Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1899-04-24

deed of one son sacrificed, disgraced
and blasted. Look out how you rob
your consecrated ancestry Of the name
they handed to you unsulliedl Better
as trustee to that name add something.
worthy. Do something to honor the old
homestead whether a mountain cabin
or a city mansion or country parson-
age Rev. David Dudley Field. though
80 years passed upward, is honored to-
day by the Christian life, the service.
the death of his son Stephen.
Influence of a Good Father.
Among the most absorbing books of
the Bible is the book of Kings, which
again end again illustrates that. though
piety is not hereditary, the style of
parentage has much to do with the
style of descendant. 1t declares of King
Abijam. 'EHe walked in all the sins of
his father which he had done before
him, +" and of King Azariah, "He did
that which was right in the sight of
the Lord, according to all that his ia
ther Amaziah had done" We owe a
debt to those who have gone before in
our line as certainly as we have obliga
tions to those who subsequently appear
in the household. Not so sacred is your
old fathers walking staff, which you
keep in his memory or the eyeglasses
through whech your mother studied the
Bible in her old age as the name they
bore, the name which you inherited.
Keep it bright, I charge you. Keep it
suggestive Of something elevated in
character. Trample not underfoot that
which to your father and mother was
dearer than life itself Defend their
graves as they defended your cradle.
Family coat Of arms, escutcheons. en-
signs armorial, lion couchant, or lion
dormant, or lion rampant, or lion COM
Blatant, may attract attention, but bet
ter than all heraldic inscription is a
family name which means from gener-
alton to generation faith in God, self
sacrifice, duty performed, life well
lived and a death happily died and
heaven gloriously wont That was the
kind Of name that Justice Field aug
mented and adorned and perpetuated-
a name honorable at the close of the
eighteenth century, more honored now
at the close of the nineteenth.
Notice also that our illustrious friend
was great in reasonable and genial dis
sent. Of 1,0S2 opinions he rendered,
none were more potent or memorable
than those rendered while he was in
small minority and sometimes in a mi
nority Of one. A learned and distin-
guished lawyer of this country said he
would rather be author of Judge Fields
dissenting opinions than to be the au
thor of the constitution, of the United
States. The tendency is to go with the
multitude, to think what others think,
to say and do what others do. Some
times the majority are wrong, and it
requires heroes to take the negative,
but to do that logically and in good
humor requires some elements of make
up not often found in judicial dissent
ers or, indeed, in any class of men.
There are so many people in the world
opposed to everything and who display
their opposition in rancorOus and OBJ
noxiOus ways that a Judge Field was
needed to make the negative respected
and genial and right. Minorities under
God save the world and save the church.
An unthinking and precipitate Eyes"
may be stopped by righteous and he
roic ''no" The majorities are not al
ways right. The old gospel hymn de
clares it:
Numbers are no mark that will right be
found;
A few were saved in Noah's ark to many mil
lions drowned.
His Dissenting Opinion.
The declaration Of American indie
pendence was g dissenting opinion. The
Free church of Scotland, under Chal-
mers and his conpeers, was dissenting
movement. The Bible itself, Old Tesla
ment and New Testament, is protest
against the theories shat would have
destroyed the world and is a dissenting
as well as a divineIy inspired book. The
decaIogue on Sinai repeated ten times
F'Thou shalt not. For ages to come
will be quoted from lawboolzs in court
rooms Justice Fields magnificent dis
senting opinions.
Notice that our assembled friend had
such q character as assault and peril
alone can develop. He had not come to
the soft cushions of the supreme court
bench stepping on cloth of gold and
saluted all along the line by handicap
ping Of applause. Country parscnages
do not rock their babes in satin lined
cradle or afterward send them out into
the world with enough in their hand to
purchase place and power. Pastors sal
aries in the early part of this century
hardly ever reached $500 year. Econ
Omies that sometimes cut into the bone
characterized many of the homes of the
New England clergymen. The young
lawyer of whom we speak today arrived
in San Francisco in 1S49 with only SO
in his pocket. Williamstown college
was only introductory to a post gradu-
ate course which our illustrious friend
took while administering justice and
hating rufianism amid the mining