RANDOM THOUGHTS 
BY D. F. “LAMSON. 
No. XLVI. 
“No perfect whole does our nature make, 
Here or there the circle will break;”’ 
It is not often that we meet with an 
all-round man. Sir Isaac Newton, deep 
_as he was in Algebra and Fluxions, could 
not readily make up a common account; 
the famous Jonathan Edwards, thought 
by some the greatest intellect America 
" ever produced, did uot know his own 
' cows. But the most evenly balanced 
natures have not always been the most 
serviceable to the world; there may be a 
symmetry of mediocrity. 
— w Ww 
Our young men, and young women 
too, are getting a good many things at 
college, but with all their getting they do 
not always get common sense; great is 
the pity of it, for if they do not get com- 
mon sense all their other getting, by 
whatever high names it is called, is often 
not worth the price it costs, it may be 
only sounding brass and a tinkling cym- 
bal. 
wow 
A gereat deal is said now of the con- 
servation of our forests and our water 
supplies, and we have not waked up any 
too soon to our great need; but the 
greatest of all our needs as a nation is the 
- conservation of men, for these are our 
greatest asset; other kinds of wealth are 
of importance, but of how much less 
than the wealth of manhood, of patri- 
_otism, of honor, of fair renown. 
wu OW 
Spenser’s opinion of the public men of 
his time was not a hizh one; he thought 
each trying ‘“to thrust downe other into 
foule disgrace, himself to raise;’’ and he 
had too much reason for his ill opinion 
_ of the rival aspirants to Elizabeth’ s favor. 
England was in sore need of such men 
as Sir Philip Sidney who had lately fallen 
'on *‘ sad Lutphen’s field’’ after waving 
-adraught of water broughtto him in 
favor of a dying soldier by his side. 
wow 
Is it not true that in any great reform 
some who are calied extremists, vision- 
aries, fanatics, or cranks, must go too 
far in order that the rank and file may 
‘go farenough? If this is so, ought we 
- not to have more charity than we often 
do for said extremists? 
An officer ina battle, seeing a cvlor- 
bearer in an exposed and dangerous 
position, ordered the colors back to the 
regiment; the reply was shouted, 
** bring up the regiment to the colors.’’ 
‘The trouble often is, not that a few are 
too zealous and forward, in the fight 
against evil, and that they sometimes 
blunder, but that most of us are too in- 
different and backward, which may be 
the greatest blunder of all. 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE. 
Mle. 
I live my little life, I say my say, 
To an unlistening world I lilt my lay— 
“An idle singer of an empty day.’’ 
So my unfathered thought perchance may stray, 
Be lost, forgot, or stored away 
To re-appear some distant day 
In other minds, in wisdom’s interplay, 
To shut men’s mouths when they shall get too gay, 
As Cesar’s undistinguishable clay 
Might stop a hole to keep the wind away! 
oral wh nL orrey: 
It is well to be reminded now and then 
that the race of heroes is not extinct. 
“* Bayards and Sidneys still are here;’’ 
there are heroes of the life-service and 
the fire brigade, the railroads and the 
mines, of the hospitals and the slums, 
the leper settlements and the cannibal 
islands, the jungle and the ice-pack. 
Not all of them wear crosses and medals, 
not all of them receive any earthly praise 
or reward. But one cannot read the 
narratives of rescue work and mission 
work, and not feel that the true knightly 
spirit still survives; a spirit often nobler 
and more unselfish than that which has 
sent men on crusades, or inspired them 
to lead a forlorn hope, or which has 
made historic the Charge of the Light 
Brigade. 
Cobb—Foster. 
In the Chapel of the South Evangeli- 
cal church of West Roxbury, at noon, 
last Friday, Dec. 3, David Freeman 
Cobb of Hingham and Miss Ruth Cole 
Foster of Manchester, were united in 
marriage by the Rev. E. H. Byington, 
recently of Beverly. The double ring 
ceremony was used. After a_ short 
wedding trip to New York Mr. and Mrs. 
Cobb will live at Hingham. 
Both bride and groom are well and 
popularly known at Manchester, where 
the groom has been for several summers 
as chauffeur with the J. Arthur Brookses 
of Milton. The bride is the daughter 
of Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin G. Foster. 
She formerly lived in Beverly and was 
widely known as a member of the Bob-o- 
link quartet. This was Mr. Byington’s 
first service in his new pastorate. 
NESS 
‘A special meeting of the North Shore 
Horticultural society will be held this 
evening at Lee’s hall, Manchester, to 
take formal action relative to the final 
step in the incorporation of the society. 
The incorporation papers have been re- 
ceived from the secretary of state and it 
remains for the society to take the final 
vote on the matter. 
Last Friday evening the members were 
treated to a very fine lecture by John 
Farquhar of the well known seed firm, 
on his recent trip to Norway, Sweden 
and other European countries. The 
lecture was enlivened by a splendid: col- 
lection of stereopticon views. It was 
given in the Town hall. 
Literary Society. 
The Literary society of the Story High 
schoo], Manchester met yesterday, when 
the following program was carried out: 
Rec;, The Y ears, Katherine Leary 
Rec., Heroes, Milford Mason 
Comp., Portia’s Character, Sarah Coughlin 
Rec., Extract from ‘‘Good Citizenship,’’ 
Walter Stanley 
Comp., Peary’s Trip to the Pole, 
Vera Kitfield 
Rec., The Armorer’s Song, 
William Cawthorne 
Rec., The Children’s Hour, ° Lydia Dennis 
Comp., Life in Sparta, Margaret Gillis 
Rec., Today and Tomorrow, Mary Cooney 
Rec., The Village Blacksmith, 
Margaret Meaney 
Rec., Solitude, Irving Baker 
Comp., Ants, Marian Spinney 
Rec., The Village Store, Gordon Cool 
Serial Story, Chap. 1V, The Autobiography of 
a Boy Who Ran Away, Annie Frances 
Bernard Tyler, Critic. 
i 2 
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