The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-04-13
Christening q Now Town.

ton became the town OF Aver, named
after DR.. j. @. Aver, name familiar
with every household in the country.
Not long since, the people of Aver gath
cred en- naasse to celebrate the important
event, and the new town was christened
amid general rejoicing. Upon the oc-
casion DR.. Aver was present, as well as
many distinguished gentlemen of the
State and when the Doctor was intro
duced, he responded as follows
Ladies and Gentlemen;
On the western coast of Scotland where 1t
slopes into the Irish Sea- q river, rising on the
| mountains of the inner land, winds down
among the hills and empties into the Firth of
| Clyde. From remote time it has been called
| Ayr from an old Scotch word "Ayry," mean
| ing an eagles nest-the river of the eagles
| nest. Near its mouth and a contiguous har-
| Dor, 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 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 1t one of the depots and head
quarters of his army in his attack upon Scot
land, and one of his old forts is now upon the
citadel of Ayr.
birthplace of the poet Burns. And what a
poetl What voice has he given to all the
endearments of hyynel How has he hallowed
the cottage and all 1t 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 fields,
ice, snow, sleet, and rain, brooks, birds, mice,
thistles and heather. His Bonny Doom, John
Anderson, my 10 John, Auld Lang Syne and
Highland Mary roll round the world in ever
| ringing symphony with what is purest and best
in human nature. His songs WOO and melt
| the heart of youth and maidens, bring soace
| to the sorrowing and courage to the over
burdened by their lot. His inspiration has set
the affections of music in strains that are i'm.
mortal.
No other one man ever made q language clas-
sic, but he has rendered that lowland Scotch a
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 approach
ing traveller yearns to reach the spot his genius
| has sactified.
| Along the borders of the sea in parallelo-
gram and surrounding the town is a county of
the same name-Ayrshire.
1t would weary your patience. 10 hear the
history OF my ancestors from one ancient John
| of Ayr, then John Ayr, down through the CEN
| turies to this Aver now before you; through
| their vicisstudes 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.
My Friends,-you have chosen the name in
1 herited for your own town with an eXtraordin-
| airy unanimity, and have thereby conferred an
honor upon me, the proper acknowledgment
OF which do not feel fully able to express.
But beg you to be assured that it is appreciat-
| ed and that it will be gratefully remembered
itlta
| life remains to me, and, trust, beyond that my
| children after me.
| If this name has become noted among the
many worther around you, that is greatly due
| to its publicity. May be permitted to state
whence that came? Until within few cen
| turies all the civilized nations of the globe
were pent upon the Eastern continent. Two
| or three hundred years ago they leaked over to
| this; few and fearfuy at first, then, more and
more but always in their settlements timidly
| hugging the Atlantic coast. Within the last
| two or three generations they have burst out
| as it were, and overrun these vast continents
| OF the West. Now they are scattered here and
| possess these measurless stretches of noun
| tains and valleys, hills, plains, forests and
prairies with the boundless pampas and noun
| tain ranges of South America. Former gene
rations lived in villages and towns thickly set
| tied together where physicians were plenty
| and near at hand. Now, the people are widely
scattered in many sections of these many coun-
| tries. For great numbers the timely treatment
of physicians cannot be had over large tracts
| of country good or competent physicians can
not be had at all. They cannot visit patients
enough many miles apart to live by their pro-
| fession, nor can they carry medicines enough
with them on horseback for their require
! ments.
Hence has arisen in these modem times, q
necessity for remedies ready at hand with di-
rection for their use-a present recourse torrc-
lief i'll the eXigcncies of sickness, when no
other aid is near. 1t is new necessity conse-
quent upon the changed conditions OF human
lite-a want l have spent my years in supply
ing, and | will tell you something of its eX-
tent. Our laboratory makes every day some
$50, 600 potions 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 Qor
sickness keeps no Sabbath) nor for once only,
but again and again year after year, through
nearly one-third of Il century. We all join
in the jokes about medicines we do about
the Doctors mission to kill, the clergyman's
insincerity and the lawyers cheating. Yet
each of these labors among the most serious
realities of life. Sickness and its attendant
suffering are no joke, neither is the treatment
of them. This system of transportablc relief,
to be made available to the people, must keep
its remedies fresh in their memories. This is
done by advertising Mark its extent. An
advertisement, taking the run of the news
papers with which we contract (some 1900
annually is struck OIL in such numbers, that
when piled upon each other tlatwise, like the
leaves of a book, the thickness through them
is sixteen miles. In addition, it takes some
seven millions Of circulars to meet the public
demand 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 est-
nation in which these publications may be
held here, they reach the tireside of millions
upon millions of men who do cherish and re-
gard them, and who in their trials do heed the
counsel they bring.
Not only over these great Western continents
but throughout that other land so little known
to you, under our feet the Australian conti-
nent, there are few villages us large as this
which are not familiar with the name you have
chosen, and employing the remedies that bear
it.
Thus, gentlemen, have l striyen in my hum
bic sphere to render some service to my fellow
men, and to deserve among the afflicted and
unfortunate some regard for the name which
your kind partiality hangs on these walls
around me- We may look forward with con-
fident hope to the renown you will gather un-
der it, and the prosperity, which there Is rea-
son to trust the future has in store for you.
Situated as you are here in 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
l. l.