Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1877-06-20
Barre Academy.
rwENrY.FTTH ANNIVERSARY.

Alumni, which was crowded out last week;
PRESIDENT HuLBERrs ADDRESS.
This is a goodly occasion, and full Of the spirit
Of noble friendship. The North has given up,
and the South has kept not back Many Of MS
have come from afar and some possibly from the
ends Of the earth As we hail from all sections
Of the country, 20 we come representing almost
every vocation in life, and from various posts of
service, and with no little disparity in our ages.
We come associated asalumni the sons and daugh-
tiers of a common parentage we come TO exult o
gether in reunion. and within the bounds of the
ancestral acres, in the old family mansion around
the old hearthstone and with the old folks Mt home
am sure we do no violence to poetic license when
we give to this reunion OF alumni the title Of a |
" Silver Wedding" It is true we require the |
term to slip its common meaning for, as we
are all aware, many more than twenty-five years |
have elapsed since our beloved leader was ac-
oompanied at the bridal altar by the noble woman
who shares the honors Of his success and still lives
to greet us in these festivities We refer rather
to the bonds Of a wedlock sealed twenty -ive years
ago, when DIR. Spaulding assumed the headship
Of Barre Academy as his bride. | make men
ton here of previous marriage with most
prosperous institution in the goodly town Of
Bakersfield, and prolonged for eleven years and
wonderfully prolific is its progeny; except to say
that the sons and daughters by that marriage rep
resented here in goody numbers must be received
by You OF the younger circle as equally in honor
with yourselves, and with something too Of a cor
dial welcome, since we come, in forgetuness of
our own to east our gifts at the feet of step
mother; honoring your mother equally with
yourselves with magnanimity the equivalent Of
your own, and without even the contingency Of
family quarrel. But it is altogether in the inter
ests of the bride The bridegroom himself with
remarkable generosity and self-sacrifce asks us
TO turn our thoughts and regards from him and
bestow them upon his partner at the altar, In the
device OF liberal things for her future when she
Is left behind. Though still in the vgor of
noble manhood his eye hardly dim nor his nat
ural voice abated, our honored instructor is yet
nearing the period when he will cease from his
earthly labors; and it is not enough for him to
know that his decease will be the signal for a
widespread and heavy grief among his old pu-
pills and the community at large and that CRATE
full affection will lavish its nunifcence In mon
umental pile dug from the quarry to pay him
voiceless homage; he rightfully asks for more
substantial tribute to his memory in such an en-
dowment Of Barre Academy that its very exist
ence shall not hang tremuous upon his fleeing
breath What more has this institution been for
period now of twenty-five years than the elm
b diment of the life and labors Of It's distin-
guished principal this suggests the painful in
qnrv of its destiny, when Dr. Spaulding's connec-
ton with it shall be no more Shall the memorial
Of Barre Academy perish from among menu
The speaker then proceeded by saying that our
] has hfa Lat far har Il,
Barre Here he has enjoyed his most signal sue
cess, and here he will close his term of service.
When he next strikes his tent it will be to wrap
the dnpery of his couch about him, and lie down
to pleasant dreams" And the question is, shall
he leave behind him ga local habitation and a
name" in Barre Academy embodying his ideas
of academical training and classical learning?
Or shall he carry wi h him to his grave this insti-
| tuition, so that the same monument that perpetu-
ates his name shall signalize it, extinction This
is question which | raise not simply here in
Barre and among us as alumni 1t is a question
which propose to the people of Vermont at large
Can this commonwealth afford to allow the in
structor whose term of service in his profession in
the state has been continued beyond that of any
other who has had under him more than ten
thousand students by far more than any other
teacher in the state; and who has done more than
any other man in bringing to bear directly upon
our youth the appliances of Christian educa-
ton, upheaving succession of generations into a
higher and nobler life; | say, can this common
wealth afford to allow such benefactor to pass
away with no other visible memorial of his SER
vice than the granite that marks his restingpace7
This is not question simply of personal affection,
raised by loving pupils it is a question on the in