The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1916-08-17
VOLUME lVlIl
MEMORIES OF MEME.

"auld lang syne" and the notice OF the
"Home Coming" celebration in st.
Nazianz on Aug. 20th and 2lst, awaken
in me thoughts of boyhood's days and
the long ago, when, care free, we at
tended the old school in district num-
Der three in that town with some 2OO
other pupils and memory got busy who
they we're, where they are, and what
each has done for the good of the
world. Every human being recalls
with delight "the happiest days OF
life", and to paint again by memorys
wand the face and form of his youthful
companions, and to realize in how many
instances the hopes and promises OF
youth, in their cases, became reaIl-
ties, or failures. No matter what sue
cess may come to one in life, no matter
what land ones feet may tread, nor
ia what assemb blage one may be, wheth-
er in the battle of life or in "hours OF
idleness;' "the heart and memory fond
ly turn to home" and youth, and early
companionship, and the days when
light hearted and care free we lived
wholly in the present, having no dread
of the past and no fear of the future
Those were the halycon days OF youth.
And as one recalls the boys and gIrls
of those days, the playmates OF my
youth, later rivals in studies taught IN
the dear old school there, and later out
in the world in the various vocatlons
of life, it is matter OF satisfaction that
only one of those hundreds ever Went
wrong. No monument more worthy OF
lasting than the we'll deserved hlgh
regard of our fellow man for us when
we are dead and gone. a thousand
times more valuable such TO me than
the most costly shaft or iron column
friendship could raise to mark my
grave. To have men say AN honest
man sleeps here, is the highest trlb'
ute mankind can pay to the dead
Would that those feelings and memor-
les could always be with us and that
the strife and sellishness OF life in striv-
ing for success and TO reach the pima
Gle. could be tinctured and moiitied 10y
those thoughts of youth and our early
companions.
These things might be in the fullest
and yet the world and life not be lack
ing in as large a measure OF individual
prominence and leadership as they
now are. Greed and sellishness rarely
bring lasting success or satisfaction to
any one, while they isolate and repel.
Life lacking friendship is truly bleak
and barren. Its richest reward is the
smiles of loved ones, or the benediction
Of some good person for some kindness
done or favor granted. Men measures
a man by his merits, not 10y his riches,
and aid and promote him by reason
thereof, rather than because OF his cold
and grasping nature. Every one loves
an unseltish child, that feeling is ever
with US n our later lives when meas
uring men, and is controlling factor
in determining our choice of associates
and friends,
The boys and girls who made up the
circle of that old school in the LONG
ago" have scattered to the four winds
of heaven, have engaged in every hon
orable avocation open to man, some
have achieYed something of name
and fame in their callings, many have
become tenants of Gods acre" each
in "his narrow bed forever laid to
sleep. Time brought other and new
friends, and relationship and duties,
but all these, even when coupled with
age, cannot blot out nor destroy the
memory of those early and happy days
of youth and boyhood, and the charmed
circle in which they were spent
Space and time will not permit tracing
auy of them personally, but our read
ers will easily recall all Of them and
truly enjoy visiting IN Imagination
with each thereof. And thus in the
minds. of all of US will the personality
of each of them be recalled and we live
over again with them those early
wears, crowded with sunshine and Joys,
with no shadows and no regrets to mar
the memories of those days and youth
ful friends. The world though large,
is small, and here and there where
least expected we meet again some Of
our childhood's chums, and in an hour
of converse live over with him those
halycon days of youth" " and home and
those dear times. Many, many years
ago Michael Baife wrote those feelings
in his poem, viz: Memory is the only
friend, That Grief can call its own.
But grief's sad hand never marked nor
dimned the exquisite joys OF childhood
nor the memory thereof and the loved
companions of those days.
St. Nazianz, the quaint village with
its odd name, founded in the early
"liftiesn by the sanity Father Oschwald
and his companions, is TO have "Home
Coming celebration next Saturday
and Sunday. Many will gather there,
light and free, TO sec and en-
Joy what the celebration may bring or
hold in store for them, many of the
younger generations of those early pio-
neer-founders will also come, and ''a
feast of reason and How of souln will