The Republican journal., 1901-01-17
PREACHER AND POET GUESTS.
Pine Tree State Club Hears DIR. Hale ana
Holman #. Day.

Pine Tree State Club Hears DIR. Hale and
Holman #. Day.
A strong and refreshing flavor of
"Way Down East pervaded the dinner
at the Brunswick, Boston, Wednesday
night, Jan. 9th. of the Pine Tree State
Club President D. G. Heath brought
to his compatriots the latest news from
the ancestral hills, DR.. Edward Everett
Hale paid a tribute to the State, and
Holman f. Day, the ''Bobby Burns of
Name, as the announcements called
him, recited number of his own poems,
and told choice collection of stories in
A1ndroscoggin county dialect, stringing
the whole together into what he called
"sorter ravellin's," whose delightfully."-
dry humor kept the room in roars and
ripples of laughter all the while he was
on his feet.
In his address as president, Mr.. D. C.
Heath discussed several points of in
terest to Maine folk such as the pro-
posed State reservation of the Mt. Ka-
tahdin region, in which the national
forestry commissioner is greatly inter-
ested; the DOrothea Dix memorial. for
which the club voted an appropria-
ton from the treasury and the proposed
raising of the level of Moosehead lake.
He warned the club to keep clear of
politics, which has proved a snare to
some similar organizations in other
cities.
DR.. Hale quoted Gen. Armstrong;
statement that he always went to Maine
for men and women able to succeed in
difficult undertakings. "Gen. Arm
strong was the foremost American of
his day, as Booker L. Washington is of
his, said DIR. Hale, and then he pro-
ceeded to explain that it is the simple
ity of life 'sDown East" together with
high ideals and fine New England con-
science, that keeps Maine people up
near the old standard of John Adams,
who said that every person in Massa-
chusetts should have a liberal educa-
ton. No other State maintains so high
standard in popular education as
Maine, said the speaker, and it is partly
the frlllS and furbeloWs of fashion.
You have the best New England blood,
and the best New England traditions,
said Dr. Hale in conclusion, and if you
will keep your ideals high, raising men
more than paper pulp, your motto may
logically always be ''Dirigo."
MI. La Rue Vredenburg read two of
Mr.. Days humorous poems, Isl Nye,
Prevaricator' and ''The Off-Side Of the
Cow" and then Mr. Day said that his
choicest possession is the leather medal
given him by the Augusta Liars Club,
and read sparkling little ode to ''The
Liars Up in Maine" Explaining how
he made poetry, the speaker said the
principal tool used was the drawshave
to pare the hoofs of Pegasus, and to cut
the corns upon poetic feet. He concluded
by proposing a toast to the shrewd
Maine farmer, with hard head but a
heart as soft as a feather bed in the
spare room, who drives the crops into
the land with shot gun, sharpens his
sleeps nose to enable them to feed be-
tween the stones and sells rations to
the grasshoppers that migrate through
his property.
President Heath announced that at
the next meeting of the club, which,
will be Feb. %, Gov. Hill of Maine will
be present, and Gov. Crane, ex-Gov.
Black of New York and ex-Gov. Pin
gree of Michigan have been invited,