91 
 
 I
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 Ex Libris 
 
 Katharine F. Richmond 
 
 and 
 Henry C. Fall
 
 OLD HOME WEEK 
 
 ADDRESSES, 
 
 BY 
 
 GOVERNOR FRANK W. ROLLINS. 
 
 19OO. 
 
 I'RIYATI.LY PRINTED.
 
 THE RUMKORD PRESS, 
 CONCORD, N". H.
 
 F 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 INVITATION v 
 
 ADDRESS AT ROLLINSFORD i 
 
 ADDRESS AT SALEM 17 
 
 ADDRESS AT NORTH WOODSTOCK ... 29 
 
 ADDRESS AT HANOVER 45 
 
 ADDRESS AT CONCORD 67 
 
 ADDRESS AT MONT VERNON . . . -83 
 ADDRESS AT NEW IPSWICH .... 97 
 ADDRESS AT PORTLAND, MAINE . . .117
 
 INVITATION. 
 
 Old Home Week in New Hampshire will be cele- 
 brated August nth to August i8th, 1900, and it gives 
 me unqualified pleasure to invite all absent sons and 
 daughters of the State and all who have some time 
 lived within its borders, to return during that week 
 and assist us in kindling the fires of State patriotism. 
 The busy cities, the thriving villages, the little towns 
 and hamlets among our smiling hills, will receive our 
 visitors with genuine New Hampshire hospitality. 
 The custom of observing Old Home Week was inau- 
 gurated last year with complete success. Many thou- 
 sand of New Hampshire's absent children returned, 
 and it is expected that the number will be greatly 
 increased this year. 
 
 That Old Home Week appealed to the highest senti- 
 ments and aroused feelings long dormant was shown 
 by hundreds of poems, sonnets, songs, and marches 
 dedicated to our State, by historical addresses and 
 articles of interest and value, and by orations of great 
 ability. The endowment of libraries, the erection of 
 public buildings, the awakened interest in village 
 improvement and better highways, the repurchasing of 
 the old homesteads and farms, afford proof that the 
 festival also appealed to the practical side of men's 
 natures. 
 
 Absent sons and daughters of the Granite State, no
 
 VI JNVITA riON, 
 
 matter what success has crowned your efforts in your 
 adopted home, remember that the " precious dust of 
 your kindred is here." No matter how dark the 
 clouds about you, remember that " the staid Doric 
 meeting-house prays for you yet." 
 
 " Which one of her own can a mother forget ? 
 My heart is not granite : I long for you yet. 
 From my watch-towers of hills I have viewed you afar, 
 Wherever the toils of humanity are ; 
 My heart is not granite : I long you to see ; 
 O children, my children, come home once to me ! " 
 
 Given at the Council Chamber in Concord, this fifteenth 
 day of June, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 nine hundred, and of the Independence of the 
 United States of America the one hundred and 
 twenty-fourth. 
 
 FRANK W. ROLLINS, 
 
 Governor.
 
 ROLLINSFORD, 
 
 AUGUST ll, 1900.
 
 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES 
 
 AT ROLLINSFORD. 
 
 To come here on your Old Home Day 
 is to me almost like coming home, for 
 the Rollins family played a prominent 
 part in settling and building up this sec- 
 tion. The name is well known all through 
 southeastern New Hampshire and up 
 around Lake Winnipesaukee. The ances- 
 tral home of the Rollins family still stands 
 at Newirigton on the banks of the pictur- 
 esque Piscataqua, its goodly acres running 
 down to the sedgy shore. James Rollins 
 was a good man, a good farmer, a good 
 citizen, and his descendants have most of 
 them done him honor. From Newington, 
 from this parent stem, the family spread 
 out over southeastern New Hampshire, and 
 many came to this vicinity, my own imme- 
 diate ancestors among the number. I
 
 4 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 will not say to you, their neighbors and 
 friends, that they were good citizens. It 
 is unnecessary. 
 
 For the first one hundred years of New 
 Hampshire's history, her settled borders 
 did not extend much beyond Exeter and 
 Dover. All the life and business of the 
 state was down here in this little snug cor- 
 ner by the sea, cut up by quick-flowing 
 tidal rivers, and near the Massachusetts 
 line. People did not care to venture far 
 into the troubled wilderness in those days, 
 and even in Dover, Exeter, and Ports- 
 mouth rifle shots and scalpings were com- 
 mon. The history of those times is the 
 record of continual warfare, of midnight 
 attack, of brave defense, of heroic sacri- 
 fice, and in all this your ancestors and mine 
 played their part valiantly. Here was the 
 home of the brave Waldron, of the VVent- 
 worths, the Roberts, the Yeatons, the Pikes, 
 the Rickers, the Rollins, the Stackpoles, 
 the Clements, the Guppys, and many 
 others.
 
 AT ROLLINSFORD. 5 
 
 I love to picture in my mind's eye the 
 country about here as it was in those days. 
 Often, when I was a boy, I used to float 
 down the Cocheco or Piscataqua and dream 
 of the old Indian days. I used to imagine 
 myself one of the early settlers. I saw 
 around me, as my boat quietly swung 
 along on the tide, the great, dark forest trees 
 bending to the water's edge. I peered 
 keenly to right and left, trying to pierce 
 the depths for my lurking enemy. I 
 glanced hurriedly up each little creek and 
 bay for the redskin's canoe. I listened for 
 the breaking of a twig, the rasp of a pad- 
 dle, the warning cry of a bird. I watched 
 the tree-tops for a signal-smoke. When, 
 the forests safely passed, my boat came 
 out into the clear, open reaches of the 
 stream, I imagined myself pursued by hos- 
 tile war canoes, and heard the blood-curd- 
 ling yells of my pursuers, who were, of 
 course, always left far behind by my tre- 
 mendous strength and wonderful skill with 
 the paddle. Generally, I found time
 
 6 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 to drop my paddle for a moment while my 
 trusty rifle laid low an Indian here and 
 there. Sometimes a party of settlers, 
 alarmed by the shots, would come speed- 
 ing out of one of the numerous rivers 
 which pour into the Piscataqua (and which 
 make it so fascinating to a boy) , and, with 
 my valiant and very necessary assistance, 
 turn the tables on the blood-thirsty sav- 
 ages, and we would return to the log- 
 cabined settlement with canoe loads of 
 tightly-bound warriors, grinning diaboli- 
 cally through their war-paint. But these 
 were the dreams of long ago the dreams 
 of boyhood the fairy land of youth. I 
 possessed Aladdin's lamp in those days, 
 and it always answered my rubbing. What 
 a beautiful world it is to the imaginative 
 boy ! What visions he can summon at 
 command ! What deeds he can perform ! 
 What ideals he can raise ! Take from us 
 everything but leave us the happy memo- 
 ries of our youth, the day-dreams of boy- 
 hood, the castles in Spain.
 
 A T ROLLINSFORD. 7 
 
 The bright summer days of my boy- 
 hood, those halcyon days so soon passed, 
 so dearly cherished, the like of which you 
 are gathered here to celebrate, were spent 
 over on yonder farm, which I can almost 
 see. There I learned to weed and hoe and 
 mow and rake and there I learned (which 
 was of vastly more importance to me) to 
 row and swim and shoot and fight. The 
 brook which ran through our farm ran into 
 a creek which in turn ran into the Cocheco, 
 which ran into the Piscataqua, which ran 
 into the sea, so that I felt that I was at the 
 head of navigation, and all I had to do was 
 to wade down the brook to the creek to 
 begin a voyage around the world. 
 
 It is a very pleasant thing to see that so 
 many farms in this vicinity are still in the 
 hands of the descendants of the original 
 settlers, good old New Hampshire stock. 
 Some have passed into the care of others, 
 who, let us hope, will cultivate them none 
 the less worthily. Those men, those early 
 settlers, were a strong, vigorous, God-serv-
 
 8 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 ing class of men, and they have left their 
 mark upon the community. It is a fine 
 thing to see men remaining on the soil, 
 sticking by the sacred hearthstone genera- 
 tion after generation, watching the saplings 
 which their fathers planted grow to giant 
 trees, pruning and grafting the old orchards 
 which their grandfathers set out, draining 
 the waste lands, preserving the forests, 
 making two blades of grass to grow where 
 one grew before. This, I say, is a pleasant 
 thing to see. Would it were more com- 
 mon. New Hampshire has suffered greatly 
 from the drifting away of its best-bred 
 stock to build up and open up the more 
 arable lands of the West. She has been 
 a prolific mother and now we call upon 
 her sons and daughters to return some of 
 the gifts of their birthright. 
 
 These old fields hereabouts have wit- 
 nessed strange scenes during the procession 
 of the ages. Savage Indians have crept 
 stealthily among the thick forests which 
 covered the hillsides. Keen-eyed settlers
 
 AT ROLLINSFOKD. 9 
 
 have watched the marauders from behind 
 log fortifications. The husbandman has 
 wearily, steadily toiled to bring these broad 
 acres into subjection. Lighter-hearted 
 scenes, too, have had their place the 
 apple-paring, the corn-husking, the barn- 
 raising, the dance and the marriage. The 
 daily round of work, pain, joy, sorrow, has 
 here had its place. Here generation after 
 generation has been born, lived its allotted 
 span of days, done its task faithfully and 
 well, and passed on to its reward in the 
 great hereafter, and now for a brief day 
 the task is yours. The sun shines for you 
 as it did for them ; the rivers run gaily to 
 the sea bearing their burdens of merchan- 
 dise, doing their part in the work of 
 mankind by turning the swift-revolving 
 wheels of industry; the fields bring forth 
 their increase to be husbanded and gath- 
 ered by your hands ; the rains of heaven 
 fall gently upon the thirsty grain ; the 
 dews of night fill the chalices of the flow- 
 ers. All is sweet and lovely nature at its
 
 10 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 best. What account will you give of your 
 stewardship? What will you hand on to 
 the next generation? Will you leave to it 
 an honored name, the untarnished one 
 given you at your birth? Will you leave 
 to it well-tilled fields, thrifty shops, at- 
 tractive homes? I believe so. But you 
 have work to do. Dangers are around 
 you insidious dangers which are little ap- 
 preciated, and which it is a thankless task 
 to call attention to. Be on your guard. 
 Depart not from the teachings of the fath- 
 ers. Remember that wealth is but a small 
 part of life and not the great desideratum. 
 I have often called attention to the beauty 
 of this part of the state in its rivers, their 
 steep wooded shores, the alluvial bottoms, 
 the stretches of marsh lands, whereon the 
 sweet grass grows, filling the air with its 
 fragrance, where the cat-o'-nine tail waves 
 its nodding plume and the blackbird has 
 its nest. With a light boat or canoe one 
 can travel for days, seeing scenes and vis- 
 tas ever new, and still never be far
 
 A T ROLLINSFORD. 1 1 
 
 from this lovely spot. There are the pic- 
 turesque woodlands about Great Bay and 
 the sharp headlands of the upper Cocheco, 
 the attractive approaches to the old school- 
 town of Exeter, the graceful sweep of the 
 Salmon Falls, the lowlands of the Berwick, 
 and finally the unique loveliness of the swift 
 flowing Piscataqua. 
 
 No wonder the early settlers were wooed 
 from Massachusetts and sought these lands 
 for their home. No wonder poets have 
 sung of them and novelists have woven the 
 airy filaments of their imagination into the 
 very history of the section. Whittier 
 loved it with a passion which only expired 
 with his last breath, and the summer 
 months always found him on our shores. 
 Edna Dean Proctor has poured out her 
 heart's best for the state of her nativity 
 and has just issued an Old Home Week 
 edition of her poems about New Hamp- 
 shire. Celia Thaxter was a part, almost, 
 of the Isles of Shoals, the embodied spirit 
 of the place, and to know and understand
 
 12 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 and appreciate those outlying buttresses of 
 our state you must read her works. 
 Thomas Bailey Aldrich makes us all chil- 
 dren again in his " Story of a Bad Boy," 
 the scene of which is laid in the fair city 
 of Portsmouth. Your own dearly-loved 
 author for she is your neighbor and al- 
 most your townswoman Sarah Orne 
 Jewett, has reached after and grasped the 
 life of the New Hampshire farmer and 
 placed it before us for examination and 
 dissection. And so I might go on, telling 
 you of the celebrated authors who have 
 found this region so entrancing, so fasci- 
 nating, that it fairly possessed them. 
 
 The ideal spot for a home, for a farm 
 especially, is near the seashore where you 
 can sit under the great elms' shade and 
 look out across the sedges, over the golden 
 sands to the sparkling sea and watch the 
 tall merchant ships go proudly by, or the 
 leaning yacht, skimming gracefully along 
 the coast. The next best place is contig- 
 uous to a tidal river where the sultry heats
 
 AT ROLLINSFORD. 13 
 
 of summer are tempered by the glorious 
 tonic saltness of the sea breeze which always 
 follows the tidal water wherever it wan- 
 ders. 
 
 There used to be famous gatherings over 
 on the old Rollins farm where I spent my 
 boyhood. As you may remember, my 
 father was somewhat interested in politics 
 and is said to have been a Republican ; at 
 least his tendencies were that way. During 
 the summer, gatherings of the faithful were 
 common. Among the faces I remember 
 seeing there frequently were Judge Doe, 
 one of the greatest lawyers and jurists 
 ever produced in New Hampshire; Col. 
 Daniel Hall, Col. Andrew Young, one of 
 the most entertaining men I ever knew, 
 Col. Samuel Fisher, Aaron Young, and 
 A. F. Howard of Portsmouth, Gen. R. N. 
 Batchelder, quartermaster-general of the 
 army, and who made such a brilliant record 
 in the war, Gen. Gilman Marston, that 
 sturdy old fighter, Gov. Charles H. Saw- 
 yer, quiet, lovable, appreciative of a good
 
 14 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 joke, Hon. J. Frank Seavey, Henry M. 
 Putney of Manchester, keen and witty, Dr. 
 Spaulding, broad, incisive, one of the great 
 men of the day, O. S. Brown, your active, 
 clear-brained townsman, Hon. W. H. Mor- 
 ton, whom your town has honored itself in 
 honoring for fifty years, and many others. 
 Many of these men have finished their 
 labors, leaving honored names for us to 
 cherish. I shall not forget, however, those 
 gatherings, the thorough discussion of the 
 burning questions of the day, the sizing 
 up of the prominent men in public life, the 
 capital stories, the scintillating wit and 
 ready repartee. I learned many things 
 which I have never forgotten. In the pas- 
 ture was a fine grove of old pines and 
 there, bubbling and boiling, was a rare 
 spring of cold water around which those 
 reunions were apt to be held. Lying upon 
 the soft pine needles in the grateful shade 
 of the overarching trees, I could look out 
 upon a little glade through which laughed 
 and tinkled a famous trout brook, and see
 
 AT ROLLINSFORD. 15 
 
 the cattle grazing contentedly on the lush 
 grass a picture I love to recall. 
 
 If I might be permitted to offer a sug- 
 gestion to you in the most friendly way, I 
 should say that what you need here most 
 of all is a little stirring up ; a little more 
 civic pride ; a little more interest in the 
 affairs and welfare of your town. You 
 need to give more attention to your roads 
 and buildings. You ought to turn out 
 en masse on town-meeting day and have a 
 voice in the deliberations of your town 
 fathers. Let the representative men of 
 the town be there to shape public opinion 
 and forward the general welfare. There is 
 no escape from the responsibility of citi- 
 zenship. You cannot, must not, leave it 
 to others. You ought to use every effort 
 to keep the young people on the farms, 
 and to try to induce others of good blood 
 to settle here. You ought to protect and 
 build up your manufacturing interests, and 
 do everything in your power to assimilate 
 and Americanize the large foreign element
 
 1 6 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 which has cast in its fortunes with this 
 community in latter days. This element 
 has brought new responsibilities and diffi- 
 culties but you must not shirk them. You 
 must meet them in a broad, catholic spirit. 
 You ought to give more attention to the 
 social life of the town ; make it more at- 
 tractive to young and old. Do away as 
 far as possible with the necessity for seek- 
 ing distraction and pleasure elsewhere. 
 You ought to jealously guard your schools 
 and rally to the support of your churches. 
 You have a little commonwealth here, 
 complete in itself. It should be your aim 
 to make it rank among the first in cul- 
 ture, thrift, honesty, Christianity, and right 
 living.
 
 SALEM, 
 
 AUGUST 14, 1900.
 
 AT SALEM. 
 
 Old Home Week has developed many 
 interesting aspects in the scant twelve 
 months since it was introduced as a fea- 
 ture of the social life of New Hampshire, 
 but none that is more gratifying to me 
 than the tendency to make the new fes- 
 tival the occasion for recognizing and 
 commemorating important events in local 
 history. 
 
 Our state has a history covering more 
 than two hundred and fifty years, which is 
 full of romance; illumined by records of 
 feats of bravery, endurance, sacrifice ; 
 memorable for strenuous effort and high 
 achievement. The instruction afforded by 
 our common schools is excellent, but I 
 wish that much more might be done in 
 the direction of teaching our girls and 
 boys what has been done right here on 
 New Hampshire soil to establish liberty
 
 2O OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 imperishably, and to make freedom secure 
 for all time. The published local histo- 
 ries cover hardly one in ten of the two 
 hundred and thirty-five cities and towns of 
 our state, and the biographical record 
 rich as it is in material is even less com- 
 plete. We have places associated with 
 great events in state and national history, 
 and with the lives of the participants in 
 those events, which would become shrines 
 of patriotic devotion if their location 
 could be made plain and their import- 
 ance signified. 
 
 I am gratified that you have brought 
 this important event in the history of your 
 ancient and honored town within the 
 limits of New Hampshire's second Old 
 Home Week, and that in all your prepa- 
 rations you have made the historical 
 element prominent. I am especially 
 gratified that you have made this the 
 occasion for setting up memorials, as was 
 done happily on Boscawen's Old Home 
 Day last year, and has since been done at
 
 AT SALEM. 21 
 
 Odiorne's Point and in Concord, where 
 the first religious service was held, and by 
 private generosity at the birthplace of 
 Horace Greeley in Amherst. Bunker 
 Hill monument tells the story of a mo- 
 mentous event in the world's history, and 
 it has its most fitting place among 
 the nation's best memorials, but it stands 
 there with all its o'er-shadowing grandeur 
 no more worthily than does the modest 
 tablet which marks the last resting-place 
 of the humblest patriot who fought there. 
 I hope to see your example followed 
 generally in our towns and cities and to 
 live to know that visitors to our state need 
 not come here and enjoy our scenery 
 without learning something of the rarely 
 interesting history which makes these 
 hills and valleys as memorable as they 
 are beautiful. New Hampshire has stood 
 well to the front in movements which 
 have made conditions better, and especi- 
 ally in matters affecting the intelligence 
 of her people, and I have read with
 
 22 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 sincere pleasure of the impetus to his- 
 torical consideration and recognition 
 which Old Home Week has given. Gov- 
 ernor Mount of Indiana by formal proc- 
 lamation called upon his people to devote 
 the last 4th of July to meetings for the 
 discussion of historical themes to the end 
 that the people might the better under- 
 stand the beginnings and the progress 
 of their communities, municipalities, and 
 commonwealth. The secretary of the 
 Ohio Historical Society wrote me not 
 long ago that their strong and energetic 
 organization proposed to adopt the Old 
 Home Week plan as a means for carry- 
 ing on its local work, and I could 
 mention other instances which indicate 
 how widely the Old Home Week leaven 
 is working. 
 
 You celebrate to-day the beginning of 
 Salem as an incorporated town, and 
 you do well to make the one hundred 
 and fiftieth anniversary of that event the 
 important occasion, which I think all
 
 AT SALEM. 23 
 
 must admit this proves to be. That act 
 of incorporation when the Salem of to- 
 day, save the old North Parish village, 
 was mostly a waste, or at least unoccu- 
 pied and unimproved, meant that from 
 that time forward through generation after 
 generation, there existed thenceforth an 
 organization possessed of certain powers 
 and charged with certain duties, the pos- 
 session of which and the discharge of 
 which make up the honorable and patri- 
 otic record of Salem for fifteen decades. 
 The establishment of town government 
 meant that the duties of citizenship would 
 be performed so far as they related to 
 routine business, and it meant also that 
 the means existed for working out far 
 weightier and more serious problems. 
 Your town government made certain that 
 the meeting-house and the schoolhouse 
 would be established and maintained, and 
 I think we can judge something of the 
 high character of the first citizens of 
 Salem from the fact that, when the parish
 
 24 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 was organized in the stockade some four- 
 teen or fifteen years before the town was 
 incorporated, a liberal sum was voted for 
 the support of preaching, and further, that 
 the Rev. Abner Bayley, who began his 
 pastorate in 1740, continued his ministry 
 here for more than half a century. The 
 town-meetings here, as in all New Eng- 
 land towns, were the forum in which were 
 discussed not only local questions but the 
 affairs of the colony as well, and, as the 
 controversy with the mother country grew 
 imminent, it was the town-meeting that 
 furnished the means for preparation, and 
 for action when action could not longer 
 be delayed. The town-meeting was the 
 place where patriotic sentiment was cre- 
 ated, and there this patriotic sentiment 
 took form in patriotic deeds. As early as 
 the 22d of April, 1775, we find Salem in 
 town-meeting considering the questions 
 of raising a proper number of men for 
 the defense of the country and making 
 provision for their pay; and two days
 
 AT SALEM. 25 
 
 later voting to enlist thirty men, to pay 
 them $6 per month, and to furnish pro- 
 vision for the enlisted men. It was this 
 ability and willingness to meet the crisis 
 with prompt armed resistance which gave 
 confidence in the final outcome of the 
 War for Independence. The towns en- 
 forced law and maintained order while 
 the administration of justice was being 
 subverted by war, and when the contest 
 was over these same town governments 
 furnished the elements of organization 
 which were needed to carry the country 
 onward to prosperity and power. The 
 heritage of the old New England town 
 with all the glory that belongs to it, be- 
 cause of the part it bore in establishing 
 the freedom of the American colonies 
 and bringing into being this best and 
 greatest of all the nations of the earth, 
 is indeed a priceless one, and you people 
 of Salem may well point with pride to 
 your one hundred and fifty years of town 
 government with its grand record of pa-
 
 26 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 triotism in all the wars this nation has 
 passed through, and of wise, sturdy, hon- 
 orable citizenship in the years of peace 
 which have followed. 
 
 Salem has a past to be proud of, and 
 there can be no question about what the 
 future has in store for this intelligent, 
 enterprising people. In her behalf I ask 
 of her absent sons and daughters not to 
 disregard the allegiance they owe to the 
 old town. New Hampshire has given 
 liberally of her children that other por- 
 tions of our common country might 
 profit by the New England training 
 which, above that of any other portion 
 of the earth, stands for common sense, 
 for courage, and for character. The 
 stream has flowed unceasingly for more 
 than a century, and I can see no sign 
 that its current is being stayed, although 
 we speak of Webster and Cass and Chase 
 and those other giants of New Hampshire 
 birth as if with their death the glory of 
 our emigrants had ceased to be. This I
 
 AT SALEM. 27 
 
 count a grand result of Old Home Week 
 that the fact has been established that 
 men and women of New Hampshire birth 
 to-day are taking an active part in the 
 struggle for peace and wealth and honor 
 which never waged more strenuously than 
 in this year 1900, and that they stand as 
 shining examples of the results of training 
 in the homes of the old Granite state. 
 We are proud of the success of our New 
 Hampshire men and women in business 
 life, in the professions, in statesmanship, 
 in all the honorable callings and occupa- 
 tions, and while we rejoice that the oppor- 
 tunities, which perhaps were wanting at 
 home, have been found in other and 
 larger states, we ask them to share some 
 of their success with those who have 
 stayed at home. We ask them to pay 
 frequent visits to the old familiar scenes. 
 If their hearts are touched to give out of 
 their ample means, let them consider the 
 great usefulness of well stocked libraries 
 in towns which cannot provide them, and
 
 28 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 the advantages of highways better than 
 those which a not burdensome taxation 
 can provide. If they seek for beauty and 
 healthfulness and peacefulness amid which 
 to spend the summer months, or perhaps 
 the years of well-earned leisure which in 
 so many cases follow successful endeavor, 
 let them remember our lakes and moun- 
 tains. You people of Salem have object 
 lessons teaching the great benefit and the 
 great pleasure which the return of absent 
 ones confers, and I am sure no commu- 
 nity more fully than yours grasps the true 
 meaning of Old Home Day, which is 
 being so happily and so wisely observed 
 here now. I thank you for the hearti- 
 ness with which you have entered into 
 these festivities, and I ask that you con- 
 tinue to make Old Home Day the occa- 
 sion for many a happy reunion and help- 
 ful interchange of experiences and aspira- 
 tions.
 
 WOODSTOCK, 
 
 AUGUST 15,1900.
 
 AT WOODSTOCK. 
 
 One hundred years ago New Hamp- 
 shire's five counties, Cheshire, Grafton, 
 Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Strafford, 
 had an aggregate population of 183,858, 
 not one half as many as the state can 
 number at the opening of the twentieth 
 century. 
 
 The only place worthy to be dignified 
 with the title of city was the state's one 
 seaport, Portsmouth, then the home of 
 two hundred sailing vessels, "the resi- 
 dence of many cultured families, and the 
 seat of a generous hospitality, of an easy 
 and agreeable and refined society." 
 Many men of good judgment enter- 
 tained the belief at that time that the 
 future progress and prosperity of Ports- 
 mouth were more assured than those of 
 Boston. 
 
 The present cities of Manchester,
 
 32 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 Nashua, Laconia, Franklin, Rochester, 
 Somersworth, and Berlin were not even 
 dreamed of then. Concord was a strag- 
 gling settlement along one street, shar- 
 ing with Hopkinton the privilege of en- 
 tertaining the legislature, but not named 
 as the permanent capital until some 
 years later. The strength of the state 
 was in its large farming towns, Exeter, 
 Amherst, Walpole, Charlestown, Haver- 
 hill, Hopkinton, Boscawen, and a score of 
 others. 
 
 The absolute domination of the Feder- 
 alist party in the state and nation was 
 drawing to an end. The electors chosen 
 by New Hampshire voted for John Adams 
 of Massachusetts and Charles C. Pinckney 
 of South Carolina for president and vice- 
 president, but Thomas Jefferson and 
 Aaron Burr were chosen. 
 
 John Taylor Oilman, distinguished son 
 of a sterling sire of the Revolution, was in 
 the middle of his fourteen years' service, 
 the longest term vouchsafed to any gov-
 
 AT WOODSTOCK. 33 
 
 ernor in the history of New Hampshire. 
 In 1800 he received 10,362 votes to 6,039 
 for Timothy Walker, another noted mem- 
 ber of a noted family. 
 
 Joseph Pearson was serving the fifteenth 
 year of his nineteen as secretary of state 
 and clerk of the senate. Samuel Liver- 
 more, jurist and statesman, was the 
 United States senator from New Hamp- 
 shire. The election sermon of the year 
 was preached by Noah Worcester. Gen- 
 eral John Stark's old age was cheered 
 by the recognition of a pension from the 
 nation. Daniel Webster was in his Junior 
 year at Dartmouth college, planning with 
 his father to allow his brother Ezekiel 
 to enter the next class. Joshua Ather- 
 ton was attorney-general, John Lang- 
 don a member of the legislature, and 
 the great Jeremiah Smith of that day 
 was judge of probate for Rockingham 
 county. 
 
 The legislature of 1800 was in session 
 at Concord from June 4 to June 16 and
 
 34 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 closed on a Monday, the governor refus- 
 ing to adjourn the houses on Saturday 
 lest some of the members might travel 
 towards their homes on the Sabbath. 
 The chief contest during the session was 
 over a proposition to charter a second 
 bank in the state, a cry of monopoly being 
 raised against the one then existent. The 
 extra charter, however, was refused. 
 
 Although the locomotive was forty 
 years away and the electric car twice as 
 many, the people of 1800 were just as 
 desirous as those of 1900 for " rapid tran- 
 sit " and the cry for " good roads " was 
 uttered with as much enthusiasm at the 
 beginning of the century as at its end. 
 
 In the two decades between 1795 and 
 1815, no less than fifty-three turnpikes 
 were chartered, and most of them were 
 built, some at a cost as high as $60,000. 
 Before 1800 three had been chartered, 
 the first from Concord to the Piscataqua 
 bridge in Portsmouth, fifty-three miles; 
 the second, from Claremont to Amherst,
 
 AT WOODSTOCK. 35 
 
 fifty miles ; and the third, from Walpole 
 fifty miles towards Boston. The fourth, 
 from Boscawen to Hanover, was begun 
 in 1800 and finished four years later. 
 
 Even before roads, in the minds of the 
 early settlers, came meeting-houses and 
 schoolhouses. The meeting-house usually 
 stood on an eminence, to guard against 
 Indian surprises. It was long and broad 
 and high, with great square pews and 
 a dome-shaped sounding-board over the 
 lofty pulpit. For the most part the 
 Congregationalist doctrine was preached 
 within its walls, though various other 
 denominations, Protestant Episcopal, Bap- 
 tist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, 
 Quaker, and Shaker, were well represented 
 in the state. 
 
 At the 1800 town-meeting in Boscawen, 
 one of the articles in the warrant was 
 to see if the establishment of a second 
 meeting-house in the west part of the 
 town should be allowed. " Father " Price, 
 in his history of the town, says: "And as,
 
 36 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 in this act, religious characters, as well 
 as others, were implicated, it, therefore, 
 became every professor of religion to 
 inquire, while exercising his legal right in 
 voting in town-meeting, Am I not violat- 
 ing the law of Christ?" 
 
 The little schoolhouses were even more 
 numerous than the big meeting-houses, 
 a half dozen, a dozen, and even more, to 
 a town. The founding of higher insti- 
 tutions of learning had been well begun. 
 Dartmouth college was pluckily fighting 
 its way, little dreaming that its entering 
 class a century later would number three 
 hundred boys. Dr. Nathan Smith was, 
 by his unaided efforts, keeping alive the 
 Dartmouth Medical school. Phillips Exe- 
 ter academy was a lusty youth, sixteen 
 years of age, and other flourishing acad- 
 emies were located at New Ipswich, Atkin- 
 son, Amherst, Chesterfield, Haverhill, and 
 Gilmanton. 
 
 The private and family life of that time 
 was Arcadian in its simplicity. The late
 
 AT WOODSTOCK. 37 
 
 Professor Sanborn of Dartmouth college 
 well says : " We can scarcely conceive of 
 a more independent, self-reliant, hearty, 
 healthy, and hopeful denizen of earth than 
 the farmer of that age. He lived upon 
 the produce of his own soil ; was warmed 
 by fuel from his own woods and clothed 
 from the flax of his own fields or the 
 fleeces of his own flock. ... So the 
 year went round, marked by thrift, con- 
 tentment, and prosperity. . . . The 
 mechanic was the peer and helper of the 
 farmer. He was itinerant, working where 
 needed and receiving for his lot the 
 products of the farm or loom or stores 
 from the larder or cellar." 
 
 The great feature of the household life 
 was the huge fireplace, large enough to 
 receive logs three and four feet in diam- 
 eter, with an oven in the back and a flue 
 nearly large enough to allow the ascent 
 of a balloon. A person might literally 
 sit in the chimney corner and study 
 astronomy. All the cooking was done by
 
 38 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 this fire, and around it gathered the family 
 at evening. 
 
 As Whittier sings : 
 
 " We piled with care our nightly stack 
 Of wood against the chimney back, 
 The oaken log, green, huge, and thick, 
 And on its top the stout backstick ; 
 The knotty forestick laid apart, 
 And filled between with curious art 
 The ragged brush ; then, hovering near, 
 We watched the first red blaze appear, 
 Heard the sharp crackle, caught the gleam 
 On whitewashed wall and sagging beam, 
 Until the old, rude-fashioned room 
 Burst, flower-like, into rosy bloom." 
 
 And what shall we say of the New 
 Hampshire of to-day? It has doubled 
 its population ; it has eleven thriving, 
 busy cities ; it has large numbers of 
 busy, prosperous towns and villages ; it is 
 grid-ironed with steam and electric rail- 
 ways ; its streams turn numberless spin- 
 dles ; great skyward pointing chimneys 
 pour forth their rolling clouds, telling of 
 ceaseless industry; distances are halved
 
 AT WOODSTOCK. 39 
 
 by means of rapid transit ; the telephone 
 keeps our friends always within call, no 
 matter how far away; our literary and 
 educational advantages are greatly mul- 
 tiplied and improved ; the means and 
 comforts of living have made vast strides. 
 Our cities show the mark of an improved 
 taste, a better knowledge of art and archi- 
 tecture ; our towns give more attention to 
 neatness and cleanliness ; but our farming 
 lands have on the whole deteriorated. 
 
 I believe there is as much money to be 
 made on the hill farms to-day as ever, if 
 they are farmed intelligently and on the 
 right lines. I do not expect our farmers 
 to live as economically as their fathers, 
 who practically lived off their land ; but 
 I do expect them to adapt themselves 
 to the new conditions which have arisen 
 and meet the new questions bravely. If 
 they do not, they must give way to alien 
 races who are coming in and who are 
 shrewd enough to see the possibilities of 
 careful, progressive, intensive farming with 
 a market at our own doors.
 
 40 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 All over the state, on mountain sum- 
 mit, by the lake shore, in the forests' 
 depths, in hotels, cottages, and camps 
 every summer thousands turn to New 
 Hampshire to repair their toil- and care- 
 worn systems. The state becomes one 
 vast sanitarium from June to December 
 and happy hearts and prolonged days 
 are the result. 
 
 As a result of its manufacturing inter- 
 ests and its summer resort interests, 
 New Hampshire is prosperous, as is evi- 
 denced by its comfortable homes, its 
 well- apparelled people, its freedom from 
 debt, its large bank deposits. Mater- 
 ially we are well off vastly more so 
 than our ancestors, vastly more so than 
 their descendants in the year 1800. 
 Whether we are better off spiritually is 
 a question much debated. I have my 
 views on the subject, which I will not go 
 into here ; but it may be proper for 
 me to say that I think we miss a little 
 in these days the rugged, down-right,
 
 AT WOODSTOCK. 41 
 
 straight-going belief, free from guess- 
 work or uncertainty, of those good old 
 days. It steered the people clear of 
 many troubles and trials. It at least pre- 
 served one day in seven as a day of rest. 
 We have substituted for it an easy-going 
 indifference, an all-accepting optimism, 
 ready to throw down all customs, rules, 
 and bars in order to preserve our own 
 comfort. 
 
 In 1800 our people were intent upon 
 getting a mere livelihood and had little 
 time for art, music, literature, or travel. 
 To-day the education given by our gram- 
 mar schools is probably superior to that 
 obtained at the colleges and academies 
 of those days. Literature has become a 
 passion, not a necessity, and travel the 
 privilege of the poor as well as of the 
 well-to-do and rich. 
 
 In 1800 Manchester was a sand hill. 
 To-day it is a great city of fifty-seven 
 thousand people. In 1800 Concord was 
 simply a village street. To-day it has
 
 42 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 twenty thousand people. Where have 
 the people to build up these and other 
 cities come from? From the hill farms, 
 from the farming towns. It is simply 
 part of the process of centralization, 
 which has been going on here as well as 
 the world over for the last hundred 
 years. The country towns and villages 
 have suffered in order that the great 
 cities might be created. Great disas- 
 ters have been caused by this process. 
 Great dangers will follow if it is not 
 checked. This has been clearly seen for 
 many years, and already many evidences 
 of its baleful effect have' appeared. If it 
 were to go on as it has latterly I should 
 almost despair of my country, for the true 
 life of man is lived upon the soil. But, 
 fortunately, the tide has turned. The eyes 
 of thinking men have been opened, they 
 are turning their steps once more toward 
 the open fields and pastures of their child- 
 hood. They are coming back to the old 
 home. Men are realizing that the life in
 
 AT WOODSTOCK. 43 
 
 cities is forced, artificial, unreal, unhealth- 
 ful, and they are harking back to first 
 principles, getting back to nature. Partic- 
 ularly is this so where there are chil- 
 dren, who always ought to be brought 
 up with their ears to the ground where 
 they can hear Nature whisper her secrets. 
 
 With this returning wave I look to 
 see great advancement in New Hamp- 
 shire. I hope to see her farms rejuv- 
 enated, her roads improved, her schools 
 made equal to the best, her churches 
 filled, her forests preserved. I hope to 
 see, through the influx of returning sons, 
 the waste places made beautiful. I hope 
 to see an intelligent system of forestry 
 introduced. I hope to see a higher cul- 
 ture. I hope to see a striving for higher 
 ideals. I hope to see less venality in our 
 politics. I hope to see partisanship oblit- 
 erated from our local and municipal 
 affairs. 
 
 These are some of the things I hope 
 for. There is as good blood, as good
 
 44 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. . 
 
 stock, in New Hampshire as anywhere 
 in the world. 
 
 We must not let it deteriorate, and 
 the leading men of the state should set 
 a high standard of precept and example 
 for the people to follow. We should all 
 remember, especially those who have 
 been endowed with good education and 
 comfortable means, that the old motto, 
 Noblesse oblige, is applicable here in its 
 full import.
 
 HANOVER, 
 
 AUGUST 16, 1900.
 
 AT HANOVER. 
 
 The object of Old Home Week is two- 
 fold : First, to renew and strengthen the 
 bond between those who have sought 
 success elsewhere and those who have 
 wooed her under the shadows of our 
 mountain peaks; second, to stimulate our 
 people to renewed efforts to cultivate 
 higher ideals, to draw out all that is 
 sweetest and best in their natures. 
 
 Last year witnessed the inauguration 
 of the custom ; and the firm intention is 
 to make it a yearly festival, occurring 
 some time in the month of August, or 
 September, as may be deemed best each 
 year. During my visits to the various 
 towns which have celebrated Old Home 
 Week, I have met many of the return- 
 ing sons and daughters; and, while they 
 all expressed great pleasure in the gath- 
 erings, the idea which seemed to me to
 
 48 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 be uppermost in their minds was that 
 it furnished an occasion when, by com- 
 ing home, they were sure to meet the 
 friends and companions of their youth 
 who had been scattered all over this 
 broad continent. They felt that here 
 was an occasion when they could come 
 back with reasonable certainty of meet- 
 ing those with whom they had gone to 
 school, and by whose sides they had 
 played and worked in boyhood days. 
 That is one great object of having it an 
 annual festival. It is unnecessary for 
 me to state that the celebration last year 
 was a complete success. It far exceeded 
 my highest expectations. I attended 
 during the week as many of the local 
 celebrations as time would permit, and, 
 without exception, they were the occa- 
 sions of thorough and heartfelt pleas- 
 ure to all present; and I have since 
 learned they have been productive of 
 much practical good to the towns and 
 to the people. I am not going to take
 
 AT HANOVER. 49 
 
 up with you at this time the question 
 of the material, or practical, benefit of 
 these celebrations to the various towns 
 and to the state, as that would require 
 more time than I have at my disposal, 
 and, further, because I like best to dwell 
 upon the sentimental side ; it appeals to 
 me with greater strength. I like to get 
 away as much as possible from the ma- 
 terialistic side. Some people doubted 
 whether we could have another celebra- 
 tion this year which would be successful ; 
 in other words, they doubted the practica- 
 bility of making it an annual festival ; but 
 the various gatherings which have already 
 been held this year, and your own splen- 
 did celebration here to-day, put the ques- 
 tion beyond doubt. It is a settled fact 
 that we can and shall have an annual Old 
 Home Week. 
 
 Furthermore, the idea has been seized 
 with avidity by some of our sister states. 
 You have all read of the magnificent Old 
 Home Week in Maine, which was cele-
 
 50 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 brated last week. From one end of the 
 state to the other towns and cities vied 
 with each other in the generosity of their 
 entertainment, the splendor of their deco- 
 rations, the excellence of their spreads, 
 and the number of returning sons. I was 
 myself privileged to be present at the 
 central celebration in Portland, and it was 
 one of the grandest sights I have ever 
 witnessed. The city was decorated like a 
 veritable fairy land with bunting and col- 
 ored electric lights. The great fleet of 
 warships in the harbor, contributed by the 
 general government, furnished a noble and 
 inspiring spectacle, both day and night. 
 The parade was one to stir the heart of 
 any American; but the thing which ap- 
 pealed to me most was when that great 
 body of Massachusetts citizens, born in 
 Maine, marched in solid phalanx by 
 the reviewing stand, each carrying a ban- 
 ner, and every face beaming with love for 
 the state of his nativity. It was a glorious 
 sight and one I shall not soon forget.
 
 AT HANOVER. 51 
 
 Other states have adopted the idea or 
 will soon do so. Ohio and Michigan 
 have taken it up in a modified form ; and 
 I am informed that Vermont is to cele- 
 brate her first Old Home Week in 1901. 
 It is unnecessary for me to say that if 
 Vermont undertakes it, it will be done 
 magnificently. I have seen the sugges- 
 tion made that the thirteen original states 
 should all, sooner or later, adopt the idea; 
 and this scheme appeals to me with 
 peculiar force. I think the suggestion 
 was made by one of the leading New 
 York papers, and I hope it will be carried 
 out. 
 
 The various ways in which such cele- 
 brations do good are too many to enu- 
 merate here. They appeal to different 
 states in different ways; but each year, 
 as these festivals multiply, the benefits 
 will accumulate, and I think it will come 
 to be looked upon as the greatest and 
 most enjoyable festival of the year. 
 
 I have said that I wished to efface in
 
 52 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 these days as much as possible the prac- 
 tical benefits to be derived. I wish to 
 speak principally of the way in which it 
 appeals to sentiment. The reason it ap- 
 peals to sentiment is, I believe, we all 
 devote too much time and too much 
 thought to purely practical things to the 
 mere gaining a living, to the accumula- 
 tion of wealth. I think I see dangers to 
 our beautiful country from the encroach- 
 ment of materialism ; and I believe every- 
 thing which we can do to cultivate senti- 
 ment (and by sentiment I do not mean 
 inane sentiment, but sentiment of the 
 highest order, of the most advanced kind) 
 I say that everything which we can do 
 to cultivate this, is to our advantage, and 
 is an offset to the dangers of materialism. 
 I am a great believer in holidays, and I 
 don't think we have any too many in this 
 country, for a holiday is a day, generally, 
 to celebrate some great event, or the birth 
 of some saint, or some good man, all of 
 which is sentiment largely ; and I believe
 
 AT HANOVER. 53 
 
 that the addition of a holiday of this kind, 
 which appeals to the best sentiment in our 
 natures, will be beneficial. Old Home 
 Week celebrates the love of home, the 
 love of kindred, the love of our country, 
 our city, our town, or our state. It cul- 
 tivates a love for Nature and of our own 
 people, and it makes it better appreciated 
 by our people by the way in which it 
 appeals to those who have not seen it for 
 many years. When we find strangers and 
 our kindred coming back and going into 
 rhapsodies over our scenery and our 
 beautiful climate, it is apt to make us 
 prize it more highly, and be more con- 
 tented and be better satisfied with our lot. 
 The tendency of Old Home Week will 
 be to draw people back to the farms, on 
 to the soil, away from the crowded cities, 
 and every man that you take away from 
 the city and plant in the country is a dis- 
 tinct gain to civilization. The true life of 
 man is lived out of doors, upon the soil, 
 where he can study the ways of plants
 
 54 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 and animals, the movements of the hea- 
 venly bodies, and get close to Nature. A 
 man can have no particular attachment to 
 a house designated by a number in a city 
 street in a row of brick structures it has 
 no identity, no significance. There are 
 no sentimental thoughts attaching to it. 
 But no matter how humble may be the 
 home in the country; with its surround- 
 ings of green grass and tall trees, and 
 songs of the birds, and babbling of the 
 brooks, it is home; it has a significance; 
 it is not, and cannot be, forgotten. In 
 such a place, no matter how inexpensive, 
 no matter how simple, one may cultivate 
 his favorite flowers ; one may see noble 
 trees spring from small shoots and spread 
 their protecting shade -over his roof-tree ; 
 he can watch for the returning of the 
 birds in the spring, and know them in 
 their habits and ways. He takes a par- 
 ticular delight in pruning and in grafting 
 his little orchards ; even the old barn has 
 a great attraction for him ; the sweet
 
 AT HANOVER. 55 
 
 smell of the hay, the deep quiet on Sab- 
 bath afternoons, the flight of the swallows 
 up among the rafters, the stamping of the 
 horses all have a meaning to him, and it 
 is perfectly possible for a man who has 
 practically lived his life in the city to return 
 once more and take up the life of his 
 boyhood and enjoy doubly these simple 
 pleasures because he has been deprived 
 of them for so many years. 
 
 The people who are coming back to us 
 now, more and more rapidly each year, 
 are taking up the old farms and rebuild- 
 ing the old homesteads, giving their chil- 
 dren the benefits of a closer intimacy with 
 Nature ; and I notice that, during the 
 winter, they find it possible to come back 
 for Christmas, or Thanksgiving, or New 
 Year's, for a week at a time, to enjoy the 
 delights of our beautiful New England 
 winters. This habit will grow upon them 
 until they find the old place is a good 
 place to stay in permanently. In other 
 words, they will reverse the order of
 
 56 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 things and make their visits to the city 
 periodically, or as infrequently as possi- 
 ble. The effect of this is going to be 
 beneficial to the resident of the city, and 
 of immense importance to the small coun- 
 try towns of our state. 
 
 It has been my idea to interest the 
 children as much as possible in these 
 celebrations, for the children, who will 
 soon be men and women, must take up 
 this custom and carry it on. In fact, we 
 seldom realize how soon the children of 
 to-day are to take up our burdens and 
 the responsibilities of life and of govern- 
 ment. They should be made to feel the 
 full value of the occasion, and an especial 
 effort should be made to appeal to what 
 is best in their natures, and to cultivate in 
 them a love of what is true, and good, and 
 beautiful in our old Granite state. 
 
 I want to see at these celebrations 
 special effort made to gather together 
 historical matter. I would particularly 
 like to see historical articles prepared for
 
 AT HANOVER. 57 
 
 such days, and essays upon interesting 
 subjects of local history. This would 
 have great significance for the young, and 
 have much to do in shaping their thoughts 
 and their future lives. It is very impor- 
 tant to teach the young the history of 
 their own locality, of their own state, and 
 their own country. I do not think suffi- 
 cient attention has been given to local 
 history in most of our towns, and perhaps 
 the publication of histories of the towns 
 of our state, which would be immensely 
 valuable in future years, would result. 
 History has always been thought to shed 
 light on the present, to point the way 
 even of the future, to be, as has been well 
 and strikingly said, " philosophy teaching 
 by example." History is a looking both 
 before and after, and to teach the young 
 the history of the noble deeds of their 
 ancestors and townspeople, to show them 
 how the commonwealth or municipality 
 has grown from nothing, is to give them 
 knowledge of vast importance, and to
 
 58 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 teach them something which has a great 
 bearing upon their own development. I 
 want to quote a passage from a recent 
 speech upon this subject by the Hon. 
 Daniel H. Chamberlain, ex-governor of 
 South Carolina : 
 
 This sense of ancestry, the reverence, as I may 
 well call it, for history, this constant looking up to 
 great things in the past, has surely been the spur 
 and inspiration of what is greatest in modern lit- 
 erature in the poetry of Wordsworth and Tenny- 
 son, the greatest names among English poets, 
 after only Shakespeare and Milton in the elo- 
 quence of Burke and Webster, unquestionably of 
 the greatest since Demosthenes. When Webster 
 replied to Hayne in that speech of which I heard 
 Abraham Lincoln say in 1864: "This war lias 
 been fought on Webster's speech in reply to 
 Hayne " it was not Webster alone who spoke ; it 
 was all New England ; more, it was the conscious 
 spirit and sentiment of our whole young nation- 
 ality ; more, even, it was the voice and will and 
 pride of all English liberty and law through all the 
 centuries since the consolidation of the English 
 monarchy under the first Plantagenet King, that 
 spoke through the heaven-touched lips of the ora- 
 tor. It was a mighty intellect, a "God-gifted
 
 AT HANOVER. 59 
 
 organ voice," penetrated, uplifted, sublimated by 
 the power of history. No other power could have 
 given us that speech that speech with "its pas- 
 sion and pathos," as a recent writer has said, 
 "its majestic rhythm and cadenced harmonies, 
 rising and sinking like a grand organ roll or the 
 thunder of the sea, and finally the magnificent sun- 
 burst of gorgeous imagery with which it ends." 
 
 And so I say, teach the children the 
 history of our towns, the history of their 
 forbears ; bring to their minds emphati- 
 cally the good deeds done by their ances- 
 tors, the hardships they endured, and 
 show them the object for which they en- 
 dured their hardships, and you will do 
 these young people among us a great 
 favor and you will help in the upbuilding 
 of our state. 
 
 I should like to say to the boys of this 
 state, and I wish I had the eloquence of a 
 Webster with which to say it and to bring 
 it home to the inner recesses of their 
 hearts, that there are just as good oppor- 
 tunities for success and for life in this good 
 old state of New Hampshire to-day as there
 
 60 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 were fifty or a hundred years ago. I do 
 not care what people say to the contrary. 
 I believe it to be a fact that if a boy has 
 the right stuff in him, he can succeed in 
 New Hampshire to-day, materially, politi- 
 cally, or in any other way, just as well as 
 he could fifty years ago. It lies in the 
 boy's hands, it is within his reach ; and I 
 wish I could do something to inspire and 
 stimulate them to make the effort. We 
 are constantly turning out boys of the 
 best calibre, who fail to see these oppor- 
 tunities near home, and use their splendid 
 abilities and their rugged constitutions in 
 the service of other states rather than of 
 this state which we all so love. Don't 
 wait for the opportunity but seek it. Read 
 biographies. There you will see how 
 men have found success, how they have 
 created success, how they have forced 
 success from the very earth itself, and 
 simply by the force of character and in- 
 domitable will. Given good health, a 
 good constitution, pluck, strong character,
 
 AT HANOVER. 6 1 
 
 and I will guarantee as much success 
 here in New Hampshire as anywhere in 
 the world. Make the occasion by your 
 efforts. No matter how small the oppor- 
 tunity may seem, put the best of yourself 
 into everything you do, and the first you 
 know somebody will grasp you by the 
 hand and pull you up on the front seat on 
 the band wagon. 
 
 The new is supplanting the old. The 
 machinery of ten years ago must soon be 
 sold to make room for something more 
 efficient. The methods of our fathers are 
 daily giving place to better systems. 
 Those who have devoted their lives to 
 the cause of labor and progress are con- 
 stantly falling in the ranks, and as the 
 struggle grows more intense, men and 
 women of even stronger hands and truer 
 hearts are needed to take the place in the 
 battle of life. You must not sit with 
 folded hands asking God's aid in work for 
 which he has already given you the neces- 
 sary facilities and strength.
 
 62 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 Privileges are handed out to you here 
 with a free hand for which your fore- 
 fathers had to toil and sweat and struggle. 
 Instead of having to travel forty miles to 
 get a copy of Blackstone, as Abraham 
 Lincoln did, you can find the best of 
 books in every town in the state, and the 
 standard works of all time can be bought 
 for a song. Instead of reading by the 
 pine torch or the tallow dip late at night, 
 you have every facility for a complete and 
 full education. Instead of having to 
 travel miles in slow coaches, or on foot, to 
 hear a lecture or see a theatrical perform- 
 ance, such entertainments and such ad- 
 vantages are every winter brought to your 
 very doors. 
 
 Do n't think because you are poor 
 that you do not have opportunities, that 
 you have no chances for success. " You 
 are on a level now," as Dr. Talmage has 
 well said, " with those who are finally to 
 succeed." Mark my words, and think of 
 them thirty years from now. You will
 
 AT HANOVER. 63 
 
 find that those, thirty years from now, 
 who are the millionaires of this country, 
 who are the authors of this country, who 
 are the poets of this country, who are the 
 strong merchants of this country, who are 
 the great philanthropists of this country, 
 mightiest in church and state, are on a 
 level with you, not an inch above you, and 
 in straitened circumstances now. Your 
 capital, your outfit, is your own good 
 heart and head and hands. An English 
 author has said that " a little gray cabin 
 appears to be the birthplace of all your 
 great men." O. S. Marden, of New York, 
 says that with five chances on each hand 
 and one unwavering aim, no boy, however 
 poor, need despair. " There is bread and 
 success for every youth under the Ameri- 
 can flag who has energy and ability to 
 seize his opportunity." If he is dominated 
 by resolute purpose and upholds himself, 
 neither man nor demons can keep him 
 down. The world always listens to a man 
 with a will in him. You cannot hold back
 
 64 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 such men as Abraham Lincoln, Garfield, 
 and many others I might name. The 
 great majority of men lack courage and 
 faith and decision, and go down as wrecks 
 instead of sailing grandly into port as they 
 might have done. 
 
 Make the best use of your time. Put 
 in the odd moments in reading. Henry 
 Wilson read a thousand books before he 
 was twenty-one. Many a man has edu- 
 cated himself in this way, and made a 
 success. Even an hour a day put in in 
 reading, or some profitable employment, 
 will produce wonderful results. If you 
 have a hobby, and a good hobby, ride it. 
 No matter what your present occupation 
 may be, or what you are forced to do, if 
 you have the inclination, or the bent, for 
 a particular thing, follow it in all the spare 
 time you can get, and sooner or later you 
 will master it and become an authority 
 upon it, and then your fortune is made. 
 
 Just think what an opportunity New 
 Hampshire boys have in this magnificent
 
 AT HANOVER. 65 
 
 college which makes its home in this his- 
 toric town of Hanover. The history of 
 this old college itself is well worth study. 
 You have opportunities right here almost 
 for nothing, which would have gladdened 
 the heart of men like Daniel Webster. 
 The Dartmouth College of to-day is far in 
 advance of the Dartmouth College of 
 Webster's time. Here are gathered to- 
 gether for your advantage some of the 
 greatest minds of this country men who 
 have devoted all the years of their man- 
 hood to study and research for what? 
 For you. Here are gathered together 
 men who have traveled the world over, 
 seeking his secrets, mastering the sciences 
 for what? For you. Here are gathered 
 together gentlemen of the best kind, of 
 the greatest rank gentlemen who have 
 made courtesy and behaviour a study 
 for what? For you. Here stands to-day 
 one of the greatest institutions of learning, 
 built up by the savings and the self-abne- 
 gations of the people built up by the
 
 66 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 strenuous efforts of self-consecrated men 
 for what? For you. Now will you not reach 
 out and take what is so freely offered you? 
 Will you not make the most of these 
 noble opportunities? Will you not con- 
 secrate yourselves to New Hampshire, and 
 while bringing success to your own name, 
 give an added lustre to the old Granite 
 state ?
 
 CONCORD, 
 
 AUGUST 17, 1900.
 
 AT CONCORD. 
 
 We are gathered here to celebrate the 
 second Old Home Week. Last year it 
 was an experiment this year it is an es- 
 tablished fact, an established custom or 
 institution. I need hardly say that it is a 
 matter of deep gratification to me that the 
 idea has met hearty recognition, and that 
 it bids fair to do so much for New Hamp- 
 shire. We were more than successful last 
 year in calling back to the old hearthstone 
 those who had wandered afar and joined 
 their fortunes to those of other common- 
 wealths. Every town received its quota 
 of returning children with wide-open arms, 
 and I venture to say that these occasions 
 were the happiest, the merriest, as well as 
 the saddest, ever celebrated in any of 
 those ancient hamlets since they were 
 hewn and carved out of the primeval 
 forest.
 
 70 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 Not all of those who returned to us on 
 Old Home Week went away again. There 
 were some here and there to whom the 
 sight of old friends, the hand-grasp of 
 early associates, the visits to boyhood's 
 scenes, acted like a magnet and they were 
 not able to withstand the pleadings of 
 their renewed youth. They have come 
 back to us permanently; have taken up 
 the old homestead, and will close their 
 eyes on the same hills which smiled upon 
 their birth. I could give you a long list 
 of such cases, and a longer one where 
 directly and indirectly the celebration has 
 resulted in good to our towns. And what 
 shall we say of the good brought to the 
 individual, to our own people? Who can 
 tell of the renewed hope, the renewed 
 courage, the broader outlook, the higher 
 ideals, inspired by the gentle optimism of 
 love and kinship? We learn that we are 
 not forgotten, that the pulse of all those 
 who are scattered over the world still 
 beats true to their native state.
 
 AT CONCORD. 71 
 
 ' ' Forget New Hampshire ? Let Kearsarge forget 
 
 to greet the sun ; 
 Connecticut forsake the sea ; the Shoals their 
 
 breakers shun, 
 But fervently, while life shall last, tho' wide our 
 
 ways decline, 
 Back to the Mountain-Land our hearts will turn 
 
 as to a shrine.' 1 
 
 Dr. Tucker said last year that every 
 state holds sovereignty over its kindred 
 wherever they may go. It seems to me 
 that this is particularly true of New Hamp- 
 shire. Am I deceived, am I overpartial 
 in thinking that the son of New Hamp- 
 shire loves his mother state more fervently 
 than the son of any other state? I am 
 not deceived ; I am not over-partial. I 
 honestly believe it is so. And it is not 
 quite clear to the outsider why it is so. 
 Most of the children reared in this state 
 have been reared among scenes of toil ; 
 their lives were not all rosy as the dawns 
 which swept over the eastern hills as they 
 drove their cows to pasture. Life was a 
 struggle, but sweetened by loving counsel,
 
 72 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 sage advice and wholesome example. 
 Then, too, while the soil was cold and un- 
 ready to give up its secrets, life was lived 
 amidst the most beautiful scenery and sur- 
 roundings. They became art lovers and 
 idealists without knowing it, and the pic- 
 tures of those early scenes and surround- 
 ings are indelibly photographed on their 
 brains and whenever they are brain-weary 
 or discouraged or ill, there comes sweep- 
 ing back this picture, and their feet turn 
 involuntarily toward the old hill farm. 
 There, they know, is peace, there is balm, 
 there is healing. There is where they 
 sought the protection of mother-love, and 
 the soothing hand, when o'erwhelmed by 
 childhood's pains and troubles, and there 
 still, although the real mother may have 
 long since passed to her well-earned rest, 
 is Mother Nature ever ready to soothe the 
 wanderer and nurse him back to health 
 and vigor. "Home" and "Mother" are 
 the two sweetest, tenderest words in the 
 English language, more dear to all true men
 
 AT CONCOKD. 73 
 
 and women than all other words, and the 
 two are intertwined and indissolubly 
 blended. You cannot think of one with- 
 out the other; so when we ask you to 
 come home, it is your mother's voice ; and 
 though she may not be here to greet you, 
 the sweet memories and dear recollections 
 will partially take her place. 
 
 " The night shall be filled with music, 
 And the cares that infest the day 
 Shall fold their tents like the Arabs 
 And silently steal away." 
 
 One of the benefits to be hoped for, and 
 indeed already accomplished, in some de- 
 gree, is a reawakening of pride. Now 
 pride is a great thing, a great incentive, a 
 great preventive, whether it is pride of an- 
 cestry, pride of locality, pride of state, or 
 pride of accomplishment.- A person, a 
 community, or a state without pride sel- 
 dom amounts to anything. Pride in the 
 individual incites to emulation of the mer- 
 itorious acts of one's predecessors, pre- 
 vents bad habits for fear of tarnishing the
 
 74 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 family name, and is a constant check and 
 " exciter." In a community it leads to 
 local improvement and municipal advance ; 
 it builds roads; it cares for the trees; it 
 provides libraries and schools, and it 
 watches over the fame of its children. In 
 the state it bands men together for de- 
 fense, or it leads them in the path of pro- 
 gress, and it arouses a healthy rivalry with 
 sister states. One of the chief troubles 
 with some of our oldest country towns of 
 late years has been that their pride was 
 dormant, sleeping. In several instances 
 Old Home Week has aroused this pride, 
 and the results have been magical. The 
 true born Yankee is as full of pride and 
 independence as he can stick and as long 
 as it is active he and his community are 
 pretty sure to go right ; but let it get rusty 
 and the results are direful. The coming 
 back of so many old residents to compare 
 the present with the past, to encourage, to 
 incite, to give the helping hand, has given 
 this pride a tonic, and stiffened some back-
 
 AT CONCORD. 75 
 
 bones which had grown lax and flexible. 
 Instead of waiting to see what will drop 
 into their laps, some of these towns, like 
 New Hampton, are reaching out eagerly 
 to grasp the rich fruits which lie so readily 
 at hand, only waiting to be plucked. 
 
 The world is ready to cheer on and as- 
 sist any one who is willing to work cheer- 
 fully himself. If we sit down and simply 
 bemoan our present troubles, and point 
 sadly to our glorious past, we shall get 
 little help or sympathy. It is a world of 
 activity, and if we would keep abreast 
 of the times, we must be up and doing. 
 We must watch the trend of events ; we 
 must seize our opportunity as it gallops by, 
 and, springing into the saddle, ride to 
 achievement. And I might add that op- 
 portunity is galloping by our New Hamp- 
 shire towns with their matchless scenery 
 and superb summer climate, all the time. 
 
 We must awake as a state, as communi- 
 ties, as individuals. We must not let the 
 golden opportunity escape us. Within the
 
 76 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 memory of most mature people present, 
 the summer resorts of the country consisted 
 of the White Mountains, Saratoga, Long 
 Branch, and a few others, and the White 
 Mountains was the leader. To-day the 
 country is full of summer resorts. Then, 
 Maine was hardly known in that capac- 
 ity. The Adirondacks were a wilderness, 
 Bar Harbor a fishing village, Atlantic 
 City a sand dune, and so on. People used 
 to drive from New York to our White Hills 
 in their own carriages. Now we have to 
 compete with new resorts all the time, and 
 not only that, but we are competing with 
 states able and willing to spend money to 
 build up that business. Massachusetts has 
 spent $3,000,000 in the last six years in 
 building magnificent roads. New Jersey 
 has spent about $800,000. Maine spends 
 annually $75,000 for protecting her fish 
 and game. New York has made a great 
 park of the Adirondacks, and of Niagara, 
 forever to be protected. What have we 
 done? Not one dollar for good roads; a
 
 AT CONCORD. 77 
 
 very small sum annually, $8,000, for the 
 fish and game, and no protection to our 
 forests. We are sitting idly by while the 
 lumberman strips us of our best and most 
 valuable asset. The great White Moun- 
 tains are being denuded and burned over, 
 and the summer tourist turns away in sad- 
 ness and disgust from loved scenes and 
 localities. This must stop. You must 
 arise in your majesty for your own protec- 
 tion, and put the heavy hand of authority 
 upon these people. Some one will say, 
 "We can't afford to spend money for 
 these things." I am tired of hearing 
 that. You can't afford not to. If 
 you had a well and it was the only well 
 available, and it was being polluted and 
 could only be saved by spending a lot of 
 money, would you hesitate, or would you 
 let your family be contaminated to save a 
 few dollars? But we are not poor; we 
 don't owe anything to speak of. Why, 
 there are many towns and cities in this 
 country with 20,000 inhabitants, which
 
 78 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 owe more money than we do. In 1905 
 we shall be practically out of debt at the 
 present rate of payment. A large por- 
 tion of the towns receive to-day from the 
 state more than they pay in state tax, so I 
 say the state tax to-day is no burden, and 
 would not be if it were three times as 
 large. 
 
 The business man who succeeds to-day 
 must push and hustle. He must advertise 
 and spend money, or he is "left at the 
 post." It is true also of states and towns. 
 What would I do? I would spend a mil- 
 lion dollars in good roads, distributed over 
 a term of years. I would give the fish 
 and game commission $50,000 a year if 
 necessary, rather than $8,000. I would 
 make a park of the White Mountains and 
 of Lake Winnipesaukee and protect them 
 from ruin. In other words, a liberal ex- 
 penditure now is the greatest economy for 
 the future. The state sold thousands of 
 acres of timber land a few years ago for 
 $25,000. What is it worth to-day? Hun-
 
 AT CONCORD. 79 
 
 dreds of thousands. We are throwing 
 away an opportunity not to be regained if 
 we do n't act soon. The purchase of this 
 timber land for a park is a good invest- 
 ment, if nothing else. 
 
 During this week from where the white 
 waves lap the sands of Rye to the pine- 
 clad forests of Canada, from the winding 
 of the Saco to the intervales of the Con- 
 necticut, there is merrymaking and glad 
 reunion. Old friends are recounting the 
 thousand incidents of childhood, valueless 
 to the world, priceless to them. Old places 
 see again the well-remembered faces. 
 Beside the ocean, in the cooling shade of 
 hillside groves, under the whispering pines 
 of the lake shore, I can see them in my 
 mind's eye. The past is renewed, the 
 present discussed, and the future predicted. 
 
 The late lamented Charles H. Bartlett 
 eloquently said : "It is often said of all 
 New Hampshire born that they carry New 
 Hampshire thoughts, ideas, and principles 
 with them wherever they go. No child of
 
 8o OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 hers ever roamed so wide as not to feel in 
 his heart of hearts that he was still within 
 the shadow of her mountain peaks. 
 
 " Out of her borders many have gone to 
 wage life's battle, but never yet one out of 
 her heart. Behind the departing she shuts 
 no door. She keeps the lamp burning in 
 the window, and builds her beacon fires on 
 all her heights as a standing, loving invita- 
 tion to come back again when ambition 
 has had her fill to be registered anew in 
 the ever swelling catalogue of her precious 
 jewels." 
 
 The homes of New Hampshire are the 
 true source of our greatness. It is from 
 these Christian homes that have gone forth 
 the thousands of men whose names are on 
 the country's scroll of fame. Their suc- 
 cess is due in no small degree to the 
 moulding of character at the hands of 
 God-fearing, God-loving parents ; to the 
 habits of industry and thrift inculcated by 
 those who knew what hardship and self- 
 abnegation meant; and to that respect and
 
 AT CONCORD. 8 1 
 
 reverence for holy things and constituted 
 authority now frequently noticeable by its 
 absence. If we would continue to pour 
 forth this stream of strong, fearless, master- 
 ful manhood, we must look to the homes 
 we must keep our standards high, our 
 ideals pure we must not allow the waves 
 of scepticism and materialism to swamp 
 our natural inheritance of steadfastness to 
 truth and our God. Let us not be ashamed 
 to acknowledge our reliance on a superior 
 being, our belief in the beautiful teachings 
 of Christ. Let us recognize our dependence, 
 and let us support the church, which is the 
 backbone of the home. Instead of spend- 
 ing our time in denominational strife, let 
 us concentrate our efforts. If the town is 
 too small and poor for several churches, 
 join hands in the hearty support of one, 
 throwing aside non-essentials of church 
 government, if necessary, for the true es- 
 sentials, the heart and core of Christ's 
 teachings through which " we live and move 
 and have our being."
 
 MONT VERNON, 
 
 AUGUST 19, 1900.
 
 AT MONT VERNON. 
 
 It was my great privilege one year ago 
 to see our first Old Home Week most 
 auspiciously inaugurated in this beautiful 
 village of Mont Vernon, as it is also my 
 privilege to meet with you again for the 
 concluding exercises of the second festival. 
 The Old Home days which have been cel- 
 ebrated within the bounds of my two visits 
 are a matter of very interesting history for 
 me, and I trust for all who are thoughtful of 
 the fame and the fortunes of the old Granite 
 state. With fifty festivals in 1899 we 
 thought a great deal had been accom- 
 plished ; with twice that number this year, 
 we ought certainly to feel that a very high 
 standard has been set for Old Home Day 
 observances in New Hampshire, or in any 
 other state. In my earliest conception of 
 such a festival I thought I had grasped its 
 full meaning and I was hopeful of its ac-
 
 86 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 complishing much for the state I love, but 
 within a scant twelve months I have seen 
 my most sanguine anticipations more than 
 realized. In groups of tens and in crowds 
 of tens of thousands the praises of the old 
 New Hampshire homes have been sung; 
 and the glad notes of the reunion anthems 
 have been echoed and re-echoed to the 
 remotest portions of this vast land wherever 
 New Hampshire's sons and daughters are. 
 Our amazement at the response to the 
 home call is not less at the number who 
 have acknowledged it as a personal mes- 
 sage than at the spirit of grateful appreci- 
 ation with which it has been received. If 
 the roll of the army of absent ones could 
 be called, name for name, the answer could 
 hardly have been more prompt or more 
 emphatic than has been the written and 
 spoken " Present " which has sounded from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the north- 
 ern boundary to the southern coast line, in 
 response to the words, " New Hampshire's 
 children." Greater loyalty for the mother
 
 A T MOA r T VERNON. 87 
 
 state with all the words imply of filial affec- 
 tion, of civic pride, of imperishable mem- 
 ories, I cannot imagine. If the only result 
 of Old Home Week had been to show the 
 grateful remembrance in which the mother 
 state is held by all her absent children, I 
 believe its mission would have been a grand 
 one. And yet this is only one phase of 
 the question. 
 
 All the lessons which might be drawn 
 from our two Old Home Weeks could not 
 be recited in the limits of such an address 
 as this, nor is it necessary to briefly refer 
 to all of them in Mont Vernon, where the 
 true spirit of the festival was divined so 
 early and so thoroughly. The manner in 
 which our people have acted the host has 
 been to the lasting credit of the state. 
 Words cannot frame heartier welcomes 
 than have been extended to all who have 
 come. Hospitality more genuine and 
 graceful cannot be imagined than that of 
 Old Home Week in New Hampshire. 
 Those who have given and those who have
 
 88 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 received have been made the better and 
 the happier by its experiences. 
 
 I am trying to avoid at this time a gen- 
 eral discussion of the Old Home theme, 
 but I am tempted to quote from an edito- 
 rial of the Nashua Daily Telegraph, a 
 few words concerning one of the many 
 benefits which I believe the festival can and 
 does confer. It says : " Not the least ben- 
 efit which New Hampshire will derive from 
 the Old Home Week will be the mental 
 stimulus which it will give our people. 
 The people who have gone from us have, 
 without doubt, advanced more rapidly 
 through their contact with the world than 
 those who have remained by the old 
 hearthstone. In coming back to the state, 
 even for the brief space of a summer vaca- 
 tion, much of this mental broadening will 
 have its effect upon those with whom they 
 come into contact. The mind of the stay- 
 at-home will be made more alert to receive 
 the new and different ideas of the visitor, 
 and out of self-pride he will make an excr-
 
 A T MONT VERNON. 89 
 
 tion which will be beneficial. If meeting 
 with old acquaintances who have found 
 other homes \* not equal to a journey into 
 the world, it is the next thing to it, and the 
 amount of pleasure which New Hampshire 
 visitors will receive from a revival of old 
 memories and a renewal of old acquaint- 
 anceships will be more than balanced by 
 the broadening influences which they will 
 have on the lives of those who have re- 
 mained with us. Outside of our public 
 schools, newspapers, and libraries, we 
 doubt if there has been any influence at 
 work among us that will produce better 
 results for our people than this Old Home 
 Week movement." 
 
 With the pleasant experiences of my Old 
 Home Day travels, which have taken me 
 into all parts of the state, I have become 
 more firmly convinced than ever that the 
 people of the New Hampshire of to-day 
 are courageous, enterprising, intelligent, 
 prosperous. The Old Home gatherings 
 with which I have mingled have been made
 
 90 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 up of men, women, and children whose 
 appearance, interest, and appreciation 
 might be compared advantageously with 
 those of like bodies of people in any state 
 in this broad land, and of course that char- 
 acterization means that no country in the 
 world can furnish a higher standard by 
 which this question of superiority can be 
 determined. I have seen the homes of 
 people of wealth, of those of moderate 
 means, and of those in humble circumstan- 
 ces, but I have found evidences of thrift and 
 contentment and happiness in all. I am 
 certain that the health-giving climate, the 
 beautiful hills, the grand mountains, are 
 appreciated by our people no less than by 
 those who tarry with us for the vacation 
 season. I know that the love of home is 
 as strong with the men and women of New 
 Hampshire to-day as it is with any people 
 in the world. I know that the spirit of 
 genuine hospitality and true fellowship 
 reigns in the villages and hamlets of New 
 Hampshire as certainly as anywhere upon
 
 AT MONT VERNON. 91 
 
 this green earth. The ties of kindred hold 
 nowhere more strongly than here ; the 
 mantle of charity rests nowhere more 
 sweetly. The welfare of community and 
 commonwealth is nowhere nearer to the 
 heart of the citizen, and no people are 
 more willing to make sacrifices for the up- 
 holding of our institutions. 
 
 I hope that on this occasion it may not 
 be inappropriate for me to say a word rel- 
 ative to the place in our communities which 
 our summer residents are filling, as indi- 
 cated to me by their most helpful participa- 
 tion in the events of Old Home Week. I 
 am sure that one lesson which the festival 
 has helped to teach us is that no class of 
 people are more earnest in seeking the 
 promotion of all good works than are our 
 summer residents, whether to the manor 
 born or children of other states. I can 
 point to many instances where the advent 
 of the summer visitor has meant generous 
 giving for public improvements which 
 make for bettered social, commercial, and
 
 9 2 OLD HOME ADDRESSES. 
 
 religious conditions, not merely for the 
 months of the vacation season, but through- 
 out the year. I have driven during the 
 past few days over as fine highways as can 
 be enjoyed anywhere, which have been put 
 in their present excellent condition through 
 the public spirit of the summer resident. 
 I have enjoyed scenes of forest beauty 
 which but for the thoughtfulness of the 
 summer resident would have gone down 
 before the axe of the despoiler with the 
 first advance in the lumber market. I have 
 been present at exercises in public halls 
 where the barn-like bareness of former 
 years has given place to adornment and 
 comfort at the bidding of the summer resi- 
 dent. I have been entertained with the 
 rarest courtesy and the most gratifying 
 hospitality in homes which would have had 
 no place within our state but for the pres- 
 ence of the summer resident. I have been 
 taken into the confidence of some of these 
 summer residents and have been told of 
 interest, attachment, and appreciation
 
 AT MONT VERNON. 93 
 
 which promise to bear rich fruit in years to 
 come. I have seen with great gratification 
 the cordial relations which exist between 
 the permanent inhabitants of our towns 
 and the class whom we are wont to term 
 our summer population, and noted signs 
 of mutual helpfulness and appreciation. I 
 have had the strongest sort of proof that 
 the prosperity of New Hampshire as a state 
 of summer entertainment is but a small 
 fraction to-day of what it is destined to be 
 if our people continue their present policy 
 of hearty encouragement and cordial co- 
 operation as I am sure they will. 
 
 I have learned to think that New Hamp- 
 shire is about ready to go out of business 
 as an abandoned farm state and to put out 
 in place of the old sign a new and more 
 attractive one, which shall let the world 
 know that the best homes on earth for 
 summer enjoyment or permanent occu- 
 pancy are for sale here, and that our peo- 
 ple so fully appreciate the advantages to 
 communities from the incoming of the
 
 94 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 class of home seekers who are making our 
 state a great summer resting-place and 
 playground, that not only is Monday a 
 bargain day, as in the great department 
 stores, but every other day in the week is 
 a bargain day as well. I make this sug- 
 gestion with full appreciation of the great 
 benefits which the abandoned farm agita- 
 tion of a few years ago has brought to the 
 state by retenanting so many places which 
 have lacked customers because the fact of 
 their existence could not be made known 
 outside their immediate neighborhood, 
 while purchasers must be sought from 
 abroad. I would have the admirable 
 work of the commissioner of immigration 
 continued along much the same lines as 
 in the past, but I would have it done with 
 especial reference to the summer homes. 
 Just now the name of home is synonymous 
 with that of New Hampshire in the minds 
 of newspaper and magazine readers far 
 and wide, and it is appropriate that it be 
 put to material use if it can be done.
 
 AT MONT VERNON. 95 
 
 Our stock of "marked-down goods" in 
 the farm line is pretty well reduced. Most 
 of the properties which it includes are 
 admirably adapted to the purposes of sum- 
 mer homes. The centralization of popu- 
 lation in the villages, nearer the markets 
 and schools and places of employment, 
 has called the families from the hilltops 
 which afford just the attractive views, the 
 bracing air, and the restful solitude which 
 those who seek to escape the stifling, 
 noisy city most appreciate. 
 
 I have learned from my Old Home 
 Week experiences to wish that we might 
 bring together for a day or two each year, 
 in some central place, representatives of 
 our great summer population for a con- 
 ference touching the questions which most 
 deeply affect the interests of our state as a 
 place of vacation homes. We are hon- 
 ored by the presence, as regular visitors 
 to our state, of many of the leaders of this 
 country in wealth, learning, and influence, 
 and all are interested in questions affecting
 
 96 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 our social, moral, and civil conditions. 
 The views of these men on the great ques- 
 tions of the preservation of our forests, the 
 improvement of our highways, the foster- 
 ing of those resources which make for the 
 pleasure of the sportsman and the nat- 
 uralist, would be of incalculable value to 
 us as a state. I know that these and 
 kindred questions interest wonderfully all 
 the gentlemen who come to New Hamp- 
 shire, and I am sure many of them would 
 gladly take from their vacation days, 
 highly prized as they are, time for such 
 a conference as I have suggested. We, as 
 a state, cannot afford to overlook any 
 measure which shall help to make their 
 stay here more enjoyable, or which shall 
 help to show our appreciation of the great 
 benefits which accrue to our state from 
 their presence with us.
 
 NEW IPSWICH, 
 
 AUGUST 28, 1900.
 
 AT NEW IPSWICH. 
 
 In the speeches which I have made dur- 
 ing Old Home Week I have tried to em- 
 body practical and helpful suggestions to 
 the people of New Hampshire. I have 
 tried to avoid any attempt at oratory or 
 bombast; and what I propose to say to 
 you to-day will be a continuance in this 
 line. I have adopted for my subject to- 
 day " The Home," which is, as has been 
 often said, " the backbone of our republic," 
 and anything which we can do to beautify 
 and build up the home and make it at- 
 tractive to our children, and a place to be 
 remembered, is of benefit not only to the 
 family but to the state and nation. 
 
 I am going to imagine myself looking 
 about for a country home. This is what 
 I would do. The first question would be 
 as to location, and I would select it near 
 some lake, pond, or river. No country
 
 100 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 home is complete without a bit of water 
 in the neighborhood. The child who 
 grows up without it has one side of his 
 nature undeveloped. It must also be in a 
 rolling country, not flat. It must have a 
 high hill or a mountain in the background, 
 for its mental and moral effect. I would 
 not want to live where I could look out 
 over all the world and look down upon 
 everything. You must have something to 
 look up to, something to measure things 
 by, a standard as it were, you must have 
 something to hide the beyond, to intro- 
 duce an element of doubt and mystery in 
 the mind. We always want to know what 
 the future has in store, what is just behind, 
 beyond the hill, and this is especially true 
 of children. To them the hill or mountain 
 covers the mysteries of the wide world, it 
 typifies the veil which hides their mature 
 life, and it is the Rubicon which they ex- 
 pect to cross when they leave their father's 
 house and plunge into the thick of the 
 battle of life. It must be in a wooded
 
 AT NEW IPSWICH. IOI 
 
 country with frequent patches and belts 
 of forest, and by forest I mean the ever- 
 green trees. Somehow or other hard 
 woods never seem to me to be natural or 
 to constitute a forest. They always seem 
 to have been planted by man and to be 
 for utilitarian purposes. There are, of 
 course, beautiful hard woods, but they do 
 not appeal to me as do the pine, the fir, 
 the spruce, and the hemlock. 
 
 Now, having made a selection of a loca- 
 tion, let us see about the house. It must 
 set well back from the street. In other 
 words, there must be a goodly piece of 
 land, and I would go where land was 
 cheap enough to have a good sized lot, 
 even if I had to go farther and sacrifice 
 some other things. It must be simple in 
 its architecture, having few and strong 
 lines, and not a jumble of roofs, breaks, 
 and corners. If the house were in a con- 
 siderable village or town I would follow 
 somewhat the lines of the old Portsmouth 
 houses, but if it were to be in the open
 
 102 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 country or on a village street, I would get 
 it more on the ground, spread it out, get 
 it closer to the earth. I would build a 
 hip or gambrel roof, or a flat one like the 
 Portsmouth houses, and I would have 
 wide, hospitable looking doors. I would 
 be very generous with my piazzas but very 
 careful as to where I put them. They 
 must not interfere with the scheme of the 
 house, nor shut off light from the interior, 
 for piazzas are really no part of a house. 
 They are merely excrescences tacked on 
 for our convenience. 
 
 I much prefer open piazzas, or terraces, 
 preferably terraces, around the house. Of 
 course they are not suitable for bad 
 weather, and they do not keep off the 
 sun ; but they are delightful at evening, 
 and give to the house an appearance of 
 solidity and an air of special dignity. 
 Such terraces should generally be made 
 of brick, with a brick or stone wall around 
 them, and perhaps be surrounded by a 
 hedge or climbing vines. And, speaking
 
 AT NEW IPS WICH. 103 
 
 of vines, I do not think that we Americans 
 fully appreciate their value, especially here 
 in New England. The English people 
 use them to a great extent, and they add 
 much of beauty and interest to the com- 
 munity. It is not difficult or expensive 
 to plant vines along our walls and fences 
 and against our houses, and in a few years 
 the results obtained are magical. One of 
 the best vines for this purpose is the Eng- 
 lish ivy, which is a very hardy plant. The 
 woodbine is common in New England, 
 and lends itself readily to such purposes. 
 The Virginia creeper also is well suited to 
 our needs, especially to stone work. I 
 myself have a great partiality for climbing 
 roses, and I particularly like to see a wild 
 riot of them sweeping up over the front 
 door or all around the front porch or 
 stoop. As I have before said, I would 
 put the house well back from the street, 
 and I would pay a good deal of attention 
 to the road or pathway by which the house 
 is approached, giving it graceful curves,
 
 104 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 making if possible a vista of trees or 
 shrubs through which glimpses of the 
 house could be seen, providing, of course, 
 that the lot was large enough for such 
 purpose. 
 
 I would like to say a few words on the 
 subject of trees. Nothing is so beautiful 
 in nature to me as a grand and stately 
 tree. My favorite is our American elm, 
 with its strong, dignified trunk, its wide- 
 spreading, noble top. It is hardy, bold, 
 and self-reliant, well suited to our climate 
 and our scenery; and whether it borders 
 the village street or dots the meadow it is 
 equally beautiful. The next tree which I 
 favor is our sugar maple. Shapely, rapid- 
 growing, magnificent in its foliage, it seems 
 to thrive best in New England and in the 
 Middle states. The Norway maple is 
 also well suited for our purposes. A 
 group of sugar maples upon a lawn is 
 particularly charming. If one wishes to 
 see the elm and the maple in their most 
 beautiful and attractive shape and group-
 
 AT NEW IPSWICH. 105 
 
 ing, he has only to come to my native city 
 of Concord, where these noble trees arch 
 over our roadways, forming long vistas 
 of shade, reminding one of some gothic 
 cathedral. I should like very much to see 
 a more common use made of the tulip 
 tree, which is well suited to our climate 
 and is rapid-growing, and I think the 
 magnolia might also be used more gen- 
 erally in New Hampshire. I am very 
 partial to the old Lombardy poplar, with 
 its slender, graceful, spire-like form point- 
 ing heavenward. A row of these at the 
 rear of a lot is very effective against the 
 sky-line. Fine effects can be produced 
 by the use of many of our fruit trees, such 
 as the apple, the peach, and the cherry, 
 particularly in the spring when they are in 
 bloom. We have not given enough atten- 
 tion to the white birch, the " lady of the 
 woods," so-called. It is one of the most 
 effective trees for a lawn imaginable, par- 
 ticularly when you can put it against a 
 background of some dark green trees or
 
 IO6 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 shrubs. A cluster of these white birches 
 produce a fine effect. I came very near 
 forgetting my old and dear friend, the 
 lilac bush. You get more real satisfaction 
 out of an old purple lilac in the early sum- 
 mer than out of any other of our small 
 trees or shrubs. There is something 
 strengthening and invigorating about the 
 odor of the lilac, and something that 
 carries you back to your boyhood. 
 
 I would be very careful as to the color 
 of the paint on my house. I should either 
 stain it some soft dark color, somewhat on 
 the reds or browns, or a cool gray ; or else 
 I should boldly adopt the old red paint, of 
 course with white trimmings, which you 
 see occasionally upon one of our old farm- 
 houses. I think a good deal is to be said 
 in favor of a white house with green blinds, 
 so peculiar to New England. It looks 
 very attractive and cool among the deep 
 greens of the country; and if one is in 
 doubt what color to use it is always safe, 
 and is, next to the dark red, the most last-
 
 AT NEW IPSWICH. IO7 
 
 ing and enduring paint you can put on. 
 Vines and climbing roses are beautifully 
 set off against a white house. The situa- 
 tion and surroundings of the house have 
 much to do, of course, with the color of 
 the paint. 
 
 It has become quite the custom to do 
 away entirely with fences ; and in many of 
 our suburban cities and small towns fences 
 are now unknown. The primary object of 
 the fence was to mark division lines and to 
 keep out stray animals ; but now that cows 
 are always enclosed and not allowed to 
 wander about, the object of the fence is 
 largely done away with. I am going, how- 
 ever, to advocate the return, not to a fence, 
 but to some kind of a divisional line, or 
 separation of place and lots, not for the 
 purpose of marking divisions, and not to 
 keep out cows, and not because I believe 
 in being exclusive, but I do believe that 
 every man is entitled to a little privacy on 
 his own home. I think he wants to be 
 able to wander about and pick his flowers,
 
 IO8 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 and sit out on his lawn without being sub- 
 jected to the inspection of the whole world. 
 In other words, I think a little privacy is a 
 good thing for everybody, and that we are 
 largely doing away with it in our good 
 democratic country. "There is a same- 
 ness about the uninterrupted stretch of 
 lawn with here and there a house set down 
 upon it very tiring to the eye. It is human 
 nature to desire to see things which are 
 half hidden." The English people are 
 very fond of their homes and of their pri- 
 vacy. They surround their places, no 
 matter how small, with a wall which is dif- 
 ficult to look over. I do not know that I 
 am in favor of carrying it so far as the 
 English do, but I certainly favor a modified 
 form. This wall is built of stone with a 
 fence covered with vines or a hedge on top 
 of it, or else it is built of brick. Frequently 
 they use a high hedge, which of course 
 answers the same purpose, and is, perhaps, 
 more beautiful. I advocate a more general 
 use of these hedges, walls, and evergreen
 
 AT NEW IPSWICH. 1 09 
 
 screens. They serve another purpose be- 
 sides that of privacy they form an effec- 
 tive background against which to train 
 shrubs and trees, and along which to plant 
 flower gardens, and are the greatest addi- 
 tion to the landscape. Walls are worth 
 having for their own intrinsic beauty, and 
 not simply because they shut off one's place 
 from the public gaze. A very pretty effect 
 can also be obtained by wire lattice-work, 
 covered with vines. "A fruit tree in bloom, 
 just showing over the top of the garden 
 wall, the breath of the lilac wafted from 
 behind the hedge, or a short vista through 
 the garden gate of a winding path and red 
 brick walls against which a row of holly- 
 hocks are peacefully blooming, make an 
 exquisite picture." 
 
 I would lay out somewhere at the rear 
 of the place, and shut off from the public 
 view, by a hedge or a wall where it is abso- 
 lutely secluded and quiet and peaceful, an 
 old-fashioned garden, with gravel paths, 
 and either a box border or a turf border
 
 110 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 around the beds. What could be more 
 restful and more peaceful than one of those 
 old colonial gardens way back behind one 
 of our old New England homes? I would 
 have it, if possible, sunk a little below the 
 general level of the surrounding ground, or 
 else I would have it on a terrace, with 
 hedges or currant bushes about it. Per- 
 haps at the corners I would have some 
 modest sized tree ; and I would have seats, 
 or a summer-house where one could rest 
 and enjoy the odor of the flowers. A 
 beautiful place for a garden is along the 
 edge of a piece of woods, if such a place is 
 obtainable, and of course, if it is possible 
 to get it near a running brook, and throw a 
 rustic bridge into the picture, it is ideal. I 
 would plant my garden with phlox, holly- 
 hocks, larkspurs, roses, sunflowers, black- 
 eyed Susans, and I would not forget the nas- 
 turtiums, asters, pinks, forget-me-nots, and 
 pansies ; I would have great beds of bego- 
 nias, petunias, mignonette, and poppies; 
 and I would especially have a bed of spear-
 
 AT NEW /PS WICH. Ill 
 
 ment, and some of the other old-fashioned 
 herbs. This garden is, of course, the par- 
 ticular province of the housewife ; but it is 
 a splendid place to which a busy, careworn 
 man may retire, and it is a particularly de- 
 lightful place in which to bring up children. 
 The odor of those flowers will last through 
 a lifetime, and is never forgotten. 
 
 In planning my home, I would have the 
 children in mind. The flower garden 
 would be partially for them, and of 
 course there should be a vegetable garden, 
 where they could dig and hoe and plant. 
 I should put up a martin-house, and try to 
 tempt those beautiful warblers to make 
 their home with me. I should also put 
 dove-cotes in the barn ; and it is a splendid 
 idea to try to interest the children in bees, 
 and in all sorts of birds and animals. It 
 teaches them to be kind, careful, and atten- 
 tive, and forms the habit of observation. 
 
 Perhaps I have said enough on the sub- 
 ject of what I would do if I should build 
 an ideal home. I might go on and amplify
 
 112 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 it indefinitely, and others could make sug- 
 gestions of great value. Of course each 
 one has his own idea of what a home 
 should be; but I am sure many of 
 these suggestions will appeal to you all. 
 Just one or two points more and I am done. 
 I feel that our New England towns and 
 villages might be very much more attrac- 
 tive and furnish pleasure and amusement 
 to their own people and to the " stranger 
 within their gates," if they would pay more 
 attention to the beauty spots which are 
 about them, frequently unknown and un- 
 cared for. There is hardly a New Eng- 
 land town or village or city which is not 
 surrounded by, or has not in its neighbor- 
 hood, little patches of forest, little strips 
 of park-like country or some eminence or 
 cliff from which a grand view could be ob- 
 tained, or some pond or lake attractive to 
 the eye. My plan is to lay out winding 
 paths to these places. It costs scarcely 
 anything to mark and lay out such paths, 
 or to keep them in repair; and if the en-
 
 AT NEW IPS WICH. 113 
 
 trances to them were marked in some way 
 and what is to be seen at the end of them 
 were pointed out, thousands would be 
 tempted and drawn into these woodland 
 recesses, and would be benefited and up- 
 lifted, not only by the physical exercise 
 obtained, but by that better hopefulness of 
 life which is inspired by close communion 
 with Nature. We should do all we can to 
 tempt people into the woods and fields, and 
 to get them out of themselves and away 
 from the cares and troubles and worries of 
 every-day life. If we could do more of this 
 we should reduce the population of our 
 asylums and sanitariums. 
 
 People in the country have a mistaken 
 notion that they must cut away the rough 
 growing trees and shrubs along the road- 
 side ; that the road looks better cleared 
 up in this way. They are probably un- 
 aware that our large cities are trying in 
 their parks to produce just this effect of 
 wildness and roughness by planting the 
 wild bushes that the country people are
 
 114 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 destroying. Nothing adds so much to the 
 beauty of the road as these green walls of 
 rough variegated bushes and plants along 
 the roadside. They should be cut just far 
 enough to leave the road-bed and a gutter 
 for proper drainage, otherwise leave them 
 intact, except here and there where you 
 want to make a vista or a view. The ideal 
 road should be, first a patch of forest, then 
 a wild tangle of roadside growth, then 
 an open piece of field or meadow land, 
 then the crossing of a brook, or the skirt- 
 ing of a pond, thus giving variety of 
 scenery and forming a restful change to 
 the eye. 
 
 The people of every town should be 
 banded together to do away with roadside 
 advertising. An effort should be made to 
 prohibit it through the legislature. These 
 great advertisements of - sarsaparilla, 
 or somebody's cherry pectoral that stare 
 you in the face from every barn and fence 
 and which disfigure every rock, are an 
 outrage and reproach. It is simply our
 
 AT NEW IPSWICH. 115 
 
 good-nature that permits it. The few dol- 
 lars which the farmer gets for allowing 
 such advertisements on his buildings are 
 more than counterbalanced by injury to 
 the landscape, which is after all a more 
 valuable asset to him than the small 
 amount he gets from the advertising. If 
 the people of a town choose to do it they 
 could make it exceedingly unpleasant for 
 any man who comes to decorate their 
 fences and buildings in this manner. I 
 would make the air very uncongenial, and 
 I believe that a determined effort ought to 
 be started, not only to prevent the further 
 disfigurement of our state, but to remove 
 those advertisements which are already in 
 existence. 
 
 I fear that I have overstepped the 
 bounds of this rambling speech ; but it 
 may possibly give some suggestion to 
 those in search of a home, or it may be 
 of some slight value to those who have 
 homes in which there are possibilities for 
 change and improvement. If any sugges-
 
 Il6 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 tion of mine shall be of benefit to our 
 people, or our state, I shall be amply sat- 
 isfied. 
 
 I thank you all for the very generous 
 reception which you have given me, and I 
 wish to here testify to the abundant hos- 
 pitality with which I have always been 
 treated by the people of the state of New 
 Hampshire.
 
 PORTLAND, MAINE, 
 
 AUGUST 7, 1900.
 
 AT PORTLAND, MAINE. 
 
 I take the greatest possible pleasure in 
 being present on this occasion. Imitation 
 is said to be the sincerest flattery, and 
 your adoption of the Old Home Week 
 plan gratified me very much. I would 
 rather have Maine adopt it than any other 
 state. 
 
 I want to tell you a little about its suc- 
 cess in my own state. You know that it 
 was launched last year. We formed our 
 state organization, and by a little mission- 
 ary work, local organizations were started 
 all over the state. At first I was some- 
 what fearful as to the outcome. I did not 
 know how the idea would strike our peo- 
 ple, but my fears were soon dispelled. 
 From one end of the state to the other it 
 was received with enthusiasm. It needed 
 little pushing after the first start was made. 
 The grange was very helpful in the work,
 
 120 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 and took an active interest. We did our 
 preliminary work through the newspapers, 
 and by means of circulars, letters, pins, 
 buttons, stamps, and all sorts of devices 
 much as you have done it here. We had 
 an immense correspondence with people 
 out of the state old residents and would- 
 be residents and it kept our committee 
 very busy for a while. When the week 
 arrived we ushered it in with bonfires and 
 beacon lights on mountain peaks and high 
 hills flashing a welcome from Coos to 
 the sea. On Sunday the pulpits of many 
 churches were occupied by ministers who 
 had learned their first lessons within sound 
 of the village church bell, and many words 
 of value were uttered on that day. 
 
 On Monday the celebration began in 
 earnest all over the state, and kept on 
 until the close of the week. All doors 
 were open, all hearts were glad. Hos- 
 pitality was infectious. Some towns cele- 
 brated for two or three days. Personally, 
 I started in on Saturday morning and kept
 
 A T FOR TLAND, MAINE. 121 
 
 it up till the next Saturday, visiting some 
 town or city every day, and it was one of 
 the happiest weeks of my life for every 
 one was happy about me. On every hand 
 friend greeted friend old acquaintances 
 grasped each other by the hand old 
 haunts were revisited, old memories re- 
 vived. 
 
 In Concord we had our main celebra- 
 tion, as you are having yours here in 
 Portland to-day, and it was an unqualified 
 success. There was a magnificent pro- 
 cession, excellent speeches, abundance of 
 music, and fireworks closed a day replete 
 with enjoyment. 
 
 Maine and New Hampshire may well 
 make common cause of bringing the old 
 homes to the attention of the wanderers 
 who have gone away upon quests from 
 which a great majority have not come 
 back. These two states have trained their 
 boys and girls along the same true lines, 
 and have given most generously toward 
 the upbuilding of newer but now wealthier
 
 122 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 and more powerful commonwealths. Each 
 of these two states has seen the names of 
 many of its sons enrolled upon the scroll 
 which bears the record of great usefulness 
 and grand achievement in the service of 
 the nation. New Hampshire sent Sal- 
 mon P. Chase to Ohio and saw him chief 
 justice of one of the greatest judicial 
 bodies on earth, the supreme court of 
 the United States ; Illinois allured from 
 Maine, and the nation took from Illinois, 
 a most worthy successor to the long line 
 of eminent jurists, Chief Justice Melville W. 
 Fuller, your honored guest. New Hamp- 
 shire gave to Michigan that great senator, 
 ambassador, and cabinet officer, Lewis 
 Cass; Maine furnished Illinois with that 
 noted congressman, governor, and embas- 
 sador, Elihu B. Washburne. 
 
 Zachariah Chandler, a son of New 
 Hampshire, sat \\ President Grant's cabi- 
 net with Lot M. Morrill, a son of Maine. 
 We are proud of the fact that Henry 
 Wilson, of humble New Hampshire birth,
 
 AT PORTLAND, MAINE. 123 
 
 became vice-president of the United 
 States ; Hannibal Hamlin brought honor 
 to your state in the same high office. It 
 was a son of my state, John A. Dix, who, 
 with the fortitude of a Spartan general, 
 gave the order: " If any man attempts to 
 haul down the American flag, shoot him 
 on the spot." With a chivalry worthy of 
 Sir Philip Sidney, your soldier-scholar, 
 Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlin, commanded 
 his soldiers to present arms before their 
 vanquished foe at Appomattox. Under 
 the secretaryship of William E. Chandler, 
 a son of New Hampshire, the United 
 States navy took on new strength ; it won 
 imperishable glory under Secretary John 
 D. Long, a son of Maine. Our Daniel 
 Webster was the greatest expounder of 
 constitutional law ; the greatest expounder 
 of parliamentary law is your Thomas B. 
 Reed. New Hampshire gave the nation 
 a president, Franklin Pierce, her son ; 
 Maine offered the nation the peer of all 
 the chief magistrates, her adopted son, 
 James G. Elaine.
 
 124 OLD H( > ME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 These two states possess, in a remarka- 
 ble degree, similar attractiveness of sea- 
 shore and mountain, of field and forest, 
 which draws hither an annually increas- 
 ing throng, who find rest, and health, 
 and pleasure which no other sections 
 of our great and resourceful country 
 afford in quite such generous meas- 
 ure. I know we share this monopoly 
 of superlative scenic attractiveness, and I 
 am quite sure that we have our common 
 needs as well. I suppose the old homes 
 of the Pine Tree state, no less than those 
 of our own granite hills, need the bright- 
 ening presence of the absent children 
 much oftener than it is afforded by the 
 ordinary routine of vacation visiting. I 
 presume the prosperity of your villages, 
 towns, and cities is not so abundant, or 
 the generosity of your present wealthy 
 citizens so all-encompassing, that you 
 would refuse richer endowments for wor- 
 thy educational institutions; more books 
 for the public libraries already built, and
 
 AT PORTLAND, MAINE. 125 
 
 more libraries in the places which are 
 hungry for them, and have them not; 
 more money for roads and village im- 
 provement, and public buildings than the 
 taxpayer can furnish without being 
 over-burdened. Your emigrant sons and 
 daughters would find the same enjoy- 
 ment in reoccupying the ancestral acres 
 for vacation or permanent homes, as 
 would those of my state, if once the im- 
 pulse to return could be created. In all 
 these ways, you of Maine and we of New 
 Hampshire have reason to join hands in 
 efforts to make the home call so loud and 
 so cheery and so earnest, that it will be 
 heard in the remotest haunts of the men 
 and women whose sweetest memories 
 cluster about some old farmhouse, or 
 some village home, off here in our corner 
 of New England. The public spirit, the 
 enterprise, and the hospitality of your 
 city are proverbial throughout the land, 
 but Portland has certainly surpassed all 
 former efforts, and set several notches
 
 126 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 higher the standard of successful endeavor 
 in the line of a great public festival, by 
 planning so generously, and carrying out 
 so perfectly, her first Old Home Day. 
 
 It is an old story to you all, how nearly 
 New Hampshire's first Old Home Week, 
 last year, met all expectations, but I am 
 going to trespass on your time just a 
 little longer, and name some of its results. 
 In the first place, the message of invita- 
 tion, with its assurance of a hearty wel- 
 come, was far-reaching. It was heard in 
 the miner's or cowboy's camp of the far 
 West, the cabin of the sailor, and the 
 tent of the soldier, as surely as in the 
 office of the banker in Wall street, the 
 study of the college president, the studio 
 of the artist, or the sanctum of the editor 
 and the responses which came back to 
 loved ones at home, if any remained, and 
 to some friend or Old Home Week official, 
 if all of kindred were gone, were from the 
 heart. 
 
 The message was not only heard and
 
 A T FOR TLA ND, MAINE 127 
 
 answered by words of thankfulness, but it 
 brought the welcome presence of son or 
 daughter, of brother or sister, to the old 
 hearthstone, when no other summons had 
 been heeded in years. I have in mind 
 one instance of peculiar interest, where 
 the brother, who had gone to the shores 
 of the Pacific as a " Forty-niner," came 
 back for the first time as a " Ninety-niner," 
 in Old Home Week, never to go away 
 again from the peaceful fireside on the 
 Atlantic's silvery sands. We say ten 
 thousand people heard our Old Home 
 Week call last year, but we make no 
 account, in such reckoning, of the many 
 times ten thousand of our own people 
 whose lives were brightened, and whose 
 hearts were gladdened, by the joyful 
 home-comings of so many absent loved 
 ones. 
 
 It is early yet to count our gain. We 
 know of quick Yankee trading done in 
 Old Home Week, where! y the possession 
 of homesteads reverted 10 former occu-
 
 128 OLD HOME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 pants, and communities were gainers 
 because the wealth, and culture, and in- 
 fluence of success achieved in distant 
 fields of effort were thus transferred to 
 places which needed them sadly. We 
 know of public improvements made upon 
 the spur of Old Home interest and enthu- 
 siasm. We have seen enduring memorials 
 set upon spots associated with lives or 
 events in which great pride is taken, be- 
 cause Old Home Week has created a new 
 or more concentrated interest in local his- 
 tory. If you will go with me to the quiet 
 village street of Boscawen, I will point out 
 to you, as one result of its first Old Home 
 Day, a handsome bronze tablet with this 
 inscription : 
 
 Birthplace of 
 
 WILLIAM PITT FESSENDEN. 
 Born Oct. 6, A. D. 1806. 
 
 United States Senator 
 
 From Maine for Thirteen Years. 
 
 Secretary of U. S. Treasury, 
 
 1864-1865, 
 Erected by the Town of Boscawen.
 
 AT PORTLAND, MAINE. 129 
 
 And I will show you, within a stone's 
 throw of it, other like memorials, showing 
 where General Dix was born, where 
 Daniel Webster's first law office stood, 
 and other sites of local importance marked 
 in the same generous way. 
 
 Our literature about New Hampshire 
 was greatly enriched by the contributions 
 of Old Home Day orators and poets. 
 The addresses, sketches, verses, and songs 
 which the occasion inspired, covering, as 
 they did, the range of history, romance, 
 love, and home, will have a lasting influ- 
 ence for good. 
 
 It certainly has done the state no harm 
 to " round up," as the cowboys say, the 
 present day product of her homes, and 
 compare the record which our boys and 
 girls are making to-day with that which 
 inspired the saying of long ago, that the 
 Old Man of the Mountain meant, " Men 
 made here." The Old Home roll-call 
 has shown that New Hampshire's emi- 
 grants, to-day, are leaders in the world as
 
 130 OLD I/O ME WEEK ADDRESSES. 
 
 truly as were ever the great sons whose 
 names shine so brightly on history's page. 
 It has shown that we could summon a 
 regiment of regulation size from the sons 
 of New Hampshire who are to-day 
 prominent in states and countries other 
 than that to which they owe the allegi- 
 ance of birth ; that we could pick its 
 commander from three major-generals in 
 the armies of the republic ; a chaplain 
 from some of the greatest pulpits or 
 most noted college chairs of the country; 
 a surgeon from a full score whose skill is 
 famed on two continents ; nurses from 
 some of the most gifted women of this 
 generation ; and half a hundred men and 
 women of New Hampshire birth or ances- 
 try who could furnish the sinews of war 
 to the tune of as many millions without 
 mortgaging their palatial homes in Brook- 
 line, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago. 
 All this, and more, has been shown by 
 New Hampshire's first Old Home Week, 
 and I expect the second, which will be
 
 AT PORTLAND, MAINE. 131 
 
 celebrated next week throughout the 
 length and breadth of our state, will add 
 greatly to the score. May Maine be as 
 abundantly blessed in her appeal to her 
 absent ones, " lest they forget."
 
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