Show aloe A i V 0 f ro i i r A alj N iZAI RETHS I 1 was at deerfield academy visiting my toy boy and on the way back I 1 had an hour beta letteen cen trains at northampton it was t sunday evening the main street was almost deserted I 1 walked into a side street and past the little two family house where calvin coolidge lived until a few weeks ago I 1 went around to the old building in fe which he and his law pai baitner trier used to jt have their modest offices I 1 stood in front of 01 the square town hall it was interesting to think of the days when he be was mayor one could picture him coming slowly up the street after breakfast morning cal people would say morning he would answer and a stranger in the town would pro bably tably have exclaimed Is that your mayor that quiet little fellow he look like much it if any one had suggested that the quiet little fellow might one day be president of the united states the laughter would have echoed from end ot of main I 1 street to the other A few years later when coolidge Coo lidee had bad become governor of massachusetts a merchant in boston named frank sterns began to make the presidential sugg suggestion he came to new york and persuaded i a few of us amherst graduates that I 1 the thing was not impossible even when the idea was usually greeted with smiles especially by folks in massachusetts all right tor for you fellows in new york they said but distance lends enchantment we ere are his neighbors we know him and one of the wisest ae men in the commonwealth remarked to the son of prank frank sterns calvin coolidge is nothing but a figment of your lathers fathers I 1 imagination inagi agin nation atlon nazareth Is the immortal illustration of the attitude of the home town to w n after jesus hid gone out into the world and become famous after he had preformed his miracles in Caperna eum and even in jerusalem he went back home A crowd of his old neighbors greeted him im in the synagogue but there was no pride or confidence in their attitude their skeptical expressions spoke louder than words you may have fooled them in those other towns but we know you you are only the boy who used to work in the carpenter shop and the record says sadly he could do there no mighty work because of their unbelief its a wonderful ond erful thing to realize that greatness Is growing up somewhere around us all the time that the most unprepossessing freckled boy may be a future conqueror unfortunately most ot of us can never believe that the home town could possibly produce anything better than ourselves |