The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1871-08-03

marks, Mr.. Nelson Bierce Of Dayton, was
called upon, who came forward and made
a few happy and appropriate remarks. He
referred feehngly to the happy remem-
ORANGES of other days within these walls
of SO few familiar faces of school-mates
said they were widely separated as letters
from Kansas, Missouri, Cleveland, Mans
field, &C., read tonight, have told. He
had come 200 miles to be present at this
reunion that he would always remem-
Der Canton and its High School; said he
agreed with Mr.. Cuneo in all he said in
praise Of our admirable free school system.
Next in order was a very creditable adj
dress to old school-mates, by Miss Willet.
The Chair then announced Mr.. A. M.
Blake for q speech. Mr.. Blake came for
ward and eloquently and feelingly spoke
as follows:
LADIES AND GENrLEMEH-Ia am delighted to see so
many present upon this occasion, and happy to
know that the records of the scholars of this
pare favorably with those OF any educational in;
stitution in the country. True we have discovered
life to be intensely practical. Our dreams of am
bition-our school-boy palaces of glass and gold
have disappeared like dew before the morning
sun. Since leaving here some of US have been
terrible sufferers; but suffering purihes and leads
us to the contemplation of a happy hereafter, a
something better beyond, causes us to more
clearly perceive the relations ofgood and evil, and
look to the preservation of that personal and com
mercial integrity that makes the man. Those
outlying planets and grander solar systems
which lay beyond ours we're placed there by the
Creator as parts in the principal of progression
where man is transferred after death. This Is
only the beginning of our education that never
ends-connecting links betwixt time and eternity.
wish | possessed the abilityto deIiyera proper
eTdogy en- this free school system that confers the
blessing of education upon all, rich and poor
alike, regardless of party, sect or denomination.
trace the material and intellectual prosperity of
this country. 1t was the graduates and students
this government should not be overturned; a
government founded upon the enlightenment
ernment which the friends of reason and phiios-
ophy have looked upon as the cradle Of their
hopes. The fact is, the Americans have become
an inspired people they have steadily advanced
until they have won an honorable recognition
from rival countries, and her sons and daughters
are imbued with the religious, moral and pre-
gressive spirit of the age. Armed with their pat
ent from nature born to the majesty of n fear
less heart, with the certainty of achievement by
perseverance,, the American pursues his straight
forward course to wealth and honor. Almost
States are organized by an indisputabIe sover-
eighty. Labor, instead of being a disgrace, is !
e~ulogised and crowned. If we progress az we
have been doing for the last two hundred wears
there will be settled upon this vast continent n |
population greater than that of ali Enrona cnml
posed of intelligent, industrious, calculating men
who will be ashamed to be either idle or ignorant
Liberty, knowledge and industry will raise soci-
ETY. in the progressive order decreed by the Gre
ator, for each nation fulills its allotted destiny
according to an al-preyailing superior power. 4
N1AA " E+C1ANe "a NJ III " NGANAElGE. GleEa- |
ting the condition and augmenting the strength
of mon.
of its civilization, and is entering upon another.
American politics, literature and social relations |
are destined to pass rapidly into a new phase un- |
der the powerful stimulus of new circumstances, |
wants and passions. We hope that public CUES |
tohs VIII pc discussed from higher points of
view and with a larger horizon of thought. Phi. I
loSophy, morals, and even amusements will mar
take In the common revolution, and the fresh en-
ergieS and keener interest which will be carried
into the higher departments of thought will give
to the productions of American genius q richness |
and originality which they have never yet attain
ed.
The essential aira of the scholar is to assist in
this elevatiOn-to teach nations that solid pros
perity springs from peaceful industry, and to per
suade them to submit all their controversies to |
the determination of argument negotiation and
the pen. This object is fast being accomplished. |
Scholars have set their honorable seal on the |
features of the age, and polished il witt an intel.
lectual and literary cast. IntelIigenee was never
before so universally diffused. The multiplica- |
ton OF popular journals, of critical, historical and
scientific works is truly credible and astonishing. |
The reward of literary labor is no longer niger
ly and insufficient. TIL energy of the brain, if
brings opulence, buys estates and builds houses
with all their endearments. The cultivation of
polite literature is not beneath the attention of
the hrst statesmen, Legislators and orators of our
day. We are far ahead of the most polished
powers OF europe III the great departments of
politics and jurisprudence. We surpass them il
the structure of our government, The distribution
and close balance OF its chief powers-legislative, |
judicial and executive.
The symmetrical proportions, masculine yigor
and organic beauties of our entire political polity
have commanded the applause of all fair-minded /
statesmen In the department OF Jurisprudence, |
municipal, criminal, commercial and information
al we have especially distinguished ourselves.
None but those who have made the ssience of
law an object of careful study, or who have sat in
courts of Justice, and Witnessed their operations.
can properly estimate the superiority of our mode
of procedure. A vast mass of laws hostile to the
legal equality of woman with man. has been torn
from the books, and her judicial status establish
ed on n basis more consistent With the courteous /
civilization of the age. The stubborn spirit of
Nha old nnlnGh aAg0nNnn IanU nos ham GnffanAA 1
its sanguinary violence repressed, and the load
of technicslities with which it encountered judi
operation Indignantly repudiated. AS Amer
leans, we hold up with indicated pride the names
of Storey, Kent, Marshall, Parsons, Greenleaf and
as the great iuminaries of modern law,
and the eloquent advocates OF legal Improvement.
Prominent as an active agent in giving express
social genius of Commerce. BY the immensely of
its operations 1t is fast civiliZing the globe. Into
all regions, polar and tropical, barbarous and civ
ilized, the interchangeable industry of its agents
have pushed it. 1t fills all profitable attitudes it
has unbolted China to trade it has built wharves,
planted colonies, organized governments, and
poured a flood of civilization over the globe. Its
w~hite-winged messengers make the ocean bios
som with animation and life. New York, London, |
Paris, Chicago and Canton are the %populous mon
uments of its labors. The United States, by the
organic features of their domain, by vastness of
sea coast, multitude of harbors, wealth Of rivers
and lakes, extent of interior water communica-
ton, are eminently fitted to become a great COM
merciai and maritime power. Graded between
oceans, the commodiousness of the ports Of
the Atlantic and the Pacific, fatter the ommerc
OF ne ELSN u llt ALlO tAlS AdP Va TIC Ia
tion. The genius of our people, the location of
our territory, specially authorize US to take the
place among the nations of the earth.
In conclusion, let me say, 1t IS the teachers IN
our public'schools who have laid the foundation
for much of this prosperity. The nation IS under
obligations to them which can never be repaid,
They are the untinching advocates OF civil and
religious liberty, whose teachings will determine
the future greatness of their country. They unite
in themselves the elements of doctor, divine,
counsellor. They labor to advance not only the
interests of their pupils, but the State. Their
moral influence is as powerful as fate, and bound
as eternity. They have helped rear upon the
broad foundations of virtue and knowledge q SUI
perstructure that shall successfully defy the as
of corruption and resist.the rayages of thine;
which shall stand like the foundation Of the An
des firm and immovable, resplendent in beauty,
in glOry-the resting place Of truth,
liberty and the light of heaven.
When Mr.. Blake had concluded, Miss
Alexander, the old Assistant Superintend-
ent of the High School, read a very inter
paper giving a sketch of her times
in the school.
VIM. A. Lynch Esq, next came forward
and made the following happy remarks:
He said if any persons present expected to hear
him make a speech, they would certainly be dis
appointed, for he was so filled with the spirit Of
the occasion and realized so fully the feelings of
his schooLdays, that he would net prove false to
his record as a scholar of the High School, by
q speech. While he was at school, las his
teachers and s~chool-mates present could album
dainty testify he had never, successfully, at
a public effort in the way of
or speech. And now, though he-had since inhict-
ed himself upon audiences larger than the one
before him. he felt so impressed with the scenes
Of his schOol-days, his teachers in their places,
and so many of the scholars before himself back
in the old High School on q Friday afternoon, as
when a boy, he was called upon for his effort on
the platform. The old trepidation came back.
He felt as he did when he took his stand in those
days, with his toes to a certain mark, his head
painfully erect, hands down, and prepared to go
through those graceful and mimitabte gestures
they were taught from the books, but which he
had never seen or used out of The sehool-room.
He told of the agOnies of his school efforts on
to his throat; the black darkness that
gathered before his eyes as the shaken echoes Of
his voice came back to him with the first sentence
of his Juvenile effort.
The speaker reverted to the delightful asso-
Citations of school days, and referred, by name,
to many he saw in the audience, and recalled to
mind some of their peculiarities as pupils, not
forgetting some of the tricks and sports of those
days said that seeeing them before him, and Miss
Alexander in her place, and imagining Mr.. Mar
tin on a trip of inspection to the East School, he
could readily imagine them all back a tenth of \
in the old schoolroom.
Mr.. L. said he believed and felt that the friend
ships ofschool were among the most disinterested,
and that the common school system, though
doubtless il was not perfect, was calculated to
those feelings OF equality and mutual
regard among students irrespective of wealth or
station, which we will bear with us through life.
He then spoke of those who were absent; some
from them by thousands of miles and