Lang Syne, and High
land Mary roll round the world in ever ringing
symphony with what is purest and bost in hui
man nature. His songs WOO and melt the
hearts of youth and maidens, bring solace to
the sorrowlng and courage to the overburden-
ed by their lot. His inspiration has set the
affections to music in strains that are i'm
mortal
No other one man ever made language
classic, but he has rendered that lowland
Scotch q Doric dialect of fame. The name of
his home and his beloved river Ayr was lifted
on the wings of his pathos, and now the ap-
preaching traveller yearns to reach the spot his
genius has sanctifed.
Along the borders of the sea in parallelo-
gram and surrounding the town is county of
the same name-Ayrshire
1t would weary your patience to hear the
history of my ancestors from one ancient John
of Ayr, then John Ayr, down through the CEN
turtles to this Aver now before you through
their vicissitudes of poverty and plenty-of
fortune and misfortune how they have inter-
married with England, Ireland and Scotland,
and later with the Americans, who are an ex-
cellent mixture of them all.
ff7T L,.,raa 10 oolo L. r
inherited for your town with an extraordinary
unanlmlty, and have thereby conferred an
honor upon me, the proper acknowledgment
of which L do not feel fully able to express.
But l beg you to be assured that it is appreci-
ated and that it will be gratefully remembered
with living interest in your prosperity while
life remains to me, and, | trust, beyond that
by my children after me
Ii this name has become noted among the
many that are worthier around you that is
greatly due to its publicity. May be permit
ted to state whence that came? Until within a
few centuries all the civilized nations of the
globe were pent upon the Eastern continent.
Two or three hundred years ago they leaked
over in this; few and fearfully at first, then
more and more, but always in their settlements
! timidiy hugging the Atlantic coast Within the
last two or three generations, they have burst
out as 1t were, and overrun these vast CONT
nents OF the west Now they are scattered
here and possess these measureless stretches of
mountains and valleys, hills, plains, forests and
pralT1es with the boundless pampas and noun
tam ranges OF South America. Former gener-
atoms lived in villages and towns, thickly set
uedtogether, where physicians we're plenty and
near at hand. Now, the people are widely
scattered IN many sections of these many
countries. For great numbers the timely
treatment of physicians cannot be had over
large tracts of country good or competent ply
s1clans cannot be had at all. They cannot visit
patients enough many miles apart to live by
their profession, nor can they carry medicines
enough with them on horseback for their re-
quirements.
Hence has arisen in these modern times a
necessity for remedies ready at hand, with di-
rections for their use-a present recourse for
relief in the exigencies of sickness, when no
other aid is near. It is new necessty conse-
quent upon the changed conditions of human
hfe-a want | have spent my years in supply
ing, and viii tell you something of its extent.
Our laboratory makes every day some CSC, 900
potons or doses of our preparations. These
are all taken by somebody. Here is number
equal to the population of fifteen cities as
large as Lowell, taking them every day (for
sickness keeps no Sc bhaths) nor for once only
but again and again year after year, through
nearly one-thlrd of century We all Join in
the jokes about medicines as we do about the
Doctors mission to kill, the clergyman's in
sincerity and the lawyers cheating. Yet each
" eAiVSO IobOlo U1lS IuOSt S6TlUtS ISdll-
ties OF life. Sickness and it's attendant suf-
ferlng are no joke, neither is the treatment
of them. This system of transportable
relief, to be made available to the peo-
pie, must keep its remedies fresh in their MEM
cries. This is done by advertising. Mark it's
extent. An advertisement, taking the run of
the newspapers with which we contract (some
1900 annually is struck off in such numbers
that when piled upon each other fatwise, like
the leaves of book, the thickness through
them is sixteen miles. In addition, it takes
some seven millions of pamphlets and twelve
millions of circulars to meet the public de-
mand for this kind of information. Our an
nual issue of pamphlets alone, laid upon each
other, make pile eight and one quarter miles
high. The circulars measured endwise reach
1894 miles, and these assertions are matters of
mathematical certainty. Whatever the estim a.
ton IN which these publications may be held
here, they reach the firesides of millions upon
millions of men VINO do cherish and regard
them, and who in their trials do heed the coun-
sci they bring.
Not only over these great Western continents
but throughout that other land 80 little known
to you, under our feet, the Australian continent
there are few villages as large as this which
arenot familiar with the name you have chosen,
and employing the remedies that bear it.
Thus, gentlemen, have striven in my hum
bic sphere to render some service to my fellow
men, and to deserve among the afflicted and I'M
fortunate some regard for the name which your
kind Partially hangs on these walls around me-
We may look forward with confident hope to
the renown you will gather under it, and the
prosperity, which there is reason to trust the
future has in store for you. Situated as you
are here on one of the main arteries between
the west and east, between the great industries
of the plough and the spindle you must aid in
their exchanges, and thrive with them. Soon
these channels will be opened wide and pour
ing through your precincts streams of men
and merchandise that need your furtherance,
and must contribute to your growth.
Located here in the centre of New England
to what dearer spot can you turn that men in
habit Beginning life rich with tho honors
of your mother town whose influence through
her schools and her scholars is of itself an in
heritance, with such examples as Lawrence,
Boutwell,, Hoar, what may you not hope for
of usefulness in the councils of the State and
nation
Contrast our condition with that of the Eu-
ropean nations, alternately torn and impoyer-
ished with wars, credit it as you may to the
better education Of the people, and you will
realize the value of the example old mother
Groton has set you, worthy of your ambi-
ton to follow Build schools for voI1r n hi 1dren