Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1911-06-08
The paper From Home"

NNS H'NA"S' WHICH lS chronicles oulls
the susceptibility to its merits. and
causes US to forget that it is through
the paper from home" we keep in
touch with the ambitions and advance
ments, the diseases and distress. the
Joys and sorrows of our friends and
neighbors
This fact was brought strangely to
our thoughts the other day when we re-
celved the papers from our old home
The Tribune and The Dispatch, publish
ed at Kokomo, Indisna-containing an
account of the meeting of the Kokomo
High School alumni, of which the editor
Is an alumnus. A tender chord of men,
DRY was touched by the remarks of one
of the speakers, member of the class
of '7s, who paid tender tribute to the
memory of a sister of the writer. who
was a member of that class-a sweet
girl, whose tender, gentle sympathy
made her so beloved by schoolmates
that the mention of her name. after
many, many years at the reoccuring
oanquets of the Alumni Association.
VIII yet cause a pause in the proceed
lngs around the festal board-a tribute
TO her memory. An insight to her char
acter and deeply religious nature NAV
be found in the fact that she had taken
as the subject of her graduating ESSAY
True Rest" but before the time came
to read it she had passed to that true
and everlasting rest, which awaits those
who live blameless life.
The article in The Dispatch, although
written of the lives of strangers in a
distant State, is of enough human in
terest to touch a tender chord in the
recollections common to the life of all.
We are all enough akin in feeling to ap-
preciate the tender sentiment that runs
like delicate perfume through the en-
tire article. 1t is in part as follows:
with the joyousness of the present
and facing the big and bright future,
there was much of the olden, golden
glory of the days gone by in the ban
quet of the Kokomo High School Alum
nj society, giving glad welcome to the
class of 1911, at the Y. NJ. C. A. build
ing last night. The old faces were
there, barking back to the yesteryear.
and the boys and girls of long ago
dwelt in the mystic shadows in which
they might reach out and almost feel
the touch of the vanquished hand or
with attentive ear hear the voice that
is stilled.
The banquet hall was beautiful in
appearance with its long tables bedeck-
ed in snowy white and with its floral
'mementos, red roses. 1t exceeded in
numbers any like occasion of the alum
NJ Covers were laid for 24O.
'E. M. Souder was the toastmaster
and won the favor of the guests by rea-
son of the skillful and happy manner in
which he discharged the demands of the
! event
He introduced as the first speaker
Miss Edith johnson whose toast was
Boosters. The POSTMASTER said Miss
johnson in school had not entertained
company until her graduation, and had
never had demerit mark. Her theme
at the commencement in Kokomo had
! been Boosters" and at college, Uni
versity of Wisconsin, she had talked
upon the same subject, and at the
Alumni banquet her theme was Boost
ers."
"She sought to inspire the imaeina-
ton of the alumni, to arouse them to
the energy of important action and to
emphasize the need and desirability of a
permanent publication supported by
high school pupils and alumni alike hav
ing subscription list of not less than
600 persons. She perpetrated a pleas
ing surprise by suggesting a new high
school building, pointing out that the
thought might as we'll be entertained
although it was unofficially suggested
upon her part, as the present building
was already over-crowded, the ventila-
ton bad, and it has many defects of Sc
rious character.
1t Is but fair to Mr.. Souder to say
that he made frank confession at the
banquet table of having once robbed the
water melon patch on Judge Purdum's
farm-Judge Purdum looked wonder
fully surprised-and said that the ten
ant had peppered his anatomy with
beans and salt which honorable wounds
of war he believed he yet bore.
.
'Tn beautiful bit of poesy Mr.. Sou
der paid tribute to the days when the
heart is young, when it is filled with
simple faith and hope of the future. He
said the reason of the presence of most
of those gathered at the banquet table
was the longing desire of the heart to
commune with the days of the past. 1t
was the longing to forget ambition, the
world with its money, with its mean
ness and its wiles, and to be a school