Daily new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1897-1906, 1899-10-10

| it ever la the cause OF right and liber-
ty; nd may Gods best blessings for
ever rest upon YOU, the sincere wish
of your thousands OF friends who are
assembled here to-day.
Capt. Chadwick arose 20 reply and
the cheering redoubled The enthu-
slasms was remarkable. 1t lasted for
several minutes at the end of which
time he made himself heard and re-
sponded to the speech of presentation
as follows
Reply of Captain Chadwick.
Governor atkinson and Friends:
To say that | come here feeling
deeply the kindness aud honor bestow-
ed by you is to express but badly the
thoughts which ill my mind and heart
in being among the men and women,
and seeing the hills which were the
familiars of my boyhood. / thank
you for the noble gift, the sentiment
of which fulfills all To which could
ever aspire; for there is nothing in the
| life OF man to which one can reach
higher than the honest, frank and
spontaneous Regard of those who
know us. This, know, is the limit
OF my own aspirations and / will say,
for the comparatively small society OF
the Navy in which have passed most
of my life, that it Is but rare TO find
an officer whose first Thought is not
that of standing well with his fellow
officers; TO have the good will, the es-
an ~ nh
know him. And let me say, too, that
in our profession one in the
world in which men are thrown most
intimately together--we come to
know one another fairly we'll.
/ am rejoiced TO renew once more
my bonds with my native state, and
with my old friends and kinsmen Of
native hills. In this long reach of
years, now well nigh forty, since |
left Morgantown to enter the Navy, |
have followed the fortunes of my state
and town with the keenest interest.
My return TO either have been much
more infrequent than / could have
wished: the breaking up of family
ties, the exigencies Of duty, the ina
bility TO get away from these, as a
rule, for any but few days-and my
leaves of any duration have been rare
have stood In the way of renewing
often my old associations. Perhaps,
though, this fact has made the men,
DRY OF my early years here the keener,
and | believe | remember every man,
woman and child, every house j might
almost say every older forest tree
which stood ia the vicinity always
loved the woods, and II there is any
one thing which / could find it in my
heart TO lay to your blame, it is that
we have not been careful enough OF
our heritage Of noble trees-the like
of which | do not know elsewhere.
Our State is one OF enchanting beauty.
do not know that those who live
continually among these hills appre-
ciate how beautiful is the land in
which their lives are cast. | return
to 1t always with a fresh admiration,
and | say this after having seen and
known many lands. A few years ago,
at an evening party in Washington,
in talking with the Swiss Minister, /
said:
81 wish we had your Switzerland
here"
He replied, II have just been in a
country which l thought almost as
beautiful as Switzerland-W Vir
ginia.
And his remark is true; though we
have not the Alps, We have the softer
mountain forms, clad TO the summit
with an unequalled forest and with a
beauty of which lover of nature can
never tire.
Though do not feel old, in fact,
frequently feel as my old friend, Mr..
Lowell, even at seventy used some
times to say to me: ~ feel as il /
had never grown up.n Yet, when l
can cast back to the Mexican War and
still see the unhappy pig which the
Uniontown band wagon ran over In
front OF our house when they came
to celebrate the return of our Volun-
teers from Mexico; when / can remem-
Der the time when everything was
teamed from Cumberland; and the
time when Henry A. Wise stumped
the then unpartitioned State of Vir-
ginia, j know / am no longer young,
but as see before me men whom /
thought elderly in those days (but one
does not have TO be very old to be
thought so by boy, when | can
know that the man | honored In my
youth as the most honored OF our re-
gion and State, Waitman T. Wiley,
is yet with us, know it is a good
thing to be born West Virginian
If you want to live to be old and feel
young.
/ entered the Navy in the stormy
period Of 1861. was suddenly offer
ed the appointment as a mid-shipman
by our then member OF Congress, VIM.
g. Brown, of honored memory in our
State. / well remember the going to
Kingwood to discuss the subject Of
his offer. ! hired horse from my
old friend, Mr.. Hayes, for which he
oh q rood tho ci1ua If ono Jo1lar for tbn