Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-06-25

which with its large corps OF teachers
its costly apparatus, large buildings
and other advantages, has offered edu-
cation gratis. The academies did,
nevertheless, a work 1 believe, which
the High school has never done, nor Is
likely ever to do. They gymnazed the
mind and disciplined it; the LIBERAL
lied and humanized the pupil, inspir-
ing the love of letters for their own
sake, independently Of the profit or
honor their culture might bring. They
| trained the heart as well as the head,
adding moral and religious to mental
culture; and the graduates from these
institutions felt for them a strong
affection, a depth Of gratitude, COM
| pared with which the regard of the
High school alumnus for that institu-
ton is pale and poor. 1t is no exag-
| geration to say that there are acade-
| mics in New England which by their
high standard of discipline and scholar
ship have done as good work and have
been held in as high esteem as our col
leges.
1t is No manifest our love for one
New England academy, which. ac-
| cording to the law of the survival of
the fittest' is still going after as years
of usefulness, a splendid and steadily
improving work, that we, the gradu-
ates Of the Waterville Academy, Wa
terville Classical Institute, and Coburn
Classical Institute, have left our wide
" separated homes and come together
| here today What a flood of delightful
| memories-of faithful teachers, of lover
! classmates, of difficulties vanquiShed,
| of textbooks mastered, of sports en-
| jOyed-rUshes into our minds as we
take one anOther's hands and look into
one anOther'S eyes today!
| 1t would be an exception to human
experience if our cup of joy, so full to-
day, were not dashed with some drop
| of bitterness. AS those of us who were
here at the celebration % years ago
look about these pews we miss. alas,
nearly all of the leading spirits of that
festal day. Mr.. Hanson and Mrs.
Hanson: Henry w. Paine, who presided
at the dinner; Ex-Governor Dingley,
orator of the day; Professor Foster,
who told US that he rang the bell OF the
old academy for his tuition; Nathaniel
| Butler, senior; l. S. Hamblen, Danlel
| w. Wing, EIdridge Getchell, j. w.
Drummond, and many other graduates
and friends of the school have passed
to the silent land and sadly do we miss
them. Mrs. Hanson, the faithful heip-
| meet of the tireless teacher to whom
| Coburn owes so much-in whom the
students found at all times a wise
and sympathetic friend and whose in
terest in the school ended only with
her life-has but recently passed from
the earth, mOurned by all who knew
her.
| To say that our academic Alma
Mater has fitted not less than 500
young men for college; that she has
furnished Colby with three-fifths OF
her students; that, without the
academy and institute, the college
would long ago have collapsed for want
of undergraduates, that hundreds of
other young men, not college graduates
not n few of whom have attained dis
tinction in other callings, have been
more or less equipped by her for lifes
battle; and, lastly, that with the in
tellectual training which has peen
given. q catholic moral and religious
culture has been mingled at the most
plastic period of life-to say all this is
but to state the barest acknowledged
facts in the institutions history.
| Under what circumstances have all
| these results been achieved? With the
aid of an ample endowment; of costly APP
paratus: of a library with all the needful
| books of reference; maps, gymnasium,
and a well-planned, spacious and attrac-
tive building? During half a century the
school had none of these equipments. now
deemed so vital in success. ana niu its
| noble work under almost every dlScour-
| agcment With the exception OF Henry
w. Paine DIR. Hanson. Mr.. johnson, anu
perhaps a few others. the principals were
| young men fresh from college, VINO li'i'i
| no experience in their work. They h;ti
| no genius or burning desire to teach. but
had adopted this calling temporarily as a
| stepping-Stone to something more ue>lra-
| BILE The first two principals. mon Of nigh
| ability-viz Henry w. Paine. and George
| l. Chace-Served each nine months Ill
paid, depending on the fluctuatinE tuition
fees for their salaries, Struggling Win
| continual obstacles and with little sympa-
| thy from the community, Is 1t strange
| that one after another the teachers gave
| up their places after short periods OF ser
| vice? Even DR.. Hanson with all his pluck
| and stubborn persistence during ms hrSt
term of labor from 1873 to 1875, when nc
| found, after going YEARLY about IN.
| streets with subscription paper. begging
money for apparatus and repairs OF the
academy. that his SOLICITATIONS Were IN II.
| from his own pocket-cVen he gave up the
fight. and accepted the headShip of the
| school at PASSPORT. during the cicNeli
| years that interviewed before his return Iii
| 1866, there was seven principals of the in
stitute an ever shifting succession OF as
| sistantS. Then the skies began tn bright
| en-; pupils locked in by scores and the
attendance during the year rolled up TO
| 212 scholars. the largest numncr except
in 1852 when there were 0S-in the
| schools history. Brothers and sisters OF
| the old academy and institute. although
| my hair has Silvcrcd. my vision dimmed,
| vet | find il hard to believe that seventy
| five years have rolled by since L entered
the cid, pineapple crested academy that
| stood where the institute now stands. Ii
| was in December, 1S23 that the school was
| opened and that at the age of eleven
| years. after attending the Maine Yves
| lcyan seminary in Readtield and the
| academies in China. Monmouth and
Bloomfield. l joyfuly became Il scholar
| I'm the new institution.
| Shall ] ever forget the able and iInd
| hearted principal of the school-aiter-
ward the celebrated lawyer. Henry War
| rem Paine, with his Webstcrian forehead
| and eagle eye, who so stimulated and IN
| spircd his pupils. kindling every latent
| spark of enthusiasm into a steady blaze.
| Though senior in Watcrvillc college hut
nineteen years old. he ruled III" school
kindly but firmly by the authority Of his
look and manner rather than by the
| feruc, though occasionally he brought
down the ruler upon the dcsk-lid with a