News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1916-12-13

i. Ii you were the lad who lived in
town-house, you will, ! am sure,
member when the play was through
the cowboys and pirates had left
terrible gnawing right in the midd
OF you, gentle voice called, as if |
premonition, up the staircase, "Boy
aren't you hungry? Come down
And with rush which threatened lei
and crowns, down you all tumbled t
find on the pantry shelf just the kin
! of turnovers that you liked bes
big pitcher of foaming milk, and
gee! butternut candy, while like God
| dess presiding over all, stood mother
How proud you were of her. VIVA
sort of feeling of pity you had for tn
other boys whose mothers couldn'
possibly be as nice as yours.
Someone has said that "God could
MT be everywhere, so He made moth
ers," and he might have added that
in order to give mothers suitable
place in which to live, He brought to
earth as much of heaven as he dared
and called it home. Yes-and faith
er too-perhaps we called him dad"
he wasn't quite like mother, he could
MT see so far into the future as she
could, and he wasn't worth shucks at
dreaming. But, somehow, when we
had done well and he put his big hand
on our shoulder and said Good, boy,
I'm proud of your somehow we sort
of squared our shoulders and hoped
that we could always make good Old
Dad proud of us. And when we over
heard him telling neighbor about our
last scrape at school, or planning with
mother, when we were supposed to be
asleep, how he could sacrifice to send
us to school-we realized that Dad
too had big, big heart full of love
and dreams for his boy.
This picture of home, which I've
tried to paint, may for many be but
memory Of the past. The old home,
the boyhood, the mother, the father
may have long since gone. In it's
place we may have made new home,
we may now be the mother, some lad
may now call us Dad, and we may at
last know what feelings our parents
had as we consider the lad and lass
that now has been entrusted to us.
And as we realize how much the home
meant to us, our duty it is to make a
shrine of our home that in the years
to come when we have passed on, our
boy and girl may worship it as their
ideal.
I'm not sure but that the real prob
lem of the American people is the re-
construction of the home. l do not
care to enter into discussion of this,
but l would just leave the thought
with you. Is the American home of
to-day taking the place in the life of
the boy and girl that it did fifty years
ago? Is the home today really a
Z me, or sort of family boarding
house? | do not attempt to answer it,
| can only say that the downfall of |
every great nation in the worlds his |
tory can be traced to the degeneration
Of the home and home life.
You and have a wondrous heritage |
we have the memory of a hone-we
i've in a commonwealth of homes
Vermont has in the past been blessed
n being a state of simple folks living
n simple homes. No large senters are
ours to rob us of our home life, but
nestled in the bowl like valleys in lit
lie communities we have learned to
appreciate what home and Reighbors
mean. And though some Of Yer
nont's sons and daughters nay have
eft the old state, still back they come
drawn by a pull whose strength no
ther state can equal-ths pull of
lome.
l think no better ending for this
ribute to our homes, TO Vermont,
han by quoting one Of vermont's
oremost citizens, Judge Charles H.
Darling, who has had the skill to put
nto words the pride of all Vernonters.
Where Vermont Comes In.
At Tufts College alumni dinner,
iven at the University Clsb, New
1ork City, at which several states were
Charles III. Darling was
lvited to respond to the toast "Where
'ermont Comes In, and replied as
blows:
Tp where the north winds blow just
a little keener,
-p where the grasses grow Just a lit
tie greener,
p where the mountain peaks rise [
little higher,
p where the human kind draws a lit {
tie higher,
That's where Vermont comes in.
p where the SHOWS of winter last
little longer,
p where the heart beats just q little /,