Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1911-06-29


privilege, you will be surpremely happy |
In the assurance, whether your names /
live or not, that every bit of honest work |
you do will immortalize you in world |
which Is better because you lived and
toiled in It, Known or unknown to the
records of time, you will he in the com
pany of the immortal citizens OF that city
of which Longfellow sang:
Here Hans Sachs, the cobber poet
laureate of the Gentle Craft,
"Wisest of the Twelve Wise Masters, in
large folios sang and laughed.
Not thy Councils, not thy Kaisers, win
for thee tho worlds regard,
| "But thy painter. Albrecht Durcr and
Hans Sachs, thy cohbler bard.
Thus, o Nuremberg, a wanderer from
region far away
| LAS he paced thy streets and court yards,
sang in thought, his careless lay;
Gathering from the pavements Crcvice,
as a howeret of the soil
"The nobility of labor--the long pedigree
| of toll
Then there Is the immortality Of Il pur-
pose George Washington sacrificed prl-
waite interests and gave himself UP to
privation and abuse for the accomplish
ment of one object and, after eight heart
sick years, he was able to call his soldiers
before him in final review and say: at
Is done But Moses. likewise imbuod
with n lofty purpose. harrassed by dis
| loyalty, discouraged by doubters and
vexcd by weddings, struggled on for
| forty years In the wilderness. with no
| giving up. and died on Nebo's mountain
| without seeing his purpose accomplished.
But when the waters of the Jordan piled
themselves up, and the chosen people
walked dry shod over into the Promised
Land, they knew It was in fuIfillment of
their fallen leaders, half century and
more Of inhexible purpose, and thus
through purpose adhered to, Moses lives
on.
The pioneers Of the worlds great for
ward movements have seldom seen the
accomplishment Of their purposes. owen
Lovejoy died a martyr to a purpose which
found fulflnent after his death in al1
America without the stain of African
slavery. Jesus Christ walked the dolorous
road and went to His death on the cross
, but humanity keeps marching steadily
on toward the goal which 1t was the
purpose of His coming to establish The
originators Of the temperance reform
were ridiculed as fanatics and most OF
them died without seeing the sunrise OF
the day which it was their purpose tc
hasten, but now from the hll-tops of q
, dozen States and n thousand counties
+ the matin bells are ringing in the glat
morning of a day whose eventlde viii
answer with a glorious AnFelus proclaim
ing a nation forever emancipated from
bondage to the legalized saloon and thu
blighting curse of strong drink. But al
this will not come simply by the say
ing. It will come because your fxec
purposes and mine are piled high up OF
the infeXible purposes of the consecratec
: souls gone on before Your personal sue
cess will depend upon your own stabilit,
OF purpose in the career you have marke,
ont for yourself. II you succeed wher
the more brilliant fail. il will be becaus
you back up your industry with an un
swervinE purpose. This same purposefu
spirit dedicated from the highest motive
> to the service Of society VIII give you
partnership In wipng out graft. tn
| iniquity Of child-labor and the cupdit
of all selfishness. 1t may likewise Civ
you a partnership in lifting Moham
mendanism out of its fanaticism. tn
: redemption of all the nations of heath
d endom from sin, the emancipation of tn
II world from ignorance, vice and diseas,
IS and the ushering in OF the perfect da
Il which Christ wants to help us bring.
Last Of all, there is the Immortality c
;, conviction. A one-talented man wit
~ principle Is of infinitely more Value to tn
world than a ten-talented man wthor
principle. A jelly-hsh is always elusive
spineless man is political and socit
oxcrescence. A man who believe
- something which is wrong but who reall
=, relieves 1t and stands up to his belief wi
- do more for the world with his error tina
" the one who has right ideals withol
- the courageous principle to live up
-, them. I am prepared to admit that Ma
- tin Luther may have been narrow minde
-. and obstinate but, even so, he has inspire
:. more men to heroic endeavor in any sing
year since his death. than the intellectu
but shifty Archbishop Cranmer. wi
re changed his views with every new coron;
We ton, has done in all the years since
Ia quit playing the policy game in the cour
VI of English sovereigns
~ Members Of the class of 1911, you are e
- ing out into an age which demands m,
and women who put principle above pc
u who value honor above business success
st above political preferment, above soci
y position. Be slow. each. to make up 20
1s mind but do not act until you know 20
en mind. Carry the spirit Of scholarly =
* search out into the practical things
: life. Be an investigator in the affairs
~ the world. When you have reached
- | conclusion that a certain stand or Cour
~ Is right hold to 1t no matter how dire I
penalty. The world dcspises the man W
- his convictions. If there is one man aDo
-, another for whom ! feel supreme co
49,, tempt it is the pusillanmous individu
. who does something he does not wish
=, do simply because somebody else does
49, believe the whole world feels pref
,,. much the same way toward man
,,o putty. If you have certain principles hc
no to them under all circumstances whit
oy ever you may be. That man Is a pc
ira nonentity who is opposed. on general pr
.oy c.ples, to drinking but who drinks at
as banquet because, as he says, "eVerybo
az else does" and he doesn't want to Sc,
zen peculiar Why bless you, it is only
m peculiar people who stand out from t
he rest OF the world who are truly gre
ks The peculiar people are the earth's 4
or n.ortals. They have changed the C,
Of rents OF the worlds thought and acti
NV because they have lived up TO their &c
BILE victions. il is the part or prudence, no
the ever, to he on guard against the posi-