Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-04-22
.EXTOLs HOMES Of VERMONT
Rev. G.. A. Smith of Boston
Speaks at Sugar Party.
shows Why the Typical New England
Home Ia the Vermont Home-De-
scribes the joys and Tolls ~
Country Life.


subject Of an address given at the list
annual reunion and sugaring- off party
under the auspices of the Vermonters'
association Of Framingham Mass. last
week by the Rev. George A. Smith Of
Boston. He said in part:
The chief corner stone OF the state
is the hearth stone The history Of
states and nations shows that genuine
ana permanent prosperity owes it's secret
to the domesticity Of the people A no
lnadic race never outlives the third gen.
creation but the people that take root
and make habitations for their families
soon aggregate commonwealth-a
State-a nation.
Doubtless the best Illustration of the
dignity and wealth of home life is TO
he found among the English Speaking
people; and out OF fitial respect We Weld
with Hemans the historic first place to
fhe free. fair homes of England" and
We sing with Allston:
An hail. thou noble land
our fathers native soil!'
Here in New England, among the
children of dear old England, have ex-
sted since the days of Mylcs Standish
ana John Alden the best ripened products
OF homes begun long ago in the Father
land. And. IL considering the conditions
OF New England history we here to-
night believe that the Vermont home has
been the truest exponent of domestic
life on the Atlantic seaboard. we shall
not justly be deemed cgotist,c There
are reasons for il. For hundred years
Massachusetts and Connecticut. by their
unjust laws. We're vigorously intolerant
and thereby embittored the home life of
the people.
MOST TRULY AMERICAN.
Maine for long time was but a lumber
Ing camp and n lime kiln and to this
day over those immense wooded tracts.
fuily one half the state area is given
over to lumbermcn and the hunter. As
FOR New Hampshire and Rhode Island
the New England identity is partly lost
in the social amalgamaton OF the peo-
pie with the French, the Scotch and the
English who flock to these great manu-
featuring centres Vermont then. by her
geographical situation her industrial oc-
cupation and her moderate Puritansm
is the most truly American of them all
Not all these homes are ideal ones
There are some Indifferent ones: some
are positively bad. There are some dis
sipatcd fathers-alwaYs poor-who have
gulped down whole farms in the, form Of
bad whiskey. There are some mean ones
-stingy-penurious and when n Vermont
Yankee is stlngy and narrow-souod he
is little the mcancst specimen Of hui
manty on earth. But for the most part
those old homes We're and are among tho
best. and the men VIII" presided over
them are Gods nobemen
The uniducnoss of Vermont homes may
he explained by two facts One is the
almost universal productiveness OF the
soil, even to the submits Of high hills
There are no barren sands and long
drearN stretches of swamps and sterile
sand plains, such as thrust up their un-
slightly faces all over New Hampshire
and over most Of Massachusetts Rrawn
and brain are required to till the land Of
the Green Mountain State. hut when till
ed. it. is among the most pleasurabl and
profitable Of all the acres in Gods great
world garden.
WIDESPREAD OWNERSHIP.
The other thing is the Widespread in
dividual ownership Of lands and houses
In States where manufacturing interests
predominant, family life in homes is al
most unknown. Lands. houses and
everything else, except the immortal soul,
belong TO huge corporations, A tene-
ment house may be a convenient recep-
tacle for families while working at a job
n bu, ic In
a home; it is at best only place to stay
in. 1t may keep the weather ont, but IL
cannot keep the people in In Vermont,
people live in homes-7-homes that are
identified with personalities and invest
ed with human interest. Children We're
born in the homesteads where in multi
tudes of cases, their fathers and grand
fathers We're born.
They grew to maturity, some to cult
vate the same ancestral acres, some to
keep store in the village hard by some
to each i'm adjoining neishborhoods. some
to go to the academies and colleges to
qualify for various professions, many to
remove at duty's call to other States.
but all TO carry with them the life long
OF those sacred retreats among
the hills,
Then who shall hc able to recount the
tolls within those households? A house
full of children. and until comparative
~ recent times. mother must make all
their ga r1nents from their caps to their
stockings. And besides cooking for the
family. the farm or shop help must be
fed and lodged and otter washed for
This was generally done alone. Some
times there was a hired girl who often
hindered as much as she helped, Long
into the night when the household was |
asleep, did these mothers sit over a tai |
low dip or "A sperm oil lamp. mcnding |
and darning with perhaps foot upon !
the cradle-rocker 70 hush the uneasy
slumbers of sick child All this she did |
FOR us till We grew to maturity. No
wonder Coleridge said Of mother: |
"She is the hottest thing alive" Many
OF them have gone up the shining way |
to God; many are waiting in Beulah land |
for the call OF the messenger.
ABUNDANT RECREATIONS.
And If there We're tolls. there were also
abundant recreations in those dear homes |
In the long winter months while the men |