4
= ewe: ALO MINI
WHER LY
a
you keep a bee.” I count it a high
privilege that when it comes to the
rich honey of this high and lucrative
office, I am the only humble bee to
suck it. And I am so far from claim-
ing any gratification or merit for this
distinction that I attributed my elevation
to it to the same reason given to a
Sunday School Superintendent who
asked his school this question: ‘“Chil-
dren, why do you suppose I am a
Christian?” And a little boy in the
rear of the hall promptly replied,
“Because we don’t know you, sir.” |
The responsibility for the prosperity,
‘advancement and maintenance of_ the
high standards of this ancient Uni-
versity, so dear to us all, cannot rest
lightly on the heart of anyone charged
with it who possesses the proper appre-
ciation of the debt of gratitude and
duty he owes to her and her children,
who are now limitless in their devotion
to her and jealous of her renown.. She
concentrates in her idealized person-
ality the different degrees of love which
a man bears to his mother, his country
and his home, and when so much is due
and given, the trust of administering it
wisely*for her welfare may well employ
the best thought and judgment of those
to whom it is committed.
Business skill and sagacity, however
good in their way, are not alone sufh-
cient, for wealth doesn’t,make a Uni-
versity. Hard and dry learning by
itself doesn’t fill the measure. An-
tiquity may add a charm, but without
the proper spark of life is but the moss
and mold which stifle growth. The
charm of social intercourse, the identity
of pursuits, the ties of friendship and
the generous interchange of youthful
comradeship ought_to be welcomed and
safeguarded, but these are incidents and
ate not the objects and ideals for which
we strive.
The aim of the University and those
responsible for her care is the direction
of all these talents and gifts and attri-
butes and possessions toward the one
supreme object of endowing men with
the best gift of God and developing
them to the highest standard of which
human nature in the Divine scheme is
capable.
ANOTHER STORY.
Man is many sided and the elements
so mixed in him that they do not al-
ways blend into a harmonious whole.
I am connected with an insane asylum,
not as an inmate. In making = an
examination of it, the other day, I was
reproved by a man in entering one of
the main wings for not saluting him as
I passed. When I apologized and asked
his name, he replied “Sir, I am Moses
the law giver.” After spending some
time at the institution and approach-
ing him on leaving, I saluted him in
the same way, whereupon he again re-—
proved me and demanded that he should
be addressed as Napoleon the Great.
“But I thought you were Moses the
Law Giver,” I ventured to reply. ‘So
I am, but not by the same mother.”
We have seen men develop here in
a manner that put to naught all proph-
ecies of their future. Some were like
the barrister who rode the circuit with
a famous justice, who said of him at
a Bar dinner: “He’s a dear fellow and
the happy possessor of a mind un-
clouded by a single thought,” and yet
they later came up to the standard set
by Senator Sorghum, who said: “It is
harder work for men to be great than
it used to be, but I am inclined to think
we get better paid for it nowadays.”
I don’t like to be used as the cork
in the bottle. If my speech is thus set
before you, I fear that you will feel
towards me as did the Judge to the
attorney of unlimited and loosely aimed
vocabulary. “Do you follow me?” he
said to the court, after forty-seven
minutes of tortuous and torturing argu-
ment. “I have been trying to, for most
an hour,” was the answer,” but if I
could find my way back, I would
quit right here.”
_Those of us who have been a long
time away from here find our standards
much changed and we only realize it
when we return. This institution is a
great leveler and it is one of the great-
est services it has rendered the coun-
try. A man must be truly great to be
great here and to endure.
We have come here to attend the re-
union of the famous Class of Fifty-
Three and to investigate the charges of
intemperance which have been brought
against the University, which we con-
clude, after a careful examination, are
not well founded. If they were I am
not sure the victims are worse than the
accusers.
A temperance reformer asked his
audience “What did Dives call for
when he was sent to Hell? What did
he long for to lighten his torment?
Was it wine or beer or whiskey? No,
he called for water. Now, what does
that show?” A sceptical and mellow
gentlemen in the back said: “That
shows where you teetotal fellows go
to.” But I am sure that there are few
of us here who would stand up with
the editor of that ingenious paper in.
New York and say as he did, in big
black letters on his front page: “For
the evils of intemperance, see our in-
side.” |
Judge Howland closed his address
with an eloquent tribute to General
Stewart Woodford and with a cordial
welcome on behalf of the Corporation
to all the sons and friends of Yale who
were gathered on the University’s birth-
day.
> =— =
Pe, A, att
Northfield Student Conference.
In the Summer of 1886, Mr. Moody
invited a few college men to visit him
at his home at Northfield, Mass., to
study the Bible. This student gather-
ing and others in the South and West
have taken a most important place in
the development of the Christian life
of our educated young men. The fol-
lowing statement opens the Northfield
pamphlet which was sent to the stu-
dents of the country early this Spring:
“The Northfield Conference has been
the most potent factor of recent years in
the promotion of Christian life and
work among college men. Tt as
greatly strengthened the intercollegiate
tie. It has developed the Christian
Associations of the colleges. It has
deepened the spiritual life of thousands
of students. It has given a marked im-
petus to college Bible study. It has
made possible the modern student mis-
sionary uprising, and other great move-
ments. From it have sprung similar
gatherings at the West, at the South,
in Great Britain, Germany, Scandinavia,
Switzerland, India, and Japan.”
The young women from our colleges
hold a conference of their own each
year and in August Mr. Moody wel-
comes to his home all Christian
workers for conference and study.
The sessions of the student gather-
ing are held morning and _ evening,
with the afternoon given up to recrea-
tion of all kinds. Platform meetings
with addresses from well known
speakers, association and missionary
discussions, informal conversations with
the leaders of the student movement and
personal interviews fill up the ten days
which 500 and more young men from
our colleges spend each year at North-
field. Among the speakers this Sum-
mer will be Bishop Potter, Mr. Robert
FE. Speer and Dr. Edward Judson of
New York City. Mr. Moody, as
usual, will speak from time to time.
The one point emphasized above all
others at Northfield is Bible study and
the leaders of Bible classes are trained
to conduct a course of study on their
return to their colleges in the Fall.
This system has wonderfully developed
regular Bible study among. students
throughout the country.
Missionary interest among the col-
leges of the United States and Canada
was greatly aroused by the enthusiastic
convention at Cleveland in February,
and this interest will be given practical
direction at Northfield this Summer
under the leading of two of the sec-
retaries of the movement. It may be
recalled that Yale was represented by
thirty men at Cleveland, and no doubt
the missionary interest of the Univer-
sity will be greatly deepened through
oat study of the question at North-
eld.
A twilight meeting, on a hill back of
Mr. Moody’s house, known as “Round
Top,” marks the most memorable part
of the Northfield meetings. At this
sunset service the various phases of
Christian work which may claim a
student’s attention for life are impres-
sively presented. After the platform
meeting in the auditorium, the day al-
ways closes with the meeting of the
delegation of each college to review the
thoughts and the suggestions which
have been given during the day.
This year the Yale delegation will be
the largest which has ever represented
the University at Northfield, the total
reaching nearly seventy-five men.
HONORARY DEGREES CONFERRED,
The Addresses of Presentation by
Prof. Fisher—Pres. McKinley
Among the Candidates.
JAMES WADSWORTH.
I have the honor to present to you,
for the degree of Master of Arts, the
Honorable James Wadsworth, Member
of the National House of Representa-
tives from the State of New York. Mr.
Wadsworth inherited the spirit of his
noble father, who, at the opening of
the Civil War, raised and equipped two
regiments, and who fell in one of the
battles of the Richmond campaign.
The youthful son, in 1894, left the
Hopkins Grammar School in New
Haven, to enter the army. On the
staff of General Warren, he took part
in a number of the battles of the
Peninsula, and was brevetted Major
for good conduct at Five Forks. In
1865, he resumed his studies, taking a
special course, in the Sheffield School,
and after two years another special
course under private tuition. Re-
turning home to take charge of the
landed estate bequeathed to him, he
entered into public life. He became a
member of the New York Legislature,
and Comptroller of the State. Mr.
Wadsworth is at present in the sixth
term of his service in Congress. He
is now the Chairman of the House
Committee on Agriculture. His blame-
less record, stained by no unworthy
subservience to the dictates of party,
entitles him to a place of honor among
the graduates of Yale.
GEORGE HENRY KNIGHT.
I have the honor to present to you,
for the degree of Masters of Arts,
George Henry Knight, M.D., Superin-
tendent of the Connecticut School for
Imbeciles. For more than twenty
years, Dr. Knight has exerted himself
with extraordinary success in that
branch of scientific and benevolent
work to which his life is devoted. His
abilities have been manifest in the
practical’ treatment of the  feeble-
minded, the fruits of which are not less
than marvelous. He has distinguished
himself in the discussion of public
associations interested in this specialty,
at home and abroad. Likewise in
monographs he has set forth the results
of his researches. It is not too much
to say of Dr. Knight, that he stands in
this country at the head of those who
are specially concerned in the training
of the class called “defectives.” Surely,
at the University where he was for a
time a student, services of this kind,
rendered at once to science and phil-
anthropy, deserve this testimonial of
respect.
JOHN HAYS HAMMOND.
I have the honor to present to you,
for the degree of Master of Arts, in
absentia, Mr. John Hays Hammond.
Mr. Hammond was graduated at the
Sheffield Scientific School in 1876. He
then took a course of mining engineer-
ing at Freiburg. After his return to
this country, his remarkable talents and
his sympathy with men, whatever their
rank in life, opened for him professional
work, not only in the United States,
but also beyond their limits, in Canada,
Mexico, and the Central and South
American Republics. He received an
invitation. which he declined, from the
government of China to examine the
mineral resources of that Empire. In
South Africa, after the opening of the
extensive gold fields, he engaged in the
service of the Gold Fields Company
and became its chief engineer. In the
political disturbances in the Transvaal,
and after the Jamieson raid, his life
was for a time in jeopardy. In the
spring of the present year, by the
invitation of the Czar, he visited Russia
to give advice respecting the mineral
deposits opened up by the new Siberian
Railway. Mr. Hammond has been a
contributor to the mining journals and
to other periodicals. Let me add, that
wherever he is known his courage and
generosity are a theme of unstinted
praise.
RUSSELL WHEELER DAVENPORT.
IT have the honor to present to you,
for the degree of Master of Arts, Mr.
Russell Wheeler Davenport. Having
graduated at the Sheffield Scientific
- forgings
School in 1871, and remained for a year
as an Instructor in Chemistry, Mr.
Davenport spent two years in_ the
School of Mines in Berlin, visiting,
also, various iron works in different
countries abroad. In preparation for
the work before him he undertook the
severest manual labor, in order to learn
by actual contact the difficulties to be
overcome and the methods to be im-
proved. While connected with the
Midvale Iron Works in Philadelphia,
the forgings were made under his sup-
erintendence for the first six-inch high-
power built-up gun for the U. S. Navy.
In connection with the Bethlehem
Iron Company, in the organization and
management of which he took an active.
part, he has had for the last five years
the general charge of the forging, gun,
and armor-plate business. During his
association with this company, steel
have been produced in
America for all the heavier calibres of
modern high-power cannon. At the
same time, the manufacture of forged
steel armor-plate has been introduced
at the Bethlehem works. A _ distin-
guished army officer, in a letter which
I have seen, speaking of the qualities
and methods of production of steel for
guns and armor, says of Mr. Davenport
that “almost unaided, he has brought
the method of this manufacture to its
present high standard and satisfactory
condition.” So essentially it is owing
to his scientific knowledge and metal-
lurgical skill that the guns and _ shaft-
ings made of Bethlehem forgings, and
armor-plate made at the Bethlehem
plant, are now on the United States
battle ships Indiana, Oregon, Massa-
chusetts, Iowa, and Texas, and on the
Olympia, Brooklyn, and other cruisers.
No gun is fired from these ships, no
armor plate upon them resists the im-
pact of a cannon ball, which do not
owe their strength to the fertile in-
genuity and the untiring patience of
Mr. Davenport. Several papers from
his pen relate to the manufacture. of
steel forgings. Permit me to remind
you that the recipient of this degree is
a descendant of John Davenport, the
Founder of New Haven.
JACOB LYMAN GREENE.
I have the honor to present to you,
for the degree of Master of Arts, Col.
Jacob Lyman Greene of Hartford,
Conn. By means of his thorough ©
studies in finance and his great ability
in the exposition of the subject, Col.
Greene has rendered for a number of
years a most useful service to the
country. His writings, clear and uwun-
answerable, exposing the sophistry of
the scheme for debasing the currency,
have had a very extensive circulation,
especially in the South and West. Col.
Greene, with a like thoroughness, made
himself the master of the principles
involved in life insurance. For this
reason, and having an official position
as President of the Connecticut Mutual
Life Insurance Company, he devoted
himself persistently, against great odds,
to the refutation of theories tending to
degrade the business of life insurance
to purposes of speculation and gamb-
ling. In this arduous struggle he
achieved a triumphant success. It is
only possible barely to refer to able,
public-spirited addresses of Col. Greene
in behalf of the interests of patriotism
and of philanthropy. In his youth,
Col. Greene had just been admitted to
the Bar and commenced practice, in
the State of Michigan, when, at the
outbreaking of the Civil War, he en-
listed as a private soldier in the Federal
army. He rose by force of capacity
and gallantry to the rank of Major and
Chief of Staff to Major Gen. C. A.
Custer,—receiving finally, for a special
instance of signal bravery in action, and
for “meritorious services during the
war.”’ a commission as brevet Lieuten-
ant Colonel of United States Volunteers.
CHARLES FREDERICK JOHNSON.
I have the honor to present to you,
for the degree of Doctor of Letters,
Mr. Charles Frederick Johnson, Pro-
fessor of English Literature in Trinity
College. Professor Johnson was grad-
Please hurry to this office every scrap
of war news about Yale men which comes
your way. Put in every detail you can.
Please send this news as fast as it comes
to you. It is especially necessary to get it
promptly.