Excerpt from An Historical Address, Delivered in Keene, N. H., On July 4, 1876, at the Request of the City Government We are all an hundred years old today. For this day. At least, we identify ourselves with our country, and we know that it will not be the privilege of the youngest, any more than of the Oldest among us, to lend our bodily presence at the next centennial. So there is, indeed, a significant sense In which, to-day, we are all of one age. I do not forget that. Deacon John Whitman, of Bridgewater, Mass, lived to be one hundred and seven years Old - but upon what conditions? His son testifies that no matter what terrific events were occur ring in the world, no matter what instances of depravity were reported in private life, the most vehement expression of dis approbation which he could recall hearing the patriarch use was, Oh strange I N ow I think it may be conceded that the Young America of Keene will hardly be willing thus rigidly to rule their spirits. We shall hardly find them bartering all their interjectional exclamations for the mild regimen of Oh strange! Even to secure the hope of living past an hun dred years. Resigning, therefore, to the unborn the privilege of being eager and active participants in the next centennial, we stretch one hand to the shadowy forms of the past, and the other to the shadowy forms of the future, content to be, to-day, only a connecting link between the two. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.