Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-08-08
MAINE EDITORIAL COMMENT.
The Boys are at Home.

their mother and Charles preached In
the congregational church Sunday
morning.-LOcal newspaper.
Yes, the midsummer months, the re-
turn of the heated term when all who
can and especially all brain workers in
the big cities. the clergymen, teachers,
Literary fellows and others escape
from the heat and the stress of the
great towns to the quiet villages, the
farms and the country hamlets-this
time finds the boys and the girls, 100,
back at their old homes.
How we'll we know many of the
places to which these children return.
We have seen them and visited them
all over Maine. The quaint old vii
lagos are quiet and quaint still. There
may have been a few changes but not
many. There is still the village green
or common, the old church, the post
Office. Il few stores and the Nblack-
smiths shop. Up there on that rather
steep hillside is the residence Of the vii
lage doctor; here is the Old parsonage
and across the street is the modest lit
tie building so long occupied as Il law
office by Il plain village squire VINO
afterwards became a member of Con-
gress although he never lost his plain,
simple character or the love and re-
spcct of his townsmen and other con-
stituents. These are all here but their
sight revives only "reminiscences OF
former years for those who once occu-
pied them return not at mention OF
their names.
Then here is the old farm-fOr many
of these boys who come back at mid
summer went from the farms to the
city IL generation ago. The old farm
house is here with its spacious hall ana
famous north room: here is the big
barn where the boys used to play on
the hay: here are the big willows under
which they used to sit in the summer
evenings and tell stories and watch the
stars, and here is the same little brook
along whose shady banks they used t"
whip the babbling waters for trout. or
take long walks after the days work
was done.
The Dole boys are at home. Not all
boys who return are as rich as they,
for they are at their own home and
their dear old mother is there. Happy
and rich are they who have reached
middle life or that older period which
DIR. Holmes called 1.-The boyhoOd Of Old
age" and have yet n dear mother this
side the Paradise of Heaven. And Mrs.
Dole must be along i'm years eighty or
more, possibly-fOr the boys themselves
are no longer young, and the grand
daughters who are now young ladies
are without doubt at home with their
fathers, the boys.
All who come back to the old village
or the old farm to spend their mid
summer vacation are boys, and boys
they will ever remain. No matter how
old they are or how much older they
become, when at home for the summer
they will always be boys. In the city
they may be the eminent clergyman
and lecturer, or the distinguished
author and editor-but never mind. at
home they are simply the Dole boys:
Charles and Nate. God bless them
and all like them. They are boys still
and their mother is at the old family
mansion to welcome them ana to greet
the neighbbrs who come in to see them.
For the Dole boys are at home.
And Charles preached at the Con-
sreg;itional church on Sunday morning.
How well We remember him as Il pale
faced, sweet tempered boy, StudiouS Ill
his habits. with deep far-away eyes
and beautiful hair adown his handsome
neck. Famous though he is he has the
same fine personality, the classic face.
the cultured ways, the dignified bear
ing. a Harvard man now and the
bearer of degrees of honor and scholar
of tho nnln hnVs
when at the old home during summer.
But he preached at the Congrega-
tional church Sunday morning. And
he is a Unitarian. What a change
must have come over the members OF
that Old church and the people of that
old town. Would not the body of
Father Peet, who was pastor of that
church for 40 years turn in his grave
if he knew it? Would not the body of
sanity Downes, his fHvorile student
ANA successor. rise in his grave in as
constituent if he knew it?
The world is different shall we not
say better than ii was then" That old
church stood for the most strict tenetS
Of orthodoxy when the Dole boys and
the Savage boys were at Sunday school
there: but now it welcomes Charles
who preached Sunday morning. and it
would also welcome Minot Savage
should he De this summer one of the
boys to return home for the long vaca-
ton. Is not the world growing better.
more tolerant, more kindly, more
liberal. more truly Christian?
The boys are at home. Hundreds of
them have gone out into the world
from our Maine farms and villages and
they come home for the summer va
cation. Not all, it may be. have be-
come rich, or learned. or famous; but
all, we believe. have maintained their
love for their home and their state
they have become well-tO-dO. are res
pcctable-that grand word on which
the great Webster placed so much
StreSG-and few who have left have
ever gone to the bad.
The boys are at home and they are
all Maine boys. good boys. Yes. and
with them are the girls. Maine girls
splendid girls, noble women.
OUR BOND BROOK.