The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1919-07-05
TWO ADDRESSES
BROWNE D OUT BY
STREET TRAFFIC
Noise So Great Speakers We're
Heard by Few
EIN WELCOME TO SOLDIERS
James c. Colgate and Rev. T, r.
Carly Were Speakers
Father carty's Remarks


Out door public speaking on the
busiest corner in town, at high noon
on a holiday, and following big par
ade is one of the most difficult jobs
man every tackled.
The speakers know they can't be
heard, the people know they can't hear
and folks who don't want to hear and
seem intent on not letting anybody
else listen always get well up in front
to visit with each other while the
speaking is gong on,
With these few slight drawbacks the
speaking from the Putnam House bal.
cony on the Fourth OF July was car.
ried out with success. The band play.
ed two selections and John j. Hayes
presided. The speakers were Rev. T.
r. Carty and James C. Colgate. Both
spoke well and interestingly and it is
regretable that more people could not
have heard.
| Father Carty's address was intended
particularly as welcome home to the
| soldiers and sailors of the war. That
1t may reach them and be preserved
for the future The Banner reproduces
Father Carty's words, in part, which
were as follows:
On this great anniversary OF Ameri'
can independence. our fellow-country'
men, in The hamlets. villages, and
cities of the entire nation, are extend
ing cordial and woll.deserved wei
come to the young heroes who are re-
turning from service in the army and
navy of their country
Here in Bennington. ii has not been
easy to fix a previous date for this well
come, owing to the fact that the young
men did not return from service
at the same time.-but came singly or
in pairs, never in large numbers at
the same time. Our first impulse
would be to welcome each group up
on its arrival; but as this was i'm.
possible, no better day could have
been chosen for this welcome to our
heroes than this one hundred and
! forty-third anniversary OF the day on
which small but determined group OF
patriots, assembled in Philadelphia,
after enumerating the wrongs, the
cruelties and the injustices suffered by
the American Colonies, declared them
forever liberated from the rule OF
rather the misrule of England.
The long struggle which followed
engendering among the colonists that
logged, persistent. determined spirit
called the Spirit of 70" II was this
spirit that won at Ticonderoga, at
Saratoga and at Bennington, and
triumphed finally at Yorktown.
In the late war, that same spirit
was reborn In and animated the
heroes of 1918, and contributed large
ly to the winning of that series OF
victories which eliminated in the
crowning victory that made Sedan q
second Yorktown II was tho spirit
of '76 that was so splendidly exem
plified in the words of the American
commander at the battle of Chateau
Thierry who replied to the invitation
Of French general to retreat to a
safer position Retreat, why. we
have only just got here. Besides VIC
are not accustomed to retreat. We
shall attack. We are going forward.
/ And they did On they went through
that inferno of bursting shells and
lurking gas; on through the hail Of
bullets; on through wave after wave
of bristling bayonets; on through the
mazes of BeIleau Wood; on through
st. MihieI and the Argonne, where
death lurked behind every tree; on
rushed the spirit of rs, until at Sedan
the whole German army threw its
hands into the air and shouted KAN
arad."
1t was the spirit of '76 that turned
the tide of battle in the late war. II
gave new hope and new courage to the
long, wavering line from the sea tc
the mountains. We found our old
enemy fighting. as she herself express
ed it, with her back to the wall. We
helped her drive back the danger that
was all too close to her shores. We
found our friend of other days bat
tling with the enemy at the gates o
Paris. We helped her drive back the
foe, and, incidentally, repaid with in
terest, In good American blood, the
debt we owed to France for the ser
vices of such men as Rochambeau ant
Lafayette.
! 1t was the spirit of '76 that won The
war, for it injected into the fight, mer
with red American blood in thei
veins, men with the pure white o
American patriotism in their souls, ant
men with the true blue of American
bravery in their hearts. The red, white
and blue. e.-three fast American colors
which, no matter how much you drencl
: them, will never run. In all that lonl
line there were no braver soldiers
none more successful in getting wher,
they started to go, than those cloth
ed in the uniform of the United States
No imagination can picture, no his
torian can ever write down the full
record of what transpired during thos
fateful DAYS from July to November