Norwich bulletin., 1909-07-07

are entombed in their work and for
gotten in their tombs."
There is no necessity, even if time
permitted. to speak of many others 70
whom Norwich is indebted, and of
whom we are proud-Mrs. Sigourney
and Mrs. Sarah Huntington for in
stance. TO be sure, one can hardly
find Mrs. Sigourneys name in a mod
ern list of American writer's, but when
they were written her memorial verses
carried comfort to many afflicted
hearts. The names of Senator Fos-
ter. Governor Buckingham and of Dam
iel Colt Gilman will undoubtedly be
mentioned in a later address.
Political Life of Norwich
The political life of Norwich, after
1920, seems to have been a steady con-
troll by the tolerationfsts until the
sturdy youth of the whig party, about
1885. Then Norwich became a whig
stronghold, until the free soilers came
to the front.
After all, the politics of the past
play but small part in our common
and separate family traditions. 10 is
of our own great grandparents. of ouf
grandfathers and grandmothers. and
of their children that we are thinking;
of the tea parties of those days, the
neighborly dropping in of evenings,
the quiet talks on shaded porches, the
strollings and whisperings of lovers
under the elms:' of the boys stealing
from pool to pool along the alder shell
tered trout streams; of their breath
less climbs up the ridges along the
line of the patridges whirring flight;
of friendly. groups about the winter
evening fireside, the leaping flames
sinking into glowing ashes, and the
lively talk broken by sympathetic
silences; of the short Saturday nights,
and long Sundays, and the goodness of
the white haired men and the sweet
ness, like the dropping rose petals in
their gardens, of our gentle grand
mothers. And later We come to the
burden of the national prohlem-of
slavery and its extension the claims
of the south, and finally the. roar of
the guns against Sumpter and the
spring to arms.
Fifty years ago Norwich's jubilee
was silent on what must have been an
undercurrent in many minis. Some of
you here present were there. We to
whom the feeling of those days is lost
in the flood of household tradition, in
mingled stories of joy and sorrow, of
| sparkling wit-for Earring notes dis
appear with the years-we prefer the
silence also
To us who have found home ties
4
dear ones many of whom we never
| saw, but whose names, flames and
| memories we love-for whom we name
our children, and to whose kind and
| steadlfast eyes. as they look down up
on us from their dulling frames, we
submit our questiohings.
| Forebears all, we greet youI We
make no promises for ourselves-we
have fallen short of what you would
have US to be. For the little we have
done, for the more we have tried to
| do. we owe much to an honorable
pride in you. our ancestors of Norwich.
If we cannot promise for ourselves, we
can undertake somewhat for our chill
dren. The tri-centennia! will see them
| returning as we have come today, and
| they viii assert a larger and nobler
influence than even we dare claim for
their down and our town, Norwich
l The audience received his address
with much applause.
Poem by Rev. Arson G. Chester.
Chairman Williams announced that
| Rev. Arson G. Chester, of Buffalo, N
". has written poem for the bicen-
tennial which was used on the official
l badge, and for this celebration he has
written another which he asked Henry
-