The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1903-07-28
published at request OF Old Associates.l
RESPONSIVE ADDRESS
To Old Associates. Silver
Lake. July %. 1908.


is, indeed, great pleasure to me to
be present at this our second annual
picnic, and address words of response
to my good friends, happy, hearty
welcome, so kindly, so richly, so elo-
quently spoken.
We in response are, indeed, happy
and thankful for the joyous thought
expressed in our glorious welcome to
this our second gala day exercises.
AS stand here on this grass-grown
hillside, surrounding and overlooking
as it does the water of this pure.
bright, sparkling, most beautiful
Silver Lake, so many memories of the
days agone come to my mind that
scarce know the better things to say.
Yet, If it be pleasing to you, let Us
try to express some thought that will
make us better by its having been
spoken. Until one year ago, so few
times in the last quarter of cen
tury had we been together that many
of us, fast friends in our youth.
bright, happy days, were becoming
lstrangers indeed. For in those joy
Gus days way back in the seventies,
and farther for some of us
How 10th to part. how fond to meet,
Had we then used to be;
At sunset, with what eager feet.
We FASTENED the Others to see:
Scarce one week passed US ere We met
!. In spring or wintry weather;
Till last year many years suns had risen anC
set
Nor found US once together.
Good, dear old associates, friends
of the dead past, do we today, an,
more than we did a quarter of cen
tury ago, realize what glad. joyou
hours these, our annual picnic days
are to you and to me? Do we realize
What binds US friend to friend.
But. that soul with soul may blend:
Soul. like unto those happy hours of yore.
oh. today. let US walk In soul once more.
Ill Oh, when we thus mingle togethe
with our hearts and minds for TIL
D moment, free from Our business an,
: professional anxieties, the cares, tn
t Igriefs and sorrows, the tolls of life
r how we can 60 back into the choic
volumes of memory and gather there
e from those happenings that are s
n full of pleasure and joy, that on
hearts, if they could, would return t
e the days of youths happiest charms
Old times, old times. the gay old times,
I'll When we were young and free;
eI And heard the merry Easter chimes
Under the sally tree;
Our Sunday palm beside us placed.
Our cross upon our head.
A heart at rest within our breast
ri And sunshine DER us shed.
OH times old times
al The old school-houses, the oil
lchurches, where we used to hav
hours and hours of joyous and some
times loving communion with one al
other-our spelling schools, our sinl
ing schools, our libraries, our picnic
of last days, our triumphant exhib
} tions, and so many other grand an
\ Joyous hours to our youthful hapI
hearts, ere we were yet made a
lquainted with so many of the hear
II aches and sadnesses that come to I
with advancing years.
For then our wealth was health and perfe
ease,
Our conscience clear our chief defense;
We neither sought by bribes to please.
Nor by deceit to breed offence
Thus did we live. thus should we die.
l. All of you, friends. as well as l.
And while l speak and you liste
n must our thought unfold the pages
~ memory and realize that those da,
are gone. Not only the days gon
but so many notings of absence
those dear familiar faces and form
m that mingled with US, SO light ar
y healthful of heart, so joyous in disp
= Florence. Belle, Mary. Kat
,- Henry, Andy, George, Levi and (
many other close and dear friends
p you and me, are as well stricke
a blighted and gone from among u
= and as our memory returns to them
=. thrill of sadness stings our hearts al
90 we wonder
d What eye is there with clear account 1
Il marks
The ebblng of the glass;
When all its sands are diamondsparks
al That dazzle as they pass.
20 Oh. who 10 sober measurements
Times happy swiftness brings;
When birds Of paradise have lent
I. Their plumage for his wings.
o. Since the days when we were
II often together, days of the long ag
a many, very many changes have con
to us, not only to us, but to all Il
U. world as well. Neighborhoods ha
III changed. The folks are not those
IN our youthful days. Entering the o
IL school-houses, churches and pla
a. grounds, new generations of peop
a' have risen up, and we are strange
h' in our old familiar haunts. Develo
y ments in science have given us
~ many things for convenience, pro
and pleasure-telephone, wirele
Go telegraphy, electric cars, horsele
n carriages, graphophone, etc, nee
less to make further mention, so tn
we find
Youths fairy land recedes; and year by y,
Less brightly do sweet memories to the sou
ur Come o'er the widening intercourse so dear
Like gales DER parched desert; the control
r. OF after customs In life's pilgrimage
! Takes from us the RELISH the regret,
For what we deemed we never should forge
M To love; then strangely in extreme age
on The early past appears, and all between
nt Fades traceless from our memories; 1t is n