Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1893-09-29
GOV. DALE'S REMARKS.

| GOV. DAlE'N RthAhhN.
Cor. MASSuR Your CT dcvant assoc
ateS in the Customs service ask me to tall
toyou moment on a subject very pleas
ant to them Having been one OF your
predecessors in that work and having
watched your battle Of life with the in
tercst of an elder brother in law, they
say it is peculiarly appropriate that ! dc
this pleasant little errand to you. Cir
cumstances and perhaps Incidence pre-
vent my expressing their sentiments in
language becoming the quality of Their
feelings, and so, pardon me il talk to
youin plain colloquial style, having re
gard more to the substance of their dc
sires than to forms.
They say to YOU that they have been
thinking Of the rapid changes that occur
to men in official positions under our
form Of government, and with which
they are quite content. They are think
ing now only of that pleasant season in
which they have been associated with
YOU officially. However much men may
differ as to the loss Of experience which
constant changes of public servants
brings to arcpublic Ike ours these gentle.
men at this time indulge only in graft
tude that a wise providence has created
such peculiar characteristics rs belong to
New Englandcrs. 1t is but a little time
since we saw thousands of New England
boys. trained only to arts of peace, shud-
dcring at the very thought OF war
Young men who looked upon Waterloo
and Salams as existing only in story
and in song" The hcroism of wars was
to them only romance; vet, although
war was to them only imagination, still
when the necessity was upon them. with
set lips and pallid faces they stood before
the storms OF war, which swept them
down and made windows of the dead,
with a valor uncxcelled by any veterans
of (which poets have sung or history told
/
they returned to renew their peaceful re
lationS, domestic, social and to the
state, as though no disturbance had been
made. They did not even bring back
any of those savage elements which it is
the tendency OF war to cngcnder.
1t is this remarkable adaptability
which enables the republic to keep men
in office who are fresh from the people
men so elastic and habilc that they can
go to the performance of public duties
with such energy, enterprise, docility and
deep sense of responsibility as to furnish
great compensation for any loss OF cxpcr
fence in the service. Those who are con
vcrsant with the work at any one OF
our principal ports of entry know that
to conduct the business in one of those
great currents of trade flowing bctwce
countries foreign to each other SO as to
have every cent OF the thousand of dol
lars collected accounted for is no idle
task. To set system like that of the
l
revenue down in the midst OF a people or
peoples unused to any system at all, and
Jealous of it, flor it and the discipline
under it must needs be rigid and to so
conduct it as. to maintain harmony
among the operatives, and SO that it will
touch the public i'll such a manner rs to
make people feel that they have been
treated kindly, Courtcously and justly, is
no holiday task. You have done this,
gentlemen, in such a manner as that no
word Of ccnsure is heard. But the public
know, and you know, Sir, that this uni
versal satisfaction with which your
work is viewed is not due to you alone,
Without faithful, Industrious and enter.
prisng associates it could not have been
done. But still your assoc iates feel that
your conduct of the business as we'll as
your uniform kindness, courtesy and just
consideration of them is such that they
ought i'll some way to recognize it; not
by empty expressions OF tlattcry, but by
some plain, truthful expression OF those
consistent and friendly relations which
you have done so much to maintain be
tween YOU and them during so pleasant
period as that it will rank in your life
second only to what is termed the CANA
raderie of the army,
So, Sir, they have sent me here with
this token, the chief artistic design on
which symbolizcs the virtues Of friend
ship. This is gold. | am told that it is
the most mallcable OF all metals. It's
maleability and ductility is such that
when long drawn out or much beaten it
will maintain its consistency. So true
friendship must be drawn to the fneness
Of golden threads before it snaps, and it
will remain after much beating and
abuse. This is the rarest of all metals
and SO is true friendship. This is found
amid and beneath immense masses OF
baser metals, and so is true friendship
found beneath immense masses of baser
sentiments in the human heart. This
will bear the heat and cold so friendship
lives through summer and winter the
same. This cndurcs the test of acids; so
true friendship may be touched with the
sourcst envy or calumny, and yet remain
untarnished. This ring ends where it
begins, so may your friendships end
where they have begun and repeat them
selves over and over again. Fit emblem,
gentlemen, of your pleasant relations
Beautiful and delicate type OF this occa-
sion! May you ever maintain these re-
lations on parity with gold