Mr. Burgess and Council of the Borough-My honored friend has chosen me to the delicate
yet pleasing office of formally presenting, through you to native town, this magnificent
fire engine and its apparatus. Honored thus as his spokesman I might be expected merely to
portray the impulses which prompted this noble gift, and express for him the joy thereby
experienced. And yet I may find it difficult to forget that I too am a sharer with you in
this benefaction. Holding this double relation of recipient as well as mouthpiece of the
donor, I feel at liberty, My Friends, to say some things to which he, with his
characteristic modesty would forbid me give utterance.
Not soon will I forget his emotions, which struggling in vain to hide, manifested
themselves on the morning of January 26th when the engine then on trail was
drawn past his residence; how on entering his office to transact some business he said to
me "Charlie, I feel like buying that engine and presenting it to the borough. What do
you think of it?" Plainly I saw that no approval of mine was needed to conclude his
action. In his own mind the decision was already made. His heaving breast, his beaming
eye, his smiling but compressed lips, and the tear of joy that trickled down his cheek
told far more eloquently than words the pleasure that determination was affording. I think
I never saw Squire Cameron look quite so happy. As we sat talking mechanically, each
occupied with the thoughts our minds and the emotions that were stirring our hearts, I
thought, My Fellow townsmen, of the rich and unexpected treat in store for you. Then and
there he sent me forth, his honored and happy messenger, to bear to you the joyous
tidings.
From several years of intimate association with our philanthropic townsman I have come
to know much of his hidden life-the impulses that daily showed themselves in deeds of
kindness-in relieving the sick, in supplying the wants of the poor and in aiding the
worthy toiler in his struggle with the world. Deeds done in strict accordance with the
scripture rule, "His left hand knew not what the right did". But could the many
tons of coal, the many loads of wood, the flour, meat and vegetables deposited at the
house of the old, the infirm and the widow, under such strict injunctions of secrecy that
even the recipients themselves were in blissful but perplexing ignorance of the source
form which they came; could these dumb gifts have spoken we all would, long ere this, have
known of the grand and extensive work of charity that William Cameron has for years been
doing in our midst.
But here was a gift that to be made must of necessity be known. This act of beneficence
was to be broad enough to take in all of us, rich and poor, high and low, friend and foe
(if such there can be) are alike to share its benefits. Long had he watched and waited for
such an opportunity. Here was the object with which to show his warm affection for all the
people among whom he had so long lived and toiled and prospered.
His infancy was Lewisburg’s. In it-a modest village-his boyhood days were spent.
In the noble old Susquehanna, by which its feet are washed, he with his youthful comrades
boated and swam and fished; on its icy surface he played and skated-not a house-not a
tree-scarce a brick in the pavement or a face of a man or woman, but what are all
familiar, all dear to him-the more loved because a part of Lewisburg. But the friends of
his youth are nearly gone. Today many of them sleep in our lovely cemetery on yonder
hillside. He feels he soon must follow them-soon must bid adieu to all these
familiar-these endearing scenes and associations. May a kind providence long delay the
hour; long spare his life to consummate the noble monument, the grander work of charity
now cherished in his heart. Thus standing on the verge of time and about to step upon the
threshold of eternity, he feels he cannot go without leaving behind some testimonial of
his love for his native town and you, his native townsmen.
This engine affords the means of gratifying his long-cherished wish. In this gift he is
enabled, as has always been his wont, to combine the highly useful with the ornamental. To
have presented his fellow townsmen something upon which they could merely gaze with
admiration because of its cost, its inherent beauty or its wonderful mechanism would not
have filled up the full measure of his desires. The memorial of his affection when dead,
must like himself, while living be an instrument of God-a thing of use-a thing of life. It
will be a comfort to him while yet living and a solace in the throes of death to know that
when that when the fire of life shall cease to glow within his breast-when his eyes can no
more shed tears of sympathy for his fellows, mourning over homes being consumed or
threatened be devouring flames, when his strong and vigorous arm can no longer help to
pump the "Valiant" (now almost worn out like himself) or hold the nozzle, nor
pass the old leather buckets that now hang ready for use at his back door-I say when he
can no longer do these things in person it will be a comfort to him while yet living and a
solace in death to know that this " William Cameron" which you have so kindly
named for him, will in the fire by which it is made to act symbolize his life-the laboring
steam chest his throbbing heart-the working rods his arms, and the lines of hose will
represent the ducts through which will flow his sympathetic tears, tears effectual to
quench the very flames that caused those tears to flow. Thus he can know not only that his
own place will in these sad calamities be well filled, but it is to him a source
of highest
joy that frail men and delicate females need no longer endanger life and health through
exposure, and in their superhuman efforts to save theirs and their neighbors homes form
the terrible conflagration. So he though dead may in a certain sense continue to help in
saving these familiar objects all so dear-may still aid in protecting the lives, the
homes, the health of us, his fellow citizens.
Such, Mr. Burgess and Gentlemen of the Council are some of the considerations that
prompted our generous townsman to this particular gift. Are you, my fellow
townsmen happy
and joyous in its reception? Let me assure you your joy cannot exceed in flow or intensity
his delight. The approval of his heart alone affords a full return. Add the manifestation
of your joy and gratitude, the congratulations of his brother, our honored senator, his
sisters and his numerous friends and the cup overflows. In his own words he finds "it
more blessed to give than receive".
Take then this steam fire engine, "William Cameron". Take these hose
carriages, his three daughters, "Elizabeth", "Mary", and
"Jane" that transmit the line of his posterity. They are the gifts of William
Cameron to his native town. Not his alone, for he bade me, O so tenderly to join with him
in his honored and beloved wife, the partner of his life in youthful poverty, in
prosperous manhood, and declining age the sharer of his hopes and toils, his joys and
sorrows, and of his accumulated wealth, well-wisher with him to you all. Preserve and use
it well for in so doing you will win from them a livelier gratitude than in receiving you
can feel toward him.
