George Carpenter or Frank Forbes growing old! It is not thinkable. Let us be young as we can; let us enjoy life, and thank God for friendships, and rejoice in the faith that when we get through here we shall not be separated, but be where we can enjoy each other's presence forever.

The President next called upon Mr. Henry B. Metcalf, who said in part:

Mr. President - I belong to the lower forms, and I ought to be quiet and listen to the big boys, just as I used to in school days. I am willing to do so now, but it would be impolite not to respond to your call. Although I live in Rhode Island, I am and shall be a Boston boy, right straight through to the end of the chapter. "Bill" Baldwin has referred to olden times, forgetting the many older gentlemen than himself who have listened very kindly to him, and I am disposed to follow him and talk about things I know of. When I think that everyone of us entered school before railroads were built in Boston, and are living witnesses to the stupendous developments which have followed, it seems like a magic dream. I cannot think it out as a fact. Here is a slip from the "Boston Courier," of June 27, 1827, written by Joseph T. Buckingham, than whom there has been no man more celebrated in journalism : "Alcibiades it is said, cut off his dog's tail that good antiquarians might not become extinct for want of excitement; some such notion no doubt moved our numerous experimental philosophers to project a railroad from Boston to Albany which every one, who knows the simplest

rules of arithmetic, knows to be impracticable, and at an expense little less than the market value of the whole territory of Massachusetts; and which if practicable would be as useless as a railroad to the moon." We have grown up since the day that one of the leading men wrote the above in relation to railroads. Friends, I am right glad to meet you, and shall keep on, as I said before, to the end.

The President then introduced Mr. Augustus Russ, who said:

Mr. Chairman, I confess I am greatly surprised; this is the first opportunity I have had to meet the Old Boys, and I thought I might come in to-night and possibly see half-a-dozen of my old mates of Fort Hill and East Street Schools, and get somewhere at the foot of the table, with a few old cronies, and enjoy this "Feast of reason and flow of soul." One or two thoughts occur to me on which I will base my remarks. One is suggested by your statement that notwithstanding the severities, the poor conditions and meagre facilities we had for education, it was your belief that the boys of that day were as well equipped for the business of the world as those of to-day. I have no doubt about it. I would like to make a bet that fifty years from now, if we assemble around this table, there will be no better representatives of the men of Boston and the brain of Boston than are present now. My only objection is, not that brother Baldwin would say it is wrong to gamble, but I am afraid there is nobody here to hold the stakes!

I have been much interested in those heart-touching words that came from brother Parkman. As Mr. Baldwin said, we might well close this meeting with the sentiment that we Old School Boys would resolve never to grow old, if we could keep always in our hearts those warming words that seemed to me to touch the cockles of every old man's heart; those words which suggested to us the mutual dependence of one upon another, the mutual power of each to contribute to the happiness of the other. That is the sentiment I would live up to if I could. I would like to have this meeting close with the resolution that we will live to aid and comfort each other in our pathway onward and upward.

After singing "Auld lang syne" the President offered this sentiment: The Association of which we are all members! may we all be on hand here next year.

EIGHTH REUNION.

THE Eighth Annual Reunion was held Nov. 15, 1887, at Hotel Vendome, President George O. Carpenter in the chair. The following list of officers, reported by the Nominating Committee, were unanimously elected for the year 1887-1888.

EDWARD H. DUNN, President.

EZEKIEL R. JONES, Vice-President.

WILLIAM C. LAWRENCE, Sec'y and Treas.

ALBERT BETTELEY, Historian.

Directors:

- James M. Shute, Levi L. Willcutt, Charles A. Morss, John W. Leatherbee, William H. Baldwin, George W. Forristall, Charles H. Allen, George O. Carpenter, Marlborough Williams.

At the close of the business meeting the company adjourned to the banquet hall. A blessing was invoked by Mr. Wm. H. Baldwin, and Rev. Dr. Smith's Hymn, Memories," was sung. At the close of the

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dinner the President said :

My dear Brothers: It is enough to make us glad and thankful that the yearly dinners of this organization are invariably well attended, when we think that every member must, by the terms of our Constitution, have passed the meridian of life. Our meeting to-night has brought together gentlemen who

well represent Boston as a city of learning, of commercial activity, progress and fame; of public spirit, and philanthropy, -in brief, a gathering which is one of the products of Boston institutions of half a century or more ago, and demonstrates that the school boys of 1837 and prior were given that careful training which they needed to enter the struggle of life and achieve the success which they are now deservedly enjoying.

The schools of fifty years ago! We did not then

have in Boston the traditional little red schoolhouses. The buildings were unpretentious but comfortable, and we managed to work as hard in them as the pupils of to-day work in the brighter, more inviting modern structures which adorn our city. In those days the bare suggestion that in the course of our lives Boston would own school property worth more than ten million dollars; that we should see erected one handsome edifice containing seventy-eight rooms and three spacious halls for public exhibitions and military drill; that cooking, dress-making and other practical studies of this kind would form a part of the regular courses, the bare suggestion that these things were possible would have appeared preposterous, yet we have lived to see them.

We who have been so fortunate as to attend regularly the social meetings of this Association are moved with sorrow to-night that some of the faces which have been dear to us are gone from our circle forever. We miss Thomas J. Allen, as genial, companionable, warm-hearted a friend as many of us have ever known, and we miss also James M. Burgess, our Vice-President, whose constant interest