The Portland daily press., 1894-01-16
trolled by that unseen and mysterious
power which man has captured for his

polntments of this building, and contrast
the advantages which it affords to
students with those afforded to them by
the High school of my boyhood, / can
but sigh for my lost youth, and wish
that l might be just beginning my
course in this school, SO as to help to-
wards the realization of that better fruit
age, which should be, and which I am
sure will be, it's product for the horizon
of knowledge is ever Frightening for
humanity, revealing to its widening
vision ungathered fields surprising in
wealth all that in the past has come
within the compass of the imagination.
Judge symonds
said that such an occasion as this was
like that part of the travellers way
which leads over the hillside, whence one
is invited to look, either upon the way
just passed over or upon what lies before.
AS for himself he should prefer to look
to the past, to the old well-remembered
High school building, with all it's
hallowed associations. The speaker re-
called Master Moses Lyford, who left the
school in 1856 to become a professor at
Waterville, while Judge Symonds went
to Bowdoin as student. Many years
later when he had seen for the last time
features of his old teacher, he had felt
the keenest regrets that he could not ex-
press to him the debt which he owed
him for patient care and training.
But this building was not for the past,
| but for the present and the future 1t
was for the boys and girls of this gener-
alton, and of generations to come. Ii he
couldfcome from the world of activity
and business into the happy dream-land
of school life, and bring some precept or
some ideal that would help the scholars
! today tosbetter and truer lives, he should
think that his efforts had not been in
vain. The ideal was everything to the
| scholar. 1t was for the time being his
world. But he must be sure that he do
not mistake the imagery of an ideal for
the real. Failure to reach an ideal might
not after all be a failure. The falsehood
of a life is not to fail to reach an ideal,
| but to lose sight of it, to allow the real
and ideal to part company. to plod along
in the daily drudgery of the real. while
chambers
The nature of the ideal which is to be
| striven for is important. The dreams of
| youth may be of great use, but man and
woman must act. If they do not, the
happy and healthful dream will settle
down into deadly miasma of disap-
| pointment.
| Life is not..the dream of the sculptor,
| it is his work. Our ideals, like the
| Homeric divinities, should go down
with US to the battle on the ringing
plains until the walls we storm are
shaken. It is better to till a rocky farm
than to dream on the golden shores of
the Hesperides. The story of the present
is stranger and greater than any legend
OF the past. A little real excellence in
any trade, artsor study, is better than
the most glittering achievements of day
dreaming.
Tits possible that no act of this NUM-
cipal year will be of SO much Importance
in the future as this act of today. Ger
tainly none will rebound more to the
credit of your honored mayor, if the
facilities here afforded are used to their
utmost.
Hon. M. p. Frank
was introduced next. He prefaced his
remarks with reference to the famous
statue, given by the gods to Troy fo- it's
safeguard. AS long as that remained,
Troy was safe. Our Pilgrim fathers had
given us no empty statue Tor our safe
guard. The school house, guarded by
them through poverty, distress and
danger had come down to us as more
glorious heritage. Would you know what
che free school system does you have
| only to look around you. Our free
schools are the nurseries of democracy
Here we all meet on equal terms here
no rank is known save what comes from
moral and intellectual worth. The poor
mans child often outranks the son of
the rich man; and here he learns that in
life's battles the same devotion to duty
will win for him the prize. 1t is true
that the knowledge we get in the COM
mon schools is only rudimentary: but it
is the lamp to our feet through life.
With it we may find and dig out the
greatest intellectual treasures.
Concluding, Mr., Frank said that the
liberties, and that, if it should be over
thrown, liberty would be crushed be-
meath its ruins.
Charles A. Strout, ESQ,
of the Board of Alderman, said that he
would trespass upon the time of the
audience only few moments to speak
Of the completion of work in which he
had during the last year taken great
interest Under the lead of His Honor,
Mayor Baxter, seconded by both branches
of the city government without regard
to party utilization, this work had been
undertaken and carried on. And it was
worthy of recollection at the present
time that this work had been accom-
plished within the appropriation. Mr..
Strout recalled the old High school
building, and contrasted it with the
excellence of the new. In the new the
city had afforded to it's sons and daughters
the best opportunity to fit them for the
labors of life, whether those duties were
to be in the higher or the hum bier walks
of life.
Clarence Hale, Esq,
said that there could he no proposition
simpler and more elementary than that
the education of the child was one of the
primary duties of the state. But we are
lab TO forget this, and need to have it
emphasized by object lessons. An occa-
sion like this, the dedication of noble
building, was one of the most impressive
of these object lessons.
To his mind there was more power and
meaning in this rededication than in the
dedication of the original building.
There was involved the wealth OF
historic associations connected with the
old, the pride in the civic administration
which had completed this and the
promises of the future.
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