USA > Massachusetts > Plymouth County > Brockton > History of Brockton, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, 1656-1894 > Part 70
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* * Loveliest village of the plain,
Where health and plenty cheered the laboring swain ;
Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid, And parting summer's lingering bloom displayed.
Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
Seats of my youth, where every sport could please,
How often have I paused on every charm- .
The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm
The decent church that topped the neighboring hill,
The hawthorn bush, with seats beneath the shade
For talking age and whispering lovers made ; How often have I blessed the coming day When toil resulting lent its turn to play.
These were thy charms, sweet village. Sports like these, With sweet succession taught e'en toil to please."
When, however, these reillumined eyes should vainly search for "the sheltered cot and the cultivated farm " these other words of the same sweet poet would give fitting response to disappointed hope :
" Here as I take my solitary rounds
Amidst thy tangled walks and ruined grounds,
And, many a year elapsed, return to view
Where once the cottage stood, the hawthorn grew, Remembrance wakes with all her busy train, Swells at iny breast, and turns the past to pain. But times have altered ; trade's unfeeling train Usurp the land and dispossess the swain.
Along the lawn where scattered hamlets rose,
Unwieldly wealth and cumbrous pomp repose ;
Those gentle hours that Plenty bade to bloom,
Those calm desires that asked but little room,
Those healthful sports that graced the peaceful scene,
Lived in each look, and brightened all the green -- These, far departing, seek a kinder shore, And rural mirth and manners are no more, Sweet, smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
Thy sports are fled, and all thy charms withdrawn."
Fibale Keiths
757
CITY HALL.
We are not here to question the quiet ambition of our ancestry, but we may well consider the relative attainments of true pleasure and a pure life. Such examples of sturdy purpose and fixed character excite our admiration, as they should also our cmu- lation. They builded better and stronger than they knew, and made possible present prosperity.
This ceremony and this occasion mean much to this community. It is a period in our municipal experience from whence looking backward we may profitably trace the ways of primitive colonial life, on through the transition period of parish and township, from township to cityhood, and from thence through one decade under this form of government. We stand as it were at the parting of the ways. While the past is secure, what of the future ? My mind here reverts to the occasion of the organization of the city government on that second Monday of January, 1882, when the city was honored by the presence of him whom the people have always delighted to honor-His Excel- lency Governor Long -- and I have never forgotten the counsel and warning which his words conveyed. They are both wholesome and pertinent. Let me repeat them. He said :
" The history of all cities warns us that the time is almost certain to come in future years when, with the attention of your citizens withdrawn from public affairs, they will wake to find themselves afflicted with the same evils that have befallen older sisters. There will then be overturn, renewed popular interest, and added safeguards, and all will of course be well again. All progress and perfecting come from discipline. Mean- time, however, let the lessons of other municipalities warn us of the necessity of con- stant vigilance, of prudence in expenditure, of holding officials to sharp accountability, and of sustaining them when they assume the responsibility and do right in spite of all obstacles, of fearless independence in city affairs, of electing only true men, and of the application of business principles. Then shall we have the full benefit of the advantages of the city system, the growth, the activity, the generous abundance, the wholesome amusements, the literary culture, the schools, the churches, the halls, the charities, the great life of a great, well-governed and a well-governing people."
These suggestions, I am happy to say, will be supplemented and enforced by him who to day, representing the dignity of the State, shall speak to you upon the theme " Gov- ernment."
Have we then realized all these advantages of the city system ? The conditions set forth are two-fold, depending: First, upon the people in a judicious selection of officials ; second upon a wise administration of affairs under their direction. Some of these we certainly have attained. "The growth," "the activity," "the generous abundance," " the schools " and " the churches" are unquestionably ours and we to- day have laid the foundation stone of a building which will in a measure fitly represent all these elements, to which may be added an influence in the direction of "literary culture " which has heretofore been unattained. First of all it gives us a home, a per- manent abiding place. Why should not the city own and occupy a home ? Every in- stinct of the human heart impels individual ownership of a home. Truly it is said to be " his castle." Herein he raises his children, herein he gathers keepsakes and heir- looms. His library contains his choicest volumes, he decorates his walls with works
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HISTORY OF BROCKTON.
of art and puts under contribution the skill of the sculptor; his wealth and valuable documents he safely stores beneath his roof; he improves and beautifies his grounds ; and thus lic gratifies his taste, educates and inspires his children and neighbors, and in so doing becomes a public benefactor. The city government has been mindful of its department, children's want. The unfortunate and indigent have been furnished a home by the indulgent but self-sacrificing parent. The fire department has been liberally provided with suitable houses. The children of the public schools have com- fortable apartments, and the police department has in prospect convenient quarters. Having thus provided so abundantly for our children, why, I again ask, should not the city government have a home ?
As tenants we have never known the convenience, security and comfort of home. We have taken large risks with our valuable papers and documents, and we have never been able to receive the representatives of our sister municipalities with particular or even ordinary pride. ; I conclude, however, that no argument is necessary in this direc- tion ; that question has been definitely settled by current events. I have said that we "stand at the parting of the ways," and asserting that the past is secure, I inquire of what the future ? Of what significance, indeed, is this public building to us ? What shall it represent in its silent grandeur ? What language shall it speak to coming generations ? And what lessons shall it impart in years to come ?
If, as asserted, " Man's social experience is written in his buildings," if their grandeur and beauty are a "measure of his civilization," if indeed " they are the material mould of his politics, his religion and his laws," then surely this structure has an important signification.
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Designed primarily for utility, security and convenience, architectural beauty has not been ignored. Your personal observation bears witness to the great advance and im- provement in the architecture of both public and private buildings during the last de- cade, and this building is an embodiment of this expression.
Unlike the public buildings of the old misnamed republics, in its construction from foundation to finial no servile hand will have been called into requisition, no slave will have toiled in quarry or trench at the caprice or command of cruel masters. Better brick with freedom, than marble with slavery! This structure also represents the varied industries of our nation, as also the reciprocity of labor. Shoes from our fac- tories may be found in the quarries of the sea girt isle from whence come these foun- dation stones. The brownstone and bricks which are to support the towering roof have doubtless felt the impress of the Brockton shoe, and the feet of the lumbermen of the north have been protected from cold, and from thorn and briar by the products of your labor. But more: from within its walls are to emanate influences which bear closer relation than these. On the shelves of the Public Library will be stored the knowledge and wisdom of past ages, in its alcoves will be gathered the story of crea- tion as told by the scientist, the annals of people and nations long since passed away, the history of war and conquest. A recital of the eternal struggles of right against might, and a record of the hopes, aspirations and disappointments of myriads of noble men and women, living and dead.
At your pleasure wisdom will respond to your appeal, wit will amuse, art will in-
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CITY HALL.
struct, music will enchant, experience will suggest, and faith and hope will find stimu- lation and encouragement. Here you may quietly converse with poet, philospher and sage, here in a moment learn that which has required the personal application and in- vestigation of years to determine. Current events as depicted by the "enterprising" daily will furnish you with " despatch" the warp and woof of local history, while archi- tectural, scientific, medical and historical publications await your command within the precincts of the public reading room. The sacred influence of a perpetual Memorial day will pervade corridor and rotunda, dedicated to the memory of our patriotic sons who fell in defence of country. On tablets of marble engraven be their names, in ap- preciative hearts be enshrined their memory. Think you not that these sweet voices which to-day sing these antliems of praise, with those also who, following in their foot- steps, shall day after day pass these portals to and from the public library, will be put in perpetual mind of the heoric dead ?
Here also will be gathered the governmental family -- the servants, not the masters, of the people. Here you will seek the ear of your chief executive, to offer, perchance, good advice as to the proper conduct of affairs, to suggest desirable appointments, or possibly to recite a tale of political or domestic woe.
Hither you will direct your footsteps, careful to pause and enter the city clerk's apartments, should you require the proper document for presentation to a clergyman. Here, too, will you repair during the ides of October to pay your compliments and tax bill to the collector. Here also you will find the city treasurer on the tenth of every month prepared to recognize your duly approved salary or other bill. Here will you find the custodian of that magic power, which turns on or off the water supply as you do or do not pay. The " servants" also who doom the "lords" without redress unless a certificate has been duly filed -- the Board of Health in sickness, and vice versa. The city engineer whom you imagine always so " engineers " his lines as to punish you and benefit the other man. The solicitor, who in vain " solicits " half the compensation he would otherwise receive from " would-be" clients ; and last but not least the "czar" of the highways, whom everybody presupposes will give immediate attention to his par- ticular sidewalk or street.
Seriously, however, within these council halls are to be enacted all legislation which pertains to the future progress of our beloved city. Herein are to be discussed and settled questions which make for the weal or woe of the entire community. We do well to pause and carefully consider. We do better when we resolve that no sectional or personal motive shall swerve us from the right. We do best when in the presence of these temptations with resolution we firmly resist such appeal, and by manly act exemplify honest government.
At wearisome length have I endeavored to suggest the significance which attaches to this superstructure, the corner stone of which we have this day established. Its ex- ternals we fancy typify our material and artistic progress, and its proportions the sta- bility and grandeur of good government, while henceforth from within its walls shall emanate edict and influence which we sincerely pray may illustrate our attainments in moral and material worth.
In behalf of the city council I take pleasure in welcoming the distinguished guests
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HISTORY OF BROCKTON.
who have honored us by their presence. To the officers of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge who have this day officiated in laying the corner stone we are placed under pro- found obligations. To the president of the Senate, wlio at personal sacrifice has paid us the compliment of his presence and with eloquent words will engage our attention ; to our own Congressional representative, the diligent and faithful servant of the peo- ple, whose restoration to healthi and continuation in office we so much desire and whom we always delight to hear; to the former chief magistrates of the city, and other invited guests who have graced this occasion with their presence; to the various local organizations that have so generously responded to our invitation, we extend our most sincere thanks.
May this building as it approaches completion realize to this people an ideal city hall. May it always r flect whatever is just and noble in the life of the city, and may it stand as a monument of good government for succeeding ages.
CONGRESSMAN E. A. MORSE'S ADDRESS AT CITY THEATRE.
Mr. Morse said :
In the earlier hours of the day we met to lay the flowers of spring upon the graves of the men who died in the holiest cause ever left to the arbitration of battle. Now again we have met to celebrate the laying of the corner stone of your new and beauti- ful City Hall, which it is believed will later rise in beauty and grandeur, not only serv- ing the municipal purposes of the city but to be as well a lasting monument to the public spirit and enterprise of the city of Brockton.
Three hundred miles up the river Nile the traveler comes to the ruins of what was once the city of Thebes, a city that tradition tells us had a hundred gates of brass, and boasted she was an eternal city and would never perish; but her hundred gates of brass have long since crumbled, and her streets long ages ago were silent in death. The ruins show the city to have been surrounded by a massive stone wall, and in the centre of these ruins the traveler finds the ruins of a temple of the sun, a building esti- mated to have been 600 feet long, and 300 feet wide, and supported by massive stone pillars. In the centre he finds the ruins of a statue King Rameses was supposed to have erected to himself, thrown down and broken. The statue is believed to have been 60 feet high, and to have weighed 900 tons, and the strangest thing about it is that 300 miles up the river Nile is found the place where the stone was quarried, from which place, inch by inch, through long weary years they pried it on to its destination, and finally set it up in the temple of the sun. King Rameses caused this statue to himself to be inscribed with hieroglyphics which have been deciphered by students of antiquity, to mean this : " If any man will know how great I am or where I lie let him surpass my works."
When present and future generations shall point to this pile, and contemplate the growth and prosperity of this beautiful city, if they would know how great you are let them surpass your works, not alone in rearing this costly temple, not alone in public buildings and churches whose summits pierce the sky, but in that grander and nobler work of refining, educating and christianizing men and women made in the image of
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CITY HALL.
God. I believe this beautiful hall when completed will be dedicated by your citizens for purposes of education and patriotism, and when finally the cap-stonc shall be brought forth with shoutings the present and future generations may obey the words of Webster at Bunker Hill, and watch the first glimmerings of the morning sun on its summit, and its latest flickerings at nightfall.
We have in this audience many young persons in the morning of life. May I say some practical words of exhortation to them? We have croakers in our country, calamity croakers, going up and down telling the young people that there are no op- portunities for them. Mr. President, I have traveled in this country and other countries, and I want to say to the young people of Brockton that there is not a country on the face of the earth where there is such a royal opportunity offered to the young to make the most of themselves as in this country of ours and in this old commonwealth of Massachusetts. I tell you, young mau, young woman, to the end that you may make the most of yourselves and make the world better for your having lived in it, it is of first importance that you start right and lay the foundations of your character well; and I tell you that a good character, industry, temperance, and perseverance carry in their hand the sure prestige of victory and success.
I am not here to say that it is not a good thing to be well born, but I am here to say that you can rise above the circumstances of your birth. Do you want illustra- tions ? Abraham Lincoln was a rail splitter; James A. Garfield drove a horse on a the tow path; Andrew Johnson was a Kentucky tailor; Henry Wilson said on the floor of the United States Senate that "he was born in poverty, and want sat at his cradle." Do you want business illustrations ? Elias Howe was a poor mechanic and worked in a machine shop in Cambridge; he died worth millions, and what is of more consequence he died acknowledged in every land and clime as a benefactor of his race. Singer, the inventor of the lock stitch, was a poor mechanic who lived in Bridgeport. A similar record may be made of him. Between here and New York you may see the Singer sewing machine establishment, covering acres. John Roach came to this country a ragged, bare-footed, penniless boy ; he proved to be John Roach, the ship builder, one of the greatest mechanics who ever lived, and at his death as such stood on the highest pinnacle of worldly fame.
But why multiply these illustrations? Mr. President, over the portals of this build- ing you may write, "There is no royal road to learning " and "Honor and shame from no condition arise." Young man, young woman, set your mark high, enter upon its pursuit at once, persevere. "Let all the aims thou aim'st at be thy country, thy God and truth." " Live for the cause that lacks assistance, for the wrongs that need resistance, for the good that you can do."
Mr. President and fellow-citizens of Brockton, if it shall prove that my public life is soon to end may I enibrace this opportunity to thank the good people of Brockton, of all parties and in every walk of life, for the uniform kindness that I have received at their hands.
Mr. President, may I add as a postscript to this little speech that I hope to be in- vited here at no distant day to witness the laying of the corner stone of a beautiful, substantial government post-office building; at least it is true that a bill for such a
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HISTORY OF BROCKTON.,
building has passed the United States Senate, is one of twenty-nine bills favorably re- ported to the House by the House committee, and I think is quite sure to pass after the Presidential election in December next, so I consider a government building for Brockton an assured faet at no distant day.
Finally and lastly, my friends, do we appreciate the blessings we have, and the privileges we enjoy in this favored land of ours, and this favored time in which we live? The good people of Brockton are surrounded with all that goes to adorn and embellish civilized life.
Plato, the heathen philosopher, thanked God for three things: First, that he was born a Greek ; second, a rational soul; third, that he lived in the days of Socrates. Surely if this poor, benighted heathen, who knew nothing of the comforts of modern civilized life, had that for which to thank God, what have we, who stand in this apex of the nineteenth century ?
DEDICATION DAY.
With bunting gaily fluttering in the breeze, with expectant throngs upon her streets, with civic and military bodies in brave array, and with the Governor of the Old Bay State and other dignitaries lending their distinguished presence, Brockton feels that this is indeed a day of days.
Finer weather could not have been had. With a crisp September coolness, a beaming sun and a not too breezy air, it was a perfect day for outdoor marching and exercises.
The people have gathered from far and near to see the parade and be witnesses of the dedicatory exercises.
THE PARADE.
Governor Greenhalge arrived on the train that reached Brockton at I:34, accompanied by Adjutant-General Davidson and Colonel Page of his staff, and Hon. E. A. Morse, member of Congress from this district. The party was received at the depot by Mayor Whipple, Ex- Mayor Keith and others, and at once escorted in carriages to the parade line, the Cunningham Rifles doing escort duty.
The procession formed on Montello street, right resting on Ward, Franklin and Court streets, and moved at once over the announced route. It was headed by a platoon of police, Drum - Major Grant, and Martland's band, the participating bodies being as follows : Post 13, G. A. R .; Capt. R. B. Grover Camp, S. of V. ; the High School Cadets, and the Cunningham Rifles. The carriages containing past and present city officials and other invited guests, about forty in number,
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CITY HALL.
and eight pieces of apparatus of the fire department, brought up the rear. A feature of the display by the fire fighters was the bull dog that runs to fires, " Jim," clad in a red blanket and riding on the aerial truck.
Governor Greenhalge and Adjutant-General Dalton rode in the car- riage with Mayor Whipple.
The governor was received with cheers by the crowd at the depot, and enthusiasm marked the entire route of the parade, which was lined with people. The Main street sidewalks were fairly black with spec- tators.
As the procession passed down Main street at about 2 o'clock the band played the stirring strains of Sousa's latest " Liberty Bell March."
When the parade started several of the Montello factory whistles blew a salute to the governor.
It was a parade worth looking at, and all the participating military and civic bodies made a splendid appearance. The turnout of private teams was by no means an unimportant part of the procession, and the fire department apparatus made a handsome showing.
Upon arriving at City Hall square the line of parade was dismissed, and the formal exercises of dedication were performed on the large, flag-trimmed platform which had been built at the west entrance to the building. There was plenty of room for the gentlemen who were to take part and the large number of invited guests. In front was gathered a throng of citizens who felt interested enough to stand up while the dedication was taking place, and who listened with close attention.
Martland's band rendered Leuter's festival overture in an artistic manner, and then Rev. F. A. Warfield, pastor of the Porter Congrega- tional church, offered the dedicatory prayer, invoking the Divine bless- ing upon the occasion, the city and its officials in a particularly impres- sive and solemn manner
Architect Wesley L. Minor, the creator and superintendent of the construction of the beautiful building, stepped forward as Rev. Mr. Warfield concluded the prayer, and formally presented the keys of the building to Mayor John J. Whipple, and thus the future city home passed from the care of the architect into the custody of its owners- the people-through the medium of the city's chief executive.
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HISTORY OF BROCKTON.
In receiving the keys on behalf of the city Mayor Whipple said :
Fellow Citizens -- It is my happy privilege as your representative to accept the keys to this building, which for generations is to be the centre of municipal activity. This is the one building that in the broadest, truest way always reflects the life of the city. The memories of the past, the life of the present and the brightest hopes of the future all cluster around it, and within its walls will find a full and true cxpression. What- ever is good and just and noble in our municipal life, together with its faults, its errors and its shortcomings, will be the history written on its walls, by which posterity will judge how well we did the duty set before us. May this building stand for generations, adding dignity to our city, and be a fitting emblem of a free government of a free peo- ple. In conclusion well may I say :
Father of Light, Builder Divine, Behold our work, and make it Thine !
Gounod's " Faust " was given by the band after Mayor Whipple had concluded his address, and Ex-Mayor Ziba C. Keith was then presented, and received with generous applause. He said :
Fellow Citizens -- More than two years have passed since, gathered here, the corner stone of this fabric was laid with fitting ceremony. As within this heart of granite we deposited sealed memorials of our past municipal life, with evidence of our phenomenal growth and attainment, it announced a purpose on the part of our people to erect and maintain a structure for public uses that should meet the requirements of convenience, of safety, and withal become an object of pride and admiration to coming genera- tions. That ceremony was performed amid surroundings exhibiting a confusion of material that gave faint prophecy of the beautiful and dignified structure which we to- day dedicate.
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