Though years have brought their many cares To us, with duties pressed, Yet now we'll turn to youthful days, To scenes in memory blest. And as we gather here in joy Around this bounteous spread We need such memories, precious, dear, To balance hopes and fears God bless Old Boston! Guard and guide! Her future years attend! God bless her people, old and young, And health and plenty send. God bless her schools, from this time forth, As in the days long past; Send noble teachers, kind and just, And faithful to the last. Should auld acquaintance be forgot, etc. Mr. William Parkman, who was next called upon, said: I want to be excused from speaking tonight: I really feel that I am not prepared, and yet my heart is full, but I do wish to say, brethren, that I have very greatly enjoyed this occasion and the speeches which have been made. It is good for us to let the thoughts and impressions that have been given to us by our brother Smith, sink deep into our hearts. I have been exceedingly gratified with this Association, ever since I have had the honor of belonging to it, and I feel that it is good for us to carry it on, for the credit of the city in which we live. The President: - I will next call on Mr. Albert Betteley, of the Hancock School. Mr. Betteley spoke as follows: When Mr. President and dear old Schoolmates : I think of the changes we have all witnessed in this good city of Boston since our schoolboy days, it seems as if we had realized the wonders of Aladdin's lamp, and the marvels of the Arabian Nights' Entertainment. From tallow candles and whale-oil to kerosene was a few steps, but from gas to the electric light was a single bound. We have applied steam to about everything. We have printing presses that can print 30,000 newspapers an hour, and at nine o'clock in the morning we may read of an accident that has occurred in London or Paris that afternoon at two o'clock, five hours ahead of time. Our education is not being neglected. Most of us began life poor, and, perhaps few of us have obtained much of this world's goods; but we are all rich in experience. If we have been fortunate in gaining wealth, none of us have escaped without some losses. I have experienced prosperity as well as adversity: I have felt the warmth of sunshine, and been chilled by bitter storms; yet when matters have seemed at their worst I did not despair, but consoled myself with the thought that, Luck in life, if good or bad, Sometimes poor, yet always jolly. Fortune in my scale, that's pos., Never threw it more than half in ; I could never cry for laughing. Yes, old boys, I have always felt thankful that, however depressing misfortune may have afflicted me, I could say: 'Tis folly to think of life's troubles, There's always two sides to the way; For if one's in the shade, the chance doubles The President: - I will next call on Mr. John N. Barbour. Mr. Barbour said: -I am Mr. Chairman and Old School Friends: happy to be with you to-night. I did not expect that I should be here. Eighty years of uninterrupted health have been broken since I last met you, and I feel the effects. And yet I could not keep away to-night! I can well remember our friend the Mayor, when I was largely engaged in shipping; he used to come so pleasantly into my counting-room with his courteous smile, that he would get out of me all the news that I had received from Europe, before there were any steamers, long, long ago. I am happy to meet him here. But there was one thing he said about the North End boys that I do not believe: that is, that the Fort Hillers always beat them. Never! never! My father used to tell me that eighty years ago, when they had their snow forts, the North Enders would always take the West Enders' and the South Enders' forts. I used to believe that the North Enders always carried the day, and I believe it still. But I want to close with this reminiscence, which will show you how near to the Revolution some of us came. I was in State Street one day, and met three Fort Hill boys. They said, "There is a North Ender." Well, they were three to one, and I did not like it; so I stepped into a store and asked the man if I might stop there a few moments. He said, "Come in, my little fellow. What is your name?" I told him. He said, "Well, I knew your grandfather. Why, many years ago, your grandfather stood on that doorstep over there, and I stood on this step where you are now, and your grandfather said to me, 'What is the matter up there?' 'I don't know what the matter is.' there! Come, let's go up grandfather took hold of my arm, and we walked together up the street, and there was the Massacre, the first blood shed in State Street, where we now stand. You wasn't thought of? - of course not." 'Why, there is a muss up and see,' said he. Your I said, "Now will you be kind enough to take hold of my arm, and walk with me up street, and show me the spot where my grandfather, who is now gone, and you, stood and saw the dead." "Yes." He took hold of my arm and with tottering steps (he was eighty-three years of age) walked with me up there, and we stood in front of the building where the Boston Traveller " is now printed. "There," he said, pointing to it, "there is the place where the first blood was shed, and here is the spot on which your grandfather and I stood, when they were gathering up the dead." Well, you see I am here and he is gone; it only shows how near some of us were to the Revolution, and I have realized it also, when I have heard my grandmother, sitting upon her bedside, tell how she once had to take a boat with two other young women, and row across the river, carrying my father in her arms; they were liable to be shot at any moment for crossing the river. As she told the story she would get up, her eyes sparkling and say, "My grandson, those days tried women's souls as well as men's." The President: - Our next speaker is Mr. Benjamin Brown, of the Eliot School, sixty-five years of age. Mr. Brown responded briefly : Mr. President and Friends: — I am glad to meet you on this our sixth anniversary. In 1830 something of great interest occurred in Boston. It was the two hundredth anniversary of the settlement of this city, and the school children were expected to walk on the Common. I was one of that company, and I would like to know how many of them are here beside myself. (Ten gentlemen rose.) We each wore a little blue ribbon, with a representation of the tri-mountain city upon it. It was a proud day for |