The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1873-10-07
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BarnwsilS q, model .of I Christian excel
lence and unblsmished maniness 6f
character. DR.. Faber has bright re,
cord In charleston, and in the Univer.
sity Itself, as an accomplished linguist
and capable instructor. DR.. Reynolds,
too. who was removed-or retired, we
believe the polite phrase is-last sum.
mer. 20 il s5s FsiIe q: his usefulness as
scholar and teacher. The same may
be said of DR.. Woodrow. who received
his congo more than year ago. Mr..
Rivers. too, whose resignation was &C.
oepted, and who has gone to rendor
good service where he will be better up.
preciated, is severe loss. We cannot
but regard these changes as ominous.
Rome was not built in q day, aud it
takes many long years of patient study,
Of close investigatian, of good opportu-
mites, OF access to books and the enjoy
ment of comparative leisure, to make a
competent professor. These gentlemen
were all ripe in knowledge. all skillful
in their branches, all trained and prac-
ticed in the art OF instruction, all known
and respected in the State. What more
could have been expeoted at their hands?
Had they been retained, we should
have asked to be added to the corps
couple OF strong professors in the
scientific branches and the department
to be created of agricultural chemistry,
and filled by frst-rate man. We
should have further suggested, that
committee of gentlemen be appointed
to memorialize the people of the State,
as was done at the reorganization Of
the College in 1885, and appeal to them,
by speech and address, to sustain it.
We believe that good could have been
effected in this way, and the institution
have received an impulse in the right
direction. If the voice and pen of
such men as, for example, Hon. W. D.
Porter, of Charleston, Gen. J. B. Ker-
shaw, of Camden. Gen. Stevens, of st.
Johns, Col. Coward, Of Yorkville, Judge
Greene, OF Sumter, Mr.. Youmans, of
Columbia, and scores of others whom
We might name-men scholarly in their
tastes, pure in character, non-partisan
In teeling-if. We say, the pen and voice
of such meu could have been enlisted in
this cause. manifest advantage would
have ensued. We deeply regret, but it
is useless now to suggest anything.
We deeply regret the blight which has
fallen upon the University, and against
hope almost, incline to say something
which will point the way to its re. estab-
lishment in usefulness and eminence.
It's solitude and desertion seem to typify
general paralysis. Its bell sounds as
il it was tolling for q funeral. The pro-
fessors and handful of students move
about like so many ghosts. ALI is silent
and dead in those groves where Plato
might have taught with delight, or
where Addison. as in another "Wide
Walk" hardly inferior in the stately
growth which borders it to that Of
Oxford, might hnve meditated his
grand criticism of the Paradise Lost.
1t is fearful responsibility to have
brought suoh an institution to such q
pass. It is treason to the dead, it is
injury to the living. it is intolcrable
wrong to the coming generations. The
decay and dissolution of seats of learu-
ing is step backwards towards medi-
eval darkaess. When these lights of
knowledge. these centres Of civilization
and refinement, are extinguished, the
spirit aud intelligence of the people 60
down, and society tends towards barba-
rism and chaos. 1t is, if we may use
language once before employed, MS if
the great wheel which drives all the
rest of the machinery was arrested in
it's course, or as If the sun, upon which
tho world depends for light and heat,
was cclipsed in the heavens.
The public mind at the North west
may not now be in a mood to hear these
great truths; but they will keep, even