Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

602 ' SPRINGFIELD, 1636-1886.
Although not yet in our municipal teens, ha\dng set up housekeeping for ourselves,
we gratefully accept the maternal hospitality and extend our own. Two
hundred and thirty odd years, however, is a long while to Avait for a like occasion
to present itself within our borders, and Holyoke, therefore, authorizes me to
extend the open hand of fellowship to-night, and to say that the latch-string is
always on the outside, and a hearty welcome is waiting for the surplus popula-
tion and capital of Springfield within our gates. Already we proudly number a
score or more of Springfield's brightest names upon the roll of Holyoke's suc-
cessful business men, and we welcome them heartily, even though they prefer to
seek the suburban quiet and repose of Springfield after the cares of the day in
Holyoke. To the rising generation of Springfield, seeking fresh fields and
pastures new for the exercise of their inherent energy and enterprise, we extend
a special invitation to join their fortune with ours, and reap with us the golden
harvest of Holyoke's future. But this is a family party, and perhaps we have
already spent too much time in admiring and praising the baby.
Let me, in closing, add a personal tribute to the home of ray childhood.
Some one has said " that a recollection of old scenes and pastimes we often con-
sider among the happiest moments of our lives." Brought here from my birth-
place among the Berkshire hills, a child, educated in your schools, and entering
my profession under the guidance and patronage of tlie now venerable Dr.
Breck, I feel, and always shall feel wliile memory lasts, a warm affection for
Springfield and a debt of gratitude to lier institutions, and I am proud of her
record as the pioneer and preceptor of western Massachusetts in all that makes
for civilization, education, and the progress of the human race. In the name of
Holyoke, and for myself also, then, I greet you, I thank you, and congratulate
you upon the record you have made as a representative New England city, and
as an honor to the grand old Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
David A. Wells responded to the toast " Springfield — The flavor
of old times makes fresh and sweet the new," and said : —
Remembering the Scriptural proverb, " A prophet is not without honor save in
his own country,"' I could not help feeling greatly complimented at receiving an
official invitation to return to tlie place of my birth and participate in this memo-
rable anniversary. Letting my memory run back also, some forty years or more,
and recalling "how once upon a time" Elijah Blake — who was at that period
pretty much all that the • Lord High Executioner," " The Lord Chief Justice,"
" The Lord Chancellor," " The Minster of Finance," and the " Chief of Police"
ever was to ' Titipu" in the kingdom of the Mikado — fixed liis eyes sternly on