The Newtown bee., 1900-12-14
REV GEORGE THOMAS IINsLEY,
 President of the Newtown Library Association.

REV GEORGE I
 President of the Newto through or thaw out. The chickers, by an instinctive impulse of safety, went to roost and did not appear again until ''the minister" was gone. The noisy children lapsed into state of complete silence ; and both they and certainly were great ly relieved when my form disappeared in departure through the gate.
 You have heard of . town not . great way of where there is much criticism to- day as to its being . wide-open town. Our hearts are wide-open, this building is wide.open; and, if you were to go around to our back doors, you would find them wide.opeD, too, as we left them in our hurry to get here and secure seats ahead of the others.
 There are two kinds of welcome. One is that which is expressed in the inscription that is said to be over the portal to Sing Sing prison q have not read 1t there myself), "All hope abandon ye who en- ter here." That is the kind of welcome which is extended by the fair which broadly advertises, "Admission free;" it is all right to get in, but if you get out with any money in your pocketbook, you are fortunate indeed. The other is the kind of welcome illustrated in the inscrip- tion which was written oyer the doorway of a famous school of philosophy in Athens, 'He who would enter here must know mathematics" That is not the requirement for admission here but 1t is required that to enter here one must know something, must know that he does not know great deal and wants to know mora. This library shall always be open to the student, to the one who, wishing to get apart from life's noisy scenes, is willing, in this seclusion to study the trend of the worlds activity and the set of its current. This library shall always be the possession of those who want to strike down under the superflcislities and get to the quick. Booker T. Wash. ington, the famous negro, thus spent several months in Washington, standing to one side of that city's busy flow and studying, from this vantage ground, the haracteristics of his race and its super facilities. He saw those who earned but $4 week spending half that amount to hlre horse for drive on Sunday after noon on Pennsylvania avenue, that they might make show of being equal to the nabobs. He saw these things, and he set himself determinedly to find . remedy for them; and Tuskeegee Institute with it's splendid history and this man with his splendid career are results Uf his study.
 There is yet another welcome in which we are all soon to join. refer to tho ushering in of the 20th century. The old century, as an old man, his figure bent low with the weight of yesrs, his locks hoary with time, the lines of care traced in deep furrows across his face, will go out through tbe doorway; and the new century, as young girl, her cheeks rosy with the bloom of youth, her step light and elastic, her hands bearing rich prom ise for the future, her face frightened with the glories of better day, will come tripping in. Into this golden and glori- ous century we, as . people, enter with glad hopes and fair promise, while this beautiful, new and tasteful library build- ing, placed here in our midst, Is . rich help to us, and the sure foretoken of bet ter things to come.
 "R,ng out old shapes of foul disease, Ring out the narrowing lust for gold, Ring out the thousand wars of old, Ring in the thousand years of peace.
 Ring in the nobler man, the free, The eager heart, the kindlier hand; Ring out the darkness of the land,
 Ring in the Christ that is to be-"
 Hon F. J. Kingsbury of Waterbury was introduced by the chair man as we'll known to the people of the state. He said in part:
 am glad to be here today. am very glad that the Newtown Library Associ- ation should have such beautiful build. ing for it's library. am glad to assist at this function, not only on account of the gracious giver of the library but also on account of her father and her grand. father, both of whom I knew we'll and highly respected and admired.
 Newtown is . Connecticut hill town, and . hill town In Connecticut in these days means peace and quiet. You may have, and indeed you do have, some. where in your outskirts, a stream or two which has attracted manufacturing and the various blessings and ills which are attendant thereon, but the main street, the old heart of the town remains un- molested and unmoved, and for that we are all glad.
 Newtown was always . township of good land. It's fair meadows, fertile fields, and beautifully rounded hills have been not only the joy of its own people, but the admiration snd envy of its neigh bors for many generations, and until . comparatively recent period, say 1880 or thereabouts, good land in New England always meant good people, we'll coudi-