Yale alumni magazine. ([New Haven]) 1937-1976, February 15, 1899, Page 1, Image 1

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    You. Vill. fo. 2.
THE BOSTON DINNER.
Harvard and Dartmouth Repre-
sented—Bi-Centennial Plans.
The Boston Alumni Association held
its annual dinner Thursday evening,
February 9, at the Brunswick. About -
one hundred and twenty-five braved the
intense cold of that evening, and were
all the better able to appreciate the
warmth of good fellowship that pre-
vailed.
At the business meeting which pre-
ceded the dinner, the following officers
wete elected: ;
President, Judge Henry Baldwin, ’54;
Secretary, Philip B. Stewart, °86;
Treasurer, Asa French, 82; Executive
Committee, W. I. Bigelow, ’77; Elmer
P. Howe, ’76; W. E. Decrow, ’80; S.
M. Whipple, 81; H. S. Frazer, *83:8.;
CE Hether 6: M. U. Watker, *77;
1. EC Hopkins}’o1; J. Ca: Smithy “8s;
oe be oe A. 1 Aiken ois ix
L. Huntress, 770; Samuel Hubbard, ’82;
F, I. Knight, ’60.
A volunteer glee club had been or-
ganized by D. S. Knowlton, ’83, and
during the dinner about fifteen of the
more familiar songs were sung and sung
again, with this group of singers as
leaders. .
President Fred. B. Percy, ’77, began
the speeches by telling one or two
stories, and then alluded to the coming
election of a new president of the Uni-
versity. He then introduced Professor
H. A. Beers, who came in place of
President Dwight to represent the Uni-
versity. “I hope you will not get too
practical,’ was the keynote of his re-
marks. Professor Beers first told a
good joke on Professor Hadley, re-
vealing a gift of mimicry that was not
suspected by all his students in Eng- .
lish Literature. In speaking of the elec-
tion of a new president of the Univer-
sity, he paid a very high tribute to the
clergymen who control Yale’s_ des-
tinies; he admired them all and be-
lieved in their worth—not only those
who live near the College, but “Mr.
Higginbottom of Podunk,’ and the
other back country clergymen. “I
don’t believe in all the things that the
clergymen believe in, but I do believe in
Connecticut clergymen. Some things
work well in practice that may be
theoretically absured. It is right that
educational institutions should be in the
control of men of high character, and,
of course, the clergy are men of high
character. We do not want men inter-
ested in money-making, but in a noble,
high and disinterested life.”
He hoped that President Dwight’s
successor would not be a business man
alone, although he must be a good ad-
ministrator. “The college is an educa-
tional institution,” he said, “and not a
railroad or a business house. A Wana-
maker or an Andrew Carnegie would
not make a good president.”
COMPLICATED CHEERING:
Governor Wolcott, who represented
both the State and Harvard, was greeted
with a complicated set of cheers. First
Judge Baldwin called for the old-fash-
ioned three cheers; then Allen of ’73
led the familiar three times three, and
lastly one of the new generation started
that complicated “long cheer” so sel-
dom heard in Boston.
Gov. Wolcott said: “I can assure
you, in all sincerity, that there are few
associations whose cordial welcome I
could value more highly than yours.
This is not the first time I have had
the honor of dining with the Yale As.
sociation of Boston. I very well re-
member a former occasion, the dinner
being given in a distant part of the city.
I recollect meeting on that occasion the
venerable and scholarly President of
Yale, who has recently retired with the
respect and with the regret of all the
educated poeple of America.
“A few week ago it was my privilege
- to be present at the first dinner of a
projected series—given in honor of a
victorious Harvard football team. It
will be your fault it it does not prove
to be the first of an unbroken series.”
THE FEELING BETWEEN COLLEGES.
The Governor then read the editorial
in which the ALUMNI WEEKLY con-
gratulated Harvard on its victory and
said that he had the pleasure, at the —
dinner he had just referred to, of read-
ing this editorial as displaying the true
Yale spirit. Continuing, he said:
“T for one, have always considered
the bitterness, the antagonism, the sus-
picion and recrimination that have
sometimes preceded and followed ath-
letic sports between the colleges of this
country, as absolutely unworthy of
American scholars and American gen-
tlemen. I have earnestly hoped and
trusted that it might cease, and I be-
lieve that the indications at the present
time are that it has ceased; and I have
often said to groups of Harvard men—
and J venture to-night to say to you—
that I believe that American gentlemen
and scholars should see to it that that
spirit is stamped out and kept out.
“In generous and earnest and eager
emulation, I have always felt that,
really, these American universities and
colleges are not engaged in a contest.
They are going on together in one of
the greatest works that can fall to the
lot of man. That is, in this great re-
public of ours they are turning out,
year after year, educated young men—
and the demand, in this republic, for
educated young men must always in-
crease and can never diminish. We
must not forget that it is the educated
intellect that moulds the fate of nations
and that writes history.
THE NEED OF TRAINED MEN.
“T am well aware that some of the
men whose names are written the larg-
est and with the most splendid lustre
upon our roll of great men were those
who never obtained an education at the
feet of an alma mater; but what I in-
sist upon is that they obtained an edu-
cation elsewhere; that it has never
been, and it can never be, ignorance that
shall wield the fate-of this republic.
“The complexity of modern society,
the vast events that hang upon the ac-
tions of individualism, nay, the rapid fir-
ing gtn and the modern ironclad, all
indicate the need rather of a greater
training and intelligence in those upon
whom responsibility rests than the pos-
sibility of a nation’s surviving with a
less degree of training.”
Speaking of Admiral Sampson, whom
he described as a through type of the
scholar, he said that it was to such men
that, would hereafter be given the com-
mand of naval squadrons.
“The colleges and the universities of -
the land must work together to pro-
duce the trained, educated intellect.
And that trained and educated intellect
must not be merely the visionary or
pedantic intellect of the closet student.
The colleges and universities must vie
with each other to turn out the strong
. man with the trained and educated in-
tellect, and with the virility to go into
the world and master the world. That
is what the nation demanded of Yale
Harvard, Dartmouth, Williams, Cor-
nell, Columbia, and the University of
Pennsylvania.
NEW HAVEN, CONN., WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1899.
Price Trn Cents.
“NOT MERELY THE SCHOLAR.”
“T know,’ continued the Governor,
“of no functions thrust upon the individ-
ual that are greater or finer than that.
It is the educated man upon whom the
futute of this nation rests, and, as a
Harvard man, I say to Yale men that it
seems to me important that that should
always, in our schemes of education, be
borne in mind; that it is not merely the
scholar, the retired student, not merely
the man of fine and educated taste, but
the man of trained intellect, of vigorous
temperament and of loyal patriotism
that these colleges must turn out. For
this great work I bring to you the
greeting of Harvard College, that you
and Harvard may vie with each other
to see which shall make the best con-
tribution to the greatest and strongest
intellects of America.
PROF. WOOLSEY ON THE BICENTENNIAL.
By request of the Asosciation com-
mittee, Professor Woolsey explained
in his speech the character and scope
of the Bicentennial celebration, sub-
stantially as follows:
“This is to be a family celebration, a
birthday anniversary in the life of our
cherishing mother, when we come back
to kneel at her side, and sit once again
at her table, and testify our affection,
in spite of change and absence, and
show ourselves her loyal sons. We
would study her altered appearance too
with loving interest, and more than all,
would show to the world the full meas-
ure of her stature, her beauty, her dig-
nity, her grace.
“Now how can this best be done?
We believe that it can best be done by
emphasizing the intellectual side of
Yale’s life and history and development.
This idea is the basis of all our plans. .
“About the Committee machinery of
the celebration, not much need be said.
There is a Finance Committee, as you
may already know to your cost. The
Celebration Committee proper is di-
vided into many sub-committees, not
all of which have been filled.
“The date set is from Sunday to Wed-
nesday, Oct. 20-23, inclusive, 1901. On
Sunday there will be a serinon, an ad-
dress on “Yale in its relation to Christ-
ian Theology and Missions,’ and an
organ recital. On the two following
days, besides other exercises, there will
be formal addresses on Yale in its rela-
tion to Law and Statesmanship, Yale in
its relation to Science and Letters, and
Yale in its relation to Education, or
Yale as the mother of colleges.
“Wednesday, the great day of the
feast, will be begun with a procession
of graduates and students. The exer-
cises to follow will be the Commemora-
tion Address and Poem, the conferring
of honorary degrees, and a musical pro-
gram accompanying, partly of original
work. In fact the music of the cele-
bration, both choral and instrumental,
it is expected, will be a decided feature.
SPECIAL FEATURES OF THE CELEBRATION.
These addresses are in the hands of
one Committee; the music in the
hands of another; the program is pro-
visional and subject to change. You
notice that procession and addresses,
degrees and receptions and dinner and
luncheon, are all very much what you
will have expected; are not particularly
out of the ordinary. There are other
features however, which we hope to in-
troduce in connection with the cele-
bration, features historical and artistic,
literary and spectacular, which are less
a matter of course. These features will
be determined by certain of the posses-
sions of the University or by certain
facts in its life or history, or by the
enthusiasm of its faculties and its un-
dergraduates. Let me enlarge a little
upon them. 2
“The Committee on Art is charged
with a general supervision of the artistic
features of the entire celebration. It is
hoped that a medal may be struck in
honor of the occasion, and perhaps a
statue erected, as of Nathan Hale, the
‘typical patriot and typical Yale man of
-the last century. Over these, this Com-
mittee will have:charge. It plans more-
over two exhibitions, one to illustrate
the history of American painting.
and more widely of modern painting
Prof. Weir, with his wide acquaintance,
with men and things artistic, with
picture owners and artists, should be
in a position to gather a memorable col-
lection towards this end. .The other ex-
hibition is to be an enlargement of our
present Trumbull gallery. You may
not realize the extent and value of this.
Col. Trumbull gave both his artistic and
mortal remains to the College. His
works are hung in the Art School and
his body is buried beneath it. We
have two portraits of Washington, the
Washington before he lost his teeth. We
have Gov. Trumbull and Pres. Dwight
and Hamilton and the artist himself,
and a number of battle pieces and later
scenes in the history of the United
States, and we have also, no less than
sixty oil miniatures of the leading ac-
tors and personages, men and women,
of the Revolutionary period, a most
valuable possession. To these are to be
added by loan as many of Trumbull’s
paintings elsewhere owned as possible,
and a catalogue of all his known works
will be issued, as has been done in the
cases of Copley and Stuart.
PUBLISHING THE STILES DIARY. .
“Another Committee is that of Publi-
cation. Besides the preparation of
invitations, programmes and so on, this
Committee will publish in three or four
considerable volumes the Diary of
President Stiles. The Stiles MSS., in
fifty volumes, are the most valuable
Americana in the possession of the Col-
lege. He left them to his successors
in office. He was.a credulous, some-
what censorious man, with very decided
ideas about his contemporaries. Thus
one entry in the Diary runs: “This day
Ethan Allen died and went to hell.’ He
described Dwight in .terms not al-
together complimentary, for Dwight
had been a candidate for the presidency
and there was a certain jealousy on
Stiles’ part. But’ before his death.
Pres. Stiles, seeing that Dwight would
certainly be his: successor, thought it
wise to modify or erase his adjectives.
The Diary is contained in fifteen MSS.
volumes, larger than octavo and of
300-500 pages. It will be published
with the annotations of Professor Dex-
ter, of all men best equipped for this
work, and explanations and references
from another series in the Stiles MSS.,
‘Itineraries and Memories’ will be
worked in. The date of the Diary is
1769-1795, so that it covers the pre-
Revolutionary period, the Revolution
itself and the whole of Stiles’ Presidency
of Yale College. Though the plums
of the Diary may have been extracted
be earlier historians, we believe that the
publication of its text in 1901 will be
an event to the student of the social
life and history of those times, and a
source of much interest and delight to
the general public.
SCHOLARS WORKS TO BE BROUGHT OUT.
“Under this head of Publication,
though in charge of a separate Com-
mittee, let me refer to the plan of a
series of scholarly works, to be brought
out in=1901, as the contribution of the
various Faculties to the dignity of our