owe to the memories of those who spread for you these feasts of
the higher learning and opened the paths before you to life's high
est destinies ? Is it nothing to you, who temporarily occupy these
institutions which belong to the ages, that they shall be upheld in
their dignity by your worthy characters and manly behavior ? Is
it nothing to you that, as you add your names to the lengthen
ing rolls of their alumni, you may add something also to their
reputation and power to bless others? Is it nothing to you that
the fame of this college shall be made brighter through the com
ing years by your sound scholarship and high aims and .princi
ples, by your reverent love of God and humanity, your noble de
votion to truth and to the good of mankind ?
And what can I say to that miserable minority, scattered
through our American colleges, whose narrow and disordered
minds count mischief as manliness, and who with silly if not satanic
meanness and folly Would disturb if not destroy these noble
institutions of learning built 'mid the prayers, the tears, and
sacrifices of Christly men and women ? If we could reach the
ears and consciences of these poor, diseased souls we would
say: " What mean ye, that with miserable taste and worse spirit
you turn these monuments of the noble past, these lofty halls of
highest learning—the hope of our country and of humanity—
into foul arenas of childish folly and dishonor with your ghoulish
glee these shrines sacred to the memories of the great minds they
have educated and to the hopes of the generations to come ? I
know that the hazing and rowdyism which disgrace and seriously
damage our American colleges and universities are the work of a
few, a mere fraction of the great body of students, but they owe
their immunity to the thoughtlessness and silent consent of the
better men who merely laugh at the crimes they ought to suppress.
When the better men, the large majority, shall organize for the
defence of their colleges as the others organize for mischief the
hazing will end.
Permit me to say to you, young men, you are the true trustees
of this institution. You hold it in your keeping night and day.
It is for you to give it character and success; it is for you to
write its name higher in honor and power, to advertise it more
broadly, and arm it with a character and influence which shall
enable it to teach, not merely science, but manhood, humanity and
all that higher and grander learning which Christianity reveals to
dignify man's life and enrich his immortality. As you would
The Free Lance.
[MARCH,