Milford chronicle., 1904-11-25
Nn nentn1 chnira Then.


Then think of the mercies whien
have come to us through the dental
chair. In olden times when a man had
q toothache he would go to the village
doctor or to the village blacksmith
The forceps would embrace the aching
tooth. There would be a groan, yell
A kicking of the sufferer, and out would
come the offending mOlar. what was
the result? Among our ancestors II
was no exception to find a young man
or young woman of thirty-tve years
Of age without a tooth in the Jaw
Think Of the dyspepsia and after dln-
ner pains which were then caused by
noorIv masticated food. Some OF us
complain because we have not all the
different kinds of food upon our tables
we would like to have. But in olden
times they not only complained about
the few kinds Of food they had to eat
but they also complained about their
sore gums with which they had to mas
ticate that poor food. Many lives OF
our ancestors were shortened because
prematurely, as King Solomon express
ed it, "the grinders ceased because
| they were few"
Then today make big inventory OF
the blessings of the modern public
school system of America. In olden
times it was the exception for the son
or daughter of a home to have what
is called a liberal education. Yale and
Harvard and Princeton, then dignifed
g
nothing more or less than modern hlgh
schools. These institutions and colleges
like them were very few and far be-
tween. Only here and there we hnd
| that a young man was able TO go 10
one of them. The great masses of peo-
Die a hundred years ago were entirely
} uneducated. If you do not agree with
this conclusion, go and study the OLD
documents kept among the Revolution
ary records of Boston. You can see
them any time you go to Massachu-
setts. Almost without exception the
men who stood by Samuel Adams and
James Otis in the struggle for Amerl-
can liberties were practically. unedu-
Gated men.
But though a hundred or even nifty
years ago the man who had liberal
education was the exception, the man
Of the generation which is to come
after us who is an uneducated man
will be the exception. So perfect has
our public school system become, so
multitudinOus are the American col
Ieges of today. so prevalent are libra
ries everywhere, that an Abraham Lin
coin getting an education by a pine
knot will never again be known in
American political life. Now every
boy. every girl, can develop the brain
to the utmost. Now all our boys and
girls. by the magnificent system Of
schools which we have, can fit them
selves for any line Of work that they
will. Oh, carping pessimist, do you
not see any blessing today in the fact
that you can educate your mind so that
YOU can daily be the associate Of the
master minds OF the centuries? Dc
you not see a blessing in the fact that
Shakespeare and Burns and Scott and
Irving and Motley and Prescott and
Gladstone and Webster and Edison and
NN-AN
! Beethoven and Wagner and ThOrvald
sen can all be invited to your study
desk any night you win, to paint, Oh
sing, or chisel, or preach, or teach fol
, you? Education is not a mere affecta
ton. EudcatlOn is the wings Of in
spIration which lift a man up so tina
his horizon takes in all lands, all seas
all worlds and all ages.
Is not the opportunity Of developing
I the mind and heart and the life o
: man by education great advance
D ment over the educational Opportunl
Z ties which were offered to the genera
tIons that are past and gone?
! Thus at this glorious Thanksgivini
2 time l find the world is not only grow
$ ing better, but it Is better than it ha
/ ever been before. / find we have
I better government, a better church
4 better homes. better physical and men
= tai men and women and better chi
e dren to take our places after we ar
o gone. Let us thank God on this CON
/ ing harvest festival for what he ha
d done for us. May we pray to him t
+ give us strength to go on doing tn
e work he has given us to do, and ma
K the time come when our future wor
+ may Weld even far greater harvest
e mental, physical and spiritual, than tn
\ H..