Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-07-06

pect of a spoiled hat or dress, but,
with one or two exceptions, they
sat quietly, trusting in the many prophecies
made in the morning that it would not rain
And it did not. After piece by the band, and
the benediction by the chaplain, the chief mar
shall gave sundry valuable pieces of informa-
ton to the people respecting the facilities for OBJ
tanning dinner tickets, for which half an hour
was kindly allowed. At halfpast twelve o'clock
the band struck up lively air in front of the
town hall, and the procession, conducted by
nine marshals, formed in the following order:
Chief Marshal.
Band.
Officers of the Day and Orator.
Invited Guests.
Committee of Arrangements.
Citizens Of Spencer
Citizens of Paxton.
Citizens of Auburn
All other persons not residents of Leicester.
Citizens of Leicester,
The procession reached around the common,
forming hungry circle around the tent, be-
meath which Mr.. Mars, of Worcester, assisted
by a score or more of walters, had been busily
at work putting things in shape for dinner
that should be in keeping with the other exer-
cises of the day. But the dinner didn't keep
long after the lines were formed by the tables.
The attention paid to the various courses from
fowl to fruit and ice cream was unremitting
and assiduOus as the high temperature of the
weather would permit. A short breathing spell
during which the band played ''Hail Columbia, /"
interviewed between the last course and
THE SENTIMENTS AND RESPONSES.
Joseph A. Denny, Esq, as president of the
day, opened the feast, flow and sparkle of rea-
son, soul and wit, by the following speech OF
welcome:
FeltOD citizens and friends. We have met this
day an interesting occasion, to enjoy together
few hours of social intercourse We are happy to
greet many of friends and former fellow cii-
zens, who have in times past gone out from for
fields of greater usefulness. We are happy to
bring to mind our earlier days, and to con-
template together the virtues of our ancestors. We
have been led back to-day to those times, now far
beyond the memory of any of us, when our ances-
tors planted their homes on these wild and rocky
hills, subdued the wilderness, put in operation
those moral forces, and established those civil in
situations which have been to great blessing.
We welcome you now to this festive board, to the
homes of your fathers, to our own hearth stones,
and to our hearts. We shall be excused it, on such
an occasion, after contemplating as we have done
the early history OF our town, we express somewhat
strongly our honest pride in this review, not only
in relation to its first settlers and its revolutionary
history, but with its character and standing down
to the present time Our fathers eXerted an impor-
tant and salutary influence in the councils of the
commonwealth and the nation in the organization
of the state and general governments, and since
that time we have sent out from our homes many of
our choicest sons, who have filled stations of
importance in various departments of pub
lie life up to the highest civil offices
in our commonwealth We have sent forth our
share of soldiers to fight the battles of our country
in all her wars, and have furnished many of the
higher grade of military officers, who have honored
themselves and their country by their skill and
bravery Our sons have been found in the cabinet
of our nation, and in various departments of our
general government-in the executive chair of our
good old commonwealth, as judges of the bench,
and lawyers at the bar mayors of our large cities,
presidents of our important banking institutions,
as managers of our vast railway corporations, as
skilful physicians, surgeons, and mechanics, and
successful bankers, brokers, merchants, and manu-
facurers, thus taking the lead in the business af-
fairs of our growing country You have often heard
of the noble Roman matron presenting her
children as her choicest treasure. exclain ing
'htese are my Jewels" and with like pride in our
common family, we this day honor our noble ances;
from them their habits of industry. their stern in
tegrity, and all the other qualities which go to
make up the successful business man. the good citi-
lZen, and the patriotic stateSman-"here they are,
look at them"
We trust that the occasion which has brought
you together, will cement more firmly the friendship
of the citizens of this and the neighboring towns
whose common origin lead them to honor the same
worthy ancestry, and to increase, if possible, The
love Of our absent sons and daughters for their
early homes our affection for them, and our in.
terest in their future prosperity and welfare.
Not because you have been prodigal in wasting
your substance in TiotOuS tciRg, but because you
have been prodigal in dispensing to the world
around you the blessings which you have inherited
from your ancestors, we have this day killed for
you the fatted calf, and called you back to the
homes of your fathers, and again, in the name Of
the citizens of old Leicester, bid you all cordial
welcome.
AT the close he introduced the POSTMASTER,
DIR. John N. Murdoch, who gave as the first
sentiment
1 "The Scattered Children of. Leicester
Though our narrow boundaries afford not scope
for the energies nursed in their blood, and they,
true sons of the Pilgrims, must themselves be
Pilgrims, and sing the Lords song in strange
lands;' wherever their lot may be cast may they
be true to the traditions of their race, and al
ways turn with yearning hearts towards home.'
This was responded to by Hon. Waldo Flint,
in happy vein of anecdote and Renaissance.
He said that though his memory was not the
best, it carried him back into the last century,
for he remembered the death of Washington,
and called distinctly to mind the circumstance
of wearing badge of mourning TO school on his
left arm. He could also remember the time
when Rev. DIR. Moore settled there, in 1898, at
which time he (the speaker) was three or four
that he did remember that event he said he
would relate a story that had been thrown in
his face too often to allow of his forgetting it:
"When the ordination took place." he said,
"they sent me after the toddy at the close of the
dinner; helped myself to the toddy, and ac-
cording to tradition disguised myself in liquor
in other words got drunk For this piece of
10 sI,a
tation; You are the boy who got drunk at ordi-
nation, arc your" He spoke of the great ex.
tent over which the sons and daughters of
Leicester are scattered, and said that there never
was town that demanded so much of the love
of its sons as the town Of Leicester, built upon
hill where the sun rises in glory and sets in
splendor, and whose pure, health-giving air
lends years to the lives of the inhabitants, the
majority of whom attain a ripe old age. He
spoke of the slow progress in population, which
in 1865 was no, in 1S65-one hundred years
later-it was 2527-a progress that was slow in
deed-but the town has not gone back, although
it has increased in wealth more than popula-
ton. He closed by offering as a sentiment:
"The prosperity of my native town; may it be
III bhS lubUiN "Aht ~ mas bNNh III bIO pdot1 SURF
and slow"
2. "The Old Leicester and the New-On both
sides of the sea"
Responded to by Abram Firth, ESQ.,, of Bos-
ton, as follows
Mr.. President and Friends: ] have abundant
reasons to remember gratefully this town and its
people, for reasons just given by presidents but
there is another special aud peculiar reason why
the of Leicester is dear TO me. II is that Of
the city of my birth the other side and the town
of my adoption on this side of the sea-
But before go further, let me thank the commit
tee of arrangements for this gathering There are
generous men who decry giving prominence to
places, and who advocate cosmopOlitanism which
would indeed almost put them beyond our remem-
brance or serious thought; but am of those who
brother husband and father; the best lover of his
native or adopted town, state and nation, is the
very best citizen of the world that these relations
prepare the way and the indispensable steps to
this larger citizenship Then there is the pleasure
of this meeting of long tried and in SO many cases
long separated friends; this retrospective of the
past most honorable history of this town by one of
the abest and most loyal of all her sons to which
we have all listened with so much delight to-day.
Thanks TO the committee for all this, and more.
Your toast speaks of the old and new hope to
find time to say something of the other Leicester,
the oldest; but j begin here and with this which
we all know SO well-old and new. To the
child yesterday is old to the mature man it would
be impossible to say, in a general way, when his
old began or ended But my acquaintance began