St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1900-07-04
MD srAREORD,s ADDRESS.
A., E,O0uent and Timely Speech 10 the
graduating Glass of the U. ". M.

bnry at Burlington on the evening of
Iune %;
# is great happiness to me to greet
,.rn with these words upon your gradua-
fion / think of myself as speaking for
tbe community, which now welcomes you
f. q share in its active and industrious
Eife You are coming into closer touch
[rilh your fellow men than ever be-
Eore You will soon become men of af-
Eoirs and. in a peculiar way, the trusted
friands and counsellors of many house
holds. We country folk know we'll enough
what place the family doctor is apt to
hold Lawyers who have their wits about
Ehep1 scrutinize the jury when physician
to take the stand If any of his old pa
Eerts should be upon the panel we realize
vhat weight his words will carry to their
minds In how many families you will be
Inoken of notas a doctor, nor even as the
hector, but as our doctor! l cannot re-
train from expressing the hope that you
bre to be, many of you, not specialists.
To be visited and paid by strangers but
bid fashioned, all round, family physi-
dtans. If you do not reap the rewards of
SPECIALISTS in golden fees, neither will they
ever reap your reward in the affectionate
gratitude of patients and intimate ac.
0uaintance with human life. / hope that
some of you may be so extremely fortu-
nate as to, turn out good deal after the
fashion of the old-time country doctor, a
type immortalized by John Watson in DIR.
Mcclure. You will know all the country
side in every mode of nature. You will
he near and dear to the homespun people
YOU help even though you should inter-
upt the tranquility of such hill country
AS the Scotchman lived in who was ask
cd OIVhat do Won do whaD Won 70 cioly
away up in the mountains where you can
not get a doctor?" Och" replied the sa-
gacious and discriminating Scot, I'VE Just
dee a natural deith!'' AS in the case OF
Dr.. Mcclure relief of suffering will cease
to be with you mere sentiment and be-
come, what is far better, principle Of
action Before you the secrets of many
hearts will be laid bare. Often you will
read in eyes that look up to you that uues-
ton half scornful, half appealing, which
Shakespeare puts into the mouth of Mac
beth:
"Canst thou not minister to a mind dis
eased,
Pucked from the memory a rooted sor-
ROVE"
The hidden things of many nresides will
be revealed to you. You will usher in
many birth; by many a bedside you will
watch the light of life go out Men will
put their lives into your hands-they will
commit to your hands the lives of Others.
deaIer than their own. Is not the body
thus confded to your care a great, a pc
cular trust? The poet of DEM crazy chant
ed not unwsely:
IF anything is sacred the human body Is
sacredn
We hope you hold it only little less sa-
cred than those men of old who found it
worthy of their worship. You will deal
Teverenuy with it in all its weaknesses, its |
mis- .ortunes and its mysteries. 1t will
never he with you the subject of a heart
less Jest, for it is none other than the
house of life, and may be, for aught you
know, the very gate of heaven You will
guard religicuslY the condolences of your
patients. If they prove ungrateful and
untrue to you, you will not prove untrue
10 them, They will know that whatever
they contide to you will never be Blown
about on the winds of gOssip-as if some
letter bearing the heart history of the
sender should be left to futter about the
public street.
As You grow Older you will meet day by |
day on their way to school, the children |
Who came into life under your protection; |
you will see in happy homes the mothers |
you, perhaps, have saved; you viii see the /
husband aud father still at his useful |
tasks because in some crisis of disease |
you were found faithful, patient, Skilled. |
You need NOT fear that vour servicns viii |
pass unappreciated. If Won live and work
as the best in your calling have done, you |
cannot fail to reach and boId no ssr,a |
high place. You have but to think mo- |
ment to recall. each of you in his own |
community. some one who has Inns la
bored and beon tins rewarded- followed |
at last with many blessings 10 his praye
When Won have succeeded II viii NOT |
be the least of vour measures to reflect |
that all YOUR service was in truth a ma
trIotic service Your aim was to nurifv
kind however common mr. however, close.
~ allied to material tbtnos without bo-
coming helpers of a wider and higbar mr.
pose than orr o,yn yye NAV, hove ,,,,o,,ob+
with an eve laroelv to oIr own advantooa.
but if we have wrought fqithfnIr1. we shaIi
find at last that we ,,,orI,od fo, ,,,i,,orsoI
orGs u, ,,'9' INC We "oiNeu lol UNIV e. "I
knew Emf wbv sbouId we u,orl, tbus
bindly ana unwittinelv for the nublic
veal? WHY NOT have tbo banniness of
and strengthen the life nc vour neiphbor-
hood ia save If from corruntion coma
gion and death and ca farasvou have suc-
ceedod Won bnvn served thc Statn If ie
one of the divine comneneo+ions that we
cannot ncrforn, any real service to man
worliirg from, +bo Ligboet y,oti,,os ond If
feeling as we work tbat we are trun ma
triota and t}a friands 81 r,or9
Good citizenshin is nat,+otieno If 10 6no
to tlinl, yr,at snIardid rIatriotio sar,,ioe
is being rendered oil tbo u,biie not mere
ly by the men Of genins men Of letters
moot. - . - - N0'