Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1899-06-21
PRIN. A. B. CRAWFORD'S ADDRESS
To the Class of 1899, Bellows Falls
High School. Address in Full.

High SchO0l.-The Address in Full.
Principal A. B. Crawford delivered bis
annual address to the graduating class Of
the Bellows Falls high school Sunday eve
ing in the Opera house, which was filled by
large and interested audience. H. D.
Ryder, chairman of the school board pre-
sided, and Rev. D. L. Sanford acted as
chaplain of the evening. On the stage
with the speaker were the chaplain, the
members of the school board and the grad
yates, the latter with the lower classmen
forming choir to sing the two hymns Sc
lected for the occasion. The address,
which was thoughtful, practical discourse,
calculated to place the true purpose and
meaning of school of life before both pa
rents and pupils, is given below in full:
A MeIange.
Recently a student whose work in La
tin was, for the moment, quite
satisfactory neither to himself nor to me.
came with the interrogatory: How much
time ought to put upon lesson in Cae
sarp" GLOW much time are you now put.
upon it?" "About two hours and half
ssThat ought to be enough" On refec-
| ton the question and the answer fretted
me.
EsBoth, the question and the answer, were
from the wrong point of view. Brooding
upon this, there flashed into my recollec-
| ton two incidents in the life of man O
power. A green country boy, hungerint
after an education, found himself finally un,
der severe teacher of note. Three or fou
days passed, when he failed in Geometry
To the sharp reprimand which fell upol
him, he protested, Il have spent two hour
upon this lesson, sir" 81 care not" cam,
the swift reply, "whether you have spen
halt an hour or six hours, want tn
lessonl" The mind of that earnest DO,
woke at once to new idea,-that to put il
time is one thing, to study for the master
and until the mastery, quite dlfferen
thing.
In the midst of the civil war, when th
hopes of the Union were at the darkest, anC
! England's enmity and insolence were a
the highest, a leading, if not the leading
American orator of that day stood befor
an angry British mob. There was no evi
dence of the British boast of Glove for fai
play" When he attempted to speak thous
ands howled him down. He waited till tn
mob lost breath and began again. Agai
they howled. Now pause, only to hur
an insult which was met by repartee, bril-
and scorching. Again the howl, again
pause, and again flash from the orator
| t,l1 tbok
mob ashamed of its meaness for the yer
pluck of the man, admiring too the stra
sentences it had caught in spite Of its owl
uproar, broke into cheers and becam
busned. And the orator for two hour
more moved and bowed unto him th
hearts OF all that Liverpool mob as tn
heart OF one man,-moved and bowed tbeI
while he plead the cause of the Unite
J States against Contederacy founded i
wrong.
H-1he green boy before bis severe maste
: waking to new idea and living by It'll
orator subduing the mob,--do you need
guide to trace the connection
''Halt an hour or six hours, want th
lesson" Is not that Just the demand {
! the world? Boot-black or surgeon, has th
| world the most just right to demand that
man shall know efficiently and well tha
which he professesP His profession nee
not be great, it may be humble, but
any case it he shall know. When a fe,
weeks ago the physicians were gathered a
the bedside of Kipling were they there fc
mastery or to put in time? The lawye
preparing his case for court, to defend pre-
perry or fair fame; the engineer plannin
dam or cantilever bridge involving fol
tunes and the safety of thousands of live
every day,-which is it with them? Ma
they say in event of failure-"I put in s
much tlme?n
Consider it well: This worship of mer
time, which is not force but only oppol
tunity; which can do no work, but onl
give chance to work, this worship OF til
o god Chronos,-is in the blood OF us al
1t is this, lying in the sub-conscionsne,
which does more than any one thing to f
the professions with men who are confer
with minimum sttainments, and who const
quently become starvelings In their pre-
fession and starvelings by their profession
men who are content to live their lives az
cording to the cry:
"Come day, go day."
''God send Sunday
while the communities reap the bitter fruit
of their quacker1es and incompetencies
Not then the mere putting in of tim
. with its carelessness, its half-knowledge, II