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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1899)
204 YALH ALUMNI WHE KLY ADVANCED ONLY ON MERIT. And in that regiment I can assure you that no outside recommendation went. Each man won his place on his merits. ‘Jack’? Greenway went in as a trooper and was promoted to a non- commissioned officer, second lieutenant, and then first lieutenant, because he had won each promotion by showing what he could do in the camp, on the march and in battle. As long as he showed himself worthy, nobody could take these .titles from him, and if he had not shown himself worthy he might have had the pull of the President and every senator behind him and he would never have gone up. (Applause.) I have tried a good many experi- ments with “Jack.” I did not know how long he could go without sleep, but I know that he can stand three days and three nights without it. As was right and proper, he immediately struck up an especial acquaintance and friend- ship with a Harvard man, ‘Dave” Goodrich. I can conscientiously say I did everything in my power to wear both of those men out, and if they were not worn out, it was not my fault. After the San Juan fight, fighting all day, they were kept up all night dig- ging trenches and doing guard duty. After fighting all the next day they were kept up the next night on the same work. At 12 o’clock the third day there was a truce and then I was perfectly willing that they should go to sleep. There was no groaning of grumbling from them, and I am not exaggerating to you when I say that during all that terrible toil and excite- ment the only sleep they had was twenty minutes or so snatched when there did not seem to be a demand for more than usual activity. Of course, I would say to them that I hoped that they would do their work faithfully and stick to it like men, and then I would go to the rear and sleep. But they did not get any sleep. Later in the campaign they both got the fever and I was much touched by the great desire they showed, each to ‘ommiserate the other. It was not xactly a desire to show sympathy, but ither a desire to explain to each other ie regret that each one felt that he was not quite so strong as he should be. “Jack” went down first and “Dave” came over to his tent to explain how sorry he was that poor ‘‘Jack’s” con- stitution had not been able to stand the wear and tear. Next day “Dave” went down and ‘‘Jack,” long before he should have done so, staggered to his feet, braced himself up and went over to “Dave’s” tent to say how sorry he was that “Dave” had such an ephemeral frame that the fatigue of two days had eee vanquished him. (Laugh- Ler, Now, gentlemen, I speak necessarily largely of those men whom saw. But there are many others of whom I have heard and many others still must have done equally well of those whom I have not heard. Only the other day a man from Porto Rico was talking to me and I asked him about the volunteer officers. He mentioned three as having shown themselves singularly efficient. These three men he singled out as equal to the regulars. One was a Yale man, young Polk, the son of Dr. Polk. An- other was Metcalf Bass, an end man on the Yale football team for two or three years. I am glad to say that the third was a Harvard man, “Gussie” Gardiner. THEO. MILLER’S GREAT KINDNESS. All honor to the men of Yale, who went out to win glory and to come home to feel all their lives that they had added to the honor, not only of their own names but to that of their university no less than to all the nation. And even higher meed of honor to those who went out and did not come back. And even higher meed of honor to those who volunteered life and love and youth for the great prize of death in battle. On the day of San Juan I met young Theodore Miller. I had reason to notice him especially because of an act of great kindness. Weakened himself by the exhausting work, he had gone back to the post and tried to get - good something for a sick soldier, I remem- ber nodding and saying something as we formed and marched to the San Juan River. I never saw him again. At the foot of Kettle hill he was mortally wounded and died and I had no chance to see him. But I had a chance the following morning, when I was lying under a little tree on the grass of the hillside, to see a shrapnel shell burst and mortally wound Stanley Hollis- ter, one of the Harvard crew of the year before. Ives of Yale, and Hazard of Harvard, gave their lives, too, when lives have their most to offer, when the future looks the brightest, purely be- cause of the spirit within them, partly because of the training that spirit had received in the halls from which they came. A SILENT TOAST TO THE DEAD. I am now, Mr. Chairman, if you will allow me, I am now going to propose one toast to be drunk standing and in silence. I know I shall have your sympathy when I offer this toast, not limited simply to Yale, not limited to any wumiversities, when I ask you to drink the toast of the men of Yale and Harvard, the men of all the universities and the men who had no _ university training whatever, the men, all Amert- cans, who in battle or in camp, during the last war, met their death when they had gone out at their country’s call to do their country’s bidding. A silence that was the more marked because of the tremendous cheering that had preceded it, followed. The diners rose to their feet and, lifting their glasses in salute to the Governor, waited for him to drink. The toast concluded, the guests resumed their seats and the Governor finished his speech, saying: And now I have little to add to what I have said. The men of Yale, the men of the universities, all, who, when the country called, went to give their lives, did more than reflect honor upon the universities from which they came. They did that which could not have been done so well in any other way. They showed that’ when the time of danger comes, all Americans, whatever their social standing, whatever the train- ing they have received, no matter from what section of the country they have come, stand together as men, as Ameri- cans, and are content to face the same fate and do the same duties because fundamentally they all alike have the common purpose to serve the glorious flag of their common country. PRINCETON’S RESPONSE. Mr. James W. Alexander, who fol- lowed Gov. Roosevelt, spoke for Prince- ton. He said in part: : “Vou have a great problem before you in your attempt to get the right man for his successor. Like Dewey and Merritt and Sampson and Hobson and Roosevelt, your own Gen. Wood- ford was a man in the right place; and this ‘right man in the right place’ is the man whom you have to elect as your next president. What we can’t _ understand, however, is why you should confine your choice to your own gradu- ates. The first three presidents of Princeton were Yale men. Why shouldn’t you give us a chance? There are plenty of us willing. Another thing, why don’t you give your president a salary? The leading college presidents of the United States are more poorly paid than the leading mechanics. It seems to me that one of the best things you could do for your Bi-cen- tennial would be to raise a presidential fund that would enable you to pay your president a large enough salary to give him the excuse for throwing up any good thing he might have.” Mr. Alexander’s speech was followed by the singing of the Star-Spangled Banner, after which Gen. Woodford was introduced. He spoke to the toast, “The College Diplomat,” the sentiment. on the program quoted from Shakes- peare being: “He was wont to speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man and a soldier.”” He spoke in part as follows: General Woodford’s Response. Mr. Chairman and half-brothers of Yale: I greet you thus because it was my good fortune to spend most of my Sophomore and Junior years at \Yale, and only when the Yale mother was unkind did Columbia take me up and graduate me. In all frankness, memory goes back to the old days at Yale with a tenderness and a complete college feeling such as I never succeeded in getting at Columbia. And the reason was simple;—at Yale we had the dormi- tory system and we lived with one another, and we sat upon the College Fence and we sang the College songs, and the boy-life and the student-life of Yale went into our heart; and I am guilty of no disloyalty to Columbia when I frankly say that the old boy-life and the student-life wakened a pulse in my heart that no other college days have done. * * * For your kind welcome, I thank you very heartily. For the undeserved and generous words that my friend Mr. Alexander spoke, I thank him. It was a privilege and a pleasure when at Mad- rid, where our great American life in- surance companies had such large in- vestments and covered such large in- terests, to be permitted in some small way to take the preliminary steps which have since been honored by the good faith and the loyalty of the Spanish government and which preserved to the policy holders in Spain and to these great corporations on this side of the sea every dollar of their property with- out loss and with equal honor to the company and to the Spanish govern- ment. * * * AMERICAN DIPLOMACY. It has been the privilege of the United - States within the last thirty years to break down the old traditions of finesse and deceit and of courteous misrepre- sentation, and to put in their place the effective American idea of diplomacy, which is courtesy combined with frank- ness, and the entire and open statement between nations of what we want on the one side and of what we think they should give upon the other. That was all that there was in the diplomacy be- tween the United States and Spain from the hour that William McKinley be- came President down to the hour that war was declared. The simple truth was always bidden by the President to be spoken at Madrid, and your minis- ter endeavored to the best of his poor ability to carry out that instruction of his President. Out of that war have come conditions that none of us antici- pated; but if there shall be burned into the American conscience and forever engrafted upon the American policy these two ideas, the war will be worth all that it cost us and civilization will be the better that it has been fought:— If this Nation shall keep to the pledge on which it went into the struggle, that when we use our tremendous power outside our borders, that power shall be used for humanity and for justice, and if this Nation, in the vanguard of the races of the world, shall forever hereafter be frank, open and _ direct, using its power, not for aggrandizement, but for humanity and for justice, the war with Spain will bring large results of good to the entire world. THE LIEUTENANT-GOVERNOR’S RESPONSE. Lieutenant-Governor Timothy Wood- ruff, who followed Gen. Woodford, spoke of his early days when he at- tended the Hopkins Grammar School with his friend “Nod’ Osborn and dwelt upon the value of the college training to a commercial career. “. Next: to. character,” said “he, “a man’s best asset is education, and the better and broader and more practical it is, the more surely will he escape the perils which in these days of sophistry and dangerous theories beset him in all walks’ of life, especially in those of politics. The value of a trained intel- lect, whether its engines of energy are to be directed to legal and philosophical tasks, or to the exacting duties of pub- lic life, is beyond the power of com- putation.” , ambiguous. said Mr. Greenway, “it must have some reference to our chief article of diet, and so I had better leave it alone.” Shirts IN COLORS. The sooner one chooses his colored shirts for the season, the better pleased he will be. We have just received seven hundred and fifty different designs in Madras, Cheviot, Oxford and the com- bination Silk-and-Linen. We will have the pure silk ones in a few days. Many graduates send to us from all over the country. We can send you samples and make you shirts wherever you are. CHASE *& CO, New Haven House Block. FRANK A. CORBIN, TATLOR TO THE ne 5 wins) oat, Vi bee Os gm gs 1S AND TO THE GRADUATES in. all parts of the country Address: 1000 Chapel Street, New Haven. Conn. GREENWAYS RESPONSE. The last speaker was Lieut. John C. Greenway, whose subject was, ‘“The Touchdown at San Juan,’ the’ quota- tion from Christina Rossetti: “Does the road wind upward all the way? Yes, to the very end,” being very appropriate. He referred to the toast as somewhat “If it means the pig-skin,” He then described how he was in sympathy with the war and enlisted with the Rough Riders because he was anxious to see real service. He de- scribed his experience and paid a high tribute to Col. Roosevelt and the Har- vard men. “There were twelve of them,” he said, “and as fine a looking group as you could wish to find. They were six feet tall, and every one of them a man—there were no better at the front.” He then passed on to describe the trip to Tampa, the embarkation, the voyage and the landing at Santiago. He referred to a scene at El Paso to il- lustrate the personal heroism of Col. Roosevelt. COL. ROOSEVELT’S BRAVERY. “Near Kettle Hill,” said Lieut. Green- way, “Col. Roosevelt led his men to break through the barb wire entangle- ment, in the face of the constant fire of the Spaniards. He was in advance of his men, a mark for every ball. He led the way, cutting down the entangle- ment, the Spaniards meanwhile holding their ground very well. It was only when we broke through and _ Col. Roosevelt arrived at the hacienda that the enemy fell back to San Juan. How [Continued on 205th page.] KNOX Spring Hats are Out.
