Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1900-12-28
FOREFATHERS' DAY.
Middlebury's Annual Celebration Carried
out WITH More Than Ismnl Smccess.

Out with More Than Usual Success.
The 2S0th anniversary of the landing
of the Pilgrims was celebrated in the
Congregational church on Friday, Dec.
2l, under the direction of the'MIddlebury
Historical Society. President Brainerd
presided and the following order of ex-
ercises was carried out
I. Voluntary and Hymn, go God, beneath
thy guiding hand"
II. Invocation and reading of Scriptures
by Doctor W. 5. Smart of Brandon.
III. ode, "The breaking waves dashed
high"
". Prayer by Rev f. j. Guernsey of Mid
dlebury.
V. Solo, "The Lord is mindful of his own,''
hy Miss Maude A. Stevens.
VI Address by President NJ. II. Buckham
ID. ID LII. D., of Burlington.
VII. Hymn, "America."
VIII. Benediction.
There was fair audience and well
repaid one. An abstract of the thought
fu and finished address is here pre-
sented:
This service is given to remembrance.
III we obey poor Opheia's floral directions
we shall all wear rosemary. But you
may wear your rosemary as well as your
rue with a difference You may re-
member the past with reverence for the
dead, or you may remember it with a
grudge against the living 1t is possible
so to laud the good old times as to insin-
uate ones poor opinion of his neighbors.
1t is a favorite kind of satire of Tacitus
and Rousseau to portray virtue as some
thing belonging to remote times and dis
tant places, something antique, and obso-
lnt IN : 40 mi
tans have not escaped this dubious praise
Their memory has been invoked as re-
buke to the times we live into the tOler-
alton, the liberality, the sweet reason
ableness of the modern time spirit. We
will not 50 wear our remembrance of
them today. We are thankful that we
live in our times and not in theirs. We
are thankful that in some things we are
unlike them will not say that we are
better than they. While we can say with
certain fervid patriot, 1--WE love them
faults and ALI we do not love their
faults, we do not love them because of
their faults. But in spite of all we love
them, and admire them, and reverence
them-unless perhaps you here in Mid
dlebury have heard them praised so often
and so cOpiously that you would relish a
little well spced dis-prase of them. |
cannot bring you that treat, if treat ii
would be. Though am no descendant
of theirs, under no obligation to laud
their merits or cover their faults, yet as a
student of history. as one who desires 10
do 4omage to all great and noble human
characters, | cannot say less OF them
than this: that in the qualities our of
which God makes heroes. and founders
of states, and leaders in the world mo-
rality and religion, they stand among the
foremost men of the race. And | call
you happy who can claim these men as
your forefathers, and am glad and proud
TO share with YOU in hOnOrng their mem
ories, and holding up to our own and the
coming generation their virtues to be ad.
mired and initiated.
But we have among US a class of men
who lift up, not the voice of caution, of
warning, of prophetic alarm, which is
always in season, but note of wailing
and woe, a cry of failure and despair, in
view of our departures from the faith and
work of the fathers. | have thought
that it might not be msusing the occasion
to inquire whether there is sufficient Iea-
son for this pessimistlc view of the pres
ent and the immediate future-whetheT
we can, for if we can | think we ought
find in existing conditions anything TO
hearten US for the gr-a work which lies
before us, anything to rescue us from the
perils which in the judgments of these
prophets of evil and doom lie Immediate
ly before us, ready TO engulf us in dies
tructiOn and oblivion.
The speaker de Jared that if the history
of mankind were closed today and its
annals were preserved, one type of human
nature would attract preeminent interest
the type which appears In the English
Puritan, the Huguenot, the Dutch, the
Scotch. That section of this char acter
which most concerns US, the New Eng
land or American branch of it. has been
consplciouslv brilliant In adversely.
Our People, The Christian people of
America, into whose makeup have gone
tnese historic elements. have thriven
marvelously amid pioneer hdrdships ani
adversely. How will they demean them
selves in prosperity? There is abroad a
suspicion that this type of character,
which has been so noble in its days of
simplicity, so heroic in adversely, can
not bear prosperity without deteriorat-
ing.
What now are the dangers to which
sterling Christian character is thought to
be exposed in this time of prosperity
What is feared is of course the old Sc
quence of which history is so full, the
old school essay moral of the fal! of en-
pires-Ass syria, Persia, Greece, Rome-of
virtue amid poverty and conflict, fol-
lowed by power, wealth, luxury, etftmi-
macy, corruption. decay.
1t we are 10 credit certain utterances of
the pulpit ana the religious press, this
drgeneracy has already come upon Us.
For pee llc facts TO substanriate their
charges, we are pointed TO the relaxed
sentiment respecting amusenents once
generally condemned, To the less rigid
observance of SUNDAY and tO the Sunday
newspaper, 10 the predomnance of the
novel in literature aud of novel reading
over all olher reading, aud To the absence
from common speech of the religious
themes
As regards these specific facts, the
speaker said, il NAV or NAV not be suit
ticient offset 10 firm that II rs bet ter tC
recugnizt- and regulate amusem' MS Than