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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36761-8.txt b/36761-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c29054 --- /dev/null +++ b/36761-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2902 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Edward Putney, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Charles Edward Putney + An Appreciation + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 17, 2011 [EBook #36761] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES EDWARD PUTNEY *** + + + + +Produced by Betty Haertling, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: (front cover)] + +[Illustration: (frontispiece)] + + + + + + +Charles Edward Putney + +An Appreciation + +Published by the Charles E. Putney Memorial Association + + + What delightful hosts are they-- + Life and Love! + Lingeringly I turn away, + This late hour, yet glad enough + They have not withheld from me + Their high hospitality. + So, with face lit with delight + And all gratitude, I stay + Yet to press their hands and say, + "Thanks,--So fine a time! Good night." + + --_James Whitcomb Riley_ + + + + +FOREWORD + + +This memorial to a great Vermont educator is the happy thought of one +of his pupils, Miss Caroline S. Woodruff. The idea immediately found +favor wherever it was known that such a tribute was contemplated. An +organization was perfected known as "The Charles E. Putney Memorial," +to arrange for the publication of this book. Hon. Charles W. Gates +of Franklin, Vermont, was selected as chairman, and the preliminary +expenses of the enterprise were taken care of by a finance committee +consisting of Hon. F. W. Plaisted of Augusta, Me., Mrs. Fletcher D. +Proctor of Proctor, and J. F. Cloutman of Farmington, N. H. The +committee in charge of securing the material for the book and its +publication were Miss Caroline S. Woodruff of St. Johnsbury, Rolfe +Cobleigh of Boston, and Arthur F. Stone of St. Johnsbury. The +publication committee realize that there are many former pupils of Mr. +Putney who would have been glad to have contributed to this memorial, +but believe that the tributes in the following pages are representative +of the sentiments of all who sat under his inspiring teaching, and are +stronger and better men and women because of his marked influence upon +their lives. + + + + +TO CHARLES E. PUTNEY + +On His Seventy-fifth Birthday + +February 26, 1915 + + + Still, still a summer day comes to my call,-- + A room wide-windowed, bright with girls and boys, + A wrinkled Homer craning from the wall, + A bee-like murmuring of _ai's_ and _oi's_; + And you, a king, dark-bearded, on your throne,-- + A king of gentle bearing and soft speech, + No scepter ringing and no trumpet blown, + But nature's own authority to teach. + A stranger-lad I steal into my place + And five and thirty years are quickly gone. + The same sweet balsam breathes upon my face, + The old Hellenic brook is purling on. + See with how bright a chain you hold us true: + We that would think of youth must think of you. + + Wendell Phillips Stafford. + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Charles Edward Putney, the son of David and Mary Putney, was born at +Bow, New Hampshire, February 26, 1840. He was one of fourteen children, +of whom ten lived to grow to manhood and womanhood. David Putney was a +farmer, and Mr. Putney's early years were spent on the farm. He attended +district school and went later to Colby Academy, teaching district +schools from time to time, and preparing himself to enter Dartmouth +College, which he was about to do when the Civil War broke out. + +He enlisted in the Thirteenth New Hampshire Volunteers, and later became +a sergeant. He was in the war over three years and took part in the +battles of Fredericksburg, siege of Suffolk, Port Walthal, Swift Creek, +Kingsland Creek, Drewrys Bluff, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Fort McConhie, +Fort Harrison, and Richmond. He was one of the first four men to enter +Richmond after the surrender. + +At the conclusion of the war he entered Dartmouth College, and was +graduated with high rank in 1870. Directly after his graduation he was +married to Abbie M. Clement of Norwich, Vermont, who died in 1901. He +taught in Norwich until 1873, when he became assistant principal in St. +Johnsbury Academy under Mr. Homer T. Fuller, whom he succeeded in the +principalship. In 1896 he resigned on account of ill health. He went +to Massachusetts and became superintendent of schools in the Templeton +district, where he remained until the spring of 1901, when he took up +his work in the Burlington High School. He died in Burlington at the +home of his daughter, February 3, 1920, after an illness of two weeks. + + + + +DR. SMART AT COLLEGE ST. CHURCH AT THE FUNERAL OF MR. PUTNEY + + +It takes a man to adorn any calling; callings require or bring special +fitness, but manhood crowns the fitness, gives it added scope, +completeness, power and beauty--rejoicing the heart. Good doctors, good +lawyers, good men of affairs, good teachers, are better if they are +beyond reckoning. Wisdom is an intellectual thing, a property of the +mind, but when it is perfect the heart pours through it as the rivers +flowed through paradise. A poem in the Scriptures says that Wisdom +created the world, not as a task, but as a pastime. Speaking of God, +Wisdom says, "I was daily his delight, sporting before him, sporting +in his habitable earth." When one sees a man investing his work with +personal charm, one knows the difference between a photograph and a +painting--a photograph with its hard, incisive fidelities, and a +painting with its living colors, its appeal to feeling, its lovely +beauty, something luxuriously human in it. A teacher has a special +reason for floating his service, if it may be, upon a stream of personal +worth and personal charm, because he deals with children and youth who +respond to what he is, as well as to what he teaches. Daniel says, +"The teachers shall shine as the stars." Our friend here had much of +the oak, much of the granite in his make-up; something also of the +morning scattered upon the hills, something of the son of consolation. +He mellowed with the years. He planted climbing roses beside his +strength, and in the heart of it a tender and delicate consideration; +some of you loved him more and more to the end. + +In his early youth he had the happy fortune to serve his country during +the Civil War. The ardors of that crisis glowed in his heart to the end; +the scorching heat gone, the flashing lightning gone, but never the +remaining glory of those years when he ennobled his young manhood by +risking his life for his country. He might have said what Galahad said +of the Holy Grail, + + "... Never yet + Hath ... + This Holy thing fail'd from my side nor come + Covered, but moving with me night and day." + +He was a faithful member of Stannard Post, and long its commander. He +kept the Friday night of the Post meeting for the Post. Every Sunday +afternoon he passed my house, going to visit a comrade whom illness kept +at home. And he was a religious man--a Christian man. Faith was mixed +with his life. God strengthened him with strength in his soul. He was a +deacon of this church, and while his strength permitted, a teacher in +the Sunday school. He lived by his faith, and he thought about it. It +was one of the great interests of his mind. There is plenty in every +man's experience to limit him, to confine him, to make him small and +petty. This man had at least two enthusiasms which lifted and broadened +his spirit, his patriotism and his religion. The last word he spoke was +the name of his native town in New Hampshire, Bow. A great light came +into his eyes with the name, as if he saw the place in a vision. He +loved his old home and visited it when he could. He went back at last +in imagination and desire to the roothold of his life, and that was +well and fair, for he represented the fineness of that New England +inheritance. One perhaps should not boast, but at least one may say that +it is a goodly inheritance of solidity, fidelity, seriousness, fitness +to live in a community and take part in its affairs. + +It is said of Elisha that he took up the mantle of Elijah. The mantle +was a symbol of the spirit; it had become almost a personal thing. +Elijah had wrapped his face in it when he stood in the cave's mouth and +heard the small, still voice of the Lord. He cast it upon Elisha when he +called him from his plow to be a prophet. He smote the waters with it, +when he went to the place where he was to go up in the whirlwind, and +they were divided hither and thither so that they went over on dry +ground. When he went up in the storm, his mantle fell on Elisha. That +mantle lay close to the secrets of the prophet's heart; he wrapped his +face in it when God spoke to him. It was the symbol of his influence; he +called Elisha with it. It was the symbol of his power; he divided the +waters with it. A mantle lies upon the shoulders. It may fit another as +well as its owner. If it could be said that the mantle of this man has +fallen upon the teachers of Burlington, he would need, he could desire, +no other memorial. + + + + +LETTER TO MR. PUTNEY'S GRANDDAUGHTER, MARY LANE + + + South Weymouth, Mass., + February 6, 1920. + +Dear Mary: + +May I tell you a little story? It has largely to do with one whom you +loved and who loved you very much. You called him "Grandpa." + +The story begins sixty-four years ago this coming spring, when two +brothers, a big brother of sixteen years and a little brother of eight +years, started out together one morning for school. They were going to +attend a private school, for a few weeks, in a strange district about +two miles from their home. The little brother would have been afraid +to go that long distance alone; but he had all confidence in his big +brother, whom he loved very dearly. + +They had not been in that school very long when the teacher discovered +that the big brother was the best scholar he had. Very soon the teacher +asked him to help him in his work. Do you think the big brother refused? + +One day the teacher was ill and could not attend school. He sent word by +one of his pupils that he wanted his best scholar to take charge of the +school for the day. Well, that was a trying experience for a boy of +sixteen; but that boy commanded the respect of all the pupils of that +school; so he undertook the task and with wonderful success. He had no +difficulty with any of the pupils although some of them were older than +himself. Perhaps the little brother wasn't proud to have such a big +brother! It was about this time that the little fellow began to notice +how earnestly his older brother was trying to do right in every way; it +made a great impression upon him. + +The few weeks of private school ended and the big brother soon opened +the summer term of school in his home district. In spite of his youth +he was appointed teacher and all the people of the district seemed very +glad. Among his pupils were little brother, two other brothers, and a +sister. + +The teacher was so successful in his work that the parents in the +district wanted him to teach another and another term. He did so; but +all the time he was studying to prepare himself for larger work. He took +advantage of every opportunity to attend school for a term or two at a +time in some academy, until he became fitted for college. Meanwhile he +was deeply interested in his younger brothers and sister and doing all +he could to help them along in their studies. + +About the time he was sixteen years old he heard a voice that seemed to +say to him, "Go, work in my vineyard!" That voice meant everything to +him; he was eager, therefore, to obey it. To work in the vineyard meant +doing good, helping others, being unselfish, giving strength and cheer +when needed. We all know how well he did his work in the Master's +vineyard and through how many years he sowed the good seed. + +A few weeks ago, the little brother, to whom I have referred, was +looking forward to the coming of big brother's eightieth birthday and +wishing that he could give expression to something worthy of the brother +and his wonderful life-work. While he knew that he was not equal to +an ideal accomplishment of such a pleasant task, he made one of his +attempts and wrote the few lines enclosed, finishing them a very few +days before the sad news of Grandpa's fatal illness reached him. He has +made no change in them, realizing that you will understand that he was +fondly hoping that his eightieth birthday would find big brother in his +usual health and strength. So, with a heart heavy with grief, yet full +of loving and grateful memories of my dear big brother, I am telling you +this little story and sending you the accompanying tribute to one of the +best men that ever lived. + +And now, with much love to yourself and all the members of your home, +the little brother of sixty-four years ago wishes to sign himself + + Your affectionate + UNCLE FREEMAN. + + + + +And the Sheaves Are Still Coming In + + + "Go, work in my vineyard!" The Master spoke + To the list'ning heart of Youth; + "The world is my vineyard; go forth and sow + The Life-giving seed of Truth!" + And forth to the sowing, with ardent zeal + And a love for mankind akin + To the Master's own, he joyfully went,-- + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + He quickened ambition's sluggish soil, + And freely scattered the seeds; + The blades spring up, and life takes on + A passion for worthy deeds. + New visions catch the opening eye, + Fresh purposes begin; + The sower sowed with a lavish trust,-- + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + He turned deep furrows in shadowed soil, + Where the weeds of dark despair + Were the only growth; the seeds of Hope + He patiently planted there. + A harvesting of wheat appears + Where lately tares had been; + The sower in love had graciously sown,-- + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + The years speed on; in manhood's glow + He is sowing with vigilant care; + There are fields that call for the Seed of Life,-- + He is finding them everywhere. + He is steadfastly doing the Master's work, + Unheeding the clamor and din + Of a restless world; he quietly sows,-- + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + At threescore years: does he stay his hand + In token of lessening powers? + He takes no note of vanishing time + Save to honor its golden hours. + He only kens 'tis the Master's wish + That his strength be given to win + The harvests of Truth; he scatters the seed,-- + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + Threescore and ten: he has surely laid + The burden of sowing down? + He is far afield and with glow of soul + Is wearing the years' bright crown. + In his zeal for service he does not ask + When the days of rest begin; + Enough to know there is seed to sow; + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + And what of the sower at fourscore years? + Has the vineyard a place for him still? + In joy of service and glow of zeal + He is sowing with marvelous skill. + He has sown in faith through many years, + And rich have the harvests been; + His forward look is a look of trust, + For the sheaves are still coming in. + + Ah! Brother, thy summons to riches' quest + Was the call of the Voice Divine; + Thou hast shaped thy will to the Master's word, + And Infinite wealth is thine. + 'Twas thy constant aim, from the fields of Time, + Eternal treasures to win; + That aim was blessed; to thy lasting joy + The sheaves are still coming in. + + And when thou art called from the toil of earth + To the larger service Above, + And shalt hear the Master's questioning voice, + In accents of Infinite Love, + "What is the measure of golden grain + Thou didst wrest from the fields of sin?" + The Angel of Record will testify, + "The sheaves are still coming in." + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + "Call him not old, although the flight of years + Has measured off the allotted term of life! + Call him not old, since neither doubts nor fears + Have quenched his hope throughout the long, long strife! + + They are not old though days of youth have fled, + Who quaff the brimming cup of peace and joy! + They are not old who from life's hidden springs + Find draughts which still refresh but never cloy." + + + + +LETTERS RECEIVED ON MR. PUTNEY'S SEVENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY + + +I am glad you are to have a birthday tomorrow. I feel sure that it will +be a happy birthday. Your children and grandchildren will see to it that +the day is properly celebrated. + +It is a great pleasure to look back on the days spent in St. Johnsbury +when your influence meant so much to us. You can never know how strongly +your personality and your life influenced the boys and girls in the +Academy, especially those of us who were away from home. Many of the +things which you said to us, the time or occasion of saying them and +the place too are very vividly recalled after thirty years. You in St. +Johnsbury, four or five professors at Dartmouth and perhaps a half dozen +other men, make up a small group of men who have given me most in the +way of stimulation and encouragement. To express adequately my gratitude +is impossible, but out of a full heart I do thank you and am glad of +this opportunity to extend my best wishes to you for continued health +and happiness. + + Yours very sincerely, + DAVID N. BLAKELY, '85. + + + + +You have been living in my life all these long years since the old St. +Johnsbury Academy days. + +That wonderful kindness with which you looked upon all our shortcomings +has been the great example of kindness I have looked to all these days. + +That wonderful equality of judgment with which you decided all our +cases, has always remained unquestioned in my heart. + +And that which most of all has influenced my life has been that +wonderful quietness with which you have possessed your soul. + +I am more grateful to you every day I live and more thankful for the +years spent under your influence. + +We are all to be congratulated because of this birthday. May you have +many, many more and may you know better every year how much we all love +you. + + Yours most sincerely, + MARY DREW, '87. + + + + +Believing that the only real satisfaction to a teacher after all is the +knowledge that somewhere down the years there sounds an echo of his +effort, I am venturing to add my word of appreciation to you on your +birthday. + +There in your office and classroom I received, as have hundreds of +others, the inspiration--the vision, if you will, of what life +means--and there are no memories more hallowed than those of the +associations at St. Johnsbury Academy. Year after year for thirty years +I've watched the groups of young men and women leave the institution but +never without a keener appreciation of what the years had meant to us. + +Not for the first time do I say that whatever little success I may have +had with young people is due in large measure to the help received at +your hand, and with all my heart I thank you for your firm and gentle +guidance, your paternal influence over us all, and most of all for your +exemplary Christian character that never failed. + +The best wish I can offer you today on your seventy-fifth birthday is +that you may realize more and more what a mighty power for good you have +been and are in the lives of an army of men and women today who once +fell under your influence. + + Very sincerely, + CAROLINE S. WOODRUFF, '84. + + + + +I wonder how many of us you can remember and whether any of our failings +are still in your mind? + +You only had me for a short time, but such as it was it completed my +school work. + +In fact it was my only schooling away from home. I am therefore able to +recall vividly many impressions made on my mind during the time I was +under your charge. I formed the impression that you were absolutely fair +and honest with your scholars and that you expected no higher standard +of conduct from them than you were practising every day. I can see you +as you were then and wonder why, with such an example, we did not do +better. + +I do not say this because it is your seventy-fifth birthday but because +it is true and I wish you to know that I realized it. + +Seventy-five years of upright living comes to but very few and is a +crown of glory more valuable than great wealth or political advancement +and I most sincerely congratulate you on having achieved this end. May +your remaining days be filled with content and happiness and may the +expressions of appreciation and love that you are sure to receive at +this time, bring to you a partial reward for all you have done in the +past for your fellows. + + Sincerely and lovingly yours, + G. H. PROUTY. + + + + +Patey and I were speaking and writing some time ago about the +seventy-fifth birthday. As the boys would say, "That is some birthday," +and it is fitting that more than ordinary notice should be taken +of it. I expressed a belief that expressions of loyalty and grateful +remembrance were more to you than material things would be. I hope the +expression will be as spontaneous at this time as it has been from year +to year all through your service. I have never known in any other case +such a continued and universal loyalty as the students of St. Johnsbury +Academy have given to you. By reflex action it has been inspiring to me +and cultivated in me the same desire to serve my pupils which you have +shown. + + With best wishes, + FRANKLIN A. DAKIN. + + + + +Words are after all poor substitutes for the genuine feelings of the +heart but I know you will be able to brush aside the words and get at +the sentiment back of them. + +In three more days from this date you will be rounding out seventy-five +years of a very useful life. + +I am sure you will let an old pupil and one who has received so much +inspiration and good cheer from your life tell you so at this time. + +Your boys and girls are in many lands but they are still your boys and +girls. Never have I seen a man retain the affection and esteem of those +who have come under his influence to a greater extent than you have. + +May the good Lord continue to bless you and yours is the sincere wish +of your former pupil and friend, + + HEDLEY PHILIP PATEY, '86. + + + + +As I look back on my years in St. Johnsbury Academy I know that I +appreciated to some extent what you were doing for the young people in +your charge, and especially the many kindnesses that you showed to me +in assisting me to prepare for college. It was not until the close of my +second year at the Academy that I made any definite plans to go farther, +but I appreciate very much more today than I did then the character of +the work you were doing. It was my good fortune to be brought into touch +with able teachers and educators during my entire education, but I can +truthfully say that not one of them took time out of a busy life to +arouse and assist a growing ambition for a broader education as you did, +and I shall always look back to the three years spent under you at St. +Johnsbury Academy as the time when my ambitions clarified themselves and +I began to look out toward a broader field. + + Very sincerely, + MATT B. JONES, '86. + + + + +As one of the many students who in St. Johnsbury Academy had the +pleasure and advantage of your instruction, I am glad to acknowledge the +obligation I personally feel to you for the kindly and patient direction +given me at such an important period in a young man's life. It seems to +me that the knowledge that one has wisely directed the education and +lives of so many young men and women as you have, must constitute one of +the crowning and most satisfying joys possible, and I am sure that all +the youth who have felt the influence of your teaching sincerely wish +that you may live long to enjoy the happiness which you deserve for +service so conscientiously and cheerfully performed. + + Very sincerely yours, + EDWIN A. BAYLEY, '81. + + + + +I am sending this letter hoping it may be opened by you on February 26, +which I am told is your birthday. I want you to be sure of the love of +an old pupil who never forgets you, and never will cease to be grateful +for your gifts to him during the three years that we were together in +St. Johnsbury. The Lord richly bless you with all good things. + + Yours loyally and affectionately, + OZORA S. DAVIS, '85. + + + + +I wish to take this opportunity to write to you to extend congratulations +on your seventy-fifth birthday, and further to express my appreciation +for the service you rendered me back in St. Johnsbury Academy. You will +recall that when I entered the Academy I told you I wanted to become a +teacher and to that end I have always striven. + + * * * * * + +I must not weary you with too much of my own history, only enough to let +you know that after eighteen years of service I can still look back with +appreciation to the man who above all others in the Academy made a +lasting impression on my life. May the years that are before you be full +of sunshine and happiness. + + Yours sincerely, + ARTHUR F. O'MALLEY, '93. + + + + +Some one tells me that you are to have a birthday tomorrow and I desire +to join with the host of your former students in sending you good wishes +on that day. There are many of us who still feel in our lives what +a factor St. Johnsbury was, and of all those in the old school you +were the one who meant the most to each one of us. When I think of my +experiences at the Academy--and St. Johnsbury meant more to me than +college or anything else--I always think of you and the great help that +you were to us boys in the time when we needed help. The pleasures of +my classes in Greek and all the other things in which you were of such +valuable assistance, will always be remembered. I only wish I might +do for some boy as much as you did for me. I send you my sincerest +greetings and best wishes for a happy birthday. + + Yours for '85, + JAY B. BENTON, '85. + + + + +It hardly seems possible that you are reaching your seventy-fifth +birthday, but such, I am informed, is the case. I have really known you +quite a while; because you will remember that you were the Normal School +examiner, and I was in one of the classes graduating from the Randolph +Normal School in 1882. + +I presume that as you think over the factors which have led to such a +hale and hearty old age, you will agree with Mark Twain who attributed +his seventy years to, among other things, never having smoked but one +cigar at a time, never having smoked during sleep, and not always at +his meals. + +I hope that on this auspicious day you will take out the gold-headed +cane presented you by the class of '86 and, at least, wave it in the air +a few times; for, as I think I told you on the day of its presentation, +we hoped you might never need it for walking purposes. + +I can never forget your many acts of kindness rendered me personally +during my course at St. Johnsbury. Were I to attempt to recount them as +they occur to me I am sure I should make this letter, which is intended +to be simply one of warm congratulations, far too long. + +Among the many things upon which I think you are to be congratulated, I +would mention first the spirit which inspires you to still love your +work at seventy-five, and again the nervous and physical energy which +permits you to stay, as Roosevelt might say, "in the ring." No less are +you to be congratulated on the consciousness, which I know must be +yours, of the love and devotion of hundreds, yes, thousands by this +time, of your pupils throughout the world. + + * * * * * + +I am sure I have imperfectly expressed the love, gratitude, and +admiration which I always cherish toward you, but you can be sure there +is much of it here, as there is in the hearts of all who have come in +contact with you. + +With cordial best wishes I am, sincerely, + + GEORGE E. MAY, '86. + + + + +Tribute written by Mr. Roland E. Stevens for the _Hartford Gazette_, +a paper printed by Mr. Stevens' small boy. + + + + +Editor of the _Hartford Gazette_: + + +Every day in every year, I suppose, has a special meaning and interest +for some one or more of the great human family. The day of the present +week that has a particular interest and meaning for me (and without +doubt for many others whom I know) is Friday the twenty-six. Why? +Because nearly thirty years ago when I was an awkward, spindling boy, +thirsty and hungry for an education, without means and not in very good +health, I wrote a letter to the principal of St. Johnsbury Academy, +telling him of my ambition to enter the Academy as a student and asking +him if he thought I could find work by means of which I could earn +enough to pay my way at the Academy. When I was writing the letter I was +half discouraged and rather feared and expected that I wouldn't receive +an answer, because I knew the letter was not very well written or +expressed, and I was almost sure that so great a man as I supposed the +principal of St. Johnsbury Academy to be, wouldn't pay much attention +to such a letter. + +In a short time, however, I received a very encouraging reply expressing +a friendly interest in me and advising me to come to St. Johnsbury in +season to take an entrance examination and stating that a willing boy +could most always find work. + +The letter was not dictated nor was it typewritten. It was written in +long hand and by the principal himself. The spelling, grammar, and +punctuation were, I felt sure, absolutely perfect; but the handwriting, +to my great joy, was no handsomer than mine. This and the kindly tone of +the letter helped me to a quick and firm determination to pack all of my +worldly possessions, including some cookies, loaves of bread, etc., into +a rough wooden box and start for St. Johnsbury in season for the opening +of the fall term. + +Within an hour after my arrival I found myself in the home of the +principal sitting quite near him, hearing him say in a quiet, sincere +voice, that he was glad I came; that he had found work for me; that he +wanted me to know that he was interested in all boys who came to the +Academy with a desire to work and to learn. I went from him to the +family where I was to live and work, inspired with confidence in him and +respect for him. + +Master editor, these things happened nearly twenty years before your +birth, and in all these years the only change in my feelings toward this +principal of St. Johnsbury Academy that I am conscious of, is an increased +and unbounded faith in him as a Christian gentleman, love and respect +for him as a true friend, gratitude and admiration for him as a teacher +and wise counsellor who has ministered generously to the physical and +spiritual needs of many besides myself. + +You know, of course, that I refer to Prof. C. E. Putney who was +principal of St. Johnsbury Academy in the days when it ranked with +Andover and Exeter and for a number of years has been teaching Latin and +Greek in the Burlington, Vermont, High School. February 26, will be his +seventy-fifth birthday. This is why that day has a particular meaning +and interest for me and many others. + + ROLAND E. STEVENS. + + Hartford, Vermont, + February 22, 1915. + + + + +On Mr. Putney's seventy-fifth birthday the teachers of Edmunds High +School presented him with a beautiful loving cup. This note accompanied +the cup: + + +To our honored Friend and Co-worker, + Mr. Charles E. Putney. + +The teachers of the High School, with the superintendent and his wife, +wish to send you hearty congratulations on your birthday and the many +years of usefulness that lie in its wake. They wish to emphasize their +appreciation of what it means to the whole school to have in their midst +a loyal old soldier, a kindly and genial friend, and a real gentleman +of "the old school." + +They hope this loving cup will be to you a substantial evidence of their +appreciation in the past, as also of their good wishes for the future. + + + + +TRIBUTES UPON OTHER BIRTHDAYS + +At Seventy + + + With a step elastic, + Vigorous of mind, + Strenuous of purpose, + Casting doubts behind,-- + Vigilant for duty, + Strong to banish fears,-- + What a wealth of tribute + To your seventy years. + + Backward glance disclosing + Many a service field, + To whose faithful tilling + Bounteous harvests yield,-- + Priceless treasures, wrested + From the soil of truth, + Treasures from rich sowing + In the lives of youth; + + Treasures from the valley, + Where the shadows lay + Till your voice of comfort + Whispered them away; + Treasures from the hillside, + Whose ascent seemed drear + Till your note of courage + Fell upon the ear. + + Treasures from the garden, + Where the Graces bloom, + Lavishly exuding + Breaths of rich perfume; + Treasures from the vineyard, + To whose soil were given + Streams of gracious influence + Born of Hope and Heaven; + + Treasures from the hilltop, + Where the Eternal Love + Fell in showers of blessing + From the fount above; + Treasures gleaned from sorrow, + When to longing eyes + Came a glimpse of mansions + Reared in Paradise. + + Ten and threescore cycles + Are complete today; + Loving benedictions + Speed you on your way. + Age has no forebodings,-- + Clouds and shadows fly + From the glow and radiance + Of your western sky. + + Peaceful, glad and trustful + Is your forward glance,-- + Faith begetting vision + As the years advance. + Is the sight entrancing? + Do you long to go? + List! the Father speaketh, + Lovingly and low: + + "Safe are all the treasures + For which you have wrought; + Safe the precious jewels + Prayer and love have bought; + All your aspirations-- + Incense of the soul-- + With the seal eternal, + Safe in My control. + + "Heaven awaits your coming + With a warmth that cheers; + But the earth-friends need you + For a few more years; + Tarry yet a season, + That My will may be, + Through the twilight hour, + Perfected in thee." + + + MRS. A. L. HARDY. + + + + +Of late we have heard much on the subject of preparedness. We have been +told that the prepared man is the man who achieves the thing he goes +after. He is happy. He is satisfied with himself. + +On the twenty-sixth of February, seventy-six years ago, there was born +into the world a man who now holds a very high place in the thoughts +of hundreds of men and women. That man was Charles Edward Putney, our +beloved and respected teacher. + +The lives of great men, it has been said, are the greatest teachers. Let +us then take the life of Mr. Putney and see what a lesson it teaches us +in preparedness. + +At the early age of seventeen, Mr. Putney was teaching school. If he had +not studied and prepared himself could he have filled such a position at +the early age? The answer is plainly "No." Mr. Putney had moreover the +moral and the physical courage as well as mental ability. In 1861 he +answered Lincoln's call for volunteers and fought bravely for the Union. +He had prepared to do the right and when duty called he responded. + +After the great war was over he entered Dartmouth College. He was +graduated from the institution as "honor man." And since then wherever +he has gone he has been the "honor man." Men, now old themselves, speak +with fondest regard of their teacher and state that he showed them the +right way to success. He prepared not only himself but others. Isn't +that a glorious thing? What greater hero is there than the fashioner of +the thoughts and character of the young? + +Let us then, as I have said before, set up Mr. Putney's life as a life +to live by. Prepare ourselves as he did and then when we have reached +the autumn of our lives, we can look back with pride on a life well +spent, on a character that was prepared for all that was right. If +we can do that, surely we shall be happy, we shall be satisfied with +ourselves.--_Burlington High School Register._ + + + + +There are many people who are seventy-one years old, but there are very +few who can claim the distinction of being seventy-one years young which +belongs to our respected Greek teacher. We rejoice with Mr. Putney in +his undimmed triumph over time and congratulate him on his many years +of constant usefulness. As the philosophic Greeks once honored one of +their race with the words "not who but what" so we honor and esteem +Mr. Putney for his faithful service to Old Edmunds and for the great +good he has done for her sons. We love him for his splendid personality, +his patience, his fortitude and the kindly interest that he always shows +in our welfare. After we leave this school, when we turn and recall the +many bright days we have spent in the Burlington High School, the memory +of Mr. Putney will ever awake affection and make our heart glow with its +warmth.--_Burlington High School Register._ + + + + + February 24, 1912. + +Here are my congratulations and best wishes for you. Another year of +service is added to your enviable list. It must be a great satisfaction +to look back upon a life so well spent and to realize how many lives +have been benefited because you have been here all these years. + +You cannot but know the honor and respect with which the teachers look +up to you, and how we are trying to reach something like the high standard +which you have attained; but I wonder if you realize the love which your +pupils have for you. Some of them come into my room every day at the +close of school for an hour's uninterrupted study and I am going to tell +you some of the things which they have said to me about you. "Mr. Putney +is such a lovable man." "I thought I should be afraid of him, but he +makes us feel he is interested in us and I don't feel one bit afraid +even though he does know so much." "He is full of fun too. There is no +one in the class who sees anything funny quicker than he." "I am so glad +he is in the school while I am here. I shall always feel it to have been +a great privilege to have had him for a teacher." + +And I want to say that I, too, feel it to be a great privilege to be +in the school with you and to have felt your quiet presence and to have +known your ready sympathy and interest. May the coming year be a happy +one. + + Very sincerely yours, + HARRIET TOWNE. + + + + +ONE OF THE "BOYS OF SEVENTY-SIX" + + + He's just a BOY, a LIVELY BOY, + Who notes no years, I ween; + He might be six and seventy, or + He might be "sweet sixteen." + He's done a marv'lous work, and still + Is putting in his licks + To prove the staying powers of + A "Boy of Seventy-Six." + + "His hair is white?" Of course it's white! + He's white, all through and through! + His soul is white, has always been; + His heart is white and true. + But in Life's Battle has he shown + Whiteness of feather? Nix!! + His whiteness adds new glory to + The "Boys of Seventy-Six." + + "What great things has he done?" Ah! if + The querist only knew it, + Greatness concerns not what we do, + But, rather, how we do it. + And every deed well done is great; + And that is just his fix! + Say! isn't that some record for + A "Boy of Seventy-Six"? + + "But doesn't he take time to play?" + Why, bless your anxious soul! + He's always played,--too hard to note + How fast the seasons roll! + He's playing yet; but work and play + In him so closely mix + You don't know which to call him, Man + Or "Boy of Seventy-Six." + + "His favorite game?" No need to ask; + That in which GOOD is rife; + The game that tests all human worth,-- + The glorious Game of Life. + He never "stacks the cards," and yet + He takes his share of tricks; + Competitors have nothing on + This "Boy of Seventy-Six." + + "But when does he intend to stop? + He's surely done his share; + Give him some nook and let him play + A game of solitaire." + Methinks I see you try it on! + There'd be some vigorous kicks; + You'd feel them, too, though coming from + A "Boy of Seventy-Six." + + A "quitter," he? Not on your life! + He's built on different lines; + He'll never be a quitter while + The Sun of Priv'lege shines! + As long as he can serve the needs + Of Harrys, Toms and Dicks + Who look his way, he'll be "on call," + This "Boy of Seventy-Six." + + + FREEMAN PUTNEY. + + + + +A BIRTHDAY REMINDER OF GALLANT SERVICE PERFORMED IN THE WAR + + +Charles E. Putney was happily surprised at the opening of the Sunday +school of the College Street Church when the Rev. I. C. Smart, pastor of +the church, in a most delightful manner, presented him with the insignia +of the First Brigade, First Division (General Stannard's), Eighteenth +Army Corps, the gift of his friends in the church. + +The badge was pinned to the left breast of Mr. Putney's coat by his +little granddaughter, Mary P. Lane, and Gen. Theodore S. Peck explained +to the children the use of the Corps badge of the army. Although +overcome with surprise, Mr. Putney responded most feelingly. The +presentation was witnessed by a large number of members of the school +and of the Grand Army of the Republic. + +The medal bears the following inscription: + +"Prof. C. E. Putney, from friends in the College Street Church, +Burlington, Vermont, February 26, 1916, in remembrance of his gallant +service in the war for the Union, as Sergeant, Co. C, Thirteenth New +Hampshire, First Brigade, First Division, Eighteenth Army Corps." + +On the two gold bars from which the medal is suspended by a red, white +and blue ribbon, are inscribed the eleven battles in which his regiment +participated: First Fredericksburg, siege of Suffolk, Port Walthal, +Swift Creek, Kingsland Creek, Drewrys Bluff, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, +Fort McConhie, Fort Harrison and Richmond. + +The badge was originally intended as a birthday gift to Mr. Putney, but +its arrival was delayed so the presentation was made on the anniversary +of the death of Abraham Lincoln. The badge was accompanied by a letter +from Mr. Putney's friends stating that the gift was intended as a slight +token of their esteem and affection and a birthday reminder of the +gallant service performed by him as a soldier in the army of the Union, +1861-1865.--_National Tribune._ + + * * * * * + + + + + Sleep on, O brave-hearted, O wise man that kindled to flame-- + To live in mankind is far more than to live in a name, + To live in mankind, far, far more than to live in a name! + + --NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY. + + + + +TRIBUTES FROM FRIENDS AT ST. JOHNSBURY ACADEMY + + +I take special pleasure in sending to Mr. Putney's memorial an +appreciative testimony to the long tried friendship which we had +for each other. I was with him as fellow teacher under Mr. Fuller's +principalship and after that worked with and under him as principal +until his resignation. Was with him a longer time than any other +teacher, always with the kindest and most uniform relations both in +educational and social respects, and more than all else in the higher +spiritual relationships. In a letter from him a very short time before +he passed away he hoped he might still be in the work of teaching when +he reached his eightieth birthday. I thought he was to be much rejoiced +with that he came so near it and was called up higher while in the joy +of his chosen life work. + +It is very pleasant to remember also the close friendships between wives +and daughters of our two families. + + SOLOMON H. BRACKETT. + + + + +None of Mr. Putney's pupils were more devoted and loyal to him, none +had more sincere love and affection for him, than the teachers who were +privileged to work with him. Mr. Putney's great aim was to make true men +and noble women and all those who were fortunate to be called his pupils +will bear his mark with them in their accomplishments, in their graces, +and in their power. + +Many of his pupils will be inclined to virtue, holiness and peace, +because the teacher was the embodiment of these qualities. In all things +he had charity. Tolerance was of his nature. He respected in others the +qualities he himself possessed, sincerity of conviction and frankness of +expression. + +His power over his pupils was marked and abiding because of his own +example, his profound scholarship, his humility, his absolute justice, +yet accompanied with sympathy and respect. His impulses were great, +earnest, simple, unostentatious. His is the old story of devotion to +duty, a religious sentiment and faith, serious determination, +cheerfulness and untiring effort. + +"For he was a faithful man and feared God above many." + + A. L. HARDY. + + + + +When you speak of Mr. Putney you will find my loyalty as strong as ever. +We kept up our correspondence to the last. I am glad to express again +my debt to him, and I certainly should not wish to be omitted from any +group of Mr. Putney's friends. + +When I went to St. Johnsbury Academy at Mr. Putney's invitation I was +inexperienced and needed a good deal of friendly advice. He had a rare +gift in that way. His own devotion, unselfishness and conscientiousness +were contagious. He was a good teacher and still better trainer. But the +moral effect of living and working with him was the best thing about the +Academy. I believe all the excellent staff of teachers felt just as I +did. So much so that our intimate association gave us more than the +pupils could get. Some of us enjoyed too the fine, generous +neighborliness of both Mr. and Mrs. Putney. + +In administrative councils his judgment never lost sight of the central +object--the cultivation of each pupil to the most effective Christian +manhood and womanhood. What higher mark than that can be set by any of +the theorists and innovators of the present day education? The typical +"New England Academy"--and St. Johnsbury was the ideal among them--can +bear comparison with the latest and best of schools in the highest +object of education. Probably it needed its own environment which could +not be duplicated elsewhere. All honor to it and to him who was its +exponent during my own years so happily given to its service. + + Sincerely yours, + FRANKLIN A. DAKIN. + + + + +The first impression which Mr. Putney made upon me when he joined our +circle of teachers in the Academy was that of a man of strength, high +moral purpose and rare teaching ability, an impression which grew to +a certainty as the years went on and he became our principal. His +courtesy, unfailing kindness and good fellowship made it a pleasure to +work with and under him, and I shall always remember him as a true and +valued friend and a great teacher. "What more can we desire for our +friends than this," as was said of that other beloved teacher, Edward +Bowen of England, "that in remembering them there should be nothing to +regret, that all who came under their influence should feel themselves +for ever thereafter the better for that influence." + + L. JENNIE COLBY. + + + + +It is difficult to put in words my estimate of Mr. Putney. He was a loyal +friend to everyone he knew, always looking for ways of encouragement +and help. Many a scholar can testify to the truth of this. We know his +thoroughness as a teacher, we remember his reverence for the Bible, his +prayers, his loyalty to church and its organizations, his devotion to +his Heavenly Father. + +I think his influence for good will extend to the ends of the earth. It +has been a great blessing to know him. I have been so glad he could keep +up his work to the last. + + MARY CUMMINGS CLARK. + + + + +If I were to put into one word what seems to me the keynote of Mr. +Putney's life as I knew him, it would be service. There was never +a moment that I was not conscious that even when he was in physical +suffering, which, alas! was often, he was ready to help in every way +possible. This patience and kindness were unfailing, and his sense of +humor, which must have helped him as well as us, often pricked our +difficulties, and showed us how unimportant they really were. I was with +him only two years, but his character, and the lessons learned from him +have been a very real influence in my life ever since. + + ELIZABETH WASHBURN WORTHEN. + + + + +The distance of time (now forty years) since those Academy days does +not dim the fond recollection and appreciation of my teachers at St. +Johnsbury Academy. And of them all, before or since, there is no one who +holds a higher place in my esteem than Mr. Putney. Though engaged in +teaching mathematics and astronomy during the greater part of this time, +I have not forgotten, nor ever shall, the essentials he taught--some +things even in Latin and Greek, but far more in earnestness and sincerity +and purpose. And I prize also the closer touch with his sensitive, +kindly, sterling personality afforded by the few months when I was +privileged to teach as a substitute at the Academy. + +Would that we had more such men now in the ranks of the profession. + + F. B. BRACKETT, '82. + + + + +With high reverence for what men had known as wisdom and beauty in the +past, with sane and clear-eyed understanding of the shifting needs of +the present, with confident faith in the ultimate good, whatever the +future, he taught many lessons which we did not know until long +afterwards that we had learned. + + MARGARET BELL MERRILL, '94. + + + + +It is a great pleasure for me to add my word of appreciation with +respect to the splendid influence that Mr. Putney exerted at St. +Johnsbury Academy. He was always fair, always friendly, and his sense of +humor was a delight. A thorough scholar himself, he was not satisfied +with superficial work. He was able to sympathize with the pupil's view +of life and yet he knew how to enlarge that view. The branches of Latin +and Greek which he taught did not afford him full scope for expressing +the originality that was a remarkable part of his character; but I +remember a course of reading in English literature which our class took +under him as an extra, and there he was able to disclose the poetic part +of his nature, and we were able to know him as a thinker and a seer. +I look back with gratitude to the days at "St. Jack." + + GEORGE R. MONTGOMERY, '88. + + + + +I first saw Mr. Putney in August, 1881, when I came alone and somewhat +homesick to seek admission to the Academy. He was standing on the steps +of South Hall ready to greet new students with his quiet friendly manner +and sincere expression of interest. He made us feel at once that we had +in him a friend, one who understood us and expected the best from us. I +like to recall this picture of him for it gave me an impression of the +man that I have never had occasion to change. + +Mr. Putney was a great teacher. Thorough in detail and wise in daily +drill that he knew was necessary for our success, he showed a love for +the literature that he taught and an enthusiasm that was contagious. +Fortunate the boy or girl who learned Virgil under his wise guidance. +Always sympathetic and encouraging, he could detect the bluffer and +discourage one who tried to get through his lessons without adequate +preparation. He corrected our mistakes, but encouraged our attempts to +succeed, even though we often failed. He appealed to our ambition, to +our sense of obligation, and to our pride; and thus he led rather than +drove us to our work. And work we did; we did not dare to disappoint +him, we did not wish to disappoint him. Later in college we had occasion +more than once to be thankful for the wise and sound training we had had +under his leadership. + +It is, however, the personality of the man that lives with us, whether +we remember him best in the classroom or in the chapel exercises, in +the dormitory or in some other phase of his active life. He was quiet, +even-tempered, but forceful. His voice was not often raised, but it +carried conviction. His directions were accepted without protest or +question; or if, as I remember well, on one occasion we did protest, he +had a firm, convincing manner that made us accept his word as final. And +yet there was no rancor left, we felt that Mr. Putney was right. As a +rule he was serious, but he had a merry twinkle in his eye that told of +a sense of humor and an ability to join with his students in their good +times. In a very real sense he entered into the lives of all of us and +made upon us that impression that makes us rise and say with one voice, +"He was a Christian gentleman." + + GILBERT S. BLAKELY, '84. + + + + +The personality of Mr. Putney has stayed with me during all these years +with singular distinctness. Many other teachers, whose influence has +been undoubted and deeply felt, shape themselves in memory somewhat +vaguely. But Mr. Putney stands out clearly and vividly, as if the days +under him at St. Johnsbury Academy were but yesterday. Here was a man +quiet and unassuming, and yet I am conscious, and always have been +conscious, of a certain power that flowed from him into the lives of his +pupils. + +Such a force does not lend itself readily to analysis. Like most +fundamental things, it is subtle, undefinable. But some elements in the +character of Mr. Putney in the retrospect are clear as air. In the first +place, he was a born teacher. His scholarship was backed by thoroughness +of application in the classroom. A part of his painstaking self passed +into the mental processes, and so into the equipment, of those who sat +under him. His instruction went deep. It was thorough plowing of the +mind. Slip-shod methods were repugnant to his nature. Then, too, how +patient he was! For every student he seemed to carry in his mind an +ideal of development that made every effort on his part toward that end +a real joy, and so he first grounded him in basic things and then built +on that foundation. + +With poise and self-control, though not physically robust, he managed +a large school in such a way that it ran as smoothly as a well-oiled +machine. We took it all for granted then. But we see now, especially +those of us who are teachers ourselves, the meaning and the reason of +it all, and we trace the fact to its source in an able and inspiring +personality. + +Mr. Putney had a quiet glow of humor, and many an incident comes to mind +to show how large and wholesome a part this characteristic played in his +career. But most of all I would pay tribute to the Christian gentleman. +His idealism was not too lofty for "human nature's daily food." Rather +it expressed itself in practical devotion to the best interests of his +pupils, to good things, and to noble causes. He was a leader because +he allowed himself humbly to be led by something above him. He moulded +character because he was himself being moulded by spiritual forces. Not +ambitious in the worldly sense, he came into his own long before his +gentle life passed from among us. I fancy that, could he do so, he would +tell us that his real ambition has been realized. In Mr. Putney we are +gratefully aware of that gracious thing, the distribution of a rare +personality through the lives of others, the multiplication of self in +terms of helpfulness to the world. + + HENRY D. WILD, '84. + + + + +Those were days of exceptional privilege in the eighties and nineties +for the shy but eager boys and girls of rural Vermont who found their +way to St. Johnsbury Academy, there, under Mr. Putney and the able and +friendly faculty of his choice, to catch enlarged vision and the +preparation to fulfill it. + +The quiet, unobtrusive life of such as Mr. Putney lends itself to fewer +striking, outstanding memories than more brilliant careers, yet how +positive the impression and far-reaching the influence, and how sweet +the incidents one does recall! + +My first acquaintance revealed his friendly interest and thoughtfulness. +Discovering that I, a timid new-comer, was the only girl enrolled for +Greek with twenty young men, he sent a kindly word of encouragement and +the hope that I would not let the fact discourage me in my purpose. That +pledge of sympathy on the part of one of my first male instructors had +large weight in deciding me to brave the ordeal. It was, too, a pledge +fully and most wisely carried out, so discriminatingly administered +by daily, tactful consideration as to set me wholly at ease and to +establish the most natural, unconscious comradeship with the class. +The only visible evidence of his thought came in occasional approving +comments upon the little rivalry in scholarship in the class and the +requests that I conduct the class sometimes when he was necessarily +absent. Thus he made of the experience, by his fine tact and wisdom, +a happy and fruitful one. + +I was early inspired with a confidence that the ideals he held for us +were but those of his own life. The urgent suggestions to drill and +review our lessons thoroughly were the more forceful when I learned that +it had been a habit of all his own student life to review each Saturday +the entire daily work of the week. A trying epidemic of colds and coughs +was prevailing one winter, disturbing school exercises greatly. At the +close of chapel one morning Mr. Putney told us in his quiet, earnest +manner the dangers of allowing a cough to become aggravated and the +possibility of entirely controlling it. Skeptical of this, I well +remember with what gleeful malice I scoffed at it in the hearing of a +teacher who made the lesson one of life-long practice by telling me of +the heroic, thorough treatment to which Mr. Putney had in early life +subjected himself, so that he had spoken out of personal experience +again. When his life had been despaired of because of supposedly fatal +illness he had effected a complete recovery by checking the deep-seated +cough. + +When in later years I found that his benign presence and quiet influence +was bearing daily fruit in the same, or even greater respect and reverence +with a younger generation of students, I realized afresh under what a +rare teacher I had had the privilege of coming, and how profoundly true +it is that such a personality teaches constantly, often when least +suspected, the finest and most profound lessons. The vision which he +communicated is one of the most precious treasures. + + BERTHA M. TERRILL, '91. + + + + +I appreciate exceedingly this opportunity to add my words of tribute to +the memory and worth of Mr. Putney. + +To him I am indebted beyond measure for the incentive, encouragement, +aid and inspiration which he gave me while a student at the Academy. + +His was a life long in years, ripe in scholarship, and rich in unselfish +and generous service. In him were combined the qualities of the best +type of teacher. + +His clearness of vision, and straight thinking made him a leader whose +influence was broad and lasting; while by the gentleness of his manners +and by the broadness of his sympathies he won and held the affection of +all who knew him. + +His loyal devotion to the cause of education was such that he desired +nothing more earnestly than to serve and aid those who sought his +instruction, and he ever held before the student the highest ideals of +a fine, clean, strong and Christian manhood. + +His influence continues, and will widen in the years yet to come. + + GEORGE E. MINER, '83. + + + + +All the way along, from the days when, in the absence of my own father, +he initiated me, a little girl of five, into the joys of a dip in the +Atlantic to the almost equally happy days in number ten when I learned +through him to know the wonder and beauty of Virgil and Cicero, Mr. +Putney seemed to me one of the best and finest men in the world. + +How considerate he always was! During the years of my father's +pastorate, Mr. Putney was among those who gave unsparingly at all times +just the help and cheer that the minister needed. + +I think of him as one whose life was a beautiful mingling of gentleness +and strength. + + CORNELIA TAYLOR FAIRBANKS, '97. + + + + + March 26, 1913. + + +It would be a genuine and great pleasure to us to be with you at the +doings of the Alumni Association and to meet again all the famous +characters expected there, especially the guest of honor. We are glad of +this opportunity to renew our profession of allegiance to him. He was +our principal during the final year we passed at the beloved Academy, +the year when, because of Mr. Fuller's absence abroad, he was the acting +principal as he afterwards came to be the titular principal as well. +We have always cherished the sincerest regard and affection for Mr. +Putney,--not only because he was our competent and faithful teacher and +our respected principal, but because he was in the truest sense our +friend. We owe him a great debt of gratitude which, like honest though +insolvent creditors, we can acknowledge though we cannot hope to pay. +Ours was the first graduating class that knew him as principal, and we +always cherished the fond conceit, that, as he was peculiarly dear to +us, so we were a little more to him than any other class could be. I +hope he will not say or do anything upon this occasion to banish that +happy thought from our minds. He will probably try to appear as fond of +you as he is of us. He always did have a way of letting you down easy +when he didn't want to hurt your feelings. You cannot have forgotten +how, when you answered his questions in classroom, he always said, "Yes, +yes," as though your answer was all that could be desired, even when he +followed it by some quiet correction, which when you had taken your seat +and thought it over, gradually let you see that you had missed the mark +by about a mile. We wish that we could do anything as well as Mr. Putney +could teach! Happy is the school that has him for a teacher! Happy are +the boys and girls--of whatever age--who have him for a friend! + + Sincerely and fraternally yours, + FLORENCE AND WENDELL STAFFORD, '80. + + +Being both a paternal and maternal grandson of the Academy, I subscribe +to the above with duty as well as pleasure. + + EDWARD STAFFORD, '07. + + + + +I hardly know what to say. There is such a mingling of emotions--sorrow +for the loss, joy that he has been with us so long, gratitude that it +has been my privilege to keep in so close touch with him during most of +the years since I, a school girl, first came under the influence that +has never lost its hold for a minute. + +No one individual has ever had more to do with the shaping of my life +than he and whatever little good I have been able to do for boys and +girls is largely attributable to the influence that has helped me for +so long. + +My experience can be multiplied a thousand times and then the story has +not been told. We all shall hold his memory in love, and in reverence. +Generations to come will still feel indirectly the help that we have had +from him. + +I've always seen Mr. Putney as I read those words of Tennyson in his +dedication to the "Idylls." + + "Indeed he seems to me + Scarce other than my king's ideal knight, + Who reverenced his conscience as his king, + Whose glory was redressing human wrong, + Who spake no slander, no nor listened to it, + We have lost him, he is gone-- + We know him now--and we see him as he moved, + How modest, kindly, all accomplished, wise, + With what sublime repression of himself-- + And in what limits, and how tenderly-- + Now swaying to this faction or to that-- + But through all this tract of years + Wearing the white flower of a blameless life, + Before a thousand peering littlenesses. + Where is he + Who dares foreshadow for an only son + A lovelier life, a more unstained than his?" + + + Very sincerely, + CAROLINE S. WOODRUFF, '84. + + + + +Among the many valuable and valued possessions which were mine when +I left St. Johnsbury Academy was a clear-cut impression of Mr. Putney +as a man, as a friend, and as a teacher. He stood for standards, high +standards of behavior and of scholarship. After all these years this +image is still clear and vivid. Simple, sincere, and single-minded in +his life work, his standards of living have always been a challenge +to the best in his associates, a challenge which has, consciously or +unconsciously, helped us all to higher levels of service. This is our +tribute to his memory. + + ELIZABETH HALL, '86. + + + + +I look back on the old Academy days under Mr. Putney with ever increasing +appreciation of him and of his influence over my life. I am glad to add +my tribute to his memory and I do so most heartily. + +Charles E. Putney was a kindly, courtly, Christian gentleman. He was +a wonderful teacher, leading his students through the classics by ways +that made Latin and Greek no longer "dead" languages but very much alive; +and so were the thrilling narratives of the old worthies who almost +seemed to speak again in Mr. Putney's classrooms. Meantime, character +building was going on and his insistence of high standards of honor and +strict discipline made most of the boys more manly and most of the girls +more womanly, and they are grateful to him, as I am, for it all. + +Devotion to duty was characteristic of him in school and church, in +home and public life. He was a good soldier and to him citizenship meant +service. He was a true friend and that meant the helping hand. + +I honor and revere his memory. My humble tribute is one of gratitude +for his noble life, which, touching mine, revealed more clearly +for my stumbling feet the shining pathway that he trod to worthy +self-investment, to truth and God. + + ROLFE COBLEIGH, '86. + + + + +From that first day when I went into the Academy office to consult with +Mr. Putney as a new student, I have been and shall continue to be under +the deepest obligation to one of the noblest spirits and finest teachers +whose influence ever has been exerted upon young men and women. His +scholarship was accurate and he made Greek interesting. His moral +standards were lofty and he made honor and truth beautiful. His soul +was sincere and devoted and he made Christ attractive to the mind and +will of a boy. He knew how to give encouragement at the critical +moment and how to exercise discipline justly so that no sting remained. +He influenced me more deeply than any other teacher of my youth, and +my love and gratitude grew as the years passed. Mr. Putney did not +disappoint me as my ideal of a Christian teacher and lover of young +men. It was a great life. + + OZORA S. DAVIS, '85. + + + + +A teacher projects himself through the lives of his pupils and an +institution of learning speaks through the voice of its scholars. St. +Johnsbury Academy has been a formative force in the educational life +of New England and beyond, and her leadership has been buttressed upon +sound learning. + +Charles E. Putney was a great principal and an inspiring teacher. In the +classics his well-ordered mind found a congenial field for interpretation +and elucidation. Frail of physique, with all the scholar's nerves and +sensitiveness, he yet day after day ploughed through the hesitating +minds of his pupils with patience and thoroughness. Particularly as a +teacher of Greek did he excel. He led his pupils through the necessary +technique of parasangs to the mastery of the sublime secrets of this +imperial mother of tongues. He possessed the capacity of taking infinite +pains and played no favorites among his scholars. I imagine the +responsibility of administration irked his gentle spirit and the rawness +of self-centered youth must have tried his conscientious soul. + +I never thought of him in those days as a veteran of the Civil War, in +fact, did not then know of his martial service, but I can see now how +that experience must have fed his hatred of disobedience and disloyalty +and increased his zeal for the proper development of the minds of his +boys and girls in order that they too might become dependable citizens +of the Republic. + +His was a kindly nature, though to the pupil who first fronted him he +seemed stern, yet this was but the shell, in which daily duty encased +him. It was always a pleasure to watch his sense of humor expand +itself in friendly smile and expend itself in his low chuckle as some +particularly atrocious translation fell from lips unused to expressing +ancient thought. + +It is hard to measure his personal influence by a sentence but it seems +to me as principal and teacher, by precept and practice, he showed how +desirable a thing it is to perform the daily task conscientiously and +patiently. + + FREDERICK G. FLEETWOOD, '86. + + + + +To me Mr. Putney was a great teacher. I knew him as a friend, my friend +and the life-time friend of my father. I knew him as an active member of +the South Church, and a devoted leader of religious life and activity in +the Academy. But it was as a teacher that he had a formative power on my +life. + +As I look back on those classes in "Beginning Greek," and in Cicero, +I recognize his painstaking thoroughness. The fundamentals were clear +to him, and it was his work to make them clear, definite, and lasting +in the minds of his pupils. If he made a mistake it was in his +conscientious care that no dull or backward or thoughtless pupil should +fail to have these fundamentals of the subject drilled into his mind. +How many hundreds of pupils owe their sense of accurate and clear +thought to his persistent efforts day in and day out, I have no idea. +He was primarily a great teacher because he never relaxed his effort +to make every pupil know the essentials of the subject he taught. + +But he was more than a drillmaster, fundamental as that is. He was not +without a sense of humor. I remember once he came to the door of a room +in South Hall where, one Saturday afternoon, some boys were not very +quiet in their recreation. Some one answered his knock by asking, "Who's +there?" When the answer came, "It's me, Mr. Putney," the boy said, "No, +Mr. Putney would have said, 'It is I'"; and I can almost hear his quiet +chuckle as he went away. + +A great teacher depends for his success on his moral character. No one +could ever question the sincerity and force of Mr. Putney's character. +With clear vision of the work he wanted to accomplish, with a devotion +to his high purpose which never wavered, with a simplicity and +straightforwardness which showed in every action, he impressed on +the students his high ideals. At the same time he won their complete +confidence and made them feel his sympathy. + +Such a man leaves a widespread heritage in his pupils. He leaves also +a heritage of fine tradition for the Academy he served. + + ARTHUR FAIRBANKS, '82. + + + + +A college professor, at an alumni gathering, in conversation with one +of his former students who had been obliged to work his way through +college, said to him, "I always had a feeling that you took life too +seriously,--that you had too little diversion." + +The thought expressed in that remark suggests one of the dominant +impressions of Mr. Putney that comes to me after these many years. +Teaching was to him a serious matter, and the student's part, in his +judgment, both in preparation and in classroom, demanded likewise +faithful and not superficial performance. + +The basis of this characteristic in his life-work was his Christian +faith. It naturally made his objective the development of Christian +character, over and above the impartation and reception of information. + +I have always felt a deep sense of personal gratitude for a service +rendered during a special period of study at the Academy. Members of +my class who took the classical course will recall that Greek was not +included among my studies. Nearly four years after graduation from +the Academy, having decided to enter college as a classical student, +I returned to St. Johnsbury for ten weeks of intensive study of Greek +alone. Mr. Putney not only made my membership in the class in "Middle" +Greek possible, and practically free from embarrassment at being a late +comer, but gave me many regular hours of private instruction in Homeric +Greek, enabling me during the last weeks of the time to join the senior +class in the study of the latter form of the language. + +This I believe to be illustrative of his devotion and self-denying +service to any who are ready to respond to the forth-putting of time, +strength and knowledge on his part. + +His home was open, if needed, to receive students or others who were +sick and in need of attention impossible to be given in the Academy +dormitory or other rooming building. Some cases of illness were of many +weeks duration, but this mattered not. The tender ministrations of Mrs. +Putney were not lessened until all necessity was passed. + +Mr. Putney's influence was not due to his public utterances, for he did +not seek platform prominence. But his constant adherence to high ideals +of faithfulness, conscientiousness, and efficiency outside and in the +classroom, and his personal helpfulness to many an individual student +are among the legacies which many of us have been privileged to share +from his long and abundantly fruitful life. + + GEORGE L. LEONARD, '83. + + + + +A HUMAN HUMANIST + + +"Are you willing to write an appreciation of what his influence in those +early days meant to you?" + +So the letter read, telling me of the Charles E. Putney memorial. And +shall I be frank enough to add that for a moment the question rather +floored me? For while youth is very susceptible to influences, of many +sorts, youth is not much more conscious of them than the beanstalk of +the pole. Yet almost immediately it came back to me that a few days +before that letter arrived, a group of men were chatting in a Washington +club--among other things, about the value and results of formal +education. And, agreeing that few people ever pick up at school or +college anything which in later life they can put their finger on, that +for many people the so-called higher education is a pure waste of time, +I added, "The only man who ever taught me anything was a Greek teacher I +had at a preparatory school in Vermont." + +That Greek teacher was Mr. Putney. Perhaps Greek is no longer taught +at the Academy. I don't know. It is not the fashion nowadays. But I +am somewhat concerned that it has ceased to be the fashion. And the +foundation of the feeling I have about it was laid, in great part, at +St. Johnsbury. On that, at any rate, I can put my finger. It may not +have been Mr. Putney who first sowed in the mind of one of his pupils +the consciousness that history is a very long drawn out affair; that it +did not begin in A. D. 1776, or in A. D. 1492, or even in A. D. 1. For +before that pupil trod the banks of the Passumpsic he happened to have +visited the shores of the Ægean. To him, consequently, the Anabasis and +Homer were more real than otherwise they might have seemed--though Mr. +Putney had the gift of making those old stories real. + +But of one thing I am quite sure. Mr. Putney gave me my first sense of +language as a living and growing organism, come from far beginnings; and +he first made me see in the English language, in particular, a stream of +many confluents. This is the chief reason why it seems to me a disaster +that the classics are passing out of fashion. For with them all true +understanding of our rich and noble tongue seems fated to pass out of +fashion. To be too much bound to the past is of course an unhappy thing. +Each generation must live by and largely for itself. Yet does it not +profit a man to be aware that knowledge is an ancient and gradual +accumulation, to gain an outlook upon the cycles of history and upon the +human experiments that have succeeded or failed, to be able to trace +the sources of this or that element in science, in law, in art? And how +shall he really know the language he speaks without some acquaintance +with the languages which have chiefly enriched it--not only French and +German, but Latin and Greek as well? + +This Mr. Putney had the art of making his pupils feel. I remember how he +used to pick words to pieces and squeeze out for us the inner essence of +their meaning. One example in particular has always stuck in my memory: +pernicious. And I can still hear Mr. Putney's voice translating it for +us: "Most completely full of that which produces death." That word has +had an interest for me ever since--akin to the respect which Henry James +later instilled into me for the adjective poignant, which he declared +should be used only once or twice in a lifetime. What is more, I have +never lost the habit Mr. Putney enticed us to form, of picking words +to pieces for ourselves. There is no better way of extracting shades of +meaning. But that way is closed to those who have no Greek. + +Mr. Putney was, in short, my first humanist--though that word didn't +come to me till another day, when I began to read about the Renaissance. +But he was more than a humanist. He was humane. He was human. That +underlay the fact that, with the affectionate disrespect of youth, he +was known among ourselves as "Put." Disrespect, however, was never what +we felt toward the principal of the Academy. Indeed, the first time +I ever saw him, when I was a new boy of sixteen, he impressed me as +being a rather awesome person. As long as I knew him his dignity and +his firmness never failed to impress me. Yet about that dignity there +was nothing aloof. That firmness was not hardness; it had no cutting +edge. He meant what he said. That was all. No idle or disobedient boy +flattered himself that "Put" was to be trifled with. Every boy felt, +however, that "Put" was just. Firm as he was, he had too a great +gentleness. And I think he had the kindest and most patient eyes I ever +looked into. They were very shrewd. They could look through a boy as if +he were made of glass. But they were also very wise, and they knew how +to overlook a great deal of folly and thoughtlessness. Moreover there +was in the bottom of them a twinkle--of a most individual kind. It was +no broad Irish twinkle, nor yet an ironic Latin twinkle. You saw it +sometimes when you had made a particularly egregious translation; but +it didn't dishearten you. + +I have never forgotten that quiet, that comprehending, that rare +twinkle. After all, what happier light could a man cast on the cloudy +ways of youth--or shed upon his own character? + + H. G. DWIGHT, '94. + + + + +Coming East from Dubuque to Chicago, it is inspiring to an Eastern man +to see how the life of this busy metropolis of the West is guided and +influenced by the Eastern-trained man and woman. On the same street with +the great University of Chicago is Chicago Theological Seminary. I had +a delightful interview with the man who presides over this institution, +training the virile young men of the West for the work of the Christian +ministry and also for work in the mission field. This man is Dr. Ozora +S. Davis, a graduate of St. Johnsbury Academy and of Dartmouth College. +Dr. Davis attended St. Johnsbury Academy during the principalship of +that gifted and consecrated Christian gentleman, Charles E. Putney, +Ph. D. A powerful influence for righteousness exerted by the quiet but +inspiring personality of this educational leader is now felt throughout +the world. Truly the fourth verse of the nineteenth Psalm is applicable +to this former principal of a New England academy: "Their line is gone +out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world." + + H. PHILIP PATEY, '86. + _Journal of Education._ + + + + +It is fitting that Mr. Putney's work and influence as an officer in the +church in whose service he was so constant and faithful should receive +some mention. While serving as principal of St. Johnsbury Academy during +some of its most prosperous years and largest enrollment, he found time +to serve actively on the board of deacons of the South Church, to teach +a large class of students in the Sunday school, and to be unfailing in +attendance upon the mid-week meeting. He was a pillar in the church he +loved. And while in the Academy he maintained the religious traditions +on which it was founded, he recognized that it was in the church that +these traditions found their source and inspiration. + +On his removal to Burlington he took up similar relations with the +College Street Church, and continued them to the end of his career, +loyal to its interests and liberal in its support. If fine distinctions +are to be made between vocation and avocation it would be difficult to +determine to which institution the terms should be applied as his life +is reviewed. + + C. H. MERRILL, + _Vermont Missionary._ + + + + +It was not my privilege to sit at the feet of Mr. Putney as a student. +In about the year 1870, I attended prize-speaking at the high school +of Norwich, Vermont, and was told that the young principal was a Mr. +Putney. Something about the man appealed to my boyish senses and I +wished that I might know him, but lack of confidence prevented my making +myself known. An acquaintance was formed three or four years later at +St. Johnsbury. For a time, I was associated with Mr. Putney in certain +lay-religious work and came to know him well, if not intimately,--a +friendship which ever after continued. After the death of Mrs. Hazen, +I received a beautiful letter from Mr. Putney, written laboriously by +a shaking hand, but it expressed so much in a few words, characteristic +of his genuineness, it is a letter that will ever be preserved among +my most cherished possessions. + +What was the subtle something that so appealed to me that long-ago +evening at Norwich? It seems to me it was the unspoken sympathy of the +man which touched the lives of all who came in contact with him even as +the fragrance of a flower permeates the atmosphere. Surely he lived a +life that is well "worth the telling." + + PERLEY F. HAZEN. + + + + +I want to join in the chorus of love and tender remembrance which you +are hearing from all sides in regard to your father. + +He was my first teacher, at Norwich, when for the first time I went +to school, and his kindness and consideration helped me over the +strangeness and discomfort of the new experience. He taught me Latin +and I began Greek with him. + +He was a most delightful principal of the school, and thought of the +pleasantest things for us boys and girls to do, in and out of the +classrooms; for instance, long walks together in which he accompanied +us. + +All my life I have thought of him with warmth and pleasure, and on the +few occasions when I have seen him the old gratitude and confidence have +been renewed. He was so good and so delightful all at once. + + Sincerely yours, + + KATHERINE MORRIS CONE. + + + + +CHARLES E. PUTNEY + + + One lately dying--though alas I deem + Myself unfit to praise his high, clear faith-- + Followed his Master till the darkling stream + Was bravely crossed, sure that in life or death + Nothing could separate from the love of Christ. + So faithfully he kept with God his long, last tryst. + + + J. A. BELLOWS, DARTMOUTH, '70. + + + + +From his brother Freeman. + + +The hearts of all your father's brothers were terribly wrung by his +death. For it has not often been given to a household to have a leading +member who commanded such reverently affectionate esteem as did our +brother Charles. His life, his spirit, his purposes, his exemplary +attitude toward worthy living, his generously helpful thought--always +expressed in action--how could they well be other than a constant +challenge to his brothers and sisters? We all have rare cause for deep +gratitude that he was ours for so many years; we cannot express our +gratitude for our memories of him. + + + + +From a friend. + + +There is just one mind and one expression regarding your dear +father--"One of the grand old men has gone to his reward." The presence +of Mr. Putney has been a benediction to our high school. How thankful +you must be that he had no lingering illness but just laid down his +books and entered into the fuller life. We thank God for such a presence +in our midst. + + + + +From an associate teacher. + + +In the years in school Mr. Putney was always ready with good counsel to +the younger men. He never seemed to lose his courage nor even to grow +old. The last time I saw him, his smile was as bright and his voice as +cheery as I remember it always to have been. + + + + +From another associate teacher. + + +I count myself very fortunate to have known your father, and to have +been his friend for a short time. He was one of the finest Christian +gentlemen I ever knew. His influence in the city, the church and the +school is certainly past all measuring. + + + + +From a friend. + + +A man whom literally thousands love and revere in memory, and whose work +and influence are still going on. + + + + +From a former pupil. + + +I need not tell you that his going is, as was the death of your blessed +mother, like the loss of one of my own parents. The kindness of those +two good people to me when I needed help of just the kind they so finely +and unselfishly gave has always been a most helpful influence in my +life. To grow old looking upon his advancing years and the future with +grace and an abiding faith, as Mr. Putney did, is in itself an +inspiration to us all. + + + + +From a more recent pupil. + + +I do not need to tell you how we all loved him--everyone did who ever +knew him. He was everybody's favorite teacher, and instead of hating to +go to his classes we loved to do so. Somehow I always felt better after +having talked with him, and I only wish everyone in the world could have +known him. He was a real gentleman and a scholar. + + * * * * * + + + + + He is not dead, this friend; not dead, + But on some road by mortals tread, + Got some few trifling steps ahead; + And nearer to the end; + So that you too once past the bend, + Shall meet again, as face to face this friend + You fancy dead. + + + --ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. + + + + +APPRECIATIVE WORDS FROM TEACHERS AND PUPILS OF BURLINGTON HIGH +SCHOOL, 1920 + + +To live to old age; to keep one's physical health and mental vigor to +the very end; to work at one's chosen task with undiminished enthusiasm; +to know one's self greatly useful and greatly beloved; to go, at last, +swiftly, and to be mourned by many friends;--what could one ask, of all +the gifts of life, better than that? + +The impression left by Mr. Putney is that of a singularly serene and +happy old age. And surely, if ever a man had reason to look upon his +life with serenity and quiet satisfaction, Mr. Putney had reason to do +so. + +It is a touching and also an inspiring thought, how the successive +generations of young boys and girls passed through his life, each one +receiving something of the rich gift which Mr. Putney had to share with +all, but then too, each returning something of the fresh outlook and +untarnished faith of youth to keep his old age green. + +Mr. Putney lived long but never grew old. Perhaps because of his very +association with the young, he tasted the fountain of perpetual youth. + +How valuable and how prized was the gift which he imparted, is best +known to those who best knew the man himself. No pupil of his seems to +think of him primarily as a teacher, but as a wise and kindly friend, +whom to know was, somehow, to become one's self wiser and of a more +human spirit. + +And yet he was a superb teacher. + +It is simply that this phase of him is lost in the totality of the man. + +One thinks instinctively of a phrase of Cicero's--Cicero whose orations +Mr. Putney taught for so many years--"Vir amplissimus." It means +something much more, something quite other than simply "Great man." It +means one adequate for the occasion, whatever that occasion might be. + +That is the final verdict to be pronounced, as it is the highest praise +to be bestowed. From whatever angle Mr. Putney was regarded, and to +whatever test he was brought, he measured up; he sufficed. + + JOHN E. COLBURN. + + + + +When Mr. Putney died, we could not at first realize our loss. + +He had been so much a part of the school life that it seemed hardly +possible that, while that life went on, he could be away. + +We all loved and admired him, but we seldom stopped to measure him. We +accepted him, like any other accustomed gift, without realizing quite +fully how much he meant to us. + +As we remember him now, what impresses us most strongly is the thought +how little in him we could have wished to change--how extraordinarily +well he measured up as a man. + +There was a fine serenity about him, and a kind of soundness and +sweetness of character like the autumnal ripeness of a perfect apple. +It was tonic and wholesome to be under his influence. + +There have been great teachers who could not teach. Nevertheless they +were great teachers because a virtue went out from them which touched +the lives of their pupils and was better than all instruction. + +There have been great instructors who could not be respected, because +along with intellectual brilliancy and clearness went a narrow, or a +low, or a selfish outlook on life. + +Mr. Putney measured up in both respects--he was a large-minded man, he +was a great teacher. + +The very nature of his profession precluded any wide or ringing fame. +His work was done quietly, unobtrusively, one might almost say, +obscurely. A teacher's work is always so. + +His memory rests with us who knew him, but with us it is very secure. + +It is the memory of a man whom we could respect without coldness, and +love without making allowances.--_Burlington High School Register._ + + + + +In these days when the so-called practical side of life has seemed to +crowd out the humanities, so that in many schools Latin and Greek are +not included in the curriculum, Mr. Putney has held high the torch of +classical learning. To him much credit should be given for keeping alive +a real interest in Greek, and for giving thorough and inspiring work +in Latin. + +Moreover, in all school relations Mr. Putney has been not only ready +but glad to co-operate. Whether for a social gathering of the teachers +requiring a tax, for tickets to the many ball games, or for Thanksgiving +baskets to be filled, Mr. Putney's purse was always open. Not many, +indeed, know how often he overpaid his subscription so as to be sure +to do his part. + +But, of course, it is the personality of Mr. Putney, so elusive and yet +so real, that has impressed us all. In the hurry and rush of modern +days, he never failed to be truly kind, to be warmly sympathetic, and at +all times to be wholly unselfish. So with the poet we say, + + "And thus he bore without abuse + The grand old name of gentleman." + + EFFIE MOORE. + + + + +The thing which impressed me the most about Mr. Putney was the way he +saluted the flag in Assembly every morning. + +One could tell by his manner in saluting that he loved the flag and +would fight for it again, anywhere, any time. + + I. A. + + + + +Mr. Putney was a man who always found the best in every one; who proved +himself such a sympathetic teacher that he inspired all to try to please +him. + +His name will always bring to mind most tender remembrances. + + L. B. + + + + +Mr. Putney has always been to his students the highest ideal of man and +of teacher. He has been a true friend. His generosity to faults and the +encouragement he has given us all to live better lives will bear fruit. +He had a whole-hearted smile which none of us will ever forget. He is, +and always will be, the outstanding figure in my school life. + + E. C. + + + + +With the passing away of this most venerable character Burlington High +School has lost a shining star,--a star that shone in the hearts of all +his students and of all of those who knew him. He was a friend of all +creeds and was always ready to lend a willing hand to them. Religious to +the utmost and a real American in the full sense of the word,--such is +the character of the soul which will no longer cheer us in our daily +tasks, but which will remain in our memories forever. + + A. F. + + + + +Of all Mr. Putney's most striking attributes, his smile always impressed +me greatly. Every time he smiled we looked up and just naturally smiled, +too. And when he laughed it was contagious--a ripple of happiness +sounded through the class. His smile always drove away the blues and +encouraged us; not only in our Latin lessons, but in every way it made +life brighter. + + E. L. + + + + +Mr. Putney's love and friendship for the pupils and the respect which +they had for him stand out most strongly in my mind. Never did he +hesitate when asked to help some of his pupils out of hours. Never did a +cross word pass his lips, and a nod was all that was needed to stop any +disturbance in the hall or room. + +He will be missed as the most loved, most able, and most respected +teacher and companion that ever entered "Old Edmunds." + + C. K. + + + + +Mr. Putney, the most perfect man I have ever known. Only a few words are +necessary to say that though I knew him only for a short while, he stood +as a symbol of my utmost ideal in man. + +Justice, kindness, love and brotherhood were living in his heart. His +most beautiful characteristic and the most precious was his consideration +for others. + + G. E. R. + + + + +What especially appealed to me in Mr. Putney was his love for his +pupils. He always tried to help them in every possible way. He even +stayed at school an hour or so after the school had closed to help those +"who might wish to come for help," as he always said in his pleasing +tone. I shall never forget his words, "Well, you will have it to-morrow?" +when some person was not prepared with his lesson. + +No greater loss could be sustained by the school than this giving up of +Mr. Putney. + + D. R. + + + + +Mr. Putney was a man dearly loved by all who knew him. His gentle +ways, his remarkable whole-heartedness and his polished manners are +characteristics of a man who was a great but modest hero in the great +Civil War. + +He had no favorites among the pupils but he was the favorite of the +pupils. Thus we mourn the loss of Mr. Putney next to the loss of a near +relative. + + C. T. + + + + +When I first saw Mr. Putney I was impressed by his dignity and his kind +face. After knowing him better, what appealed to me most forcibly was +the absolute confidence and trust he had in his pupils. This trust in us +made us want to do our work well, and made us feel that we must do our +work well so that we would deserve his trust. + + "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul." + +When we heard of Mr. Putney's passing all was silence; that was the only +tribute one could give. Mere words, mere music,--nothing reaches the +summit of a life given over to service. His creed was, What do we live +for if it is not to make life a little less difficult for others. Surely +that is the highest goal of any human soul. He lived so that to come +into his presence was to be warmed and cheered as by the sun. By a life +heroic he conquered death. + +Whenever I looked at Mr. Putney and the flag in assembly, I could not +help connect him in some way with Abraham Lincoln and the great struggle +for freedom. He used to carry himself in such a soldierly manner. +Whenever he spoke to us it was a rare treat. + + H. M. B. + + + + +ADDRESS OF DR. SMART AT THE BURLINGTON HIGH SCHOOL + + +You have not asked me to speak to you this morning about Mr. Putney +because I can tell you anything about him which you do not already know. +In fact it does not matter very much who speaks to you about him. You +only wish to have an occasion to recall a familiar and delightful and +impressive teacher. You wish someone to do what Mark Antony did for the +Romans and tell you what you yourselves do know and enable you to repeat +the experience of Samson's mother in the scriptures who said about the +angel's visit, "The man came to me who came to me the other day." + +You have set me a difficult and an easy task. Difficult because you knew +the man and open your ears for words good enough to speak about him, and +easy because you knew the man and can yourselves supply what I may miss, +and smooth my awkwardness by the harmony of your own recollections. + +You might be interested to hear something about Thomas Arnold of Rugby, +Tom Brown's teacher, or about Bronson Alcott who had such strange ways +in discipline, requiring an offending pupil to punish him, holding out +his own hand for the ferrule; or about Tagore in India who requires his +boys to go out early in the morning to sit for half an hour under some +bush or tree for quiet meditation. Talk about these men might perhaps +appeal to your general interest in teachers and teaching, but what you +crave this morning is different. You wish to repeat the experience of +Achilles who slept beside the many-voiced sea, the _Polu phloisboio +Thalasses_, and dreamed that his slain friend Patroclus came back to +him: + + "Like him in all things--stature, beautiful eyes + And voice and garments which he wore in life + A marvellous semblance of the living man." + + +Or the experience of Peter when his Master appeared to him and freshened +the old love and admiration and moved him to carry on the Master's +service in his own life. + +You have set me a very difficult task but when I give you an inch you +will take an ell. Where I stumble you will walk with sure step. If I +am too much like Hamlet with old Polonius saying this cloud is like an +elephant or a camel, you will see a cloud like that which went before +the Israelites in the desert--a high spiritual presence to guide them. + +A few days ago he was here. The memory is full of life. His stalwart +figure clothed with gentlemanly care and taste, his bearing and movement +so fine, so dignified, so courteous and so pleasant. His voice so +special to him, with all harshness fined out of it, tuned as their +voices are who have in their spirits the accent and habit of good will. +And that fine face, the out-of-doors sign of good thinking and good +feeling, practiced long and become a second nature. That shapely, +well-proportioned, roomy head with its glory of white hair. He had, it +seemed to me, in his physical presence the charm of old age without +its weakness. He was not a sentimental, flowery man. He was naturally +perhaps like the rock in the desert which Moses struck and drew water +from it. The rock did not look as if it hid a fountain of living water, +but he took duty to wife. He loved to do his duty. He could not be +comfortable in any other course and doing his duty became his joy, his +life. Wherever you found him, in school, in church, in the state, in the +Grand Army, he was at his post, on guard, awake, alert, devoted. He did +not go with the crowd into the Civil War. He thought alone and deeply. +He weighed the matter by himself. He compared his obligation to his +father on the old farm with the call of the Union and concluded that +he ought to go. After a long life of fidelity to obligation he could not +breathe easily in any other atmosphere. He went simply and straight to +his post with his whole gift and might. Duty-- + + "Stern lawgiver! Yet thou dost wear + The Godhead's most benignant grace; + Nor know we anything so fair + As is the smile upon the face, + Flowers laugh before thee on their beds, + And fragrance in thy footing treads. + Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong, + And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong." + + +Mr. Putney was an instructive teacher. Some of you know it. Many old +pupils gratefully acknowledge his service. Both in the classroom and in +private personal contact he had an enthusiasm for teaching. He managed +to secure knowledge of what he taught. He was interested in his pupils +and he was interested in his subject and interested in bringing the two +together. Teaching I should think would be difficult without all of +those interests. No doubt Mr. Putney had a gift for teaching, but in +teaching as in other kinds of work one does much to make one's own gift. +Barring conspicuousness for a calling, this creative energy is the man +himself. I like to remind young people of this fact because they are +wondering what they will do in life; what they are fitted to do. With +some reservations it may be said that one becomes fitted to do whatever +one determines to do with one's whole mind and soul and strength. Think +how hit or miss our choices often are. Accidental circumstances or +chance openings when we are looking around for a job, something which +happens to be in the air when we come on the stage have more to do with +our first choices than any supposed genius for this or that. + +When men and women who have begun their career in this quite casual +manner succeed, then people say they have a remarkable gift for their +work. The gift in a very real and large sense is the creation of their +own energy. I believe that it was so with Mr. Putney. He was diligent +and faithful in his calling and his calling opened its treasures to him. + +You remember what the Scripture says: "No man having tasted old wine +straightway desireth the new for he saith the old is better." Mr. Putney +illustrated the saying. There was a graciousness, a consideration, a +pleasantness and good will in his ripe age which made it beautiful and +drew warm personal feeling to him. A custom of the heart grew up about +his name. Some of you loved him. That feeble old soldier whom he visited +every Sunday afternoon is lonely without him. He had "that which should +accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends." Not a +few boys and girls have reason to remember with tenderness his delicate +and patient sympathy. + +I received a circular the other day signed by my old teacher of +mathematics. I have not seen him for nearly forty years but reading +his words, seeing his name I lifted him again before my mind as if +I sat again before him in the Albany Academy. I recall his bodily +presence, his voice, his manner. I am grateful for his clear, and to me +inescapably conclusive teaching, and something I cannot analyze came +back to me--perhaps I should better say, came over me for my debt to him +has been growing all these years. Something of him has taken root in my +life and grown and borne fruit. In youth we take such influences for +granted. We are careless about them. We absorb them without thanks. But +the years bring thought and thought reveals service and we are grateful. + + "All my best is dressing old words new + Spending again what is already spent + For as the sun is daily new and old + So is my love still telling what is told." + + +In coming years some of you will be thinking and saying about Mr. Putney +with growing appreciation what some who are now in the thick of life are +already saying in the words of Scripture "Demetrius hath good report of +all men and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record." + + + + +MAKING LIFE A BENEDICTION + + +Whatever our path in life or the aim of our ambition, the real measure +of our service and success is the influence we exert upon the present +generation and those who come after us. We may do this through our +everyday life, through our individual service, through our benefactions. +When our lives are summed up, we are asked not what we gained, but what +we gave, not how much wealth we accumulated, but how much good we did +through our service and the means at our disposal. + +To grow old beautifully in service for humanity has been named the +height of human achievement. It falls to few men to do this in the +measure reached by Professor Putney, who has just passed out from +this community mourned by all. His long life joined generations far +separated. Those who paid tribute to his life and individual service +included the rapidly thinning "blue line" of the veterans of the +war for the preservation of the Union, for human freedom, of nearly +three-quarters of a century ago as well as hundreds of school children +who had learned to love him through the close association of teacher and +pupil. It is given to only one man in ten thousand thus to link close to +his own personality the genuine affections of organizations representing +extreme youth and advanced age. + +To have done all this is proof that Professor Putney in every sense of +the expression "grew old beautifully." The human interest element serves +to bring out this side of his life still more impressively. It was +his ambition that he might teach on his eightieth birthday. A few more +days would have witnessed the consummation of this allowable wish. His +conscientiousness was supreme however. He remarked to his granddaughter +that if he did not recover in two weeks it would not be right for him to +retain his position as a teacher in the Burlington High School, great as +was his desire to celebrate his fourscore anniversary "in harness." + +He continued to the end one of the youngest of aged men. He kept in +touch with youth and was thus able to reflect the spirit and intense +interest of youth. He was constantly aiding boys in his home who needed +help in their studies. He gave of himself ungrudgingly in this way +and refused recompense. It was with him a labor of love. If he had +frailties, and who of us has not, he governed them instead of letting +them have dominion over him, thereby showing himself better "than he +that taketh a city." For his pupils and his associates as well as for +those who associated with him in his Christian work in the College +Street Church he was always the gentleman of the old school and the +embodiment of unobtrusive beneficence combined. + +All boys and girls who may be inclined to bewail the impossibility of +being of service under present conditions or limitations will establish +their privilege of serving as he served, if they bear thoroughly in mind +that Professor Putney did what he did, not through the aid of wealth or +position or the favor of powerful friends, but solely through his own +individual service to others. + +Of such it is written "that he shall doubtless come again with rejoicing +bringing his sheaves with him." In the years to follow the sheaves of +influence of Professor Putney's life will come many times to the youth +whose privilege it has been to be associated with him, and they will +rejoice that his influence entered their careers. Who shall measure the +influences for good that he has set in motion in the young lives and in +the life of our community? Happy the man to whom it is thus given to +grow old beautifully! Thrice happy that man who in thus growing old +beautifully is able to bring down to the latest generations the best +traditions of the past and through them to make his life a benediction +to many generations to come.--_Burlington Free Press._ + + + + +THE EPILOGUE + + + He Toiled long, well, and with Good Cheer + In the Service of Others + Giving his Whole, Asking little + Enduring patiently, Complaining + Not at all + With small Means + Effecting Much + + * * * + + He had no Strength that was not Useful + No Weakness that was not Lovable + No Aim that was not Worthy + No Motive that was not Pure + + * * * + + Ever he Bent + His Eye upon the Task + Undone + Ever he Bent + His Soul upon the Stars + His Heart upon + The Sun + + * * * + + Bravely he Met + His Test + Richly he Earned + His Rest + + + --HERBERT PUTNAM. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Edward Putney, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES EDWARD PUTNEY *** + +***** This file should be named 36761-8.txt or 36761-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/7/6/36761/ + +Produced by Betty Haertling, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Charles Edward Putney + An Appreciation + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 17, 2011 [EBook #36761] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES EDWARD PUTNEY *** + + + + +Produced by Betty Haertling, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<div class="figure"> +<a name="image-0000"><!--IMG--></a> +<img src="images/cover.png" width="300" height="485" +alt="(front cover)" /> +</div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<div class="figure"> +<a name="image-0001"><!--IMG--></a> +<a href="images/frontis.jpg"><img src="images/sfrontis.jpg" width="300" height="460" +alt="(frontispiece)" /></a> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page1" name="page1"></a>[1]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h1> + Charles Edward Putney +</h1> + +<p class="center"> +<big>An Appreciation</big> +</p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="center"> +<small> +Published by the<br /> Charles E. Putney Memorial Association +</small> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page2" name="page2"></a>[2]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> What delightful hosts are they— </p> +<p class="i4"> Life and Love! </p> +<p class="i2"> Lingeringly I turn away, </p> +<p class="i4"> This late hour, yet glad enough </p> +<p class="i2"> They have not withheld from me </p> +<p class="i4"> Their high hospitality. </p> +<p class="i2"> So, with face lit with delight </p> +<p class="i4"> And all gratitude, I stay </p> +<p class="i4"> Yet to press their hands and say, </p> +<p class="i2"> "Thanks,—So fine a time! Good night." </p> +</div> +<p class="right"> —<i>James Whitcomb Riley</i> </p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page3" name="page3"></a>[3]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_FORE" id="h2H_FORE"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + FOREWORD +</h2> + +<p> +This memorial to a great Vermont educator is the happy thought of one +of his pupils, Miss Caroline S. Woodruff. The idea immediately found +favor wherever it was known that such a tribute was contemplated. An +organization was perfected known as "The Charles E. Putney Memorial," +to arrange for the publication of this book. Hon. Charles W. Gates +of Franklin, Vermont, was selected as chairman, and the preliminary +expenses of the enterprise were taken care of by a finance committee +consisting of Hon. F. W. Plaisted of Augusta, Me., Mrs. Fletcher D. +Proctor of Proctor, and J. F. Cloutman of Farmington, N. H. The +committee in charge of securing the material for the book and its +publication were Miss Caroline S. Woodruff of St. Johnsbury, Rolfe +Cobleigh of Boston, and Arthur F. Stone of St. Johnsbury. The +publication committee realize that there are many former pupils of Mr. +Putney who would have been glad to have contributed to this memorial, +but believe that the tributes in the following pages are representative +of the sentiments of all who sat under his inspiring teaching, and are +stronger and better men and women because of his marked influence upon +their lives. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page4" name="page4"></a>[4]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0002" id="h2H_4_0002"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + TO CHARLES E. PUTNEY +</h2> + +<h3> + <span class="sc">On His Seventy-fifth Birthday</span> +</h3> + +<p class="center"> +<span class="sc">February 26, 1915</span> +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Still, still a summer day comes to my call,— </p> +<p class="i2"> A room wide-windowed, bright with girls and boys, </p> +<p class="i2"> A wrinkled Homer craning from the wall, </p> +<p class="i2"> A bee-like murmuring of <i>ai's</i> and <i>oi's</i>; </p> +<p class="i2"> And you, a king, dark-bearded, on your throne,— </p> +<p class="i2"> A king of gentle bearing and soft speech, </p> +<p class="i2"> No scepter ringing and no trumpet blown, </p> +<p class="i2"> But nature's own authority to teach. </p> +<p class="i2"> A stranger-lad I steal into my place </p> +<p class="i2"> And five and thirty years are quickly gone. </p> +<p class="i2"> The same sweet balsam breathes upon my face, </p> +<p class="i2"> The old Hellenic brook is purling on. </p> +<p class="i2"> See with how bright a chain you hold us true: </p> +<p class="i2"> We that would think of youth must think of you. </p> +</div> +<p class="right"> <span class="sc">Wendell Phillips Stafford.</span> </p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page5" name="page5"></a>[5]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0003" id="h2H_4_0003"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + BIOGRAPHICAL +</h2> + +<p> +Charles Edward Putney, the son of David and Mary Putney, was born at +Bow, New Hampshire, February 26, 1840. He was one of fourteen children, +of whom ten lived to grow to manhood and womanhood. David Putney was a +farmer, and Mr. Putney's early years were spent on the farm. He attended +district school and went later to Colby Academy, teaching district +schools from time to time, and preparing himself to enter Dartmouth +College, which he was about to do when the Civil War broke out. +</p> +<p> +He enlisted in the Thirteenth New Hampshire Volunteers, and later became +a sergeant. He was in the war over three years and took part in the +battles of Fredericksburg, siege of Suffolk, Port Walthal, Swift Creek, +Kingsland Creek, Drewrys Bluff, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Fort McConhie, +Fort Harrison, and Richmond. He was one of the first four men to enter +Richmond after the surrender. +</p> +<p> +At the conclusion of the war he entered Dartmouth College, and was +graduated with high rank in 1870. Directly after his graduation he was +married to Abbie M. Clement of Norwich, Vermont, who died in 1901. He +taught in Norwich until 1873, when he became assistant principal in St. +Johnsbury + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page6" name="page6"></a>[6]</span> + + Academy under Mr. Homer T. Fuller, whom he succeeded in the +principalship. In 1896 he resigned on account of ill health. He went +to Massachusetts and became superintendent of schools in the Templeton +district, where he remained until the spring of 1901, when he took up +his work in the Burlington High School. He died in Burlington at the +home of his daughter, February 3, 1920, after an illness of two weeks. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page7" name="page7"></a>[7]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0004" id="h2H_4_0004"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + DR. SMART AT COLLEGE ST. CHURCH AT THE FUNERAL OF MR. PUTNEY +</h2> + +<p> +It takes a man to adorn any calling; callings require or bring special +fitness, but manhood crowns the fitness, gives it added scope, +completeness, power and beauty—rejoicing the heart. Good doctors, good +lawyers, good men of affairs, good teachers, are better if they are +beyond reckoning. Wisdom is an intellectual thing, a property of the +mind, but when it is perfect the heart pours through it as the rivers +flowed through paradise. A poem in the Scriptures says that Wisdom +created the world, not as a task, but as a pastime. Speaking of God, +Wisdom says, "I was daily his delight, sporting before him, sporting +in his habitable earth." When one sees a man investing his work with +personal charm, one knows the difference between a photograph and a +painting—a photograph with its hard, incisive fidelities, and a +painting with its living colors, its appeal to feeling, its lovely +beauty, something luxuriously human in it. A teacher has a special +reason for floating his service, if it may be, upon a stream of personal +worth and personal charm, because he deals with children and youth who +respond to what he is, as well as to what he teaches. Daniel says, +"The teachers shall shine as the stars." Our friend here had much of +the oak, much of the granite in his make-up; something also of the +morning scattered upon the hills, something of the son of consolation. +He mellowed with the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page8" name="page8"></a>[8]</span> + + years. He planted climbing roses beside his +strength, and in the heart of it a tender and delicate consideration; +some of you loved him more and more to the end. +</p> +<p> +In his early youth he had the happy fortune to serve his country during +the Civil War. The ardors of that crisis glowed in his heart to the end; +the scorching heat gone, the flashing lightning gone, but never the +remaining glory of those years when he ennobled his young manhood by +risking his life for his country. He might have said what Galahad said +of the Holy Grail, +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i24"> "... Never yet </p> +<p class="i2"> Hath ... </p> +<p class="i2"> This Holy thing fail'd from my side nor come </p> +<p class="i2"> Covered, but moving with me night and day." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +He was a faithful member of Stannard Post, and long its commander. He +kept the Friday night of the Post meeting for the Post. Every Sunday +afternoon he passed my house, going to visit a comrade whom illness kept +at home. And he was a religious man—a Christian man. Faith was mixed +with his life. God strengthened him with strength in his soul. He was a +deacon of this church, and while his strength permitted, a teacher in +the Sunday school. He lived by his faith, and he thought about it. It +was one of the great interests of his mind. There is plenty in every +man's experience to limit him, to confine him, to make him small and +petty. This man had at least two enthusiasms which lifted and broadened +his spirit, his patriotism + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page9" name="page9"></a>[9]</span> + + and his religion. The last word he spoke was +the name of his native town in New Hampshire, Bow. A great light came +into his eyes with the name, as if he saw the place in a vision. He +loved his old home and visited it when he could. He went back at last +in imagination and desire to the roothold of his life, and that was +well and fair, for he represented the fineness of that New England +inheritance. One perhaps should not boast, but at least one may say that +it is a goodly inheritance of solidity, fidelity, seriousness, fitness +to live in a community and take part in its affairs. +</p> +<p> +It is said of Elisha that he took up the mantle of Elijah. The mantle +was a symbol of the spirit; it had become almost a personal thing. +Elijah had wrapped his face in it when he stood in the cave's mouth and +heard the small, still voice of the Lord. He cast it upon Elisha when he +called him from his plow to be a prophet. He smote the waters with it, +when he went to the place where he was to go up in the whirlwind, and +they were divided hither and thither so that they went over on dry +ground. When he went up in the storm, his mantle fell on Elisha. That +mantle lay close to the secrets of the prophet's heart; he wrapped his +face in it when God spoke to him. It was the symbol of his influence; he +called Elisha with it. It was the symbol of his power; he divided the +waters with it. A mantle lies upon the shoulders. It may fit another as +well as its owner. If it could be said that the mantle of this man has +fallen upon the teachers of Burlington, he would need, he could desire, +no other memorial. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page10" name="page10"></a>[10]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0005" id="h2H_4_0005"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + LETTER TO MR. PUTNEY'S GRANDDAUGHTER, MARY LANE +</h2> + +<p class="right"> + South Weymouth, Mass.,<br /> + February 6, 1920. +</p> +<p> +Dear Mary: +</p> +<p> +May I tell you a little story? It has largely to do with one whom you +loved and who loved you very much. You called him "Grandpa." +</p> +<p> +The story begins sixty-four years ago this coming spring, when two +brothers, a big brother of sixteen years and a little brother of eight +years, started out together one morning for school. They were going to +attend a private school, for a few weeks, in a strange district about +two miles from their home. The little brother would have been afraid +to go that long distance alone; but he had all confidence in his big +brother, whom he loved very dearly. +</p> +<p> +They had not been in that school very long when the teacher discovered +that the big brother was the best scholar he had. Very soon the teacher +asked him to help him in his work. Do you think the big brother refused? +</p> +<p> +One day the teacher was ill and could not attend school. He sent word by +one of his pupils that he wanted his best scholar to take charge of the +school for the day. Well, that was a trying experience for + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page11" name="page11"></a>[11]</span> + + a boy of +sixteen; but that boy commanded the respect of all the pupils of that +school; so he undertook the task and with wonderful success. He had no +difficulty with any of the pupils although some of them were older than +himself. Perhaps the little brother wasn't proud to have such a big +brother! It was about this time that the little fellow began to notice +how earnestly his older brother was trying to do right in every way; it +made a great impression upon him. +</p> +<p> +The few weeks of private school ended and the big brother soon opened +the summer term of school in his home district. In spite of his youth +he was appointed teacher and all the people of the district seemed very +glad. Among his pupils were little brother, two other brothers, and a +sister. +</p> +<p> +The teacher was so successful in his work that the parents in the +district wanted him to teach another and another term. He did so; but +all the time he was studying to prepare himself for larger work. He took +advantage of every opportunity to attend school for a term or two at a +time in some academy, until he became fitted for college. Meanwhile he +was deeply interested in his younger brothers and sister and doing all +he could to help them along in their studies. +</p> +<p> +About the time he was sixteen years old he heard a voice that seemed to +say to him, "Go, work in my vineyard!" That voice meant everything to +him; he was eager, therefore, to obey it. To work in the vineyard meant +doing good, helping others, being unselfish, giving strength and cheer +when + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page12" name="page12"></a>[12]</span> + + needed. We all know how well he did his work in the Master's +vineyard and through how many years he sowed the good seed. +</p> +<p> +A few weeks ago, the little brother, to whom I have referred, was +looking forward to the coming of big brother's eightieth birthday and +wishing that he could give expression to something worthy of the brother +and his wonderful life-work. While he knew that he was not equal to +an ideal accomplishment of such a pleasant task, he made one of his +attempts and wrote the few lines enclosed, finishing them a very few +days before the sad news of Grandpa's fatal illness reached him. He has +made no change in them, realizing that you will understand that he was +fondly hoping that his eightieth birthday would find big brother in his +usual health and strength. So, with a heart heavy with grief, yet full +of loving and grateful memories of my dear big brother, I am telling you +this little story and sending you the accompanying tribute to one of the +best men that ever lived. +</p> +<p> +And now, with much love to yourself and all the members of your home, +the little brother of sixty-four years ago wishes to sign himself +</p> +<p class="right"> + Your affectionate +<br /> + <span class="sc">Uncle Freeman.</span> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page13" name="page13"></a>[13]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0006" id="h2H_4_0006"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + <span class="sc">And the Sheaves Are Still Coming In</span> +</h2> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Go, work in my vineyard!" The Master spoke </p> +<p class="i2"> To the list'ning heart of Youth; </p> +<p class="i2"> "The world is my vineyard; go forth and sow </p> +<p class="i2"> The Life-giving seed of Truth!" </p> +<p class="i2"> And forth to the sowing, with ardent zeal </p> +<p class="i2"> And a love for mankind akin </p> +<p class="i2"> To the Master's own, he joyfully went,— </p> +<p class="i12"> And the sheaves are still coming in. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> He quickened ambition's sluggish soil, </p> +<p class="i2"> And freely scattered the seeds; </p> +<p class="i2"> The blades spring up, and life takes on </p> +<p class="i2"> A passion for worthy deeds. </p> +<p class="i2"> New visions catch the opening eye, </p> +<p class="i2"> Fresh purposes begin; </p> +<p class="i2"> The sower sowed with a lavish trust,— </p> +<p class="i12"> And the sheaves are still coming in. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> He turned deep furrows in shadowed soil, </p> +<p class="i2"> Where the weeds of dark despair </p> +<p class="i2"> Were the only growth; the seeds of Hope </p> +<p class="i2"> He patiently planted there. </p> +<p class="i2"> A harvesting of wheat appears </p> +<p class="i2"> Where lately tares had been; </p> +<p class="i2"> The sower in love had graciously sown,— </p> +<p class="i12"> And the sheaves are still coming in. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page14" name="page14"></a>[14]</span> + + The years speed on; in manhood's glow </p> +<p class="i2"> He is sowing with vigilant care; </p> +<p class="i2"> There are fields that call for the Seed of Life,— </p> +<p class="i2"> He is finding them everywhere. </p> +<p class="i2"> He is steadfastly doing the Master's work, </p> +<p class="i2"> Unheeding the clamor and din </p> +<p class="i2"> Of a restless world; he quietly sows,— </p> +<p class="i12"> And the sheaves are still coming in. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> At threescore years: does he stay his hand </p> +<p class="i2"> In token of lessening powers? </p> +<p class="i2"> He takes no note of vanishing time </p> +<p class="i2"> Save to honor its golden hours. </p> +<p class="i2"> He only kens 'tis the Master's wish </p> +<p class="i2"> That his strength be given to win </p> +<p class="i2"> The harvests of Truth; he scatters the seed,— </p> +<p class="i12"> And the sheaves are still coming in. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Threescore and ten: he has surely laid </p> +<p class="i2"> The burden of sowing down? </p> +<p class="i2"> He is far afield and with glow of soul </p> +<p class="i2"> Is wearing the years' bright crown. </p> +<p class="i2"> In his zeal for service he does not ask </p> +<p class="i2"> When the days of rest begin; </p> +<p class="i2"> Enough to know there is seed to sow; </p> +<p class="i12"> And the sheaves are still coming in. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> And what of the sower at fourscore years? </p> +<p class="i2"> Has the vineyard a place for him still? </p> +<p class="i2"> In joy of service and glow of zeal </p> +<p class="i2"> He is sowing with marvelous skill. </p> +<p class="i2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page15" name="page15"></a>[15]</span> + + He has sown in faith through many years, </p> +<p class="i2"> And rich have the harvests been; </p> +<p class="i2"> His forward look is a look of trust, </p> +<p class="i12"> For the sheaves are still coming in. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Ah! Brother, thy summons to riches' quest </p> +<p class="i2"> Was the call of the Voice Divine; </p> +<p class="i2"> Thou hast shaped thy will to the Master's word, </p> +<p class="i2"> And Infinite wealth is thine. </p> +<p class="i2"> 'Twas thy constant aim, from the fields of Time, </p> +<p class="i2"> Eternal treasures to win; </p> +<p class="i2"> That aim was blessed; to thy lasting joy </p> +<p class="i12"> The sheaves are still coming in. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> And when thou art called from the toil of earth </p> +<p class="i2"> To the larger service Above, </p> +<p class="i2"> And shalt hear the Master's questioning voice, </p> +<p class="i2"> In accents of Infinite Love, </p> +<p class="i2"> "What is the measure of golden grain </p> +<p class="i2"> Thou didst wrest from the fields of sin?" </p> +<p class="i2"> The Angel of Record will testify, </p> +<p class="i14"> "The sheaves are still coming in." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page16" name="page16"></a>[16]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0007" id="h2H_4_0007"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Call him not old, although the flight of years </p> +<p class="i4"> Has measured off the allotted term of life! </p> +<p class="i2"> Call him not old, since neither doubts nor fears </p> +<p class="i4"> Have quenched his hope throughout the long, long strife! </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> They are not old though days of youth have fled, </p> +<p class="i4"> Who quaff the brimming cup of peace and joy! </p> +<p class="i2"> They are not old who from life's hidden springs </p> +<p class="i4"> Find draughts which still refresh but never cloy." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page17" name="page17"></a>[17]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0008" id="h2H_4_0008"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + LETTERS RECEIVED ON MR. PUTNEY'S SEVENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY +</h2> + +<p> +I am glad you are to have a birthday tomorrow. I feel sure that it will +be a happy birthday. Your children and grandchildren will see to it that +the day is properly celebrated. +</p> +<p> +It is a great pleasure to look back on the days spent in St. Johnsbury +when your influence meant so much to us. You can never know how strongly +your personality and your life influenced the boys and girls in the +Academy, especially those of us who were away from home. Many of the +things which you said to us, the time or occasion of saying them and +the place too are very vividly recalled after thirty years. You in St. +Johnsbury, four or five professors at Dartmouth and perhaps a half dozen +other men, make up a small group of men who have given me most in the +way of stimulation and encouragement. To express adequately my gratitude +is impossible, but out of a full heart I do thank you and am glad of +this opportunity to extend my best wishes to you for continued health +and happiness. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Yours very sincerely, +<br /> + <span class="sc">David N. Blakely</span>, '85. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page18" name="page18"></a>[18]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0009" id="h2H_4_0009"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +You have been living in my life all these long years since the old St. +Johnsbury Academy days. +</p> +<p> +That wonderful kindness with which you looked upon all our shortcomings +has been the great example of kindness I have looked to all these days. +</p> +<p> +That wonderful equality of judgment with which you decided all our +cases, has always remained unquestioned in my heart. +</p> +<p> +And that which most of all has influenced my life has been that +wonderful quietness with which you have possessed your soul. +</p> +<p> +I am more grateful to you every day I live and more thankful for the +years spent under your influence. +</p> +<p> +We are all to be congratulated because of this birthday. May you have +many, many more and may you know better every year how much we all love +you. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Yours most sincerely, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Mary Drew</span>, '87. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0010" id="h2H_4_0010"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Believing that the only real satisfaction to a teacher after all is the +knowledge that somewhere down the years there sounds an echo of his +effort, I am venturing to add my word of appreciation to you on your +birthday. +</p> +<p> +There in your office and classroom I received, as have hundreds of +others, the inspiration—the vision, if you will, of what life +means—and there are no memories more hallowed than those of the +associations + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page19" name="page19"></a>[19]</span> + + at St. Johnsbury Academy. Year after year for thirty years +I've watched the groups of young men and women leave the institution but +never without a keener appreciation of what the years had meant to us. +</p> +<p> +Not for the first time do I say that whatever little success I may have +had with young people is due in large measure to the help received at +your hand, and with all my heart I thank you for your firm and gentle +guidance, your paternal influence over us all, and most of all for your +exemplary Christian character that never failed. +</p> +<p> +The best wish I can offer you today on your seventy-fifth birthday is +that you may realize more and more what a mighty power for good you have +been and are in the lives of an army of men and women today who once +fell under your influence. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Very sincerely, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Caroline S. Woodruff</span>, '84. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0011" id="h2H_4_0011"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +I wonder how many of us you can remember and whether any of our failings +are still in your mind? +</p> +<p> +You only had me for a short time, but such as it was it completed my +school work. +</p> +<p> +In fact it was my only schooling away from home. I am therefore able to +recall vividly many impressions made on my mind during the time I was +under your charge. I formed the impression that you were absolutely fair +and honest with your scholars and that you expected no higher standard +of conduct from them than you were practising + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page20" name="page20"></a>[20]</span> + + every day. I can see you +as you were then and wonder why, with such an example, we did not do +better. +</p> +<p> +I do not say this because it is your seventy-fifth birthday but because +it is true and I wish you to know that I realized it. +</p> +<p> +Seventy-five years of upright living comes to but very few and is a +crown of glory more valuable than great wealth or political advancement +and I most sincerely congratulate you on having achieved this end. May +your remaining days be filled with content and happiness and may the +expressions of appreciation and love that you are sure to receive at +this time, bring to you a partial reward for all you have done in the +past for your fellows. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Sincerely and lovingly yours, +<br /> + <span class="sc">G. H. Prouty.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0012" id="h2H_4_0012"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Patey and I were speaking and writing some time ago about the +seventy-fifth birthday. As the boys would say, "That is some birthday," +and it is fitting that more than ordinary notice should be taken +of it. I expressed a belief that expressions of loyalty and grateful +remembrance were more to you than material things would be. I hope the +expression will be as spontaneous at this time as it has been from year +to year all through your service. I have never known in any other case +such a continued and universal loyalty as the students of St. Johnsbury +Academy have given to you. By + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page21" name="page21"></a>[21]</span> + + reflex action it has been inspiring to me +and cultivated in me the same desire to serve my pupils which you have +shown. +</p> +<p class="right"> + With best wishes, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Franklin A. Dakin.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0013" id="h2H_4_0013"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Words are after all poor substitutes for the genuine feelings of the +heart but I know you will be able to brush aside the words and get at +the sentiment back of them. +</p> +<p> +In three more days from this date you will be rounding out seventy-five +years of a very useful life. +</p> +<p> +I am sure you will let an old pupil and one who has received so much +inspiration and good cheer from your life tell you so at this time. +</p> +<p> +Your boys and girls are in many lands but they are still your boys and +girls. Never have I seen a man retain the affection and esteem of those +who have come under his influence to a greater extent than you have. +</p> +<p> +May the good Lord continue to bless you and yours is the sincere wish +of your former pupil and friend, +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Hedley Philip Patey</span>, '86. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0014" id="h2H_4_0014"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +As I look back on my years in St. Johnsbury Academy I know that I +appreciated to some extent what you were doing for the young people in +your charge, and especially the many kindnesses that you + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page22" name="page22"></a>[22]</span> + + showed to me +in assisting me to prepare for college. It was not until the close of my +second year at the Academy that I made any definite plans to go farther, +but I appreciate very much more today than I did then the character of +the work you were doing. It was my good fortune to be brought into touch +with able teachers and educators during my entire education, but I can +truthfully say that not one of them took time out of a busy life to +arouse and assist a growing ambition for a broader education as you did, +and I shall always look back to the three years spent under you at St. +Johnsbury Academy as the time when my ambitions clarified themselves and +I began to look out toward a broader field. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Very sincerely, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Matt B. Jones</span>, '86. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0015" id="h2H_4_0015"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +As one of the many students who in St. Johnsbury Academy had the +pleasure and advantage of your instruction, I am glad to acknowledge the +obligation I personally feel to you for the kindly and patient direction +given me at such an important period in a young man's life. It seems to +me that the knowledge that one has wisely directed the education and +lives of so many young men and women as you have, must constitute one of +the crowning and most satisfying joys possible, and I am sure that all +the youth who have felt the influence of your teaching sincerely wish +that you may + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page23" name="page23"></a>[23]</span> + + live long to enjoy the happiness which you deserve for +service so conscientiously and cheerfully performed. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Very sincerely yours, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Edwin A. Bayley</span>, '81. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0016" id="h2H_4_0016"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +I am sending this letter hoping it may be opened by you on February 26, +which I am told is your birthday. I want you to be sure of the love of +an old pupil who never forgets you, and never will cease to be grateful +for your gifts to him during the three years that we were together in +St. Johnsbury. The Lord richly bless you with all good things. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Yours loyally and affectionately, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Ozora S. Davis</span>, '85. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0017" id="h2H_4_0017"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +I wish to take this opportunity to write to you to extend congratulations +on your seventy-fifth birthday, and further to express my appreciation +for the service you rendered me back in St. Johnsbury Academy. You will +recall that when I entered the Academy I told you I wanted to become a +teacher and to that end I have always striven. +</p> +<hr /> +<p> +I must not weary you with too much of my own history, only enough to let +you know that after eighteen years of service I can still look back with +appreciation to the man who above all others in the Academy made a +lasting impression on my life. + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page24" name="page24"></a>[24]</span> + + May the years that are before you be full +of sunshine and happiness. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Yours sincerely, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Arthur F. O'Malley</span>, '93. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0018" id="h2H_4_0018"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Some one tells me that you are to have a birthday tomorrow and I desire +to join with the host of your former students in sending you good wishes +on that day. There are many of us who still feel in our lives what +a factor St. Johnsbury was, and of all those in the old school you +were the one who meant the most to each one of us. When I think of my +experiences at the Academy—and St. Johnsbury meant more to me than +college or anything else—I always think of you and the great help that +you were to us boys in the time when we needed help. The pleasures of +my classes in Greek and all the other things in which you were of such +valuable assistance, will always be remembered. I only wish I might +do for some boy as much as you did for me. I send you my sincerest +greetings and best wishes for a happy birthday. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Yours for '85, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Jay B. Benton</span>, '85. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0019" id="h2H_4_0019"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +It hardly seems possible that you are reaching your seventy-fifth +birthday, but such, I am informed, is the case. I have really known you +quite a while; because you will remember that you were + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page25" name="page25"></a>[25]</span> + + the Normal School +examiner, and I was in one of the classes graduating from the Randolph +Normal School in 1882. +</p> +<p> +I presume that as you think over the factors which have led to such a +hale and hearty old age, you will agree with Mark Twain who attributed +his seventy years to, among other things, never having smoked but one +cigar at a time, never having smoked during sleep, and not always at +his meals. +</p> +<p> +I hope that on this auspicious day you will take out the gold-headed +cane presented you by the class of '86 and, at least, wave it in the air +a few times; for, as I think I told you on the day of its presentation, +we hoped you might never need it for walking purposes. +</p> +<p> +I can never forget your many acts of kindness rendered me personally +during my course at St. Johnsbury. Were I to attempt to recount them as +they occur to me I am sure I should make this letter, which is intended +to be simply one of warm congratulations, far too long. +</p> +<p> +Among the many things upon which I think you are to be congratulated, I +would mention first the spirit which inspires you to still love your +work at seventy-five, and again the nervous and physical energy which +permits you to stay, as Roosevelt might say, "in the ring." No less are +you to be congratulated on the consciousness, which I know must be +yours, of the love and devotion of hundreds, yes, thousands by this +time, of your pupils throughout the world. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page26" name="page26"></a>[26]</span></p> + +<p> +I am sure I have imperfectly expressed the love, gratitude, and +admiration which I always cherish toward you, but you can be sure there +is much of it here, as there is in the hearts of all who have come in +contact with you. +</p> +<p> +With cordial best wishes I am, sincerely, +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">George E. May</span>, '86. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0020" id="h2H_4_0020"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Tribute written by Mr. Roland E. Stevens for the <i>Hartford Gazette</i>, +a paper printed by Mr. Stevens' small boy. +</p> +<p> +Editor of the <i>Hartford Gazette</i>: +</p> +<p> +Every day in every year, I suppose, has a special meaning and interest +for some one or more of the great human family. The day of the present +week that has a particular interest and meaning for me (and without +doubt for many others whom I know) is Friday the twenty-six. Why? +Because nearly thirty years ago when I was an awkward, spindling boy, +thirsty and hungry for an education, without means and not in very good +health, I wrote a letter to the principal of St. Johnsbury Academy, +telling him of my ambition to enter the Academy as a student and asking +him if he thought I could find work by means of which I could earn +enough to pay my way at the Academy. When I was writing the letter I was +half discouraged and rather feared and expected that I wouldn't receive +an answer, because I knew the letter was not very well written or +expressed, and I was almost sure that so great a + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page27" name="page27"></a>[27]</span> + + man as I supposed the +principal of St. Johnsbury Academy to be, wouldn't pay much attention +to such a letter. +</p> +<p> +In a short time, however, I received a very encouraging reply expressing +a friendly interest in me and advising me to come to St. Johnsbury in +season to take an entrance examination and stating that a willing boy +could most always find work. +</p> +<p> +The letter was not dictated nor was it typewritten. It was written in +long hand and by the principal himself. The spelling, grammar, and +punctuation were, I felt sure, absolutely perfect; but the handwriting, +to my great joy, was no handsomer than mine. This and the kindly tone of +the letter helped me to a quick and firm determination to pack all of my +worldly possessions, including some cookies, loaves of bread, etc., into +a rough wooden box and start for St. Johnsbury in season for the opening +of the fall term. +</p> +<p> +Within an hour after my arrival I found myself in the home of the +principal sitting quite near him, hearing him say in a quiet, sincere +voice, that he was glad I came; that he had found work for me; that he +wanted me to know that he was interested in all boys who came to the +Academy with a desire to work and to learn. I went from him to the +family where I was to live and work, inspired with confidence in him and +respect for him. +</p> +<p> +Master editor, these things happened nearly twenty years before your +birth, and in all these years the only change in my feelings toward this +principal of St. Johnsbury Academy that I am + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page28" name="page28"></a>[28]</span> + + conscious of, is an increased +and unbounded faith in him as a Christian gentleman, love and respect +for him as a true friend, gratitude and admiration for him as a teacher +and wise counsellor who has ministered generously to the physical and +spiritual needs of many besides myself. +</p> +<p> +You know, of course, that I refer to Prof. C. E. Putney who was +principal of St. Johnsbury Academy in the days when it ranked with +Andover and Exeter and for a number of years has been teaching Latin and +Greek in the Burlington, Vermont, High School. February 26, will be his +seventy-fifth birthday. This is why that day has a particular meaning +and interest for me and many others. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Roland E. Stevens.</span> +</p> +<p style="text-indent: 0;"> +Hartford, Vermont, +<br /> +February 22, 1915. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0022" id="h2H_4_0022"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +On Mr. Putney's seventy-fifth birthday the teachers of Edmunds High +School presented him with a beautiful loving cup. This note accompanied +the cup: +</p> +<p> +To our honored Friend and Co-worker,<br /> + Mr. Charles E. Putney. +</p> +<p> +The teachers of the High School, with the superintendent and his wife, +wish to send you hearty congratulations on your birthday and the many +years of usefulness that lie in its wake. They wish to emphasize their +appreciation of what it means to + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page29" name="page29"></a>[29]</span> + + the whole school to have in their midst +a loyal old soldier, a kindly and genial friend, and a real gentleman +of "the old school." +</p> +<p> +They hope this loving cup will be to you a substantial evidence of their +appreciation in the past, as also of their good wishes for the future. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page30" name="page30"></a>[30]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0023" id="h2H_4_0023"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + TRIBUTES UPON OTHER BIRTHDAYS +</h2> +<h3> + <span class="sc">At Seventy</span> +</h3> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> With a step elastic, </p> +<p class="i2"> Vigorous of mind, </p> +<p class="i2"> Strenuous of purpose, </p> +<p class="i2"> Casting doubts behind,— </p> +<p class="i2"> Vigilant for duty, </p> +<p class="i2"> Strong to banish fears,— </p> +<p class="i2"> What a wealth of tribute </p> +<p class="i2"> To your seventy years. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Backward glance disclosing </p> +<p class="i2"> Many a service field, </p> +<p class="i2"> To whose faithful tilling </p> +<p class="i2"> Bounteous harvests yield,— </p> +<p class="i2"> Priceless treasures, wrested </p> +<p class="i2"> From the soil of truth, </p> +<p class="i2"> Treasures from rich sowing </p> +<p class="i2"> In the lives of youth; </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Treasures from the valley, </p> +<p class="i2"> Where the shadows lay </p> +<p class="i2"> Till your voice of comfort </p> +<p class="i2"> Whispered them away; </p> +<p class="i2"> Treasures from the hillside, </p> +<p class="i2"> Whose ascent seemed drear </p> +<p class="i2"> Till your note of courage </p> +<p class="i2"> Fell upon the ear. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page31" name="page31"></a>[31]</span> + + Treasures from the garden, </p> +<p class="i2"> Where the Graces bloom, </p> +<p class="i2"> Lavishly exuding </p> +<p class="i2"> Breaths of rich perfume; </p> +<p class="i2"> Treasures from the vineyard, </p> +<p class="i2"> To whose soil were given </p> +<p class="i2"> Streams of gracious influence </p> +<p class="i2"> Born of Hope and Heaven; </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Treasures from the hilltop, </p> +<p class="i2"> Where the Eternal Love </p> +<p class="i2"> Fell in showers of blessing </p> +<p class="i2"> From the fount above; </p> +<p class="i2"> Treasures gleaned from sorrow, </p> +<p class="i2"> When to longing eyes </p> +<p class="i2"> Came a glimpse of mansions </p> +<p class="i2"> Reared in Paradise. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Ten and threescore cycles </p> +<p class="i2"> Are complete today; </p> +<p class="i2"> Loving benedictions </p> +<p class="i2"> Speed you on your way. </p> +<p class="i2"> Age has no forebodings,— </p> +<p class="i2"> Clouds and shadows fly </p> +<p class="i2"> From the glow and radiance </p> +<p class="i2"> Of your western sky. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Peaceful, glad and trustful </p> +<p class="i2"> Is your forward glance,— </p> +<p class="i2"> Faith begetting vision </p> +<p class="i2"> As the years advance. </p> +<p class="i2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page32" name="page32"></a>[32]</span> + + Is the sight entrancing? </p> +<p class="i2"> Do you long to go? </p> +<p class="i2"> List! the Father speaketh, </p> +<p class="i2"> Lovingly and low: </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Safe are all the treasures </p> +<p class="i2"> For which you have wrought; </p> +<p class="i2"> Safe the precious jewels </p> +<p class="i2"> Prayer and love have bought; </p> +<p class="i2"> All your aspirations— </p> +<p class="i2"> Incense of the soul— </p> +<p class="i2"> With the seal eternal, </p> +<p class="i2"> Safe in My control. </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Heaven awaits your coming </p> +<p class="i2"> With a warmth that cheers; </p> +<p class="i2"> But the earth-friends need you </p> +<p class="i2"> For a few more years; </p> +<p class="i2"> Tarry yet a season, </p> +<p class="i2"> That My will may be, </p> +<p class="i2"> Through the twilight hour, </p> +<p class="i2"> Perfected in thee." </p> +</div> +<p class="right"> <span class="sc">Mrs. A. L. Hardy.</span> </p> +</div> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0024" id="h2H_4_0024"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Of late we have heard much on the subject of preparedness. We have been +told that the prepared man is the man who achieves the thing he goes +after. He is happy. He is satisfied with himself. +</p> +<p> +On the twenty-sixth of February, seventy-six years ago, there was born +into the world a man who now holds a very high place in the thoughts of + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page33" name="page33"></a>[33]</span> + + hundreds of men and women. That man was Charles Edward Putney, our +beloved and respected teacher. +</p> +<p> +The lives of great men, it has been said, are the greatest teachers. Let +us then take the life of Mr. Putney and see what a lesson it teaches us +in preparedness. +</p> +<p> +At the early age of seventeen, Mr. Putney was teaching school. If he had +not studied and prepared himself could he have filled such a position at +the early age? The answer is plainly "No." Mr. Putney had moreover the +moral and the physical courage as well as mental ability. In 1861 he +answered Lincoln's call for volunteers and fought bravely for the Union. +He had prepared to do the right and when duty called he responded. +</p> +<p> +After the great war was over he entered Dartmouth College. He was +graduated from the institution as "honor man." And since then wherever +he has gone he has been the "honor man." Men, now old themselves, speak +with fondest regard of their teacher and state that he showed them the +right way to success. He prepared not only himself but others. Isn't +that a glorious thing? What greater hero is there than the fashioner of +the thoughts and character of the young? +</p> +<p> +Let us then, as I have said before, set up Mr. Putney's life as a life +to live by. Prepare ourselves as he did and then when we have reached +the autumn of our lives, we can look back with pride on a life well +spent, on a character that was prepared for all that was right. If +we can do that, + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page34" name="page34"></a>[34]</span> + + surely we shall be happy, we shall be satisfied with +ourselves.—<i>Burlington High School Register.</i> +</p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +There are many people who are seventy-one years old, but there are very +few who can claim the distinction of being seventy-one years young which +belongs to our respected Greek teacher. We rejoice with Mr. Putney in +his undimmed triumph over time and congratulate him on his many years +of constant usefulness. As the philosophic Greeks once honored one of +their race with the words "not who but what" so we honor and esteem +Mr. Putney for his faithful service to Old Edmunds and for the great +good he has done for her sons. We love him for his splendid personality, +his patience, his fortitude and the kindly interest that he always shows +in our welfare. After we leave this school, when we turn and recall the +many bright days we have spent in the Burlington High School, the memory +of Mr. Putney will ever awake affection and make our heart glow with its +warmth.—<i>Burlington High School Register.</i> +</p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="right"> + February 24, 1912. +</p> +<p> +Here are my congratulations and best wishes for you. Another year of +service is added to your enviable list. It must be a great satisfaction +to look back upon a life so well spent and to realize how many lives +have been benefited because you have been here all these years. +</p> +<p> +You cannot but know the honor and respect with which the teachers look +up to you, and how we are + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page35" name="page35"></a>[35]</span> + + trying to reach something like the high standard +which you have attained; but I wonder if you realize the love which your +pupils have for you. Some of them come into my room every day at the +close of school for an hour's uninterrupted study and I am going to tell +you some of the things which they have said to me about you. "Mr. Putney +is such a lovable man." "I thought I should be afraid of him, but he +makes us feel he is interested in us and I don't feel one bit afraid +even though he does know so much." "He is full of fun too. There is no +one in the class who sees anything funny quicker than he." "I am so glad +he is in the school while I am here. I shall always feel it to have been +a great privilege to have had him for a teacher." +</p> +<p> +And I want to say that I, too, feel it to be a great privilege to be +in the school with you and to have felt your quiet presence and to have +known your ready sympathy and interest. May the coming year be a happy +one. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Very sincerely yours, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Harriet Towne.</span> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page36" name="page36"></a>[36]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0025" id="h2H_4_0025"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + <span class="sc">One of the "Boys of Seventy-Six"</span> +</h2> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> He's just a <span class="sc">Boy</span>, a <span class="sc">Lively Boy</span>, </p> +<p class="i4"> Who notes no years, I ween; </p> +<p class="i6"> He might be six and seventy, or </p> +<p class="i8"> He might be "sweet sixteen." </p> +<p class="i10"> He's done a marv'lous work, and still </p> +<p class="i12"> Is putting in his licks </p> +<p class="i14"> To prove the staying powers of </p> +<p class="i16"> A "Boy of Seventy-Six." </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "His hair is white?" Of course it's white! </p> +<p class="i4"> He's white, all through and through! </p> +<p class="i6"> His soul is white, has always been; </p> +<p class="i8"> His heart is white and true. </p> +<p class="i10"> But in Life's Battle has he shown </p> +<p class="i12"> Whiteness of feather? Nix!! </p> +<p class="i14"> His whiteness adds new glory to </p> +<p class="i16"> The "Boys of Seventy-Six." </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "What great things has he done?" Ah! if </p> +<p class="i4"> The querist only knew it, </p> +<p class="i6"> Greatness concerns not what we do, </p> +<p class="i8"> But, rather, how we do it. </p> +<p class="i10"> And every deed well done is great; </p> +<p class="i12"> And that is just his fix! </p> +<p class="i14"> Say! isn't that some record for </p> +<p class="i16"> A "Boy of Seventy-Six"? </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page37" name="page37"></a>[37]</span> + "But doesn't he take time to play?" </p> +<p class="i4"> Why, bless your anxious soul! </p> +<p class="i6"> He's always played,—too hard to note </p> +<p class="i8"> How fast the seasons roll! </p> +<p class="i10"> He's playing yet; but work and play </p> +<p class="i12"> In him so closely mix </p> +<p class="i14"> You don't know which to call him, Man </p> +<p class="i16"> Or "Boy of Seventy-Six." </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "His favorite game?" No need to ask; </p> +<p class="i4"> That in which <span class="sc">Good</span> is rife; </p> +<p class="i6"> The game that tests all human worth,— </p> +<p class="i8"> The glorious Game of Life. </p> +<p class="i10"> He never "stacks the cards," and yet </p> +<p class="i12"> He takes his share of tricks; </p> +<p class="i14"> Competitors have nothing on </p> +<p class="i16"> This "Boy of Seventy-Six." </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "But when does he intend to stop? </p> +<p class="i4"> He's surely done his share; </p> +<p class="i6"> Give him some nook and let him play </p> +<p class="i8"> A game of solitaire." </p> +<p class="i10"> Methinks I see you try it on! </p> +<p class="i12"> There'd be some vigorous kicks; </p> +<p class="i14"> You'd feel them, too, though coming from </p> +<p class="i16"> A "Boy of Seventy-Six." </p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page38" name="page38"></a>[38]</span> + + A "quitter," he? Not on your life! </p> +<p class="i4"> He's built on different lines; </p> +<p class="i6"> He'll never be a quitter while </p> +<p class="i8"> The Sun of Priv'lege shines! </p> +<p class="i10"> As long as he can serve the needs </p> +<p class="i12"> Of Harrys, Toms and Dicks </p> +<p class="i14"> Who look his way, he'll be "on call," </p> +<p class="i16"> This "Boy of Seventy-Six." </p> +</div> +<p class="right"> <span class="sc">Freeman Putney.</span> </p> +</div> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0026" id="h2H_4_0026"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + <span class="sc">A Birthday Reminder of Gallant Service Performed in the War</span> +</h2> + +<p> +Charles E. Putney was happily surprised at the opening of the Sunday +school of the College Street Church when the Rev. I. C. Smart, pastor of +the church, in a most delightful manner, presented him with the insignia +of the First Brigade, First Division (General Stannard's), Eighteenth +Army Corps, the gift of his friends in the church. +</p> +<p> +The badge was pinned to the left breast of Mr. Putney's coat by his +little granddaughter, Mary P. Lane, and Gen. Theodore S. Peck explained +to the children the use of the Corps badge of the army. Although +overcome with surprise, Mr. Putney responded most feelingly. The +presentation was witnessed by a large number of members of the school +and of the Grand Army of the Republic. +</p> +<p> +The medal bears the following inscription: +</p> +<p> +"Prof. C. E. Putney, from friends in the College + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page39" name="page39"></a>[39]</span> + + Street Church, +Burlington, Vermont, February 26, 1916, in remembrance of his gallant +service in the war for the Union, as Sergeant, Co. C, Thirteenth New +Hampshire, First Brigade, First Division, Eighteenth Army Corps." +</p> +<p> +On the two gold bars from which the medal is suspended by a red, white +and blue ribbon, are inscribed the eleven battles in which his regiment +participated: First Fredericksburg, siege of Suffolk, Port Walthal, +Swift Creek, Kingsland Creek, Drewrys Bluff, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, +Fort McConhie, Fort Harrison and Richmond. +</p> +<p> +The badge was originally intended as a birthday gift to Mr. Putney, but +its arrival was delayed so the presentation was made on the anniversary +of the death of Abraham Lincoln. The badge was accompanied by a letter +from Mr. Putney's friends stating that the gift was intended as a slight +token of their esteem and affection and a birthday reminder of the +gallant service performed by him as a soldier in the army of the Union, +1861-1865.—<i>National Tribune.</i> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page40" name="page40"></a>[40]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> Sleep on, O brave-hearted, O wise man that kindled to flame— </p> +<p class="i2"> To live in mankind is far more than to live in a name, </p> +<p class="i2"> To live in mankind, far, far more than to live in a name! </p> +</div> +<p class="right"> —<span class="sc">Nicholas Vachel Lindsay.</span> </p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page41" name="page41"></a>[41]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0027" id="h2H_4_0027"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + TRIBUTES FROM FRIENDS AT ST. JOHNSBURY ACADEMY +</h2> + +<p> +I take special pleasure in sending to Mr. Putney's memorial an +appreciative testimony to the long tried friendship which we had +for each other. I was with him as fellow teacher under Mr. Fuller's +principalship and after that worked with and under him as principal +until his resignation. Was with him a longer time than any other +teacher, always with the kindest and most uniform relations both in +educational and social respects, and more than all else in the higher +spiritual relationships. In a letter from him a very short time before +he passed away he hoped he might still be in the work of teaching when +he reached his eightieth birthday. I thought he was to be much rejoiced +with that he came so near it and was called up higher while in the joy +of his chosen life work. +</p> +<p> +It is very pleasant to remember also the close friendships between wives +and daughters of our two families. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Solomon H. Brackett.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0028" id="h2H_4_0028"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +None of Mr. Putney's pupils were more devoted and loyal to him, none had +more sincere love and affection for him, than the teachers who were + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page42" name="page42"></a>[42]</span> + + privileged to work with him. Mr. Putney's great aim was to make true men +and noble women and all those who were fortunate to be called his pupils +will bear his mark with them in their accomplishments, in their graces, +and in their power. +</p> +<p> +Many of his pupils will be inclined to virtue, holiness and peace, +because the teacher was the embodiment of these qualities. In all things +he had charity. Tolerance was of his nature. He respected in others the +qualities he himself possessed, sincerity of conviction and frankness of +expression. +</p> +<p> +His power over his pupils was marked and abiding because of his own +example, his profound scholarship, his humility, his absolute justice, +yet accompanied with sympathy and respect. His impulses were great, +earnest, simple, unostentatious. His is the old story of devotion to +duty, a religious sentiment and faith, serious determination, +cheerfulness and untiring effort. +</p> +<p> +"For he was a faithful man and feared God above many." +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">A. L. Hardy.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0029" id="h2H_4_0029"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +When you speak of Mr. Putney you will find my loyalty as strong as ever. +We kept up our correspondence to the last. I am glad to express again +my debt to him, and I certainly should not wish to be omitted from any +group of Mr. Putney's friends. +</p> +<p> +When I went to St. Johnsbury Academy at Mr. Putney's invitation I was +inexperienced and needed + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page43" name="page43"></a>[43]</span> + + a good deal of friendly advice. He had a rare +gift in that way. His own devotion, unselfishness and conscientiousness +were contagious. He was a good teacher and still better trainer. But the +moral effect of living and working with him was the best thing about the +Academy. I believe all the excellent staff of teachers felt just as I +did. So much so that our intimate association gave us more than the +pupils could get. Some of us enjoyed too the fine, generous +neighborliness of both Mr. and Mrs. Putney. +</p> +<p> +In administrative councils his judgment never lost sight of the central +object—the cultivation of each pupil to the most effective Christian +manhood and womanhood. What higher mark than that can be set by any of +the theorists and innovators of the present day education? The typical +"New England Academy"—and St. Johnsbury was the ideal among them—can +bear comparison with the latest and best of schools in the highest +object of education. Probably it needed its own environment which could +not be duplicated elsewhere. All honor to it and to him who was its +exponent during my own years so happily given to its service. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Sincerely yours, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Franklin A. Dakin.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0030" id="h2H_4_0030"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +The first impression which Mr. Putney made upon me when he joined our +circle of teachers in the Academy was that of a man of strength, high +moral purpose and rare teaching ability, an + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page44" name="page44"></a>[44]</span> + + impression which grew to +a certainty as the years went on and he became our principal. His +courtesy, unfailing kindness and good fellowship made it a pleasure to +work with and under him, and I shall always remember him as a true and +valued friend and a great teacher. "What more can we desire for our +friends than this," as was said of that other beloved teacher, Edward +Bowen of England, "that in remembering them there should be nothing to +regret, that all who came under their influence should feel themselves +for ever thereafter the better for that influence." +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">L. Jennie Colby.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0031" id="h2H_4_0031"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +It is difficult to put in words my estimate of Mr. Putney. He was a loyal +friend to everyone he knew, always looking for ways of encouragement +and help. Many a scholar can testify to the truth of this. We know his +thoroughness as a teacher, we remember his reverence for the Bible, his +prayers, his loyalty to church and its organizations, his devotion to +his Heavenly Father. +</p> +<p> +I think his influence for good will extend to the ends of the earth. It +has been a great blessing to know him. I have been so glad he could keep +up his work to the last. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Mary Cummings Clark.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0032" id="h2H_4_0032"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +If I were to put into one word what seems to me the keynote of Mr. +Putney's life as I knew him, it would be service. There was never a +moment + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page45" name="page45"></a>[45]</span> + + that I was not conscious that even when he was in physical +suffering, which, alas! was often, he was ready to help in every way +possible. This patience and kindness were unfailing, and his sense of +humor, which must have helped him as well as us, often pricked our +difficulties, and showed us how unimportant they really were. I was with +him only two years, but his character, and the lessons learned from him +have been a very real influence in my life ever since. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Elizabeth Washburn Worthen.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0033" id="h2H_4_0033"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +The distance of time (now forty years) since those Academy days does +not dim the fond recollection and appreciation of my teachers at St. +Johnsbury Academy. And of them all, before or since, there is no one who +holds a higher place in my esteem than Mr. Putney. Though engaged in +teaching mathematics and astronomy during the greater part of this time, +I have not forgotten, nor ever shall, the essentials he taught—some +things even in Latin and Greek, but far more in earnestness and sincerity +and purpose. And I prize also the closer touch with his sensitive, +kindly, sterling personality afforded by the few months when I was +privileged to teach as a substitute at the Academy. +</p> +<p> +Would that we had more such men now in the ranks of the profession. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">F. B. Brackett</span>, '82. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page46" name="page46"></a>[46]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0034" id="h2H_4_0034"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +With high reverence for what men had known as wisdom and beauty in the +past, with sane and clear-eyed understanding of the shifting needs of +the present, with confident faith in the ultimate good, whatever the +future, he taught many lessons which we did not know until long +afterwards that we had learned. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Margaret Bell Merrill</span>, '94. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0035" id="h2H_4_0035"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +It is a great pleasure for me to add my word of appreciation with +respect to the splendid influence that Mr. Putney exerted at St. +Johnsbury Academy. He was always fair, always friendly, and his sense of +humor was a delight. A thorough scholar himself, he was not satisfied +with superficial work. He was able to sympathize with the pupil's view +of life and yet he knew how to enlarge that view. The branches of Latin +and Greek which he taught did not afford him full scope for expressing +the originality that was a remarkable part of his character; but I +remember a course of reading in English literature which our class took +under him as an extra, and there he was able to disclose the poetic part +of his nature, and we were able to know him as a thinker and a seer. +I look back with gratitude to the days at "St. Jack." +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">George R. Montgomery</span>, '88. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0036" id="h2H_4_0036"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +I first saw Mr. Putney in August, 1881, when I came alone and somewhat +homesick to seek admission to the Academy. He was standing on the steps + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page47" name="page47"></a>[47]</span> + + of South Hall ready to greet new students with his quiet friendly manner +and sincere expression of interest. He made us feel at once that we had +in him a friend, one who understood us and expected the best from us. I +like to recall this picture of him for it gave me an impression of the +man that I have never had occasion to change. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Putney was a great teacher. Thorough in detail and wise in daily +drill that he knew was necessary for our success, he showed a love for +the literature that he taught and an enthusiasm that was contagious. +Fortunate the boy or girl who learned Virgil under his wise guidance. +Always sympathetic and encouraging, he could detect the bluffer and +discourage one who tried to get through his lessons without adequate +preparation. He corrected our mistakes, but encouraged our attempts to +succeed, even though we often failed. He appealed to our ambition, to +our sense of obligation, and to our pride; and thus he led rather than +drove us to our work. And work we did; we did not dare to disappoint +him, we did not wish to disappoint him. Later in college we had occasion +more than once to be thankful for the wise and sound training we had had +under his leadership. +</p> +<p> +It is, however, the personality of the man that lives with us, whether +we remember him best in the classroom or in the chapel exercises, in +the dormitory or in some other phase of his active life. He was quiet, +even-tempered, but forceful. His voice was not often raised, but it +carried conviction. His directions were accepted without protest or + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page48" name="page48"></a>[48]</span> + + question; or if, as I remember well, on one occasion we did protest, he +had a firm, convincing manner that made us accept his word as final. And +yet there was no rancor left, we felt that Mr. Putney was right. As a +rule he was serious, but he had a merry twinkle in his eye that told of +a sense of humor and an ability to join with his students in their good +times. In a very real sense he entered into the lives of all of us and +made upon us that impression that makes us rise and say with one voice, +"He was a Christian gentleman." +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Gilbert S. Blakely</span>, '84. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0037" id="h2H_4_0037"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +The personality of Mr. Putney has stayed with me during all these years +with singular distinctness. Many other teachers, whose influence has +been undoubted and deeply felt, shape themselves in memory somewhat +vaguely. But Mr. Putney stands out clearly and vividly, as if the days +under him at St. Johnsbury Academy were but yesterday. Here was a man +quiet and unassuming, and yet I am conscious, and always have been +conscious, of a certain power that flowed from him into the lives of his +pupils. +</p> +<p> +Such a force does not lend itself readily to analysis. Like most +fundamental things, it is subtle, undefinable. But some elements in the +character of Mr. Putney in the retrospect are clear as air. In the first +place, he was a born teacher. His scholarship was backed by thoroughness +of application in the classroom. A part of his painstaking self passed + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page49" name="page49"></a>[49]</span> + + into the mental processes, and so into the equipment, of those who sat +under him. His instruction went deep. It was thorough plowing of the +mind. Slip-shod methods were repugnant to his nature. Then, too, how +patient he was! For every student he seemed to carry in his mind an +ideal of development that made every effort on his part toward that end +a real joy, and so he first grounded him in basic things and then built +on that foundation. +</p> +<p> +With poise and self-control, though not physically robust, he managed +a large school in such a way that it ran as smoothly as a well-oiled +machine. We took it all for granted then. But we see now, especially +those of us who are teachers ourselves, the meaning and the reason of +it all, and we trace the fact to its source in an able and inspiring +personality. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Putney had a quiet glow of humor, and many an incident comes to mind +to show how large and wholesome a part this characteristic played in his +career. But most of all I would pay tribute to the Christian gentleman. +His idealism was not too lofty for "human nature's daily food." Rather +it expressed itself in practical devotion to the best interests of his +pupils, to good things, and to noble causes. He was a leader because +he allowed himself humbly to be led by something above him. He moulded +character because he was himself being moulded by spiritual forces. Not +ambitious in the worldly sense, he came into his own long before his +gentle life passed from among us. I fancy that, could he do so, he would +tell us that his real ambition + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page50" name="page50"></a>[50]</span> + + has been realized. In Mr. Putney we are +gratefully aware of that gracious thing, the distribution of a rare +personality through the lives of others, the multiplication of self in +terms of helpfulness to the world. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Henry D. Wild</span>, '84. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0038" id="h2H_4_0038"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Those were days of exceptional privilege in the eighties and nineties +for the shy but eager boys and girls of rural Vermont who found their +way to St. Johnsbury Academy, there, under Mr. Putney and the able and +friendly faculty of his choice, to catch enlarged vision and the +preparation to fulfill it. +</p> +<p> +The quiet, unobtrusive life of such as Mr. Putney lends itself to fewer +striking, outstanding memories than more brilliant careers, yet how +positive the impression and far-reaching the influence, and how sweet +the incidents one does recall! +</p> +<p> +My first acquaintance revealed his friendly interest and thoughtfulness. +Discovering that I, a timid new-comer, was the only girl enrolled for +Greek with twenty young men, he sent a kindly word of encouragement and +the hope that I would not let the fact discourage me in my purpose. That +pledge of sympathy on the part of one of my first male instructors had +large weight in deciding me to brave the ordeal. It was, too, a pledge +fully and most wisely carried out, so discriminatingly administered +by daily, tactful consideration as to set me wholly at ease and to +establish the most natural, unconscious comradeship with the class. +The only visible evidence + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page51" name="page51"></a>[51]</span> + + of his thought came in occasional approving +comments upon the little rivalry in scholarship in the class and the +requests that I conduct the class sometimes when he was necessarily +absent. Thus he made of the experience, by his fine tact and wisdom, +a happy and fruitful one. +</p> +<p> +I was early inspired with a confidence that the ideals he held for us +were but those of his own life. The urgent suggestions to drill and +review our lessons thoroughly were the more forceful when I learned that +it had been a habit of all his own student life to review each Saturday +the entire daily work of the week. A trying epidemic of colds and coughs +was prevailing one winter, disturbing school exercises greatly. At the +close of chapel one morning Mr. Putney told us in his quiet, earnest +manner the dangers of allowing a cough to become aggravated and the +possibility of entirely controlling it. Skeptical of this, I well +remember with what gleeful malice I scoffed at it in the hearing of a +teacher who made the lesson one of life-long practice by telling me of +the heroic, thorough treatment to which Mr. Putney had in early life +subjected himself, so that he had spoken out of personal experience +again. When his life had been despaired of because of supposedly fatal +illness he had effected a complete recovery by checking the deep-seated +cough. +</p> +<p> +When in later years I found that his benign presence and quiet influence +was bearing daily fruit in the same, or even greater respect and reverence +with a younger generation of students, I realized + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page52" name="page52"></a>[52]</span> + + afresh under what a +rare teacher I had had the privilege of coming, and how profoundly true +it is that such a personality teaches constantly, often when least +suspected, the finest and most profound lessons. The vision which he +communicated is one of the most precious treasures. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Bertha M. Terrill</span>, '91. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0039" id="h2H_4_0039"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +I appreciate exceedingly this opportunity to add my words of tribute to +the memory and worth of Mr. Putney. +</p> +<p> +To him I am indebted beyond measure for the incentive, encouragement, +aid and inspiration which he gave me while a student at the Academy. +</p> +<p> +His was a life long in years, ripe in scholarship, and rich in unselfish +and generous service. In him were combined the qualities of the best +type of teacher. +</p> +<p> +His clearness of vision, and straight thinking made him a leader whose +influence was broad and lasting; while by the gentleness of his manners +and by the broadness of his sympathies he won and held the affection of +all who knew him. +</p> +<p> +His loyal devotion to the cause of education was such that he desired +nothing more earnestly than to serve and aid those who sought his +instruction, and he ever held before the student the highest ideals of +a fine, clean, strong and Christian manhood. +</p> +<p> +His influence continues, and will widen in the years yet to come. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">George E. Miner</span>, '83. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page53" name="page53"></a>[53]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0040" id="h2H_4_0040"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +All the way along, from the days when, in the absence of my own father, +he initiated me, a little girl of five, into the joys of a dip in the +Atlantic to the almost equally happy days in number ten when I learned +through him to know the wonder and beauty of Virgil and Cicero, Mr. +Putney seemed to me one of the best and finest men in the world. +</p> +<p> +How considerate he always was! During the years of my father's +pastorate, Mr. Putney was among those who gave unsparingly at all times +just the help and cheer that the minister needed. +</p> +<p> +I think of him as one whose life was a beautiful mingling of gentleness +and strength. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Cornelia Taylor Fairbanks</span>, '97. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0040a" id="h2H_4_0040a"><!--H2 anchor--></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p class="right"> + March 26, 1913. +</p> +<p> +It would be a genuine and great pleasure to us to be with you at the +doings of the Alumni Association and to meet again all the famous +characters expected there, especially the guest of honor. We are glad of +this opportunity to renew our profession of allegiance to him. He was +our principal during the final year we passed at the beloved Academy, +the year when, because of Mr. Fuller's absence abroad, he was the acting +principal as he afterwards came to be the titular principal as well. +We have always cherished the sincerest regard and affection for Mr. +Putney,—not only because he was our competent and faithful teacher and +our respected principal, but because he was in the truest sense our + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page54" name="page54"></a>[54]</span> + +friend. We owe him a great debt of gratitude which, like honest though +insolvent creditors, we can acknowledge though we cannot hope to pay. +Ours was the first graduating class that knew him as principal, and we +always cherished the fond conceit, that, as he was peculiarly dear to +us, so we were a little more to him than any other class could be. I +hope he will not say or do anything upon this occasion to banish that +happy thought from our minds. He will probably try to appear as fond of +you as he is of us. He always did have a way of letting you down easy +when he didn't want to hurt your feelings. You cannot have forgotten +how, when you answered his questions in classroom, he always said, "Yes, +yes," as though your answer was all that could be desired, even when he +followed it by some quiet correction, which when you had taken your seat +and thought it over, gradually let you see that you had missed the mark +by about a mile. We wish that we could do anything as well as Mr. Putney +could teach! Happy is the school that has him for a teacher! Happy are +the boys and girls—of whatever age—who have him for a friend! +</p> +<p class="right"> + Sincerely and fraternally yours, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Florence and Wendell Stafford</span>, '80. +</p> +<p> +Being both a paternal and maternal grandson of the Academy, I subscribe +to the above with duty as well as pleasure. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Edward Stafford</span>, '07. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page55" name="page55"></a>[55]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0041" id="h2H_4_0041"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +I hardly know what to say. There is such a mingling of emotions—sorrow +for the loss, joy that he has been with us so long, gratitude that it +has been my privilege to keep in so close touch with him during most of +the years since I, a school girl, first came under the influence that +has never lost its hold for a minute. +</p> +<p> +No one individual has ever had more to do with the shaping of my life +than he and whatever little good I have been able to do for boys and +girls is largely attributable to the influence that has helped me for +so long. +</p> +<p> +My experience can be multiplied a thousand times and then the story has +not been told. We all shall hold his memory in love, and in reverence. +Generations to come will still feel indirectly the help that we have had +from him. +</p> +<p> +I've always seen Mr. Putney as I read those words of Tennyson in his +dedication to the "Idylls." +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Indeed he seems to me </p> +<p class="i2"> Scarce other than my king's ideal knight, </p> +<p class="i2"> Who reverenced his conscience as his king, </p> +<p class="i2"> Whose glory was redressing human wrong, </p> +<p class="i2"> Who spake no slander, no nor listened to it, </p> +<p class="i2"> We have lost him, he is gone— </p> +<p class="i2"> We know him now—and we see him as he moved, </p> +<p class="i2"> How modest, kindly, all accomplished, wise, </p> +<p class="i2"> With what sublime repression of himself— </p> +<p class="i2"> And in what limits, and how tenderly— </p> +<p class="i2"> Now swaying to this faction or to that— </p> +<p class="i2"> But through all this tract of years </p> +<p class="i2"> Wearing the white flower of a blameless life, </p> +<p class="i2"> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page56" name="page56"></a>[56]</span> + + Before a thousand peering littlenesses. </p> +<p class="i2"> Where is he </p> +<p class="i2"> Who dares foreshadow for an only son </p> +<p class="i2"> A lovelier life, a more unstained than his?" </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="right"> + Very sincerely, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Caroline S. Woodruff</span>, '84. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0042" id="h2H_4_0042"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Among the many valuable and valued possessions which were mine when +I left St. Johnsbury Academy was a clear-cut impression of Mr. Putney +as a man, as a friend, and as a teacher. He stood for standards, high +standards of behavior and of scholarship. After all these years this +image is still clear and vivid. Simple, sincere, and single-minded in +his life work, his standards of living have always been a challenge +to the best in his associates, a challenge which has, consciously or +unconsciously, helped us all to higher levels of service. This is our +tribute to his memory. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Elizabeth Hall</span>, '86. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0043" id="h2H_4_0043"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +I look back on the old Academy days under Mr. Putney with ever increasing +appreciation of him and of his influence over my life. I am glad to add +my tribute to his memory and I do so most heartily. +</p> +<p> +Charles E. Putney was a kindly, courtly, Christian gentleman. He was +a wonderful teacher, leading his students through the classics by ways +that made + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page57" name="page57"></a>[57]</span> + + Latin and Greek no longer "dead" languages but very much alive; +and so were the thrilling narratives of the old worthies who almost +seemed to speak again in Mr. Putney's classrooms. Meantime, character +building was going on and his insistence of high standards of honor and +strict discipline made most of the boys more manly and most of the girls +more womanly, and they are grateful to him, as I am, for it all. +</p> +<p> +Devotion to duty was characteristic of him in school and church, in +home and public life. He was a good soldier and to him citizenship meant +service. He was a true friend and that meant the helping hand. +</p> +<p> +I honor and revere his memory. My humble tribute is one of gratitude +for his noble life, which, touching mine, revealed more clearly +for my stumbling feet the shining pathway that he trod to worthy +self-investment, to truth and God. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Rolfe Cobleigh</span>, '86. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0044" id="h2H_4_0044"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +From that first day when I went into the Academy office to consult with +Mr. Putney as a new student, I have been and shall continue to be under +the deepest obligation to one of the noblest spirits and finest teachers +whose influence ever has been exerted upon young men and women. His +scholarship was accurate and he made Greek interesting. His moral +standards were lofty and he made honor and truth beautiful. His soul +was sincere and devoted and he made Christ attractive to the mind and +will of a + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page58" name="page58"></a>[58]</span> + + boy. He knew how to give encouragement at the critical +moment and how to exercise discipline justly so that no sting remained. +He influenced me more deeply than any other teacher of my youth, and +my love and gratitude grew as the years passed. Mr. Putney did not +disappoint me as my ideal of a Christian teacher and lover of young +men. It was a great life. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Ozora S. Davis</span>, '85. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0045" id="h2H_4_0045"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +A teacher projects himself through the lives of his pupils and an +institution of learning speaks through the voice of its scholars. St. +Johnsbury Academy has been a formative force in the educational life +of New England and beyond, and her leadership has been buttressed upon +sound learning. +</p> +<p> +Charles E. Putney was a great principal and an inspiring teacher. In the +classics his well-ordered mind found a congenial field for interpretation +and elucidation. Frail of physique, with all the scholar's nerves and +sensitiveness, he yet day after day ploughed through the hesitating +minds of his pupils with patience and thoroughness. Particularly as a +teacher of Greek did he excel. He led his pupils through the necessary +technique of parasangs to the mastery of the sublime secrets of this +imperial mother of tongues. He possessed the capacity of taking infinite +pains and played no favorites among his scholars. I imagine the +responsibility of administration irked his gentle spirit and the rawness + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page59" name="page59"></a>[59]</span> + + of self-centered youth must have tried his conscientious soul. +</p> +<p> +I never thought of him in those days as a veteran of the Civil War, in +fact, did not then know of his martial service, but I can see now how +that experience must have fed his hatred of disobedience and disloyalty +and increased his zeal for the proper development of the minds of his +boys and girls in order that they too might become dependable citizens +of the Republic. +</p> +<p> +His was a kindly nature, though to the pupil who first fronted him he +seemed stern, yet this was but the shell, in which daily duty encased +him. It was always a pleasure to watch his sense of humor expand +itself in friendly smile and expend itself in his low chuckle as some +particularly atrocious translation fell from lips unused to expressing +ancient thought. +</p> +<p> +It is hard to measure his personal influence by a sentence but it seems +to me as principal and teacher, by precept and practice, he showed how +desirable a thing it is to perform the daily task conscientiously and +patiently. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Frederick G. Fleetwood</span>, '86. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0046" id="h2H_4_0046"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +To me Mr. Putney was a great teacher. I knew him as a friend, my friend +and the life-time friend of my father. I knew him as an active member of +the South Church, and a devoted leader of religious life and activity in +the Academy. But it was as a teacher that he had a formative power on my +life. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page60" name="page60"></a>[60]</span></p> + +<p> +As I look back on those classes in "Beginning Greek," and in Cicero, +I recognize his painstaking thoroughness. The fundamentals were clear +to him, and it was his work to make them clear, definite, and lasting +in the minds of his pupils. If he made a mistake it was in his +conscientious care that no dull or backward or thoughtless pupil should +fail to have these fundamentals of the subject drilled into his mind. +How many hundreds of pupils owe their sense of accurate and clear +thought to his persistent efforts day in and day out, I have no idea. +He was primarily a great teacher because he never relaxed his effort +to make every pupil know the essentials of the subject he taught. +</p> +<p> +But he was more than a drillmaster, fundamental as that is. He was not +without a sense of humor. I remember once he came to the door of a room +in South Hall where, one Saturday afternoon, some boys were not very +quiet in their recreation. Some one answered his knock by asking, "Who's +there?" When the answer came, "It's me, Mr. Putney," the boy said, "No, +Mr. Putney would have said, 'It is I'"; and I can almost hear his quiet +chuckle as he went away. +</p> +<p> +A great teacher depends for his success on his moral character. No one +could ever question the sincerity and force of Mr. Putney's character. +With clear vision of the work he wanted to accomplish, with a devotion +to his high purpose which never wavered, with a simplicity and +straightforwardness which showed in every action, he impressed on +the students his high ideals. At the same time he won + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page61" name="page61"></a>[61]</span> + + their complete +confidence and made them feel his sympathy. +</p> +<p> +Such a man leaves a widespread heritage in his pupils. He leaves also +a heritage of fine tradition for the Academy he served. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Arthur Fairbanks</span>, '82. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0047" id="h2H_4_0047"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +A college professor, at an alumni gathering, in conversation with one +of his former students who had been obliged to work his way through +college, said to him, "I always had a feeling that you took life too +seriously,—that you had too little diversion." +</p> +<p> +The thought expressed in that remark suggests one of the dominant +impressions of Mr. Putney that comes to me after these many years. +Teaching was to him a serious matter, and the student's part, in his +judgment, both in preparation and in classroom, demanded likewise +faithful and not superficial performance. +</p> +<p> +The basis of this characteristic in his life-work was his Christian +faith. It naturally made his objective the development of Christian +character, over and above the impartation and reception of information. +</p> +<p> +I have always felt a deep sense of personal gratitude for a service +rendered during a special period of study at the Academy. Members of +my class who took the classical course will recall that Greek was not +included among my studies. Nearly four years after graduation from +the Academy, having decided to enter college as a classical student, +I + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page62" name="page62"></a>[62]</span> + + returned to St. Johnsbury for ten weeks of intensive study of Greek +alone. Mr. Putney not only made my membership in the class in "Middle" +Greek possible, and practically free from embarrassment at being a late +comer, but gave me many regular hours of private instruction in Homeric +Greek, enabling me during the last weeks of the time to join the senior +class in the study of the latter form of the language. +</p> +<p> +This I believe to be illustrative of his devotion and self-denying +service to any who are ready to respond to the forth-putting of time, +strength and knowledge on his part. +</p> +<p> +His home was open, if needed, to receive students or others who were +sick and in need of attention impossible to be given in the Academy +dormitory or other rooming building. Some cases of illness were of many +weeks duration, but this mattered not. The tender ministrations of Mrs. +Putney were not lessened until all necessity was passed. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Putney's influence was not due to his public utterances, for he did +not seek platform prominence. But his constant adherence to high ideals +of faithfulness, conscientiousness, and efficiency outside and in the +classroom, and his personal helpfulness to many an individual student +are among the legacies which many of us have been privileged to share +from his long and abundantly fruitful life. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">George L. Leonard</span>, '83. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page63" name="page63"></a>[63]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0048" id="h2H_4_0048"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + <span class="sc">A Human Humanist</span> +</h2> + +<p> +"Are you willing to write an appreciation of what his influence in those +early days meant to you?" +</p> +<p> +So the letter read, telling me of the Charles E. Putney memorial. And +shall I be frank enough to add that for a moment the question rather +floored me? For while youth is very susceptible to influences, of many +sorts, youth is not much more conscious of them than the beanstalk of +the pole. Yet almost immediately it came back to me that a few days +before that letter arrived, a group of men were chatting in a Washington +club—among other things, about the value and results of formal +education. And, agreeing that few people ever pick up at school or +college anything which in later life they can put their finger on, that +for many people the so-called higher education is a pure waste of time, +I added, "The only man who ever taught me anything was a Greek teacher I +had at a preparatory school in Vermont." +</p> +<p> +That Greek teacher was Mr. Putney. Perhaps Greek is no longer taught +at the Academy. I don't know. It is not the fashion nowadays. But I +am somewhat concerned that it has ceased to be the fashion. And the +foundation of the feeling I have about it was laid, in great part, at +St. Johnsbury. On that, at any rate, I can put my finger. It may not +have been Mr. Putney who first sowed in the mind of one of his pupils +the consciousness that + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page64" name="page64"></a>[64]</span> + + history is a very long drawn out affair; that it +did not begin in A. D. 1776, or in A. D. 1492, or even in A. D. 1. For +before that pupil trod the banks of the Passumpsic he happened to have +visited the shores of the Ægean. To him, consequently, the Anabasis and +Homer were more real than otherwise they might have seemed—though Mr. +Putney had the gift of making those old stories real. +</p> +<p> +But of one thing I am quite sure. Mr. Putney gave me my first sense of +language as a living and growing organism, come from far beginnings; and +he first made me see in the English language, in particular, a stream of +many confluents. This is the chief reason why it seems to me a disaster +that the classics are passing out of fashion. For with them all true +understanding of our rich and noble tongue seems fated to pass out of +fashion. To be too much bound to the past is of course an unhappy thing. +Each generation must live by and largely for itself. Yet does it not +profit a man to be aware that knowledge is an ancient and gradual +accumulation, to gain an outlook upon the cycles of history and upon the +human experiments that have succeeded or failed, to be able to trace +the sources of this or that element in science, in law, in art? And how +shall he really know the language he speaks without some acquaintance +with the languages which have chiefly enriched it—not only French and +German, but Latin and Greek as well? +</p> +<p> +This Mr. Putney had the art of making his pupils feel. I remember how he +used to pick words to pieces and squeeze out for us the inner essence of + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page65" name="page65"></a>[65]</span> + + their meaning. One example in particular has always stuck in my memory: +pernicious. And I can still hear Mr. Putney's voice translating it for +us: "Most completely full of that which produces death." That word has +had an interest for me ever since—akin to the respect which Henry James +later instilled into me for the adjective poignant, which he declared +should be used only once or twice in a lifetime. What is more, I have +never lost the habit Mr. Putney enticed us to form, of picking words +to pieces for ourselves. There is no better way of extracting shades of +meaning. But that way is closed to those who have no Greek. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Putney was, in short, my first humanist—though that word didn't +come to me till another day, when I began to read about the Renaissance. +But he was more than a humanist. He was humane. He was human. That +underlay the fact that, with the affectionate disrespect of youth, he +was known among ourselves as "Put." Disrespect, however, was never what +we felt toward the principal of the Academy. Indeed, the first time +I ever saw him, when I was a new boy of sixteen, he impressed me as +being a rather awesome person. As long as I knew him his dignity and +his firmness never failed to impress me. Yet about that dignity there +was nothing aloof. That firmness was not hardness; it had no cutting +edge. He meant what he said. That was all. No idle or disobedient boy +flattered himself that "Put" was to be trifled with. Every boy felt, +however, that "Put" was just. Firm as he was, he had too a great +gentleness. And I + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page66" name="page66"></a>[66]</span> + + think he had the kindest and most patient eyes I ever +looked into. They were very shrewd. They could look through a boy as if +he were made of glass. But they were also very wise, and they knew how +to overlook a great deal of folly and thoughtlessness. Moreover there +was in the bottom of them a twinkle—of a most individual kind. It was +no broad Irish twinkle, nor yet an ironic Latin twinkle. You saw it +sometimes when you had made a particularly egregious translation; but +it didn't dishearten you. +</p> +<p> +I have never forgotten that quiet, that comprehending, that rare +twinkle. After all, what happier light could a man cast on the cloudy +ways of youth—or shed upon his own character? +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">H. G. Dwight</span>, '94. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0049" id="h2H_4_0049"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Coming East from Dubuque to Chicago, it is inspiring to an Eastern man +to see how the life of this busy metropolis of the West is guided and +influenced by the Eastern-trained man and woman. On the same street with +the great University of Chicago is Chicago Theological Seminary. I had +a delightful interview with the man who presides over this institution, +training the virile young men of the West for the work of the Christian +ministry and also for work in the mission field. This man is Dr. Ozora +S. Davis, a graduate of St. Johnsbury Academy and of Dartmouth College. +Dr. Davis attended St. Johnsbury Academy during the principalship of +that gifted and consecrated Christian gentleman, Charles E. + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page67" name="page67"></a>[67]</span> + + Putney, +Ph. D. A powerful influence for righteousness exerted by the quiet but +inspiring personality of this educational leader is now felt throughout +the world. Truly the fourth verse of the nineteenth Psalm is applicable +to this former principal of a New England academy: "Their line is gone +out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world." +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">H. Philip Patey</span>, '86. +<br /> + <i>Journal of Education.</i> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0050" id="h2H_4_0050"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +It is fitting that Mr. Putney's work and influence as an officer in the +church in whose service he was so constant and faithful should receive +some mention. While serving as principal of St. Johnsbury Academy during +some of its most prosperous years and largest enrollment, he found time +to serve actively on the board of deacons of the South Church, to teach +a large class of students in the Sunday school, and to be unfailing in +attendance upon the mid-week meeting. He was a pillar in the church he +loved. And while in the Academy he maintained the religious traditions +on which it was founded, he recognized that it was in the church that +these traditions found their source and inspiration. +</p> +<p> +On his removal to Burlington he took up similar relations with the +College Street Church, and continued them to the end of his career, +loyal to its interests and liberal in its support. If fine distinctions +are to be made between vocation and avocation it would be difficult to +determine to which + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page68" name="page68"></a>[68]</span> + + institution the terms should be applied as his life +is reviewed. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">C. H. Merrill</span>, +<br /> + <i>Vermont Missionary.</i> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0051" id="h2H_4_0051"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +It was not my privilege to sit at the feet of Mr. Putney as a student. +In about the year 1870, I attended prize-speaking at the high school +of Norwich, Vermont, and was told that the young principal was a Mr. +Putney. Something about the man appealed to my boyish senses and I +wished that I might know him, but lack of confidence prevented my making +myself known. An acquaintance was formed three or four years later at +St. Johnsbury. For a time, I was associated with Mr. Putney in certain +lay-religious work and came to know him well, if not intimately,—a +friendship which ever after continued. After the death of Mrs. Hazen, +I received a beautiful letter from Mr. Putney, written laboriously by +a shaking hand, but it expressed so much in a few words, characteristic +of his genuineness, it is a letter that will ever be preserved among +my most cherished possessions. +</p> +<p> +What was the subtle something that so appealed to me that long-ago +evening at Norwich? It seems to me it was the unspoken sympathy of the +man which touched the lives of all who came in contact with him even as +the fragrance of a flower permeates the atmosphere. Surely he lived a +life that is well "worth the telling." +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Perley F. Hazen.</span> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page69" name="page69"></a>[69]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0052" id="h2H_4_0052"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +I want to join in the chorus of love and tender remembrance which you +are hearing from all sides in regard to your father. +</p> +<p> +He was my first teacher, at Norwich, when for the first time I went +to school, and his kindness and consideration helped me over the +strangeness and discomfort of the new experience. He taught me Latin +and I began Greek with him. +</p> +<p> +He was a most delightful principal of the school, and thought of the +pleasantest things for us boys and girls to do, in and out of the +classrooms; for instance, long walks together in which he accompanied +us. +</p> +<p> +All my life I have thought of him with warmth and pleasure, and on the +few occasions when I have seen him the old gratitude and confidence have +been renewed. He was so good and so delightful all at once. +</p> +<p class="right"> + Sincerely yours, +<br /> + <span class="sc">Katherine Morris Cone.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0053" id="h2H_4_0053"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + <span class="sc">Charles E. Putney</span> +</h2> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> One lately dying—though alas I deem </p> +<p class="i2"> Myself unfit to praise his high, clear faith— </p> +<p class="i2"> Followed his Master till the darkling stream </p> +<p class="i2"> Was bravely crossed, sure that in life or death </p> +<p class="i2"> Nothing could separate from the love of Christ. </p> +<p class="i2"> So faithfully he kept with God his long, last tryst. </p> +</div> +<p class="right"> <span class="sc">J. A. Bellows, Dartmouth</span>, '70. </p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page70" name="page70"></a>[70]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0054" id="h2H_4_0054"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +From his brother Freeman. +</p> +<p> +The hearts of all your father's brothers were terribly wrung by his +death. For it has not often been given to a household to have a leading +member who commanded such reverently affectionate esteem as did our +brother Charles. His life, his spirit, his purposes, his exemplary +attitude toward worthy living, his generously helpful thought—always +expressed in action—how could they well be other than a constant +challenge to his brothers and sisters? We all have rare cause for deep +gratitude that he was ours for so many years; we cannot express our +gratitude for our memories of him. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0055" id="h2H_4_0055"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +From a friend. +</p> +<p> +There is just one mind and one expression regarding your dear +father—"One of the grand old men has gone to his reward." The presence +of Mr. Putney has been a benediction to our high school. How thankful +you must be that he had no lingering illness but just laid down his +books and entered into the fuller life. We thank God for such a presence +in our midst. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0056" id="h2H_4_0056"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +From an associate teacher. +</p> +<p> +In the years in school Mr. Putney was always ready with good counsel to +the younger men. He never seemed to lose his courage nor even to grow +old. The last time I saw him, his smile was as bright and his voice as +cheery as I remember it always to have been. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page71" name="page71"></a>[71]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0057" id="h2H_4_0057"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +From another associate teacher. +</p> +<p> +I count myself very fortunate to have known your father, and to have +been his friend for a short time. He was one of the finest Christian +gentlemen I ever knew. His influence in the city, the church and the +school is certainly past all measuring. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0058" id="h2H_4_0058"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +From a friend. +</p> +<p> +A man whom literally thousands love and revere in memory, and whose work +and influence are still going on. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0059" id="h2H_4_0059"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +From a former pupil. +</p> +<p> +I need not tell you that his going is, as was the death of your blessed +mother, like the loss of one of my own parents. The kindness of those +two good people to me when I needed help of just the kind they so finely +and unselfishly gave has always been a most helpful influence in my +life. To grow old looking upon his advancing years and the future with +grace and an abiding faith, as Mr. Putney did, is in itself an +inspiration to us all. +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0060" id="h2H_4_0060"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +From a more recent pupil. +</p> +<p> +I do not need to tell you how we all loved him—everyone did who ever +knew him. He was everybody's favorite teacher, and instead of hating to +go to his classes we loved to do so. Somehow I always felt better after +having talked with him, and I only wish everyone in the world could have +known him. He was a real gentleman and a scholar. +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page72" name="page72"></a>[72]</span></p> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> He is not dead, this friend; not dead, </p> +<p class="i2"> But on some road by mortals tread, </p> +<p class="i4"> Got some few trifling steps ahead; </p> +<p class="i4"> And nearer to the end; </p> +<p class="i4"> So that you too once past the bend, </p> +<p class="i4"> Shall meet again, as face to face this friend </p> +<p class="i6"> You fancy dead. </p> +</div> +<p class="right"> —<span class="sc">Robert Louis Stevenson.</span> </p> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page73" name="page73"></a>[73]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0061" id="h2H_4_0061"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + APPRECIATIVE WORDS FROM TEACHERS AND PUPILS OF BURLINGTON HIGH + SCHOOL, 1920 +</h2> + +<p> +To live to old age; to keep one's physical health and mental vigor to +the very end; to work at one's chosen task with undiminished enthusiasm; +to know one's self greatly useful and greatly beloved; to go, at last, +swiftly, and to be mourned by many friends;—what could one ask, of all +the gifts of life, better than that? +</p> +<p> +The impression left by Mr. Putney is that of a singularly serene and +happy old age. And surely, if ever a man had reason to look upon his +life with serenity and quiet satisfaction, Mr. Putney had reason to do +so. +</p> +<p> +It is a touching and also an inspiring thought, how the successive +generations of young boys and girls passed through his life, each one +receiving something of the rich gift which Mr. Putney had to share with +all, but then too, each returning something of the fresh outlook and +untarnished faith of youth to keep his old age green. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Putney lived long but never grew old. Perhaps because of his very +association with the young, he tasted the fountain of perpetual youth. +</p> +<p> +How valuable and how prized was the gift which he imparted, is best +known to those who best knew + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page74" name="page74"></a>[74]</span> + + the man himself. No pupil of his seems to +think of him primarily as a teacher, but as a wise and kindly friend, +whom to know was, somehow, to become one's self wiser and of a more +human spirit. +</p> +<p> +And yet he was a superb teacher. +</p> +<p> +It is simply that this phase of him is lost in the totality of the man. +</p> +<p> +One thinks instinctively of a phrase of Cicero's—Cicero whose orations +Mr. Putney taught for so many years—"Vir amplissimus." It means +something much more, something quite other than simply "Great man." It +means one adequate for the occasion, whatever that occasion might be. +</p> +<p> +That is the final verdict to be pronounced, as it is the highest praise +to be bestowed. From whatever angle Mr. Putney was regarded, and to +whatever test he was brought, he measured up; he sufficed. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">John E. Colburn.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0062" id="h2H_4_0062"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +When Mr. Putney died, we could not at first realize our loss. +He had been so much a part of the school life that it seemed hardly +possible that, while that life went on, he could be away. +</p> +<p> +We all loved and admired him, but we seldom stopped to measure him. We +accepted him, like any other accustomed gift, without realizing quite +fully how much he meant to us. +</p> +<p> +As we remember him now, what impresses us + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page75" name="page75"></a>[75]</span> + + most strongly is the thought +how little in him we could have wished to change—how extraordinarily +well he measured up as a man. +</p> +<p> +There was a fine serenity about him, and a kind of soundness and +sweetness of character like the autumnal ripeness of a perfect apple. +It was tonic and wholesome to be under his influence. +</p> +<p> +There have been great teachers who could not teach. Nevertheless they +were great teachers because a virtue went out from them which touched +the lives of their pupils and was better than all instruction. +</p> +<p> +There have been great instructors who could not be respected, because +along with intellectual brilliancy and clearness went a narrow, or a +low, or a selfish outlook on life. +</p> +<p> +Mr. Putney measured up in both respects—he was a large-minded man, he +was a great teacher. +</p> +<p> +The very nature of his profession precluded any wide or ringing fame. +His work was done quietly, unobtrusively, one might almost say, +obscurely. A teacher's work is always so. +</p> +<p> +His memory rests with us who knew him, but with us it is very secure. +</p> +<p> +It is the memory of a man whom we could respect without coldness, and +love without making allowances.—<i>Burlington High School Register.</i> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0063" id="h2H_4_0063"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +In these days when the so-called practical side of life has seemed to +crowd out the humanities, so that in many schools Latin and Greek are +not + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page76" name="page76"></a>[76]</span> + + included in the curriculum, Mr. Putney has held high the torch of +classical learning. To him much credit should be given for keeping alive +a real interest in Greek, and for giving thorough and inspiring work +in Latin. +</p> +<p> +Moreover, in all school relations Mr. Putney has been not only ready +but glad to co-operate. Whether for a social gathering of the teachers +requiring a tax, for tickets to the many ball games, or for Thanksgiving +baskets to be filled, Mr. Putney's purse was always open. Not many, +indeed, know how often he overpaid his subscription so as to be sure +to do his part. +</p> +<p> +But, of course, it is the personality of Mr. Putney, so elusive and yet +so real, that has impressed us all. In the hurry and rush of modern +days, he never failed to be truly kind, to be warmly sympathetic, and at +all times to be wholly unselfish. So with the poet we say, +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "And thus he bore without abuse </p> +<p class="i2"> The grand old name of gentleman." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">Effie Moore.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0064" id="h2H_4_0064"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +The thing which impressed me the most about Mr. Putney was the way he +saluted the flag in Assembly every morning. +</p> +<p> +One could tell by his manner in saluting that he loved the flag and +would fight for it again, anywhere, any time. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">I. A.</span> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page77" name="page77"></a>[77]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0065" id="h2H_4_0065"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Mr. Putney was a man who always found the best in every one; who proved +himself such a sympathetic teacher that he inspired all to try to please +him. +</p> + +<p> +His name will always bring to mind most tender remembrances. +</p> + +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">L. B.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0066" id="h2H_4_0066"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Mr. Putney has always been to his students the highest ideal of man and +of teacher. He has been a true friend. His generosity to faults and the +encouragement he has given us all to live better lives will bear fruit. +He had a whole-hearted smile which none of us will ever forget. He is, +and always will be, the outstanding figure in my school life. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">E. C.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0067" id="h2H_4_0067"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +With the passing away of this most venerable character Burlington High +School has lost a shining star,—a star that shone in the hearts of all +his students and of all of those who knew him. He was a friend of all +creeds and was always ready to lend a willing hand to them. Religious to +the utmost and a real American in the full sense of the word,—such is +the character of the soul which will no longer cheer us in our daily +tasks, but which will remain in our memories forever. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">A. F.</span> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page78" name="page78"></a>[78]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0068" id="h2H_4_0068"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Of all Mr. Putney's most striking attributes, his smile always impressed +me greatly. Every time he smiled we looked up and just naturally smiled, +too. And when he laughed it was contagious—a ripple of happiness +sounded through the class. His smile always drove away the blues and +encouraged us; not only in our Latin lessons, but in every way it made +life brighter. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">E. L.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0069" id="h2H_4_0069"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Mr. Putney's love and friendship for the pupils and the respect which +they had for him stand out most strongly in my mind. Never did he +hesitate when asked to help some of his pupils out of hours. Never did a +cross word pass his lips, and a nod was all that was needed to stop any +disturbance in the hall or room. +</p> +<p> +He will be missed as the most loved, most able, and most respected +teacher and companion that ever entered "Old Edmunds." +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">C. K.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0070" id="h2H_4_0070"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Mr. Putney, the most perfect man I have ever known. Only a few words are +necessary to say that though I knew him only for a short while, he stood +as a symbol of my utmost ideal in man. +</p> +<p> +Justice, kindness, love and brotherhood were living in his heart. His +most beautiful characteristic and the most precious was his consideration +for others. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">G. E. R.</span> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page79" name="page79"></a>[79]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0071" id="h2H_4_0071"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +What especially appealed to me in Mr. Putney was his love for his +pupils. He always tried to help them in every possible way. He even +stayed at school an hour or so after the school had closed to help those +"who might wish to come for help," as he always said in his pleasing +tone. I shall never forget his words, "Well, you will have it to-morrow?" +when some person was not prepared with his lesson. +</p> +<p> +No greater loss could be sustained by the school than this giving up of +Mr. Putney. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">D. R.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0072" id="h2H_4_0072"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +Mr. Putney was a man dearly loved by all who knew him. His gentle +ways, his remarkable whole-heartedness and his polished manners are +characteristics of a man who was a great but modest hero in the great +Civil War. +</p> +<p> +He had no favorites among the pupils but he was the favorite of the +pupils. Thus we mourn the loss of Mr. Putney next to the loss of a near +relative. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">C. T.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0073" id="h2H_4_0073"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<p> +When I first saw Mr. Putney I was impressed by his dignity and his kind +face. After knowing him better, what appealed to me most forcibly was +the absolute confidence and trust he had in his pupils. This trust in us +made us want to do our work well, and made us feel that we must do our +work well so that we would deserve his trust. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page80" name="page80"></a>[80]</span></p> + +<p> +When we heard of Mr. Putney's passing all was silence; that was the only +tribute one could give. Mere words, mere music,—nothing reaches the +summit of a life given over to service. His creed was, What do we live +for if it is not to make life a little less difficult for others. Surely +that is the highest goal of any human soul. He lived so that to come +into his presence was to be warmed and cheered as by the sun. By a life +heroic he conquered death. +</p> +<p> +Whenever I looked at Mr. Putney and the flag in assembly, I could not +help connect him in some way with Abraham Lincoln and the great struggle +for freedom. He used to carry himself in such a soldierly manner. +Whenever he spoke to us it was a rare treat. +</p> +<p class="right"> + <span class="sc">H. M. B.</span> +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0074" id="h2H_4_0074"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + <span class="sc">Address of Dr. Smart at the Burlington High School</span> +</h2> + +<p> +You have not asked me to speak to you this morning about Mr. Putney +because I can tell you anything about him which you do not already know. +In fact it does not matter very much who speaks to you about him. You +only wish to have an occasion to recall a familiar and delightful and +impressive teacher. You wish someone to do what Mark Antony did for the +Romans and tell you what you yourselves do know and enable you to repeat +the experience of Samson's mother in the scriptures + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page81" name="page81"></a>[81]</span> + + who said about the +angel's visit, "The man came to me who came to me the other day." +</p> +<p> +You have set me a difficult and an easy task. Difficult because you knew +the man and open your ears for words good enough to speak about him, and +easy because you knew the man and can yourselves supply what I may miss, +and smooth my awkwardness by the harmony of your own recollections. +</p> +<p> +You might be interested to hear something about Thomas Arnold of Rugby, +Tom Brown's teacher, or about Bronson Alcott who had such strange ways +in discipline, requiring an offending pupil to punish him, holding out +his own hand for the ferrule; or about Tagore in India who requires his +boys to go out early in the morning to sit for half an hour under some +bush or tree for quiet meditation. Talk about these men might perhaps +appeal to your general interest in teachers and teaching, but what you +crave this morning is different. You wish to repeat the experience of +Achilles who slept beside the many-voiced sea, the <i>Polu phloisboio +Thalasses</i>, and dreamed that his slain friend Patroclus came back to +him: +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Like him in all things—stature, beautiful eyes </p> +<p class="i2"> And voice and garments which he wore in life </p> +<p class="i2"> A marvellous semblance of the living man." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Or the experience of Peter when his Master appeared to him and freshened +the old love and admiration and moved him to carry on the Master's +service in his own life. +</p> +<p> +You have set me a very difficult task but when I + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page82" name="page82"></a>[82]</span> + + give you an inch you +will take an ell. Where I stumble you will walk with sure step. If I +am too much like Hamlet with old Polonius saying this cloud is like an +elephant or a camel, you will see a cloud like that which went before +the Israelites in the desert—a high spiritual presence to guide them. +</p> +<p> +A few days ago he was here. The memory is full of life. His stalwart +figure clothed with gentlemanly care and taste, his bearing and movement +so fine, so dignified, so courteous and so pleasant. His voice so +special to him, with all harshness fined out of it, tuned as their +voices are who have in their spirits the accent and habit of good will. +And that fine face, the out-of-doors sign of good thinking and good +feeling, practiced long and become a second nature. That shapely, +well-proportioned, roomy head with its glory of white hair. He had, it +seemed to me, in his physical presence the charm of old age without +its weakness. He was not a sentimental, flowery man. He was naturally +perhaps like the rock in the desert which Moses struck and drew water +from it. The rock did not look as if it hid a fountain of living water, +but he took duty to wife. He loved to do his duty. He could not be +comfortable in any other course and doing his duty became his joy, his +life. Wherever you found him, in school, in church, in the state, in the +Grand Army, he was at his post, on guard, awake, alert, devoted. He did +not go with the crowd into the Civil War. He thought alone and deeply. +He weighed the matter by himself. He compared his obligation to his +father on the old farm with the + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page83" name="page83"></a>[83]</span> + + call of the Union and concluded that +he ought to go. After a long life of fidelity to obligation he could not +breathe easily in any other atmosphere. He went simply and straight to +his post with his whole gift and might. Duty— +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i2"> "Stern lawgiver! Yet thou dost wear </p> +<p class="i2"> The Godhead's most benignant grace; </p> +<p class="i2"> Nor know we anything so fair </p> +<p class="i2"> As is the smile upon the face, </p> +<p class="i2"> Flowers laugh before thee on their beds, </p> +<p class="i2"> And fragrance in thy footing treads. </p> +<p class="i2"> Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong, </p> +<p class="i2"> And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +Mr. Putney was an instructive teacher. Some of you know it. Many old +pupils gratefully acknowledge his service. Both in the classroom and in +private personal contact he had an enthusiasm for teaching. He managed +to secure knowledge of what he taught. He was interested in his pupils +and he was interested in his subject and interested in bringing the two +together. Teaching I should think would be difficult without all of +those interests. No doubt Mr. Putney had a gift for teaching, but in +teaching as in other kinds of work one does much to make one's own gift. +Barring conspicuousness for a calling, this creative energy is the man +himself. I like to remind young people of this fact because they are +wondering what they will do in life; what they are fitted to do. With +some reservations it may be said that one becomes fitted to do whatever +one + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page84" name="page84"></a>[84]</span> + + determines to do with one's whole mind and soul and strength. Think +how hit or miss our choices often are. Accidental circumstances or +chance openings when we are looking around for a job, something which +happens to be in the air when we come on the stage have more to do with +our first choices than any supposed genius for this or that. +</p> +<p> +When men and women who have begun their career in this quite casual +manner succeed, then people say they have a remarkable gift for their +work. The gift in a very real and large sense is the creation of their +own energy. I believe that it was so with Mr. Putney. He was diligent +and faithful in his calling and his calling opened its treasures to him. +</p> +<p> +You remember what the Scripture says: "No man having tasted old wine +straightway desireth the new for he saith the old is better." Mr. Putney +illustrated the saying. There was a graciousness, a consideration, a +pleasantness and good will in his ripe age which made it beautiful and +drew warm personal feeling to him. A custom of the heart grew up about +his name. Some of you loved him. That feeble old soldier whom he visited +every Sunday afternoon is lonely without him. He had "that which should +accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends." Not a +few boys and girls have reason to remember with tenderness his delicate +and patient sympathy. +</p> +<p> +I received a circular the other day signed by my old teacher of +mathematics. I have not seen him for nearly forty years but reading his +words, seeing + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page85" name="page85"></a>[85]</span> + + his name I lifted him again before my mind as if I sat +again before him in the Albany Academy. I recall his bodily presence, +his voice, his manner. I am grateful for his clear, and to me +inescapably conclusive teaching, and something I cannot analyze came +back to me—perhaps I should better say, came over me for my debt to him +has been growing all these years. Something of him has taken root in my +life and grown and borne fruit. In youth we take such influences for +granted. We are careless about them. We absorb them without thanks. But +the years bring thought and thought reveals service and we are grateful. +</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="i4"> "All my best is dressing old words new </p> +<p class="i2"> Spending again what is already spent </p> +<p class="i4"> For as the sun is daily new and old </p> +<p class="i2"> So is my love still telling what is told." </p> +</div> +</div> + +<p> +In coming years some of you will be thinking and saying about Mr. Putney +with growing appreciation what some who are now in the thick of life are +already saying in the words of Scripture "Demetrius hath good report of +all men and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record." +</p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0075" id="h2H_4_0075"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + <span class="sc">Making Life a Benediction</span> +</h2> + +<p> +Whatever our path in life or the aim of our ambition, the real measure +of our service and success is the influence we exert upon the present +generation and those who come after us. We may do + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page86" name="page86"></a>[86]</span> + + this through our +everyday life, through our individual service, through our benefactions. +When our lives are summed up, we are asked not what we gained, but what +we gave, not how much wealth we accumulated, but how much good we did +through our service and the means at our disposal. +</p> +<p> +To grow old beautifully in service for humanity has been named the +height of human achievement. It falls to few men to do this in the +measure reached by Professor Putney, who has just passed out from +this community mourned by all. His long life joined generations far +separated. Those who paid tribute to his life and individual service +included the rapidly thinning "blue line" of the veterans of the +war for the preservation of the Union, for human freedom, of nearly +three-quarters of a century ago as well as hundreds of school children +who had learned to love him through the close association of teacher and +pupil. It is given to only one man in ten thousand thus to link close to +his own personality the genuine affections of organizations representing +extreme youth and advanced age. +</p> +<p> +To have done all this is proof that Professor Putney in every sense of +the expression "grew old beautifully." The human interest element serves +to bring out this side of his life still more impressively. It was +his ambition that he might teach on his eightieth birthday. A few more +days would have witnessed the consummation of this allowable wish. His +conscientiousness was supreme however. He remarked to his granddaughter +that if he did not recover in two weeks it would not be + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page87" name="page87"></a>[87]</span> + + right for him to +retain his position as a teacher in the Burlington High School, great as +was his desire to celebrate his fourscore anniversary "in harness." +</p> +<p> +He continued to the end one of the youngest of aged men. He kept in +touch with youth and was thus able to reflect the spirit and intense +interest of youth. He was constantly aiding boys in his home who needed +help in their studies. He gave of himself ungrudgingly in this way +and refused recompense. It was with him a labor of love. If he had +frailties, and who of us has not, he governed them instead of letting +them have dominion over him, thereby showing himself better "than he +that taketh a city." For his pupils and his associates as well as for +those who associated with him in his Christian work in the College +Street Church he was always the gentleman of the old school and the +embodiment of unobtrusive beneficence combined. +</p> +<p> +All boys and girls who may be inclined to bewail the impossibility of +being of service under present conditions or limitations will establish +their privilege of serving as he served, if they bear thoroughly in mind +that Professor Putney did what he did, not through the aid of wealth or +position or the favor of powerful friends, but solely through his own +individual service to others. +</p> +<p> +Of such it is written "that he shall doubtless come again with rejoicing +bringing his sheaves with him." In the years to follow the sheaves of +influence of Professor Putney's life will come many times to the youth +whose privilege it has been to be associated with him, and they will +rejoice that his influence + +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page88" name="page88"></a>[88]</span> + + entered their careers. Who shall measure the +influences for good that he has set in motion in the young lives and in +the life of our community? Happy the man to whom it is thus given to +grow old beautifully! Thrice happy that man who in thus growing old +beautifully is able to bring down to the latest generations the best +traditions of the past and through them to make his life a benediction +to many generations to come.—<i>Burlington Free Press.</i> +</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page89" name="page89"></a>[89]</span></p> + +<div><a name="h2H_4_0076" id="h2H_4_0076"><!-- H2 anchor --></a></div> + +<div style="height: 4em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + +<h2> + THE EPILOGUE +</h2> + +<div id="epilogue"> + +<p class="center"> + He Toiled long, well, and with Good Cheer<br /> + In the Service of Others<br /> + Giving his Whole, Asking little<br /> + Enduring patiently, Complaining<br /> + Not at all<br /> + With small Means<br /> + Effecting Much +</p> + +<hr style="width: 75px;" /> + +<p class="center"> + He had no Strength that was not Useful<br /> + No Weakness that was not Lovable<br /> + No Aim that was not Worthy<br /> + No Motive that was not Pure +</p> + +<hr style="width: 125px;" /> + +<p class="center"> + Ever he Bent<br /> + His Eye upon the Task<br /> + Undone<br /> + Ever he Bent<br /> + His Soul upon the Stars<br /> + His Heart upon<br /> + The Sun +</p> + +<hr style="width: 75px;" /> + +<p class="center"> + Bravely he Met<br /> + His Test<br /> + Richly he Earned<br /> + His Rest +</p> + +<p class="right"> —<span class="sc">Herbert Putnam.</span> </p> +</div> + +<div style="height: 6em;"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Edward Putney, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES EDWARD PUTNEY *** + +***** This file should be named 36761-h.htm or 36761-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/7/6/36761/ + +Produced by Betty Haertling, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Charles Edward Putney + An Appreciation + +Author: Various + +Release Date: July 17, 2011 [EBook #36761] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES EDWARD PUTNEY *** + + + + +Produced by Betty Haertling, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +[Illustration: (front cover)] + +[Illustration: (frontispiece)] + + + + + + +Charles Edward Putney + +An Appreciation + +Published by the Charles E. Putney Memorial Association + + + What delightful hosts are they-- + Life and Love! + Lingeringly I turn away, + This late hour, yet glad enough + They have not withheld from me + Their high hospitality. + So, with face lit with delight + And all gratitude, I stay + Yet to press their hands and say, + "Thanks,--So fine a time! Good night." + + --_James Whitcomb Riley_ + + + + +FOREWORD + + +This memorial to a great Vermont educator is the happy thought of one +of his pupils, Miss Caroline S. Woodruff. The idea immediately found +favor wherever it was known that such a tribute was contemplated. An +organization was perfected known as "The Charles E. Putney Memorial," +to arrange for the publication of this book. Hon. Charles W. Gates +of Franklin, Vermont, was selected as chairman, and the preliminary +expenses of the enterprise were taken care of by a finance committee +consisting of Hon. F. W. Plaisted of Augusta, Me., Mrs. Fletcher D. +Proctor of Proctor, and J. F. Cloutman of Farmington, N. H. The +committee in charge of securing the material for the book and its +publication were Miss Caroline S. Woodruff of St. Johnsbury, Rolfe +Cobleigh of Boston, and Arthur F. Stone of St. Johnsbury. The +publication committee realize that there are many former pupils of Mr. +Putney who would have been glad to have contributed to this memorial, +but believe that the tributes in the following pages are representative +of the sentiments of all who sat under his inspiring teaching, and are +stronger and better men and women because of his marked influence upon +their lives. + + + + +TO CHARLES E. PUTNEY + +On His Seventy-fifth Birthday + +February 26, 1915 + + + Still, still a summer day comes to my call,-- + A room wide-windowed, bright with girls and boys, + A wrinkled Homer craning from the wall, + A bee-like murmuring of _ai's_ and _oi's_; + And you, a king, dark-bearded, on your throne,-- + A king of gentle bearing and soft speech, + No scepter ringing and no trumpet blown, + But nature's own authority to teach. + A stranger-lad I steal into my place + And five and thirty years are quickly gone. + The same sweet balsam breathes upon my face, + The old Hellenic brook is purling on. + See with how bright a chain you hold us true: + We that would think of youth must think of you. + + Wendell Phillips Stafford. + + + + +BIOGRAPHICAL + + +Charles Edward Putney, the son of David and Mary Putney, was born at +Bow, New Hampshire, February 26, 1840. He was one of fourteen children, +of whom ten lived to grow to manhood and womanhood. David Putney was a +farmer, and Mr. Putney's early years were spent on the farm. He attended +district school and went later to Colby Academy, teaching district +schools from time to time, and preparing himself to enter Dartmouth +College, which he was about to do when the Civil War broke out. + +He enlisted in the Thirteenth New Hampshire Volunteers, and later became +a sergeant. He was in the war over three years and took part in the +battles of Fredericksburg, siege of Suffolk, Port Walthal, Swift Creek, +Kingsland Creek, Drewrys Bluff, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Fort McConhie, +Fort Harrison, and Richmond. He was one of the first four men to enter +Richmond after the surrender. + +At the conclusion of the war he entered Dartmouth College, and was +graduated with high rank in 1870. Directly after his graduation he was +married to Abbie M. Clement of Norwich, Vermont, who died in 1901. He +taught in Norwich until 1873, when he became assistant principal in St. +Johnsbury Academy under Mr. Homer T. Fuller, whom he succeeded in the +principalship. In 1896 he resigned on account of ill health. He went +to Massachusetts and became superintendent of schools in the Templeton +district, where he remained until the spring of 1901, when he took up +his work in the Burlington High School. He died in Burlington at the +home of his daughter, February 3, 1920, after an illness of two weeks. + + + + +DR. SMART AT COLLEGE ST. CHURCH AT THE FUNERAL OF MR. PUTNEY + + +It takes a man to adorn any calling; callings require or bring special +fitness, but manhood crowns the fitness, gives it added scope, +completeness, power and beauty--rejoicing the heart. Good doctors, good +lawyers, good men of affairs, good teachers, are better if they are +beyond reckoning. Wisdom is an intellectual thing, a property of the +mind, but when it is perfect the heart pours through it as the rivers +flowed through paradise. A poem in the Scriptures says that Wisdom +created the world, not as a task, but as a pastime. Speaking of God, +Wisdom says, "I was daily his delight, sporting before him, sporting +in his habitable earth." When one sees a man investing his work with +personal charm, one knows the difference between a photograph and a +painting--a photograph with its hard, incisive fidelities, and a +painting with its living colors, its appeal to feeling, its lovely +beauty, something luxuriously human in it. A teacher has a special +reason for floating his service, if it may be, upon a stream of personal +worth and personal charm, because he deals with children and youth who +respond to what he is, as well as to what he teaches. Daniel says, +"The teachers shall shine as the stars." Our friend here had much of +the oak, much of the granite in his make-up; something also of the +morning scattered upon the hills, something of the son of consolation. +He mellowed with the years. He planted climbing roses beside his +strength, and in the heart of it a tender and delicate consideration; +some of you loved him more and more to the end. + +In his early youth he had the happy fortune to serve his country during +the Civil War. The ardors of that crisis glowed in his heart to the end; +the scorching heat gone, the flashing lightning gone, but never the +remaining glory of those years when he ennobled his young manhood by +risking his life for his country. He might have said what Galahad said +of the Holy Grail, + + "... Never yet + Hath ... + This Holy thing fail'd from my side nor come + Covered, but moving with me night and day." + +He was a faithful member of Stannard Post, and long its commander. He +kept the Friday night of the Post meeting for the Post. Every Sunday +afternoon he passed my house, going to visit a comrade whom illness kept +at home. And he was a religious man--a Christian man. Faith was mixed +with his life. God strengthened him with strength in his soul. He was a +deacon of this church, and while his strength permitted, a teacher in +the Sunday school. He lived by his faith, and he thought about it. It +was one of the great interests of his mind. There is plenty in every +man's experience to limit him, to confine him, to make him small and +petty. This man had at least two enthusiasms which lifted and broadened +his spirit, his patriotism and his religion. The last word he spoke was +the name of his native town in New Hampshire, Bow. A great light came +into his eyes with the name, as if he saw the place in a vision. He +loved his old home and visited it when he could. He went back at last +in imagination and desire to the roothold of his life, and that was +well and fair, for he represented the fineness of that New England +inheritance. One perhaps should not boast, but at least one may say that +it is a goodly inheritance of solidity, fidelity, seriousness, fitness +to live in a community and take part in its affairs. + +It is said of Elisha that he took up the mantle of Elijah. The mantle +was a symbol of the spirit; it had become almost a personal thing. +Elijah had wrapped his face in it when he stood in the cave's mouth and +heard the small, still voice of the Lord. He cast it upon Elisha when he +called him from his plow to be a prophet. He smote the waters with it, +when he went to the place where he was to go up in the whirlwind, and +they were divided hither and thither so that they went over on dry +ground. When he went up in the storm, his mantle fell on Elisha. That +mantle lay close to the secrets of the prophet's heart; he wrapped his +face in it when God spoke to him. It was the symbol of his influence; he +called Elisha with it. It was the symbol of his power; he divided the +waters with it. A mantle lies upon the shoulders. It may fit another as +well as its owner. If it could be said that the mantle of this man has +fallen upon the teachers of Burlington, he would need, he could desire, +no other memorial. + + + + +LETTER TO MR. PUTNEY'S GRANDDAUGHTER, MARY LANE + + + South Weymouth, Mass., + February 6, 1920. + +Dear Mary: + +May I tell you a little story? It has largely to do with one whom you +loved and who loved you very much. You called him "Grandpa." + +The story begins sixty-four years ago this coming spring, when two +brothers, a big brother of sixteen years and a little brother of eight +years, started out together one morning for school. They were going to +attend a private school, for a few weeks, in a strange district about +two miles from their home. The little brother would have been afraid +to go that long distance alone; but he had all confidence in his big +brother, whom he loved very dearly. + +They had not been in that school very long when the teacher discovered +that the big brother was the best scholar he had. Very soon the teacher +asked him to help him in his work. Do you think the big brother refused? + +One day the teacher was ill and could not attend school. He sent word by +one of his pupils that he wanted his best scholar to take charge of the +school for the day. Well, that was a trying experience for a boy of +sixteen; but that boy commanded the respect of all the pupils of that +school; so he undertook the task and with wonderful success. He had no +difficulty with any of the pupils although some of them were older than +himself. Perhaps the little brother wasn't proud to have such a big +brother! It was about this time that the little fellow began to notice +how earnestly his older brother was trying to do right in every way; it +made a great impression upon him. + +The few weeks of private school ended and the big brother soon opened +the summer term of school in his home district. In spite of his youth +he was appointed teacher and all the people of the district seemed very +glad. Among his pupils were little brother, two other brothers, and a +sister. + +The teacher was so successful in his work that the parents in the +district wanted him to teach another and another term. He did so; but +all the time he was studying to prepare himself for larger work. He took +advantage of every opportunity to attend school for a term or two at a +time in some academy, until he became fitted for college. Meanwhile he +was deeply interested in his younger brothers and sister and doing all +he could to help them along in their studies. + +About the time he was sixteen years old he heard a voice that seemed to +say to him, "Go, work in my vineyard!" That voice meant everything to +him; he was eager, therefore, to obey it. To work in the vineyard meant +doing good, helping others, being unselfish, giving strength and cheer +when needed. We all know how well he did his work in the Master's +vineyard and through how many years he sowed the good seed. + +A few weeks ago, the little brother, to whom I have referred, was +looking forward to the coming of big brother's eightieth birthday and +wishing that he could give expression to something worthy of the brother +and his wonderful life-work. While he knew that he was not equal to +an ideal accomplishment of such a pleasant task, he made one of his +attempts and wrote the few lines enclosed, finishing them a very few +days before the sad news of Grandpa's fatal illness reached him. He has +made no change in them, realizing that you will understand that he was +fondly hoping that his eightieth birthday would find big brother in his +usual health and strength. So, with a heart heavy with grief, yet full +of loving and grateful memories of my dear big brother, I am telling you +this little story and sending you the accompanying tribute to one of the +best men that ever lived. + +And now, with much love to yourself and all the members of your home, +the little brother of sixty-four years ago wishes to sign himself + + Your affectionate + UNCLE FREEMAN. + + + + +And the Sheaves Are Still Coming In + + + "Go, work in my vineyard!" The Master spoke + To the list'ning heart of Youth; + "The world is my vineyard; go forth and sow + The Life-giving seed of Truth!" + And forth to the sowing, with ardent zeal + And a love for mankind akin + To the Master's own, he joyfully went,-- + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + He quickened ambition's sluggish soil, + And freely scattered the seeds; + The blades spring up, and life takes on + A passion for worthy deeds. + New visions catch the opening eye, + Fresh purposes begin; + The sower sowed with a lavish trust,-- + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + He turned deep furrows in shadowed soil, + Where the weeds of dark despair + Were the only growth; the seeds of Hope + He patiently planted there. + A harvesting of wheat appears + Where lately tares had been; + The sower in love had graciously sown,-- + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + The years speed on; in manhood's glow + He is sowing with vigilant care; + There are fields that call for the Seed of Life,-- + He is finding them everywhere. + He is steadfastly doing the Master's work, + Unheeding the clamor and din + Of a restless world; he quietly sows,-- + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + At threescore years: does he stay his hand + In token of lessening powers? + He takes no note of vanishing time + Save to honor its golden hours. + He only kens 'tis the Master's wish + That his strength be given to win + The harvests of Truth; he scatters the seed,-- + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + Threescore and ten: he has surely laid + The burden of sowing down? + He is far afield and with glow of soul + Is wearing the years' bright crown. + In his zeal for service he does not ask + When the days of rest begin; + Enough to know there is seed to sow; + And the sheaves are still coming in. + + And what of the sower at fourscore years? + Has the vineyard a place for him still? + In joy of service and glow of zeal + He is sowing with marvelous skill. + He has sown in faith through many years, + And rich have the harvests been; + His forward look is a look of trust, + For the sheaves are still coming in. + + Ah! Brother, thy summons to riches' quest + Was the call of the Voice Divine; + Thou hast shaped thy will to the Master's word, + And Infinite wealth is thine. + 'Twas thy constant aim, from the fields of Time, + Eternal treasures to win; + That aim was blessed; to thy lasting joy + The sheaves are still coming in. + + And when thou art called from the toil of earth + To the larger service Above, + And shalt hear the Master's questioning voice, + In accents of Infinite Love, + "What is the measure of golden grain + Thou didst wrest from the fields of sin?" + The Angel of Record will testify, + "The sheaves are still coming in." + + + + + * * * * * + + + + + "Call him not old, although the flight of years + Has measured off the allotted term of life! + Call him not old, since neither doubts nor fears + Have quenched his hope throughout the long, long strife! + + They are not old though days of youth have fled, + Who quaff the brimming cup of peace and joy! + They are not old who from life's hidden springs + Find draughts which still refresh but never cloy." + + + + +LETTERS RECEIVED ON MR. PUTNEY'S SEVENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY + + +I am glad you are to have a birthday tomorrow. I feel sure that it will +be a happy birthday. Your children and grandchildren will see to it that +the day is properly celebrated. + +It is a great pleasure to look back on the days spent in St. Johnsbury +when your influence meant so much to us. You can never know how strongly +your personality and your life influenced the boys and girls in the +Academy, especially those of us who were away from home. Many of the +things which you said to us, the time or occasion of saying them and +the place too are very vividly recalled after thirty years. You in St. +Johnsbury, four or five professors at Dartmouth and perhaps a half dozen +other men, make up a small group of men who have given me most in the +way of stimulation and encouragement. To express adequately my gratitude +is impossible, but out of a full heart I do thank you and am glad of +this opportunity to extend my best wishes to you for continued health +and happiness. + + Yours very sincerely, + DAVID N. BLAKELY, '85. + + + + +You have been living in my life all these long years since the old St. +Johnsbury Academy days. + +That wonderful kindness with which you looked upon all our shortcomings +has been the great example of kindness I have looked to all these days. + +That wonderful equality of judgment with which you decided all our +cases, has always remained unquestioned in my heart. + +And that which most of all has influenced my life has been that +wonderful quietness with which you have possessed your soul. + +I am more grateful to you every day I live and more thankful for the +years spent under your influence. + +We are all to be congratulated because of this birthday. May you have +many, many more and may you know better every year how much we all love +you. + + Yours most sincerely, + MARY DREW, '87. + + + + +Believing that the only real satisfaction to a teacher after all is the +knowledge that somewhere down the years there sounds an echo of his +effort, I am venturing to add my word of appreciation to you on your +birthday. + +There in your office and classroom I received, as have hundreds of +others, the inspiration--the vision, if you will, of what life +means--and there are no memories more hallowed than those of the +associations at St. Johnsbury Academy. Year after year for thirty years +I've watched the groups of young men and women leave the institution but +never without a keener appreciation of what the years had meant to us. + +Not for the first time do I say that whatever little success I may have +had with young people is due in large measure to the help received at +your hand, and with all my heart I thank you for your firm and gentle +guidance, your paternal influence over us all, and most of all for your +exemplary Christian character that never failed. + +The best wish I can offer you today on your seventy-fifth birthday is +that you may realize more and more what a mighty power for good you have +been and are in the lives of an army of men and women today who once +fell under your influence. + + Very sincerely, + CAROLINE S. WOODRUFF, '84. + + + + +I wonder how many of us you can remember and whether any of our failings +are still in your mind? + +You only had me for a short time, but such as it was it completed my +school work. + +In fact it was my only schooling away from home. I am therefore able to +recall vividly many impressions made on my mind during the time I was +under your charge. I formed the impression that you were absolutely fair +and honest with your scholars and that you expected no higher standard +of conduct from them than you were practising every day. I can see you +as you were then and wonder why, with such an example, we did not do +better. + +I do not say this because it is your seventy-fifth birthday but because +it is true and I wish you to know that I realized it. + +Seventy-five years of upright living comes to but very few and is a +crown of glory more valuable than great wealth or political advancement +and I most sincerely congratulate you on having achieved this end. May +your remaining days be filled with content and happiness and may the +expressions of appreciation and love that you are sure to receive at +this time, bring to you a partial reward for all you have done in the +past for your fellows. + + Sincerely and lovingly yours, + G. H. PROUTY. + + + + +Patey and I were speaking and writing some time ago about the +seventy-fifth birthday. As the boys would say, "That is some birthday," +and it is fitting that more than ordinary notice should be taken +of it. I expressed a belief that expressions of loyalty and grateful +remembrance were more to you than material things would be. I hope the +expression will be as spontaneous at this time as it has been from year +to year all through your service. I have never known in any other case +such a continued and universal loyalty as the students of St. Johnsbury +Academy have given to you. By reflex action it has been inspiring to me +and cultivated in me the same desire to serve my pupils which you have +shown. + + With best wishes, + FRANKLIN A. DAKIN. + + + + +Words are after all poor substitutes for the genuine feelings of the +heart but I know you will be able to brush aside the words and get at +the sentiment back of them. + +In three more days from this date you will be rounding out seventy-five +years of a very useful life. + +I am sure you will let an old pupil and one who has received so much +inspiration and good cheer from your life tell you so at this time. + +Your boys and girls are in many lands but they are still your boys and +girls. Never have I seen a man retain the affection and esteem of those +who have come under his influence to a greater extent than you have. + +May the good Lord continue to bless you and yours is the sincere wish +of your former pupil and friend, + + HEDLEY PHILIP PATEY, '86. + + + + +As I look back on my years in St. Johnsbury Academy I know that I +appreciated to some extent what you were doing for the young people in +your charge, and especially the many kindnesses that you showed to me +in assisting me to prepare for college. It was not until the close of my +second year at the Academy that I made any definite plans to go farther, +but I appreciate very much more today than I did then the character of +the work you were doing. It was my good fortune to be brought into touch +with able teachers and educators during my entire education, but I can +truthfully say that not one of them took time out of a busy life to +arouse and assist a growing ambition for a broader education as you did, +and I shall always look back to the three years spent under you at St. +Johnsbury Academy as the time when my ambitions clarified themselves and +I began to look out toward a broader field. + + Very sincerely, + MATT B. JONES, '86. + + + + +As one of the many students who in St. Johnsbury Academy had the +pleasure and advantage of your instruction, I am glad to acknowledge the +obligation I personally feel to you for the kindly and patient direction +given me at such an important period in a young man's life. It seems to +me that the knowledge that one has wisely directed the education and +lives of so many young men and women as you have, must constitute one of +the crowning and most satisfying joys possible, and I am sure that all +the youth who have felt the influence of your teaching sincerely wish +that you may live long to enjoy the happiness which you deserve for +service so conscientiously and cheerfully performed. + + Very sincerely yours, + EDWIN A. BAYLEY, '81. + + + + +I am sending this letter hoping it may be opened by you on February 26, +which I am told is your birthday. I want you to be sure of the love of +an old pupil who never forgets you, and never will cease to be grateful +for your gifts to him during the three years that we were together in +St. Johnsbury. The Lord richly bless you with all good things. + + Yours loyally and affectionately, + OZORA S. DAVIS, '85. + + + + +I wish to take this opportunity to write to you to extend congratulations +on your seventy-fifth birthday, and further to express my appreciation +for the service you rendered me back in St. Johnsbury Academy. You will +recall that when I entered the Academy I told you I wanted to become a +teacher and to that end I have always striven. + + * * * * * + +I must not weary you with too much of my own history, only enough to let +you know that after eighteen years of service I can still look back with +appreciation to the man who above all others in the Academy made a +lasting impression on my life. May the years that are before you be full +of sunshine and happiness. + + Yours sincerely, + ARTHUR F. O'MALLEY, '93. + + + + +Some one tells me that you are to have a birthday tomorrow and I desire +to join with the host of your former students in sending you good wishes +on that day. There are many of us who still feel in our lives what +a factor St. Johnsbury was, and of all those in the old school you +were the one who meant the most to each one of us. When I think of my +experiences at the Academy--and St. Johnsbury meant more to me than +college or anything else--I always think of you and the great help that +you were to us boys in the time when we needed help. The pleasures of +my classes in Greek and all the other things in which you were of such +valuable assistance, will always be remembered. I only wish I might +do for some boy as much as you did for me. I send you my sincerest +greetings and best wishes for a happy birthday. + + Yours for '85, + JAY B. BENTON, '85. + + + + +It hardly seems possible that you are reaching your seventy-fifth +birthday, but such, I am informed, is the case. I have really known you +quite a while; because you will remember that you were the Normal School +examiner, and I was in one of the classes graduating from the Randolph +Normal School in 1882. + +I presume that as you think over the factors which have led to such a +hale and hearty old age, you will agree with Mark Twain who attributed +his seventy years to, among other things, never having smoked but one +cigar at a time, never having smoked during sleep, and not always at +his meals. + +I hope that on this auspicious day you will take out the gold-headed +cane presented you by the class of '86 and, at least, wave it in the air +a few times; for, as I think I told you on the day of its presentation, +we hoped you might never need it for walking purposes. + +I can never forget your many acts of kindness rendered me personally +during my course at St. Johnsbury. Were I to attempt to recount them as +they occur to me I am sure I should make this letter, which is intended +to be simply one of warm congratulations, far too long. + +Among the many things upon which I think you are to be congratulated, I +would mention first the spirit which inspires you to still love your +work at seventy-five, and again the nervous and physical energy which +permits you to stay, as Roosevelt might say, "in the ring." No less are +you to be congratulated on the consciousness, which I know must be +yours, of the love and devotion of hundreds, yes, thousands by this +time, of your pupils throughout the world. + + * * * * * + +I am sure I have imperfectly expressed the love, gratitude, and +admiration which I always cherish toward you, but you can be sure there +is much of it here, as there is in the hearts of all who have come in +contact with you. + +With cordial best wishes I am, sincerely, + + GEORGE E. MAY, '86. + + + + +Tribute written by Mr. Roland E. Stevens for the _Hartford Gazette_, +a paper printed by Mr. Stevens' small boy. + + + + +Editor of the _Hartford Gazette_: + + +Every day in every year, I suppose, has a special meaning and interest +for some one or more of the great human family. The day of the present +week that has a particular interest and meaning for me (and without +doubt for many others whom I know) is Friday the twenty-six. Why? +Because nearly thirty years ago when I was an awkward, spindling boy, +thirsty and hungry for an education, without means and not in very good +health, I wrote a letter to the principal of St. Johnsbury Academy, +telling him of my ambition to enter the Academy as a student and asking +him if he thought I could find work by means of which I could earn +enough to pay my way at the Academy. When I was writing the letter I was +half discouraged and rather feared and expected that I wouldn't receive +an answer, because I knew the letter was not very well written or +expressed, and I was almost sure that so great a man as I supposed the +principal of St. Johnsbury Academy to be, wouldn't pay much attention +to such a letter. + +In a short time, however, I received a very encouraging reply expressing +a friendly interest in me and advising me to come to St. Johnsbury in +season to take an entrance examination and stating that a willing boy +could most always find work. + +The letter was not dictated nor was it typewritten. It was written in +long hand and by the principal himself. The spelling, grammar, and +punctuation were, I felt sure, absolutely perfect; but the handwriting, +to my great joy, was no handsomer than mine. This and the kindly tone of +the letter helped me to a quick and firm determination to pack all of my +worldly possessions, including some cookies, loaves of bread, etc., into +a rough wooden box and start for St. Johnsbury in season for the opening +of the fall term. + +Within an hour after my arrival I found myself in the home of the +principal sitting quite near him, hearing him say in a quiet, sincere +voice, that he was glad I came; that he had found work for me; that he +wanted me to know that he was interested in all boys who came to the +Academy with a desire to work and to learn. I went from him to the +family where I was to live and work, inspired with confidence in him and +respect for him. + +Master editor, these things happened nearly twenty years before your +birth, and in all these years the only change in my feelings toward this +principal of St. Johnsbury Academy that I am conscious of, is an increased +and unbounded faith in him as a Christian gentleman, love and respect +for him as a true friend, gratitude and admiration for him as a teacher +and wise counsellor who has ministered generously to the physical and +spiritual needs of many besides myself. + +You know, of course, that I refer to Prof. C. E. Putney who was +principal of St. Johnsbury Academy in the days when it ranked with +Andover and Exeter and for a number of years has been teaching Latin and +Greek in the Burlington, Vermont, High School. February 26, will be his +seventy-fifth birthday. This is why that day has a particular meaning +and interest for me and many others. + + ROLAND E. STEVENS. + + Hartford, Vermont, + February 22, 1915. + + + + +On Mr. Putney's seventy-fifth birthday the teachers of Edmunds High +School presented him with a beautiful loving cup. This note accompanied +the cup: + + +To our honored Friend and Co-worker, + Mr. Charles E. Putney. + +The teachers of the High School, with the superintendent and his wife, +wish to send you hearty congratulations on your birthday and the many +years of usefulness that lie in its wake. They wish to emphasize their +appreciation of what it means to the whole school to have in their midst +a loyal old soldier, a kindly and genial friend, and a real gentleman +of "the old school." + +They hope this loving cup will be to you a substantial evidence of their +appreciation in the past, as also of their good wishes for the future. + + + + +TRIBUTES UPON OTHER BIRTHDAYS + +At Seventy + + + With a step elastic, + Vigorous of mind, + Strenuous of purpose, + Casting doubts behind,-- + Vigilant for duty, + Strong to banish fears,-- + What a wealth of tribute + To your seventy years. + + Backward glance disclosing + Many a service field, + To whose faithful tilling + Bounteous harvests yield,-- + Priceless treasures, wrested + From the soil of truth, + Treasures from rich sowing + In the lives of youth; + + Treasures from the valley, + Where the shadows lay + Till your voice of comfort + Whispered them away; + Treasures from the hillside, + Whose ascent seemed drear + Till your note of courage + Fell upon the ear. + + Treasures from the garden, + Where the Graces bloom, + Lavishly exuding + Breaths of rich perfume; + Treasures from the vineyard, + To whose soil were given + Streams of gracious influence + Born of Hope and Heaven; + + Treasures from the hilltop, + Where the Eternal Love + Fell in showers of blessing + From the fount above; + Treasures gleaned from sorrow, + When to longing eyes + Came a glimpse of mansions + Reared in Paradise. + + Ten and threescore cycles + Are complete today; + Loving benedictions + Speed you on your way. + Age has no forebodings,-- + Clouds and shadows fly + From the glow and radiance + Of your western sky. + + Peaceful, glad and trustful + Is your forward glance,-- + Faith begetting vision + As the years advance. + Is the sight entrancing? + Do you long to go? + List! the Father speaketh, + Lovingly and low: + + "Safe are all the treasures + For which you have wrought; + Safe the precious jewels + Prayer and love have bought; + All your aspirations-- + Incense of the soul-- + With the seal eternal, + Safe in My control. + + "Heaven awaits your coming + With a warmth that cheers; + But the earth-friends need you + For a few more years; + Tarry yet a season, + That My will may be, + Through the twilight hour, + Perfected in thee." + + + MRS. A. L. HARDY. + + + + +Of late we have heard much on the subject of preparedness. We have been +told that the prepared man is the man who achieves the thing he goes +after. He is happy. He is satisfied with himself. + +On the twenty-sixth of February, seventy-six years ago, there was born +into the world a man who now holds a very high place in the thoughts +of hundreds of men and women. That man was Charles Edward Putney, our +beloved and respected teacher. + +The lives of great men, it has been said, are the greatest teachers. Let +us then take the life of Mr. Putney and see what a lesson it teaches us +in preparedness. + +At the early age of seventeen, Mr. Putney was teaching school. If he had +not studied and prepared himself could he have filled such a position at +the early age? The answer is plainly "No." Mr. Putney had moreover the +moral and the physical courage as well as mental ability. In 1861 he +answered Lincoln's call for volunteers and fought bravely for the Union. +He had prepared to do the right and when duty called he responded. + +After the great war was over he entered Dartmouth College. He was +graduated from the institution as "honor man." And since then wherever +he has gone he has been the "honor man." Men, now old themselves, speak +with fondest regard of their teacher and state that he showed them the +right way to success. He prepared not only himself but others. Isn't +that a glorious thing? What greater hero is there than the fashioner of +the thoughts and character of the young? + +Let us then, as I have said before, set up Mr. Putney's life as a life +to live by. Prepare ourselves as he did and then when we have reached +the autumn of our lives, we can look back with pride on a life well +spent, on a character that was prepared for all that was right. If +we can do that, surely we shall be happy, we shall be satisfied with +ourselves.--_Burlington High School Register._ + + + + +There are many people who are seventy-one years old, but there are very +few who can claim the distinction of being seventy-one years young which +belongs to our respected Greek teacher. We rejoice with Mr. Putney in +his undimmed triumph over time and congratulate him on his many years +of constant usefulness. As the philosophic Greeks once honored one of +their race with the words "not who but what" so we honor and esteem +Mr. Putney for his faithful service to Old Edmunds and for the great +good he has done for her sons. We love him for his splendid personality, +his patience, his fortitude and the kindly interest that he always shows +in our welfare. After we leave this school, when we turn and recall the +many bright days we have spent in the Burlington High School, the memory +of Mr. Putney will ever awake affection and make our heart glow with its +warmth.--_Burlington High School Register._ + + + + + February 24, 1912. + +Here are my congratulations and best wishes for you. Another year of +service is added to your enviable list. It must be a great satisfaction +to look back upon a life so well spent and to realize how many lives +have been benefited because you have been here all these years. + +You cannot but know the honor and respect with which the teachers look +up to you, and how we are trying to reach something like the high standard +which you have attained; but I wonder if you realize the love which your +pupils have for you. Some of them come into my room every day at the +close of school for an hour's uninterrupted study and I am going to tell +you some of the things which they have said to me about you. "Mr. Putney +is such a lovable man." "I thought I should be afraid of him, but he +makes us feel he is interested in us and I don't feel one bit afraid +even though he does know so much." "He is full of fun too. There is no +one in the class who sees anything funny quicker than he." "I am so glad +he is in the school while I am here. I shall always feel it to have been +a great privilege to have had him for a teacher." + +And I want to say that I, too, feel it to be a great privilege to be +in the school with you and to have felt your quiet presence and to have +known your ready sympathy and interest. May the coming year be a happy +one. + + Very sincerely yours, + HARRIET TOWNE. + + + + +ONE OF THE "BOYS OF SEVENTY-SIX" + + + He's just a BOY, a LIVELY BOY, + Who notes no years, I ween; + He might be six and seventy, or + He might be "sweet sixteen." + He's done a marv'lous work, and still + Is putting in his licks + To prove the staying powers of + A "Boy of Seventy-Six." + + "His hair is white?" Of course it's white! + He's white, all through and through! + His soul is white, has always been; + His heart is white and true. + But in Life's Battle has he shown + Whiteness of feather? Nix!! + His whiteness adds new glory to + The "Boys of Seventy-Six." + + "What great things has he done?" Ah! if + The querist only knew it, + Greatness concerns not what we do, + But, rather, how we do it. + And every deed well done is great; + And that is just his fix! + Say! isn't that some record for + A "Boy of Seventy-Six"? + + "But doesn't he take time to play?" + Why, bless your anxious soul! + He's always played,--too hard to note + How fast the seasons roll! + He's playing yet; but work and play + In him so closely mix + You don't know which to call him, Man + Or "Boy of Seventy-Six." + + "His favorite game?" No need to ask; + That in which GOOD is rife; + The game that tests all human worth,-- + The glorious Game of Life. + He never "stacks the cards," and yet + He takes his share of tricks; + Competitors have nothing on + This "Boy of Seventy-Six." + + "But when does he intend to stop? + He's surely done his share; + Give him some nook and let him play + A game of solitaire." + Methinks I see you try it on! + There'd be some vigorous kicks; + You'd feel them, too, though coming from + A "Boy of Seventy-Six." + + A "quitter," he? Not on your life! + He's built on different lines; + He'll never be a quitter while + The Sun of Priv'lege shines! + As long as he can serve the needs + Of Harrys, Toms and Dicks + Who look his way, he'll be "on call," + This "Boy of Seventy-Six." + + + FREEMAN PUTNEY. + + + + +A BIRTHDAY REMINDER OF GALLANT SERVICE PERFORMED IN THE WAR + + +Charles E. Putney was happily surprised at the opening of the Sunday +school of the College Street Church when the Rev. I. C. Smart, pastor of +the church, in a most delightful manner, presented him with the insignia +of the First Brigade, First Division (General Stannard's), Eighteenth +Army Corps, the gift of his friends in the church. + +The badge was pinned to the left breast of Mr. Putney's coat by his +little granddaughter, Mary P. Lane, and Gen. Theodore S. Peck explained +to the children the use of the Corps badge of the army. Although +overcome with surprise, Mr. Putney responded most feelingly. The +presentation was witnessed by a large number of members of the school +and of the Grand Army of the Republic. + +The medal bears the following inscription: + +"Prof. C. E. Putney, from friends in the College Street Church, +Burlington, Vermont, February 26, 1916, in remembrance of his gallant +service in the war for the Union, as Sergeant, Co. C, Thirteenth New +Hampshire, First Brigade, First Division, Eighteenth Army Corps." + +On the two gold bars from which the medal is suspended by a red, white +and blue ribbon, are inscribed the eleven battles in which his regiment +participated: First Fredericksburg, siege of Suffolk, Port Walthal, +Swift Creek, Kingsland Creek, Drewrys Bluff, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, +Fort McConhie, Fort Harrison and Richmond. + +The badge was originally intended as a birthday gift to Mr. Putney, but +its arrival was delayed so the presentation was made on the anniversary +of the death of Abraham Lincoln. The badge was accompanied by a letter +from Mr. Putney's friends stating that the gift was intended as a slight +token of their esteem and affection and a birthday reminder of the +gallant service performed by him as a soldier in the army of the Union, +1861-1865.--_National Tribune._ + + * * * * * + + + + + Sleep on, O brave-hearted, O wise man that kindled to flame-- + To live in mankind is far more than to live in a name, + To live in mankind, far, far more than to live in a name! + + --NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY. + + + + +TRIBUTES FROM FRIENDS AT ST. JOHNSBURY ACADEMY + + +I take special pleasure in sending to Mr. Putney's memorial an +appreciative testimony to the long tried friendship which we had +for each other. I was with him as fellow teacher under Mr. Fuller's +principalship and after that worked with and under him as principal +until his resignation. Was with him a longer time than any other +teacher, always with the kindest and most uniform relations both in +educational and social respects, and more than all else in the higher +spiritual relationships. In a letter from him a very short time before +he passed away he hoped he might still be in the work of teaching when +he reached his eightieth birthday. I thought he was to be much rejoiced +with that he came so near it and was called up higher while in the joy +of his chosen life work. + +It is very pleasant to remember also the close friendships between wives +and daughters of our two families. + + SOLOMON H. BRACKETT. + + + + +None of Mr. Putney's pupils were more devoted and loyal to him, none +had more sincere love and affection for him, than the teachers who were +privileged to work with him. Mr. Putney's great aim was to make true men +and noble women and all those who were fortunate to be called his pupils +will bear his mark with them in their accomplishments, in their graces, +and in their power. + +Many of his pupils will be inclined to virtue, holiness and peace, +because the teacher was the embodiment of these qualities. In all things +he had charity. Tolerance was of his nature. He respected in others the +qualities he himself possessed, sincerity of conviction and frankness of +expression. + +His power over his pupils was marked and abiding because of his own +example, his profound scholarship, his humility, his absolute justice, +yet accompanied with sympathy and respect. His impulses were great, +earnest, simple, unostentatious. His is the old story of devotion to +duty, a religious sentiment and faith, serious determination, +cheerfulness and untiring effort. + +"For he was a faithful man and feared God above many." + + A. L. HARDY. + + + + +When you speak of Mr. Putney you will find my loyalty as strong as ever. +We kept up our correspondence to the last. I am glad to express again +my debt to him, and I certainly should not wish to be omitted from any +group of Mr. Putney's friends. + +When I went to St. Johnsbury Academy at Mr. Putney's invitation I was +inexperienced and needed a good deal of friendly advice. He had a rare +gift in that way. His own devotion, unselfishness and conscientiousness +were contagious. He was a good teacher and still better trainer. But the +moral effect of living and working with him was the best thing about the +Academy. I believe all the excellent staff of teachers felt just as I +did. So much so that our intimate association gave us more than the +pupils could get. Some of us enjoyed too the fine, generous +neighborliness of both Mr. and Mrs. Putney. + +In administrative councils his judgment never lost sight of the central +object--the cultivation of each pupil to the most effective Christian +manhood and womanhood. What higher mark than that can be set by any of +the theorists and innovators of the present day education? The typical +"New England Academy"--and St. Johnsbury was the ideal among them--can +bear comparison with the latest and best of schools in the highest +object of education. Probably it needed its own environment which could +not be duplicated elsewhere. All honor to it and to him who was its +exponent during my own years so happily given to its service. + + Sincerely yours, + FRANKLIN A. DAKIN. + + + + +The first impression which Mr. Putney made upon me when he joined our +circle of teachers in the Academy was that of a man of strength, high +moral purpose and rare teaching ability, an impression which grew to +a certainty as the years went on and he became our principal. His +courtesy, unfailing kindness and good fellowship made it a pleasure to +work with and under him, and I shall always remember him as a true and +valued friend and a great teacher. "What more can we desire for our +friends than this," as was said of that other beloved teacher, Edward +Bowen of England, "that in remembering them there should be nothing to +regret, that all who came under their influence should feel themselves +for ever thereafter the better for that influence." + + L. JENNIE COLBY. + + + + +It is difficult to put in words my estimate of Mr. Putney. He was a loyal +friend to everyone he knew, always looking for ways of encouragement +and help. Many a scholar can testify to the truth of this. We know his +thoroughness as a teacher, we remember his reverence for the Bible, his +prayers, his loyalty to church and its organizations, his devotion to +his Heavenly Father. + +I think his influence for good will extend to the ends of the earth. It +has been a great blessing to know him. I have been so glad he could keep +up his work to the last. + + MARY CUMMINGS CLARK. + + + + +If I were to put into one word what seems to me the keynote of Mr. +Putney's life as I knew him, it would be service. There was never +a moment that I was not conscious that even when he was in physical +suffering, which, alas! was often, he was ready to help in every way +possible. This patience and kindness were unfailing, and his sense of +humor, which must have helped him as well as us, often pricked our +difficulties, and showed us how unimportant they really were. I was with +him only two years, but his character, and the lessons learned from him +have been a very real influence in my life ever since. + + ELIZABETH WASHBURN WORTHEN. + + + + +The distance of time (now forty years) since those Academy days does +not dim the fond recollection and appreciation of my teachers at St. +Johnsbury Academy. And of them all, before or since, there is no one who +holds a higher place in my esteem than Mr. Putney. Though engaged in +teaching mathematics and astronomy during the greater part of this time, +I have not forgotten, nor ever shall, the essentials he taught--some +things even in Latin and Greek, but far more in earnestness and sincerity +and purpose. And I prize also the closer touch with his sensitive, +kindly, sterling personality afforded by the few months when I was +privileged to teach as a substitute at the Academy. + +Would that we had more such men now in the ranks of the profession. + + F. B. BRACKETT, '82. + + + + +With high reverence for what men had known as wisdom and beauty in the +past, with sane and clear-eyed understanding of the shifting needs of +the present, with confident faith in the ultimate good, whatever the +future, he taught many lessons which we did not know until long +afterwards that we had learned. + + MARGARET BELL MERRILL, '94. + + + + +It is a great pleasure for me to add my word of appreciation with +respect to the splendid influence that Mr. Putney exerted at St. +Johnsbury Academy. He was always fair, always friendly, and his sense of +humor was a delight. A thorough scholar himself, he was not satisfied +with superficial work. He was able to sympathize with the pupil's view +of life and yet he knew how to enlarge that view. The branches of Latin +and Greek which he taught did not afford him full scope for expressing +the originality that was a remarkable part of his character; but I +remember a course of reading in English literature which our class took +under him as an extra, and there he was able to disclose the poetic part +of his nature, and we were able to know him as a thinker and a seer. +I look back with gratitude to the days at "St. Jack." + + GEORGE R. MONTGOMERY, '88. + + + + +I first saw Mr. Putney in August, 1881, when I came alone and somewhat +homesick to seek admission to the Academy. He was standing on the steps +of South Hall ready to greet new students with his quiet friendly manner +and sincere expression of interest. He made us feel at once that we had +in him a friend, one who understood us and expected the best from us. I +like to recall this picture of him for it gave me an impression of the +man that I have never had occasion to change. + +Mr. Putney was a great teacher. Thorough in detail and wise in daily +drill that he knew was necessary for our success, he showed a love for +the literature that he taught and an enthusiasm that was contagious. +Fortunate the boy or girl who learned Virgil under his wise guidance. +Always sympathetic and encouraging, he could detect the bluffer and +discourage one who tried to get through his lessons without adequate +preparation. He corrected our mistakes, but encouraged our attempts to +succeed, even though we often failed. He appealed to our ambition, to +our sense of obligation, and to our pride; and thus he led rather than +drove us to our work. And work we did; we did not dare to disappoint +him, we did not wish to disappoint him. Later in college we had occasion +more than once to be thankful for the wise and sound training we had had +under his leadership. + +It is, however, the personality of the man that lives with us, whether +we remember him best in the classroom or in the chapel exercises, in +the dormitory or in some other phase of his active life. He was quiet, +even-tempered, but forceful. His voice was not often raised, but it +carried conviction. His directions were accepted without protest or +question; or if, as I remember well, on one occasion we did protest, he +had a firm, convincing manner that made us accept his word as final. And +yet there was no rancor left, we felt that Mr. Putney was right. As a +rule he was serious, but he had a merry twinkle in his eye that told of +a sense of humor and an ability to join with his students in their good +times. In a very real sense he entered into the lives of all of us and +made upon us that impression that makes us rise and say with one voice, +"He was a Christian gentleman." + + GILBERT S. BLAKELY, '84. + + + + +The personality of Mr. Putney has stayed with me during all these years +with singular distinctness. Many other teachers, whose influence has +been undoubted and deeply felt, shape themselves in memory somewhat +vaguely. But Mr. Putney stands out clearly and vividly, as if the days +under him at St. Johnsbury Academy were but yesterday. Here was a man +quiet and unassuming, and yet I am conscious, and always have been +conscious, of a certain power that flowed from him into the lives of his +pupils. + +Such a force does not lend itself readily to analysis. Like most +fundamental things, it is subtle, undefinable. But some elements in the +character of Mr. Putney in the retrospect are clear as air. In the first +place, he was a born teacher. His scholarship was backed by thoroughness +of application in the classroom. A part of his painstaking self passed +into the mental processes, and so into the equipment, of those who sat +under him. His instruction went deep. It was thorough plowing of the +mind. Slip-shod methods were repugnant to his nature. Then, too, how +patient he was! For every student he seemed to carry in his mind an +ideal of development that made every effort on his part toward that end +a real joy, and so he first grounded him in basic things and then built +on that foundation. + +With poise and self-control, though not physically robust, he managed +a large school in such a way that it ran as smoothly as a well-oiled +machine. We took it all for granted then. But we see now, especially +those of us who are teachers ourselves, the meaning and the reason of +it all, and we trace the fact to its source in an able and inspiring +personality. + +Mr. Putney had a quiet glow of humor, and many an incident comes to mind +to show how large and wholesome a part this characteristic played in his +career. But most of all I would pay tribute to the Christian gentleman. +His idealism was not too lofty for "human nature's daily food." Rather +it expressed itself in practical devotion to the best interests of his +pupils, to good things, and to noble causes. He was a leader because +he allowed himself humbly to be led by something above him. He moulded +character because he was himself being moulded by spiritual forces. Not +ambitious in the worldly sense, he came into his own long before his +gentle life passed from among us. I fancy that, could he do so, he would +tell us that his real ambition has been realized. In Mr. Putney we are +gratefully aware of that gracious thing, the distribution of a rare +personality through the lives of others, the multiplication of self in +terms of helpfulness to the world. + + HENRY D. WILD, '84. + + + + +Those were days of exceptional privilege in the eighties and nineties +for the shy but eager boys and girls of rural Vermont who found their +way to St. Johnsbury Academy, there, under Mr. Putney and the able and +friendly faculty of his choice, to catch enlarged vision and the +preparation to fulfill it. + +The quiet, unobtrusive life of such as Mr. Putney lends itself to fewer +striking, outstanding memories than more brilliant careers, yet how +positive the impression and far-reaching the influence, and how sweet +the incidents one does recall! + +My first acquaintance revealed his friendly interest and thoughtfulness. +Discovering that I, a timid new-comer, was the only girl enrolled for +Greek with twenty young men, he sent a kindly word of encouragement and +the hope that I would not let the fact discourage me in my purpose. That +pledge of sympathy on the part of one of my first male instructors had +large weight in deciding me to brave the ordeal. It was, too, a pledge +fully and most wisely carried out, so discriminatingly administered +by daily, tactful consideration as to set me wholly at ease and to +establish the most natural, unconscious comradeship with the class. +The only visible evidence of his thought came in occasional approving +comments upon the little rivalry in scholarship in the class and the +requests that I conduct the class sometimes when he was necessarily +absent. Thus he made of the experience, by his fine tact and wisdom, +a happy and fruitful one. + +I was early inspired with a confidence that the ideals he held for us +were but those of his own life. The urgent suggestions to drill and +review our lessons thoroughly were the more forceful when I learned that +it had been a habit of all his own student life to review each Saturday +the entire daily work of the week. A trying epidemic of colds and coughs +was prevailing one winter, disturbing school exercises greatly. At the +close of chapel one morning Mr. Putney told us in his quiet, earnest +manner the dangers of allowing a cough to become aggravated and the +possibility of entirely controlling it. Skeptical of this, I well +remember with what gleeful malice I scoffed at it in the hearing of a +teacher who made the lesson one of life-long practice by telling me of +the heroic, thorough treatment to which Mr. Putney had in early life +subjected himself, so that he had spoken out of personal experience +again. When his life had been despaired of because of supposedly fatal +illness he had effected a complete recovery by checking the deep-seated +cough. + +When in later years I found that his benign presence and quiet influence +was bearing daily fruit in the same, or even greater respect and reverence +with a younger generation of students, I realized afresh under what a +rare teacher I had had the privilege of coming, and how profoundly true +it is that such a personality teaches constantly, often when least +suspected, the finest and most profound lessons. The vision which he +communicated is one of the most precious treasures. + + BERTHA M. TERRILL, '91. + + + + +I appreciate exceedingly this opportunity to add my words of tribute to +the memory and worth of Mr. Putney. + +To him I am indebted beyond measure for the incentive, encouragement, +aid and inspiration which he gave me while a student at the Academy. + +His was a life long in years, ripe in scholarship, and rich in unselfish +and generous service. In him were combined the qualities of the best +type of teacher. + +His clearness of vision, and straight thinking made him a leader whose +influence was broad and lasting; while by the gentleness of his manners +and by the broadness of his sympathies he won and held the affection of +all who knew him. + +His loyal devotion to the cause of education was such that he desired +nothing more earnestly than to serve and aid those who sought his +instruction, and he ever held before the student the highest ideals of +a fine, clean, strong and Christian manhood. + +His influence continues, and will widen in the years yet to come. + + GEORGE E. MINER, '83. + + + + +All the way along, from the days when, in the absence of my own father, +he initiated me, a little girl of five, into the joys of a dip in the +Atlantic to the almost equally happy days in number ten when I learned +through him to know the wonder and beauty of Virgil and Cicero, Mr. +Putney seemed to me one of the best and finest men in the world. + +How considerate he always was! During the years of my father's +pastorate, Mr. Putney was among those who gave unsparingly at all times +just the help and cheer that the minister needed. + +I think of him as one whose life was a beautiful mingling of gentleness +and strength. + + CORNELIA TAYLOR FAIRBANKS, '97. + + + + + March 26, 1913. + + +It would be a genuine and great pleasure to us to be with you at the +doings of the Alumni Association and to meet again all the famous +characters expected there, especially the guest of honor. We are glad of +this opportunity to renew our profession of allegiance to him. He was +our principal during the final year we passed at the beloved Academy, +the year when, because of Mr. Fuller's absence abroad, he was the acting +principal as he afterwards came to be the titular principal as well. +We have always cherished the sincerest regard and affection for Mr. +Putney,--not only because he was our competent and faithful teacher and +our respected principal, but because he was in the truest sense our +friend. We owe him a great debt of gratitude which, like honest though +insolvent creditors, we can acknowledge though we cannot hope to pay. +Ours was the first graduating class that knew him as principal, and we +always cherished the fond conceit, that, as he was peculiarly dear to +us, so we were a little more to him than any other class could be. I +hope he will not say or do anything upon this occasion to banish that +happy thought from our minds. He will probably try to appear as fond of +you as he is of us. He always did have a way of letting you down easy +when he didn't want to hurt your feelings. You cannot have forgotten +how, when you answered his questions in classroom, he always said, "Yes, +yes," as though your answer was all that could be desired, even when he +followed it by some quiet correction, which when you had taken your seat +and thought it over, gradually let you see that you had missed the mark +by about a mile. We wish that we could do anything as well as Mr. Putney +could teach! Happy is the school that has him for a teacher! Happy are +the boys and girls--of whatever age--who have him for a friend! + + Sincerely and fraternally yours, + FLORENCE AND WENDELL STAFFORD, '80. + + +Being both a paternal and maternal grandson of the Academy, I subscribe +to the above with duty as well as pleasure. + + EDWARD STAFFORD, '07. + + + + +I hardly know what to say. There is such a mingling of emotions--sorrow +for the loss, joy that he has been with us so long, gratitude that it +has been my privilege to keep in so close touch with him during most of +the years since I, a school girl, first came under the influence that +has never lost its hold for a minute. + +No one individual has ever had more to do with the shaping of my life +than he and whatever little good I have been able to do for boys and +girls is largely attributable to the influence that has helped me for +so long. + +My experience can be multiplied a thousand times and then the story has +not been told. We all shall hold his memory in love, and in reverence. +Generations to come will still feel indirectly the help that we have had +from him. + +I've always seen Mr. Putney as I read those words of Tennyson in his +dedication to the "Idylls." + + "Indeed he seems to me + Scarce other than my king's ideal knight, + Who reverenced his conscience as his king, + Whose glory was redressing human wrong, + Who spake no slander, no nor listened to it, + We have lost him, he is gone-- + We know him now--and we see him as he moved, + How modest, kindly, all accomplished, wise, + With what sublime repression of himself-- + And in what limits, and how tenderly-- + Now swaying to this faction or to that-- + But through all this tract of years + Wearing the white flower of a blameless life, + Before a thousand peering littlenesses. + Where is he + Who dares foreshadow for an only son + A lovelier life, a more unstained than his?" + + + Very sincerely, + CAROLINE S. WOODRUFF, '84. + + + + +Among the many valuable and valued possessions which were mine when +I left St. Johnsbury Academy was a clear-cut impression of Mr. Putney +as a man, as a friend, and as a teacher. He stood for standards, high +standards of behavior and of scholarship. After all these years this +image is still clear and vivid. Simple, sincere, and single-minded in +his life work, his standards of living have always been a challenge +to the best in his associates, a challenge which has, consciously or +unconsciously, helped us all to higher levels of service. This is our +tribute to his memory. + + ELIZABETH HALL, '86. + + + + +I look back on the old Academy days under Mr. Putney with ever increasing +appreciation of him and of his influence over my life. I am glad to add +my tribute to his memory and I do so most heartily. + +Charles E. Putney was a kindly, courtly, Christian gentleman. He was +a wonderful teacher, leading his students through the classics by ways +that made Latin and Greek no longer "dead" languages but very much alive; +and so were the thrilling narratives of the old worthies who almost +seemed to speak again in Mr. Putney's classrooms. Meantime, character +building was going on and his insistence of high standards of honor and +strict discipline made most of the boys more manly and most of the girls +more womanly, and they are grateful to him, as I am, for it all. + +Devotion to duty was characteristic of him in school and church, in +home and public life. He was a good soldier and to him citizenship meant +service. He was a true friend and that meant the helping hand. + +I honor and revere his memory. My humble tribute is one of gratitude +for his noble life, which, touching mine, revealed more clearly +for my stumbling feet the shining pathway that he trod to worthy +self-investment, to truth and God. + + ROLFE COBLEIGH, '86. + + + + +From that first day when I went into the Academy office to consult with +Mr. Putney as a new student, I have been and shall continue to be under +the deepest obligation to one of the noblest spirits and finest teachers +whose influence ever has been exerted upon young men and women. His +scholarship was accurate and he made Greek interesting. His moral +standards were lofty and he made honor and truth beautiful. His soul +was sincere and devoted and he made Christ attractive to the mind and +will of a boy. He knew how to give encouragement at the critical +moment and how to exercise discipline justly so that no sting remained. +He influenced me more deeply than any other teacher of my youth, and +my love and gratitude grew as the years passed. Mr. Putney did not +disappoint me as my ideal of a Christian teacher and lover of young +men. It was a great life. + + OZORA S. DAVIS, '85. + + + + +A teacher projects himself through the lives of his pupils and an +institution of learning speaks through the voice of its scholars. St. +Johnsbury Academy has been a formative force in the educational life +of New England and beyond, and her leadership has been buttressed upon +sound learning. + +Charles E. Putney was a great principal and an inspiring teacher. In the +classics his well-ordered mind found a congenial field for interpretation +and elucidation. Frail of physique, with all the scholar's nerves and +sensitiveness, he yet day after day ploughed through the hesitating +minds of his pupils with patience and thoroughness. Particularly as a +teacher of Greek did he excel. He led his pupils through the necessary +technique of parasangs to the mastery of the sublime secrets of this +imperial mother of tongues. He possessed the capacity of taking infinite +pains and played no favorites among his scholars. I imagine the +responsibility of administration irked his gentle spirit and the rawness +of self-centered youth must have tried his conscientious soul. + +I never thought of him in those days as a veteran of the Civil War, in +fact, did not then know of his martial service, but I can see now how +that experience must have fed his hatred of disobedience and disloyalty +and increased his zeal for the proper development of the minds of his +boys and girls in order that they too might become dependable citizens +of the Republic. + +His was a kindly nature, though to the pupil who first fronted him he +seemed stern, yet this was but the shell, in which daily duty encased +him. It was always a pleasure to watch his sense of humor expand +itself in friendly smile and expend itself in his low chuckle as some +particularly atrocious translation fell from lips unused to expressing +ancient thought. + +It is hard to measure his personal influence by a sentence but it seems +to me as principal and teacher, by precept and practice, he showed how +desirable a thing it is to perform the daily task conscientiously and +patiently. + + FREDERICK G. FLEETWOOD, '86. + + + + +To me Mr. Putney was a great teacher. I knew him as a friend, my friend +and the life-time friend of my father. I knew him as an active member of +the South Church, and a devoted leader of religious life and activity in +the Academy. But it was as a teacher that he had a formative power on my +life. + +As I look back on those classes in "Beginning Greek," and in Cicero, +I recognize his painstaking thoroughness. The fundamentals were clear +to him, and it was his work to make them clear, definite, and lasting +in the minds of his pupils. If he made a mistake it was in his +conscientious care that no dull or backward or thoughtless pupil should +fail to have these fundamentals of the subject drilled into his mind. +How many hundreds of pupils owe their sense of accurate and clear +thought to his persistent efforts day in and day out, I have no idea. +He was primarily a great teacher because he never relaxed his effort +to make every pupil know the essentials of the subject he taught. + +But he was more than a drillmaster, fundamental as that is. He was not +without a sense of humor. I remember once he came to the door of a room +in South Hall where, one Saturday afternoon, some boys were not very +quiet in their recreation. Some one answered his knock by asking, "Who's +there?" When the answer came, "It's me, Mr. Putney," the boy said, "No, +Mr. Putney would have said, 'It is I'"; and I can almost hear his quiet +chuckle as he went away. + +A great teacher depends for his success on his moral character. No one +could ever question the sincerity and force of Mr. Putney's character. +With clear vision of the work he wanted to accomplish, with a devotion +to his high purpose which never wavered, with a simplicity and +straightforwardness which showed in every action, he impressed on +the students his high ideals. At the same time he won their complete +confidence and made them feel his sympathy. + +Such a man leaves a widespread heritage in his pupils. He leaves also +a heritage of fine tradition for the Academy he served. + + ARTHUR FAIRBANKS, '82. + + + + +A college professor, at an alumni gathering, in conversation with one +of his former students who had been obliged to work his way through +college, said to him, "I always had a feeling that you took life too +seriously,--that you had too little diversion." + +The thought expressed in that remark suggests one of the dominant +impressions of Mr. Putney that comes to me after these many years. +Teaching was to him a serious matter, and the student's part, in his +judgment, both in preparation and in classroom, demanded likewise +faithful and not superficial performance. + +The basis of this characteristic in his life-work was his Christian +faith. It naturally made his objective the development of Christian +character, over and above the impartation and reception of information. + +I have always felt a deep sense of personal gratitude for a service +rendered during a special period of study at the Academy. Members of +my class who took the classical course will recall that Greek was not +included among my studies. Nearly four years after graduation from +the Academy, having decided to enter college as a classical student, +I returned to St. Johnsbury for ten weeks of intensive study of Greek +alone. Mr. Putney not only made my membership in the class in "Middle" +Greek possible, and practically free from embarrassment at being a late +comer, but gave me many regular hours of private instruction in Homeric +Greek, enabling me during the last weeks of the time to join the senior +class in the study of the latter form of the language. + +This I believe to be illustrative of his devotion and self-denying +service to any who are ready to respond to the forth-putting of time, +strength and knowledge on his part. + +His home was open, if needed, to receive students or others who were +sick and in need of attention impossible to be given in the Academy +dormitory or other rooming building. Some cases of illness were of many +weeks duration, but this mattered not. The tender ministrations of Mrs. +Putney were not lessened until all necessity was passed. + +Mr. Putney's influence was not due to his public utterances, for he did +not seek platform prominence. But his constant adherence to high ideals +of faithfulness, conscientiousness, and efficiency outside and in the +classroom, and his personal helpfulness to many an individual student +are among the legacies which many of us have been privileged to share +from his long and abundantly fruitful life. + + GEORGE L. LEONARD, '83. + + + + +A HUMAN HUMANIST + + +"Are you willing to write an appreciation of what his influence in those +early days meant to you?" + +So the letter read, telling me of the Charles E. Putney memorial. And +shall I be frank enough to add that for a moment the question rather +floored me? For while youth is very susceptible to influences, of many +sorts, youth is not much more conscious of them than the beanstalk of +the pole. Yet almost immediately it came back to me that a few days +before that letter arrived, a group of men were chatting in a Washington +club--among other things, about the value and results of formal +education. And, agreeing that few people ever pick up at school or +college anything which in later life they can put their finger on, that +for many people the so-called higher education is a pure waste of time, +I added, "The only man who ever taught me anything was a Greek teacher I +had at a preparatory school in Vermont." + +That Greek teacher was Mr. Putney. Perhaps Greek is no longer taught +at the Academy. I don't know. It is not the fashion nowadays. But I +am somewhat concerned that it has ceased to be the fashion. And the +foundation of the feeling I have about it was laid, in great part, at +St. Johnsbury. On that, at any rate, I can put my finger. It may not +have been Mr. Putney who first sowed in the mind of one of his pupils +the consciousness that history is a very long drawn out affair; that it +did not begin in A. D. 1776, or in A. D. 1492, or even in A. D. 1. For +before that pupil trod the banks of the Passumpsic he happened to have +visited the shores of the AEgean. To him, consequently, the Anabasis and +Homer were more real than otherwise they might have seemed--though Mr. +Putney had the gift of making those old stories real. + +But of one thing I am quite sure. Mr. Putney gave me my first sense of +language as a living and growing organism, come from far beginnings; and +he first made me see in the English language, in particular, a stream of +many confluents. This is the chief reason why it seems to me a disaster +that the classics are passing out of fashion. For with them all true +understanding of our rich and noble tongue seems fated to pass out of +fashion. To be too much bound to the past is of course an unhappy thing. +Each generation must live by and largely for itself. Yet does it not +profit a man to be aware that knowledge is an ancient and gradual +accumulation, to gain an outlook upon the cycles of history and upon the +human experiments that have succeeded or failed, to be able to trace +the sources of this or that element in science, in law, in art? And how +shall he really know the language he speaks without some acquaintance +with the languages which have chiefly enriched it--not only French and +German, but Latin and Greek as well? + +This Mr. Putney had the art of making his pupils feel. I remember how he +used to pick words to pieces and squeeze out for us the inner essence of +their meaning. One example in particular has always stuck in my memory: +pernicious. And I can still hear Mr. Putney's voice translating it for +us: "Most completely full of that which produces death." That word has +had an interest for me ever since--akin to the respect which Henry James +later instilled into me for the adjective poignant, which he declared +should be used only once or twice in a lifetime. What is more, I have +never lost the habit Mr. Putney enticed us to form, of picking words +to pieces for ourselves. There is no better way of extracting shades of +meaning. But that way is closed to those who have no Greek. + +Mr. Putney was, in short, my first humanist--though that word didn't +come to me till another day, when I began to read about the Renaissance. +But he was more than a humanist. He was humane. He was human. That +underlay the fact that, with the affectionate disrespect of youth, he +was known among ourselves as "Put." Disrespect, however, was never what +we felt toward the principal of the Academy. Indeed, the first time +I ever saw him, when I was a new boy of sixteen, he impressed me as +being a rather awesome person. As long as I knew him his dignity and +his firmness never failed to impress me. Yet about that dignity there +was nothing aloof. That firmness was not hardness; it had no cutting +edge. He meant what he said. That was all. No idle or disobedient boy +flattered himself that "Put" was to be trifled with. Every boy felt, +however, that "Put" was just. Firm as he was, he had too a great +gentleness. And I think he had the kindest and most patient eyes I ever +looked into. They were very shrewd. They could look through a boy as if +he were made of glass. But they were also very wise, and they knew how +to overlook a great deal of folly and thoughtlessness. Moreover there +was in the bottom of them a twinkle--of a most individual kind. It was +no broad Irish twinkle, nor yet an ironic Latin twinkle. You saw it +sometimes when you had made a particularly egregious translation; but +it didn't dishearten you. + +I have never forgotten that quiet, that comprehending, that rare +twinkle. After all, what happier light could a man cast on the cloudy +ways of youth--or shed upon his own character? + + H. G. DWIGHT, '94. + + + + +Coming East from Dubuque to Chicago, it is inspiring to an Eastern man +to see how the life of this busy metropolis of the West is guided and +influenced by the Eastern-trained man and woman. On the same street with +the great University of Chicago is Chicago Theological Seminary. I had +a delightful interview with the man who presides over this institution, +training the virile young men of the West for the work of the Christian +ministry and also for work in the mission field. This man is Dr. Ozora +S. Davis, a graduate of St. Johnsbury Academy and of Dartmouth College. +Dr. Davis attended St. Johnsbury Academy during the principalship of +that gifted and consecrated Christian gentleman, Charles E. Putney, +Ph. D. A powerful influence for righteousness exerted by the quiet but +inspiring personality of this educational leader is now felt throughout +the world. Truly the fourth verse of the nineteenth Psalm is applicable +to this former principal of a New England academy: "Their line is gone +out through all the earth and their words to the end of the world." + + H. PHILIP PATEY, '86. + _Journal of Education._ + + + + +It is fitting that Mr. Putney's work and influence as an officer in the +church in whose service he was so constant and faithful should receive +some mention. While serving as principal of St. Johnsbury Academy during +some of its most prosperous years and largest enrollment, he found time +to serve actively on the board of deacons of the South Church, to teach +a large class of students in the Sunday school, and to be unfailing in +attendance upon the mid-week meeting. He was a pillar in the church he +loved. And while in the Academy he maintained the religious traditions +on which it was founded, he recognized that it was in the church that +these traditions found their source and inspiration. + +On his removal to Burlington he took up similar relations with the +College Street Church, and continued them to the end of his career, +loyal to its interests and liberal in its support. If fine distinctions +are to be made between vocation and avocation it would be difficult to +determine to which institution the terms should be applied as his life +is reviewed. + + C. H. MERRILL, + _Vermont Missionary._ + + + + +It was not my privilege to sit at the feet of Mr. Putney as a student. +In about the year 1870, I attended prize-speaking at the high school +of Norwich, Vermont, and was told that the young principal was a Mr. +Putney. Something about the man appealed to my boyish senses and I +wished that I might know him, but lack of confidence prevented my making +myself known. An acquaintance was formed three or four years later at +St. Johnsbury. For a time, I was associated with Mr. Putney in certain +lay-religious work and came to know him well, if not intimately,--a +friendship which ever after continued. After the death of Mrs. Hazen, +I received a beautiful letter from Mr. Putney, written laboriously by +a shaking hand, but it expressed so much in a few words, characteristic +of his genuineness, it is a letter that will ever be preserved among +my most cherished possessions. + +What was the subtle something that so appealed to me that long-ago +evening at Norwich? It seems to me it was the unspoken sympathy of the +man which touched the lives of all who came in contact with him even as +the fragrance of a flower permeates the atmosphere. Surely he lived a +life that is well "worth the telling." + + PERLEY F. HAZEN. + + + + +I want to join in the chorus of love and tender remembrance which you +are hearing from all sides in regard to your father. + +He was my first teacher, at Norwich, when for the first time I went +to school, and his kindness and consideration helped me over the +strangeness and discomfort of the new experience. He taught me Latin +and I began Greek with him. + +He was a most delightful principal of the school, and thought of the +pleasantest things for us boys and girls to do, in and out of the +classrooms; for instance, long walks together in which he accompanied +us. + +All my life I have thought of him with warmth and pleasure, and on the +few occasions when I have seen him the old gratitude and confidence have +been renewed. He was so good and so delightful all at once. + + Sincerely yours, + + KATHERINE MORRIS CONE. + + + + +CHARLES E. PUTNEY + + + One lately dying--though alas I deem + Myself unfit to praise his high, clear faith-- + Followed his Master till the darkling stream + Was bravely crossed, sure that in life or death + Nothing could separate from the love of Christ. + So faithfully he kept with God his long, last tryst. + + + J. A. BELLOWS, DARTMOUTH, '70. + + + + +From his brother Freeman. + + +The hearts of all your father's brothers were terribly wrung by his +death. For it has not often been given to a household to have a leading +member who commanded such reverently affectionate esteem as did our +brother Charles. His life, his spirit, his purposes, his exemplary +attitude toward worthy living, his generously helpful thought--always +expressed in action--how could they well be other than a constant +challenge to his brothers and sisters? We all have rare cause for deep +gratitude that he was ours for so many years; we cannot express our +gratitude for our memories of him. + + + + +From a friend. + + +There is just one mind and one expression regarding your dear +father--"One of the grand old men has gone to his reward." The presence +of Mr. Putney has been a benediction to our high school. How thankful +you must be that he had no lingering illness but just laid down his +books and entered into the fuller life. We thank God for such a presence +in our midst. + + + + +From an associate teacher. + + +In the years in school Mr. Putney was always ready with good counsel to +the younger men. He never seemed to lose his courage nor even to grow +old. The last time I saw him, his smile was as bright and his voice as +cheery as I remember it always to have been. + + + + +From another associate teacher. + + +I count myself very fortunate to have known your father, and to have +been his friend for a short time. He was one of the finest Christian +gentlemen I ever knew. His influence in the city, the church and the +school is certainly past all measuring. + + + + +From a friend. + + +A man whom literally thousands love and revere in memory, and whose work +and influence are still going on. + + + + +From a former pupil. + + +I need not tell you that his going is, as was the death of your blessed +mother, like the loss of one of my own parents. The kindness of those +two good people to me when I needed help of just the kind they so finely +and unselfishly gave has always been a most helpful influence in my +life. To grow old looking upon his advancing years and the future with +grace and an abiding faith, as Mr. Putney did, is in itself an +inspiration to us all. + + + + +From a more recent pupil. + + +I do not need to tell you how we all loved him--everyone did who ever +knew him. He was everybody's favorite teacher, and instead of hating to +go to his classes we loved to do so. Somehow I always felt better after +having talked with him, and I only wish everyone in the world could have +known him. He was a real gentleman and a scholar. + + * * * * * + + + + + He is not dead, this friend; not dead, + But on some road by mortals tread, + Got some few trifling steps ahead; + And nearer to the end; + So that you too once past the bend, + Shall meet again, as face to face this friend + You fancy dead. + + + --ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON. + + + + +APPRECIATIVE WORDS FROM TEACHERS AND PUPILS OF BURLINGTON HIGH +SCHOOL, 1920 + + +To live to old age; to keep one's physical health and mental vigor to +the very end; to work at one's chosen task with undiminished enthusiasm; +to know one's self greatly useful and greatly beloved; to go, at last, +swiftly, and to be mourned by many friends;--what could one ask, of all +the gifts of life, better than that? + +The impression left by Mr. Putney is that of a singularly serene and +happy old age. And surely, if ever a man had reason to look upon his +life with serenity and quiet satisfaction, Mr. Putney had reason to do +so. + +It is a touching and also an inspiring thought, how the successive +generations of young boys and girls passed through his life, each one +receiving something of the rich gift which Mr. Putney had to share with +all, but then too, each returning something of the fresh outlook and +untarnished faith of youth to keep his old age green. + +Mr. Putney lived long but never grew old. Perhaps because of his very +association with the young, he tasted the fountain of perpetual youth. + +How valuable and how prized was the gift which he imparted, is best +known to those who best knew the man himself. No pupil of his seems to +think of him primarily as a teacher, but as a wise and kindly friend, +whom to know was, somehow, to become one's self wiser and of a more +human spirit. + +And yet he was a superb teacher. + +It is simply that this phase of him is lost in the totality of the man. + +One thinks instinctively of a phrase of Cicero's--Cicero whose orations +Mr. Putney taught for so many years--"Vir amplissimus." It means +something much more, something quite other than simply "Great man." It +means one adequate for the occasion, whatever that occasion might be. + +That is the final verdict to be pronounced, as it is the highest praise +to be bestowed. From whatever angle Mr. Putney was regarded, and to +whatever test he was brought, he measured up; he sufficed. + + JOHN E. COLBURN. + + + + +When Mr. Putney died, we could not at first realize our loss. + +He had been so much a part of the school life that it seemed hardly +possible that, while that life went on, he could be away. + +We all loved and admired him, but we seldom stopped to measure him. We +accepted him, like any other accustomed gift, without realizing quite +fully how much he meant to us. + +As we remember him now, what impresses us most strongly is the thought +how little in him we could have wished to change--how extraordinarily +well he measured up as a man. + +There was a fine serenity about him, and a kind of soundness and +sweetness of character like the autumnal ripeness of a perfect apple. +It was tonic and wholesome to be under his influence. + +There have been great teachers who could not teach. Nevertheless they +were great teachers because a virtue went out from them which touched +the lives of their pupils and was better than all instruction. + +There have been great instructors who could not be respected, because +along with intellectual brilliancy and clearness went a narrow, or a +low, or a selfish outlook on life. + +Mr. Putney measured up in both respects--he was a large-minded man, he +was a great teacher. + +The very nature of his profession precluded any wide or ringing fame. +His work was done quietly, unobtrusively, one might almost say, +obscurely. A teacher's work is always so. + +His memory rests with us who knew him, but with us it is very secure. + +It is the memory of a man whom we could respect without coldness, and +love without making allowances.--_Burlington High School Register._ + + + + +In these days when the so-called practical side of life has seemed to +crowd out the humanities, so that in many schools Latin and Greek are +not included in the curriculum, Mr. Putney has held high the torch of +classical learning. To him much credit should be given for keeping alive +a real interest in Greek, and for giving thorough and inspiring work +in Latin. + +Moreover, in all school relations Mr. Putney has been not only ready +but glad to co-operate. Whether for a social gathering of the teachers +requiring a tax, for tickets to the many ball games, or for Thanksgiving +baskets to be filled, Mr. Putney's purse was always open. Not many, +indeed, know how often he overpaid his subscription so as to be sure +to do his part. + +But, of course, it is the personality of Mr. Putney, so elusive and yet +so real, that has impressed us all. In the hurry and rush of modern +days, he never failed to be truly kind, to be warmly sympathetic, and at +all times to be wholly unselfish. So with the poet we say, + + "And thus he bore without abuse + The grand old name of gentleman." + + EFFIE MOORE. + + + + +The thing which impressed me the most about Mr. Putney was the way he +saluted the flag in Assembly every morning. + +One could tell by his manner in saluting that he loved the flag and +would fight for it again, anywhere, any time. + + I. A. + + + + +Mr. Putney was a man who always found the best in every one; who proved +himself such a sympathetic teacher that he inspired all to try to please +him. + +His name will always bring to mind most tender remembrances. + + L. B. + + + + +Mr. Putney has always been to his students the highest ideal of man and +of teacher. He has been a true friend. His generosity to faults and the +encouragement he has given us all to live better lives will bear fruit. +He had a whole-hearted smile which none of us will ever forget. He is, +and always will be, the outstanding figure in my school life. + + E. C. + + + + +With the passing away of this most venerable character Burlington High +School has lost a shining star,--a star that shone in the hearts of all +his students and of all of those who knew him. He was a friend of all +creeds and was always ready to lend a willing hand to them. Religious to +the utmost and a real American in the full sense of the word,--such is +the character of the soul which will no longer cheer us in our daily +tasks, but which will remain in our memories forever. + + A. F. + + + + +Of all Mr. Putney's most striking attributes, his smile always impressed +me greatly. Every time he smiled we looked up and just naturally smiled, +too. And when he laughed it was contagious--a ripple of happiness +sounded through the class. His smile always drove away the blues and +encouraged us; not only in our Latin lessons, but in every way it made +life brighter. + + E. L. + + + + +Mr. Putney's love and friendship for the pupils and the respect which +they had for him stand out most strongly in my mind. Never did he +hesitate when asked to help some of his pupils out of hours. Never did a +cross word pass his lips, and a nod was all that was needed to stop any +disturbance in the hall or room. + +He will be missed as the most loved, most able, and most respected +teacher and companion that ever entered "Old Edmunds." + + C. K. + + + + +Mr. Putney, the most perfect man I have ever known. Only a few words are +necessary to say that though I knew him only for a short while, he stood +as a symbol of my utmost ideal in man. + +Justice, kindness, love and brotherhood were living in his heart. His +most beautiful characteristic and the most precious was his consideration +for others. + + G. E. R. + + + + +What especially appealed to me in Mr. Putney was his love for his +pupils. He always tried to help them in every possible way. He even +stayed at school an hour or so after the school had closed to help those +"who might wish to come for help," as he always said in his pleasing +tone. I shall never forget his words, "Well, you will have it to-morrow?" +when some person was not prepared with his lesson. + +No greater loss could be sustained by the school than this giving up of +Mr. Putney. + + D. R. + + + + +Mr. Putney was a man dearly loved by all who knew him. His gentle +ways, his remarkable whole-heartedness and his polished manners are +characteristics of a man who was a great but modest hero in the great +Civil War. + +He had no favorites among the pupils but he was the favorite of the +pupils. Thus we mourn the loss of Mr. Putney next to the loss of a near +relative. + + C. T. + + + + +When I first saw Mr. Putney I was impressed by his dignity and his kind +face. After knowing him better, what appealed to me most forcibly was +the absolute confidence and trust he had in his pupils. This trust in us +made us want to do our work well, and made us feel that we must do our +work well so that we would deserve his trust. + + "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul." + +When we heard of Mr. Putney's passing all was silence; that was the only +tribute one could give. Mere words, mere music,--nothing reaches the +summit of a life given over to service. His creed was, What do we live +for if it is not to make life a little less difficult for others. Surely +that is the highest goal of any human soul. He lived so that to come +into his presence was to be warmed and cheered as by the sun. By a life +heroic he conquered death. + +Whenever I looked at Mr. Putney and the flag in assembly, I could not +help connect him in some way with Abraham Lincoln and the great struggle +for freedom. He used to carry himself in such a soldierly manner. +Whenever he spoke to us it was a rare treat. + + H. M. B. + + + + +ADDRESS OF DR. SMART AT THE BURLINGTON HIGH SCHOOL + + +You have not asked me to speak to you this morning about Mr. Putney +because I can tell you anything about him which you do not already know. +In fact it does not matter very much who speaks to you about him. You +only wish to have an occasion to recall a familiar and delightful and +impressive teacher. You wish someone to do what Mark Antony did for the +Romans and tell you what you yourselves do know and enable you to repeat +the experience of Samson's mother in the scriptures who said about the +angel's visit, "The man came to me who came to me the other day." + +You have set me a difficult and an easy task. Difficult because you knew +the man and open your ears for words good enough to speak about him, and +easy because you knew the man and can yourselves supply what I may miss, +and smooth my awkwardness by the harmony of your own recollections. + +You might be interested to hear something about Thomas Arnold of Rugby, +Tom Brown's teacher, or about Bronson Alcott who had such strange ways +in discipline, requiring an offending pupil to punish him, holding out +his own hand for the ferrule; or about Tagore in India who requires his +boys to go out early in the morning to sit for half an hour under some +bush or tree for quiet meditation. Talk about these men might perhaps +appeal to your general interest in teachers and teaching, but what you +crave this morning is different. You wish to repeat the experience of +Achilles who slept beside the many-voiced sea, the _Polu phloisboio +Thalasses_, and dreamed that his slain friend Patroclus came back to +him: + + "Like him in all things--stature, beautiful eyes + And voice and garments which he wore in life + A marvellous semblance of the living man." + + +Or the experience of Peter when his Master appeared to him and freshened +the old love and admiration and moved him to carry on the Master's +service in his own life. + +You have set me a very difficult task but when I give you an inch you +will take an ell. Where I stumble you will walk with sure step. If I +am too much like Hamlet with old Polonius saying this cloud is like an +elephant or a camel, you will see a cloud like that which went before +the Israelites in the desert--a high spiritual presence to guide them. + +A few days ago he was here. The memory is full of life. His stalwart +figure clothed with gentlemanly care and taste, his bearing and movement +so fine, so dignified, so courteous and so pleasant. His voice so +special to him, with all harshness fined out of it, tuned as their +voices are who have in their spirits the accent and habit of good will. +And that fine face, the out-of-doors sign of good thinking and good +feeling, practiced long and become a second nature. That shapely, +well-proportioned, roomy head with its glory of white hair. He had, it +seemed to me, in his physical presence the charm of old age without +its weakness. He was not a sentimental, flowery man. He was naturally +perhaps like the rock in the desert which Moses struck and drew water +from it. The rock did not look as if it hid a fountain of living water, +but he took duty to wife. He loved to do his duty. He could not be +comfortable in any other course and doing his duty became his joy, his +life. Wherever you found him, in school, in church, in the state, in the +Grand Army, he was at his post, on guard, awake, alert, devoted. He did +not go with the crowd into the Civil War. He thought alone and deeply. +He weighed the matter by himself. He compared his obligation to his +father on the old farm with the call of the Union and concluded that +he ought to go. After a long life of fidelity to obligation he could not +breathe easily in any other atmosphere. He went simply and straight to +his post with his whole gift and might. Duty-- + + "Stern lawgiver! Yet thou dost wear + The Godhead's most benignant grace; + Nor know we anything so fair + As is the smile upon the face, + Flowers laugh before thee on their beds, + And fragrance in thy footing treads. + Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong, + And the most ancient heavens through thee are fresh and strong." + + +Mr. Putney was an instructive teacher. Some of you know it. Many old +pupils gratefully acknowledge his service. Both in the classroom and in +private personal contact he had an enthusiasm for teaching. He managed +to secure knowledge of what he taught. He was interested in his pupils +and he was interested in his subject and interested in bringing the two +together. Teaching I should think would be difficult without all of +those interests. No doubt Mr. Putney had a gift for teaching, but in +teaching as in other kinds of work one does much to make one's own gift. +Barring conspicuousness for a calling, this creative energy is the man +himself. I like to remind young people of this fact because they are +wondering what they will do in life; what they are fitted to do. With +some reservations it may be said that one becomes fitted to do whatever +one determines to do with one's whole mind and soul and strength. Think +how hit or miss our choices often are. Accidental circumstances or +chance openings when we are looking around for a job, something which +happens to be in the air when we come on the stage have more to do with +our first choices than any supposed genius for this or that. + +When men and women who have begun their career in this quite casual +manner succeed, then people say they have a remarkable gift for their +work. The gift in a very real and large sense is the creation of their +own energy. I believe that it was so with Mr. Putney. He was diligent +and faithful in his calling and his calling opened its treasures to him. + +You remember what the Scripture says: "No man having tasted old wine +straightway desireth the new for he saith the old is better." Mr. Putney +illustrated the saying. There was a graciousness, a consideration, a +pleasantness and good will in his ripe age which made it beautiful and +drew warm personal feeling to him. A custom of the heart grew up about +his name. Some of you loved him. That feeble old soldier whom he visited +every Sunday afternoon is lonely without him. He had "that which should +accompany old age, as honor, love, obedience, troops of friends." Not a +few boys and girls have reason to remember with tenderness his delicate +and patient sympathy. + +I received a circular the other day signed by my old teacher of +mathematics. I have not seen him for nearly forty years but reading +his words, seeing his name I lifted him again before my mind as if +I sat again before him in the Albany Academy. I recall his bodily +presence, his voice, his manner. I am grateful for his clear, and to me +inescapably conclusive teaching, and something I cannot analyze came +back to me--perhaps I should better say, came over me for my debt to him +has been growing all these years. Something of him has taken root in my +life and grown and borne fruit. In youth we take such influences for +granted. We are careless about them. We absorb them without thanks. But +the years bring thought and thought reveals service and we are grateful. + + "All my best is dressing old words new + Spending again what is already spent + For as the sun is daily new and old + So is my love still telling what is told." + + +In coming years some of you will be thinking and saying about Mr. Putney +with growing appreciation what some who are now in the thick of life are +already saying in the words of Scripture "Demetrius hath good report of +all men and of the truth itself: yea, and we also bear record." + + + + +MAKING LIFE A BENEDICTION + + +Whatever our path in life or the aim of our ambition, the real measure +of our service and success is the influence we exert upon the present +generation and those who come after us. We may do this through our +everyday life, through our individual service, through our benefactions. +When our lives are summed up, we are asked not what we gained, but what +we gave, not how much wealth we accumulated, but how much good we did +through our service and the means at our disposal. + +To grow old beautifully in service for humanity has been named the +height of human achievement. It falls to few men to do this in the +measure reached by Professor Putney, who has just passed out from +this community mourned by all. His long life joined generations far +separated. Those who paid tribute to his life and individual service +included the rapidly thinning "blue line" of the veterans of the +war for the preservation of the Union, for human freedom, of nearly +three-quarters of a century ago as well as hundreds of school children +who had learned to love him through the close association of teacher and +pupil. It is given to only one man in ten thousand thus to link close to +his own personality the genuine affections of organizations representing +extreme youth and advanced age. + +To have done all this is proof that Professor Putney in every sense of +the expression "grew old beautifully." The human interest element serves +to bring out this side of his life still more impressively. It was +his ambition that he might teach on his eightieth birthday. A few more +days would have witnessed the consummation of this allowable wish. His +conscientiousness was supreme however. He remarked to his granddaughter +that if he did not recover in two weeks it would not be right for him to +retain his position as a teacher in the Burlington High School, great as +was his desire to celebrate his fourscore anniversary "in harness." + +He continued to the end one of the youngest of aged men. He kept in +touch with youth and was thus able to reflect the spirit and intense +interest of youth. He was constantly aiding boys in his home who needed +help in their studies. He gave of himself ungrudgingly in this way +and refused recompense. It was with him a labor of love. If he had +frailties, and who of us has not, he governed them instead of letting +them have dominion over him, thereby showing himself better "than he +that taketh a city." For his pupils and his associates as well as for +those who associated with him in his Christian work in the College +Street Church he was always the gentleman of the old school and the +embodiment of unobtrusive beneficence combined. + +All boys and girls who may be inclined to bewail the impossibility of +being of service under present conditions or limitations will establish +their privilege of serving as he served, if they bear thoroughly in mind +that Professor Putney did what he did, not through the aid of wealth or +position or the favor of powerful friends, but solely through his own +individual service to others. + +Of such it is written "that he shall doubtless come again with rejoicing +bringing his sheaves with him." In the years to follow the sheaves of +influence of Professor Putney's life will come many times to the youth +whose privilege it has been to be associated with him, and they will +rejoice that his influence entered their careers. Who shall measure the +influences for good that he has set in motion in the young lives and in +the life of our community? Happy the man to whom it is thus given to +grow old beautifully! Thrice happy that man who in thus growing old +beautifully is able to bring down to the latest generations the best +traditions of the past and through them to make his life a benediction +to many generations to come.--_Burlington Free Press._ + + + + +THE EPILOGUE + + + He Toiled long, well, and with Good Cheer + In the Service of Others + Giving his Whole, Asking little + Enduring patiently, Complaining + Not at all + With small Means + Effecting Much + + * * * + + He had no Strength that was not Useful + No Weakness that was not Lovable + No Aim that was not Worthy + No Motive that was not Pure + + * * * + + Ever he Bent + His Eye upon the Task + Undone + Ever he Bent + His Soul upon the Stars + His Heart upon + The Sun + + * * * + + Bravely he Met + His Test + Richly he Earned + His Rest + + + --HERBERT PUTNAM. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Charles Edward Putney, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLES EDWARD PUTNEY *** + +***** This file should be named 36761.txt or 36761.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/7/6/36761/ + +Produced by Betty Haertling, David Garcia and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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