The Portland daily press., 1888-06-29
IN MEMORY OF JUDGE WORDING.
Kicker Classical Institutes Elegant
New Building Dedicated
Mrs. Workings BenevoIence and the
Life Which Prompted 1t.
Distinguished Alumni Meet In the
Halls of Bowdoin.
Especial to the Press. ]

of obtaining collegiate education, with no
relative or rich patron to aid him, he made
his way to Waterville College, overcame
brayely the obstacles which he encountered
through a lack of pecuniary means, and was
graduated with honor in 1886. For while
after his graduation he was engaged in
teaching then he entered upon the practice
of law; for successive terms he was Judge of
probate for the county Of Racine, Wis, after
that he was made United States tax commits
sioner in South Carolina. Since then his
home has been in Wisconsin. His life was
one of unspotted integrity. and when he
died no stain rested upon the name which
he had so long worthily borne
Judge Wording never forgot the struggles
through which he passed in obtaining an
education, especially in the preparatory
part of his course. 1t was because Of this,
doubtless, that Mrs. Wording has erected
this beautiful memorial for Kicker Classical
Institute. one of the endowed preparatory
schools connected with Colby University I;
"the mother" Judge Wording was wont to
say, ito whom owe all that 1 am"
Mrs. Workings gift of $4,000 for the
erection of this memorial was accepted by
the trustees of Colby University at the COM
mencement at Waterville in 1886, and COM
mittee, consisting of Hon. Moses Glddings,
Rev. J. Kicker, ID. D., and Hon. E. f. Webb
representing the University and Hon. A. A.
Burleigh and Hon. c. p. Tenney, represent
ing Houlton Academy, since called Kicker
Classical Institute in recognition of Dr.
Ricker's gifts and services, was appointed
The members of this committee have full
filed the task assigned to them with rare
good Judgment, and Wording Hall erected
under their supervision, is one of the most
tasteful and convenient buildings for aca-
demic purposes in the State.
The architect of Wording Hall was Mr.
John Calvin. Stevens of Portland. The
building is built of brick with free stone
trimmings. On the first floor are two main
school rooms, a library and reading room,
mathematical room, class room, teachers
room, dressing rooms and principals office.
This story is 13 feet high. A broad and
ample stairway leads to the second floor,
where the. chemical room, and other class
rooms are located On this floor, over the
main school rooms, is large assembly hall,
with seating capacity of 500. This hall is
finished up into the roof, showing the truss
work of hard pine, and has raised plat
form at one end, and small gallery at the
other end, entered from the third floor. The
roof is high enough to admit of furnishing in
the front end three large, well lighted rooms
to be used for classes in painting, drawing
and music, and also for natural history
collection. The building is finished through
out with natural woods. In the basement
are the steam boiler for heating, coal cellars,
water closets, etc. also two large rooms for
gymnastic exercises. But direct and indirect
systems of ventilation are employed. All
the study rooms are arranged with ample
light coming from the left side. The exter-
i0r of the building is simple but well pro-
portioned and exceedingly tasteful. The
main entrance on Military street is through
low, broad arch, over which is tablet
with the following inscription:
Erected A. D. 1887.
in Memory Memory of 4 her "H2ianaE HUSBAND.
William L. Wording.
Who died Jan. 2, 1886.
On the right of this arch tower, octagonal
in form, grows out of the building. crowned
with belfry, the openings of which are so
arranged that they may be closed with glass,
and the room used as an astronomical OBJ
servatory. On the east side is an entrance
from High street through brick porch,
with granite steps and platform. The whole
forms one of the best arranged school build
ings in the State of Maine.
The services of dedication were held at 10
o'clock. The following was the programme
u
Address OF Welcome, in behalf Of citizens
..........:...- .......Jonn B. Madlgan
Report of Building Committee. e..::.:.....:...
.................Hon. e. f. Webb, Waterville
............. Hon. Moses Goddings, Bangor
Response of Acceptance. Principal A. NJ Thomas
Rev. G. ID. Pepper, d. D. Ii. d. Professor Of
Colby University.
Dedicatory Prayer. ..... Rev. DR.. Thomas Newton
BeneulctlOn. rev. Dr. Joseph Kicker
DIR. Pepper in his address said:
We celebrate glad and grateful event.
Wording Hall stands complete in stately
beauty, and we dedicate it to its high and
holy purposes-to God and humanity We
take profound interest in this occasion
because of our conviction of the gred
north of the academy. This thought under
lies our exultation and comes ftly to express
sion.
The worth of means lies wholly in their
end. This building has no intrinsic value.
1t exists for the Institute. This Institute,
like every other institution, is but an instru-
ment, and exists for something beyond itself.
Even the culture that it aims to give is
worthless save as it issues in the genuine
manhood and womanhood of those who
receive it. Manhood, the perfection. of the
spirits life, is not link in the chain Of in :
strumentality, but that for which the chain
is made. Building, academy, and culture, all
are for the sake OF manhood, and from man
hood they receive their dignity and glory.
We meet as Christian educators, and so
agree that only Christian manhood is genu-
ine OF this manhood the ideal stands real
lied in the Founder of Christianity. The
of powers, and so it finds its aim in the de-
veloped manhood of Christ. We analyze
our conscious life and his in two ways. In
the one we have a higher and lower ma
ture, powers and activities that rise one
above the other in rank as a kind Of hier-
archy. In the other we have powers and ac-
tivities that are co-equal and coordinate.
We speak of body, soul and spirit, of life
which is physical, and secular and moral
and religious. We also say: Il know"
Il feel, Il will" In the former language
we note graduation. in the latter co-ordina-
tion. So do we analyze one and the same
tree, now into branches, trunk and root
again into bark, and sap-wood and heart.
Christ is the schools ideal aim accord
ing to each view. In himself and in
and sought for it soundness and full
development, SO justifying and de-
manding physical culture. He was also in
the best sense "a man of the world" pro-
foundly in sympathy with all genuine secu-
lar interests, promoter of "the life that
tion that separates and segregates from
the life of the times and from the
march of progress in business, or
music, or art. But his life crowned itself
in all holy, moral and religious fullness and
beauty. 1t was rich in the activities that
were of right supreme and regnant Emf
nently unchristian is the system Of culture
which ignores mans moral and religious ma
ture, his kinship with God, and takes him
along his course with eyes forever averted
from the skies.
BY the second analysis the standard for
the schools is given in the development of
Christ's powers of intelligence, sensi-
bility and will. The school trains
its pupil to clear, exact and sys.
systematic thought and expression, and In
structs as 1t educates, else it would not give
a product to correspond to the mind of him
whose every casual remark was as a flash OF
lightning in the nights blackness, and whose
sustained discourse as the shining of the sun
in his strength.
But mere intellectualism is as cold, though
as beautiful, as sunlight reflected from
Arctic ice-felds. With head there must be
heart; with light, heat; with thought, sensi-
bility and sentiment. Nor will the emotional
nature take care of itself but in order to
attain that infinite richness of expression OF
which it is capable and which makes the
heart of Christ the magnet of all hearts il
must be cultivated with infinite skill and
patience.
And as Christ was the mighty worker, his
will intent, alert, efficient. alike in resistance