Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-08-23

among every family in the district
! Where are those volumes now? We
had our debating club, our lyceum,
participated in by all the younger
men and women of the district and
often helped by those of mature years.
We also had our teachers and schol-
ars who sang sweetly-E Emily Smith,
Hannah Burnnam, Albert Paine's
daughters, and step-daughter, Abbie
Dodge, and many more whose names
time viii not allow me to mention.
Their music helped to sweeten and
bless those ever sweet and blessed days.
None Of these, of course, could sing
like DuMaurier's ''Trilby," so sweetly
that we can see and feel the joy and
gladness, the hope and fear and dis
tress in the very tones, so that you can
see that the pallor is spreading over
the face, and that the hand so tightly
grasping the rail is losing its tension
as the body falls fainting. All this is
portrayed in the tones. There was
nothing like this; but our teachers and
schoolmates sang familiar and popu-
lar songs, and made our hearts glad.
We had our boys, too, who sang
well and played the cornet, the melo-
deon and violin, and bass viol though
they could not ill the air with the
melodies which some master hand can
bring forth from the wonderful or
chestra unclaimed and hidden in a
modern organ, still they pleased and
delighted MS, and helped us to enjoy
much that we might never have COM
pretended without such headings.
In conclusion, | can truly say that
the sweet and practical influences
of the teachers who taught in my
schooldays, did much to shape my
early career in life. | remember with
pleasure Miss Allen, Miss Emily
smith. Miss Olive Mason, Miss Rosina
Tucker, Miss Frances Pember, Miss
Eliza Lincoln, Frank Paine, John
Mead and Albert Pixley. Later in
life, recall j. W. Freeman of the Or
ange County Grammar school, and
your present honored townsman, Els.
Conant. Each OF these men did their
work well in shaping my life. Many
of us can thank Prof. Conant here
on this occasion for his honest,
practical and systematic instruction in
our academic days.
Possibly some of YOU may wish to
chaff me and would fain question
what one thing | may have learned
from any one of these teachers. 1t is
possible that might fail to specify
any one particular method, or princi-
pie. or thought which they taught. To
Illustrate: A washwoman who attend
ed church regularly on being ques-
toned by her pastor as to what part
of the sermon of the previous sunday
she liked best, replied 'Well, your
reverence. it was all very improving
"But can YOU not tell me the text, /
Bridget" "Ah! your reverence, don't 1
remember the text, but il was all inn
proving" "Why, Bridget, can't you |
tell either the text or the part of the /
sermon that suited YOU best?" "Ah, /
no. your reverence; but do YOU see |
those clothes which ! washed yester-
day, Wonder on those bushes! What /
made them so white and clean, your
reverence" 'Why, soap and water,
of course, Bridget 'Well. then. and \
il was, sure, it was soap and water
that made them clean; but there's not I
a drop of soap and water in them now
at all, but they're clean and nightly
your reverence.
Let me conclude by SAYING that il
,..,,.. - ,.a;sa ,,,at and ,,.o,nou No IL
does grain. fruit, grass and cattle: and
we must have in the future, as in the
past, in this town. our Paines. our
our Storrs, our Smiths.
our Princes. our Meads, our Greens,
our Trenches, our Giflords, our Motifs
and our PiXleys, and we must import
from other towns our Norcrosses las
the Rev. DIR. Norcross was thirty
wears ago, in East Bethel. our CO.
nants and our Parkers and our Brooks
and our Whitneys and our Boydens;
and with such examples before us, we
will not cease in our efforts TO live for
the future as well as for to-day. Ii is
not all of life TO live, to fare sumptu-
ously every day, to be dressed in pur
pie and fine linen, and have goods laid
up for many days. All these are use
full; but above and beyond all this is
that which makes the soul white, the
heart noble, the head clear. the face
happy, the hand-clasp warm and the
step firm.
II was this blessed atmosphere which
20 many of the teachers and towns
people ever carried about them, which
made us love them then, and calls us
pack every ten years to these pleasant
eunions.