Morning journal and courier., 1888-04-26
AT THE LovELLBANaU


= Boys. It's conceded we are boys again.
 We waive to day the higher claims of men, And if thus address you it will be
 A cognomen to which we all agree.
 We would not touch to-day the airy heights, Ambition pledged us in our youthful flight.
 And now we long for youth's bright days again; For boyish reeoiiections bringing back
 The old associations in their track.
 It's always true that three score years or so
 k0Sk ko9 IeFpgy sy t0 8d 5 o9g o od days
 And stroll again in these bright sunny ways.
 When with our books we trudged along to school
 Or winters snowy days and storms of sleet,
 Rs,h1 Reluctant a going vi with % our tagging feet
 Wit With n startling sound on each tympanum fell
 And with perpieaing Sa problems in the mind,
 Some grammar lesson we had failed to get
 And thinking should that question come to us
 The masters rod might to our backs be plus
 And wsS Over which we often sehed and reved
 But when our lessons had been learned with care,
 We banished doubt I and played wit with yi&gor & there;
 Full of the vim of Lancasterian Boys"
 Or would have given it if we had staid
 Until it put it's vigorous branches out,
 As AS later ate years and younger & boys ne % doubt as
 And watched it's form grow towering to the skies'
 Was % something hing tt that we eEed to thlak n about
 Then the broad vacant lot that stretched to meet
 And over which we saw with cloak and cap,
 Theodore Leforge come in wintry wrap, I 6S, Tn H1y VlS1O1 D6nOIQ nm HOW.
 His ample cloak shielding his thoughtful brow. And here with generous freedom and broad space We kicked the football in our eager chase; And base ball, too, we played in eur old ways (The game made national, in these our days,
 With club aloft and with steady poise;,, Then in the school how proud we were to stand
 Grouped on the platform selected band, And there declaim with gesture and with voice Some grand selection of our teachers choice; And when the exhibition came, ah then! In our imagination were men. Boots and nnustaches, blackened with burnt cork We trod those stage boards with the latest walk. with my troops would capture Gilderoy; A Scottish chief perhaps Q bandit, too, through. And SO we captured him, or thought we did, In place of that he captured me instead And shook as lion shakes it's prey recollect that shaking well to-day.
 When IS some e one in the audience exciaimed: Don't shoot" and shrieked and then the curtain I was not shot, for here ana quite well. This was our apex, these our proudest joys, We acted then as ''Lancasterian Boys;" And fifty! ay, fifty five have passed Since some of us were in that schoolroom classed, And many boy with bright and eager face Has fallen out in life's uncertain race; But as we gather and assemble here We drop the tribute of affections tear In shadowy realms of mystery and doubt. They were with but are not with us more, Our heads are whiteIied with the frost of age, Ere long times wheels will turn ife's final page; And as grasp each others hands to-day, Some eyes may glisten turn away; While we rehearse the memories of the past We can but feel this meeting is our last Yet we grasp the hand that trained us well Whose four score years and ten So grandly tell Of an unseIfish life and deeds of love, May peace rest on him like a snowy dove; His closing scenes of life be bright as day. While all our hearts with silent grief will swell When he to us shall speak his last farewell;
 Still through the years though pleasure fades ant | We may be known as s'Lancasterian Boys,,