Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1871-08-08
Letter from the Shore-Commence
ment at Amherst.


fiftieth birthday. Six hundred and
seventy-three of its graduates return
ed to join 10 the praises of their Alma
Mater. They were present from all
parts of the Union and all quarters of
the globe. Missionaries from the
Orient and ministers from the Occi-
dent, with shrinking ofiudges and
lawyers and l2ctors of medicine
doctors of divinity, there were acres
of them. Full half of the graduates
OF Amherst College, | should Judge,
are preachers and teachers. Every
alumnus brought somebody with
him. Then there were strangers
present and friends Of the college, be-
sides the under graduates, who num-
Der somewhere about three hundred.
So there were crowds of people pres
ent. The exercises of the week be-
gan with the Baccalaureate Sermon
by President Stearns, on Sunday, Ju-
ly 8, and continued until Thursday
afternoon, when they wound up with
an alumni dinner The Intervening
days were filled with song and music
and eloquence. Song by College
glee clubs in chapel and on. the streets
and about the walks of the beautiful
college grounds, and by Miss AIDE.
laide Phillips, sweet songs, gener-
GUS songs, before crowded audience
on the eve Of her departure for Eu-
rope, Tuesday, July 11tb. Music by
bands from Springfield and Boston,
and by the world-renowned Mendes-
sohn Quintet Club, of Boston. Elo-
quence by Ex-Governor Bullock, of
Massachusetts, by Henry Ward
Beecher, by Hitchcock of New York,
by Park Of Andover. There was
great talk and witty talk and iovia!
talk-good nature and mirth with
out measure.
Amherst is lusty and fair young
college. Although the youngest of
the New England colleges, the stands
abreast the old ones, and when PEG
pie speak of three colleges, they al
ways say Amherst, Harvard and
Yale. For situation Amherst has no
rival in the land. On q beautiful hill,
over looking the great basin of the
Connecticut River, walled on every
side by mountains, thick set with
white villages Nesting around sharp
spires, those solemn fingers bidding
us take note Of Heaven, with rich
prospect of gardens and cultivated
fields, and over all the .softest blue
sky, where cloud-paintings at sunrise
and sunset are matchless save in It.
ally, and unsurpassed there. "God
has planted it," as Henry Ward
Beecher said in his alumni speech,
"where man who has eyes to see and
ears to hear, and mind to instruct,
can profit. There is more to be
learned outside Of its college doors
than outside of the doors Of any 9TH
er college in the land" Beecher was
in boyish spirits and made one of
the most joyous speeches. 1t is full
Of sparkle from beginning to end
You will find it ia the papers, secular
and religious. viii not spoil it by
quotations. An equally witty speech
was that of Professor Park, the great
theologian Of New England Ward
Boecher had argued that Amherst
College should begin her second fifty
years by opening her doors to wo-
men. Professor Park made no direct
reply, but it is plain, | think, from
those closing sentences of his that he
took the other side
81 will quote one remark made by
President Humphrey when ! was
connected with this college There
was one young man who did not at
tend to his businoss-I presume there
was only one-and speculations were
rife in the Faculty limiting as to the
cause. One thought that his remiss-
ness was in consequence of headache,
another thought that it was in con-
sequence of fever, another thought
that it was owing to pecuniary en-
barrassmcnt, and after each one had
expressed his opinion the worthy and
wise president uttered very slowly
and deliberately one remark which
has never escaped my memory: Il
| have reason to believe that the re-
missness of that man is owing to
shock which be has received from
gdl-vanic battery [Great laugh
ter
The early history of Amherst Col
lege was one of struggles. 1t was
founded to maintain the orthodox
faith in the days whom Howard made
new departure and went over to
Rationalism. Poor, pious men plant
ed it in prayers and tears. 1t is real
ly the Pilgrim College of New Eng
land, tho incidents Of its history and
the faith of its founders being strik-
ingly like that of the Colonies. 1t
was founded in 1921. Professor Eb-
enezer Smell, who SO worthly occu.
pies the chair of Natural Philosophy
in the college, was the first man that
entered it. He was present on alum
nj day bearing his seventy years as
lightly as man Of forty. lie Meth
er uses spectacles nor a cane. 1t has
had four presidents-Drs. Moore,
Humphrey, Hitchcock and Stearns
The whole number of graduates Of
the college is about nineteen humid
red, of whom some fifteen hundred
are living.
Samuel Williston of Easthampton,
one OF the oldest and best friends Of
the college, who has already given
several hundred thousands of dollars
TO the institution, made present on
her fiftieth birth day of fifty thous-
and dollars, athousand for each year.
Mr. Beecher gave thousand dollars
to found the Humphrey scholarship,
Gov. Bullock gave fifteen hundred
dollars. Mr.. Hitchcock of New York
proposed the founding of class schol-
arships of one thousand dollars each,
thus making fifty thousand dollars
from the alumni. Most of the class
es subscribed a thousand dollars, and
thus over forty thousand dollars have
been pledged.
q Ill Id