Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-03-22
THE OUTRAGE AT YALE.

THE OUTRAGE AT YALE.
The outrage perpetrated this week by
drunken Yale College students, who pulled
down and injured the bronze statue of the
Distinguished scientist, Benjamin SilIiman,
oight to touch to the quick of indignation
every self-respecting man in the United
Stites. These respectable hoodlums should
l., tied to the tail of cart and dashed
Trough the streets as a warning to all
youths who make a practice of '1arking
It,. Professor Silliman's friends are num-
bsred in the world b. the million, and to
all these the insult to his memory will be
most keenly felt. 1t is all the more hui
initiating that it was committed in the CITY
for which he did so much, and by students
OF the college in whose interests he gave
the greater part of his life's labors. Pro-
fe.sor Silliman was graduated from Yale
III 1896, and became tutor in the school
IN 1899. In 1900 he was admitted to the
bar, but abandoned the profession to de-
vote his life to the study of natural sci
ence, taking the chair in Yale of Chem
Istry and Natural History. From that
time no man in America was SO devoted
student of the studies to which he dedi-
Gated himself. He was permitted to 60
abroad to make deeper research, and in
Europe became a disciple of the most dis
tinguished scientists of the world. In
1906 he resumed his chair in the COLLEGE,
and was then the best scientifically
equipped man of the nation. In 1853 he
was made Professor Emeritus. In the
meantime he entered upon geological study
and research, and became eminent in
that branch of science also. In 1908
ne induced Yale to purchase the
Perkins Cabinet, and not many wears
later he secured the loan of the magnif-
Ct Gibbs collection for his college, and
tidt splendid property in 1925 became the
property of the college through his exer-
tions. In 1907 he examined the famous
Weston meteor of that year, and made the
first analysis and wrote the first scientific
account of meteor in America. In 1911
he entered upon his experiments on the
compound oxy-hydric blow-pipe, and was
the first to demonstrate the possibility of
treating refractory ores. He was the first
IN this country to obtain, according to the
Davy theory of the metallic bases of the
alkalies, the metals sodium and potassium.
lie discovered the fusion of the carbon in
the yoltaic arc; he explored the Wyoming
valley for coal formations, examining over
100 mines, and he made many other min
cal examinations in various parts of the
country. In 1888 he opened the Lowell
Institute in Boston with a course of lee
lures so brilliant that their efulgence has
not a particle dimmed to this day.
Through his influence the celebrated his
tcrical paintings of the artist Trumbull
were procured for Yale, as well as the
building in which those treasures are pre-
served. Under the patronage of the
Secretary of the Treasury, he was engaged
by the Government in the first official and !
scientific inquiry in America into the cul- |
tlv4tlon and the manufacture of sugar. |
Bowdoin gave him degree Of NJ. D., and |
Middiebury that of LII. D. He was the
first President of the American Society of |
Geologists, and a charter corporator of the
National Academy of Sciences. He was a |
corresponding member of many scientific
societies of Europe; be founded the |
Amer5cdn journal Of Science, now the Oldest
scientific paper in the United States. He |
was the author of many valuable works, |
and few men of our country contributed |
more to our scientific literature. He won |
we'll the title bestowed upon him by Ed |
ward Everett-"Th The Nestor of American |
Science" In the year 1884, in front Of |
Farnum College at Yale, there was raised !
TO his memory a splendid memorial statue |
in bronze, and it was this fine work of art |
that the whisky laden collegians of Yale |
the other night cast ropes about and |
pulled to the ground and seriously in
iured. The outrage is everywhere keenly |
felt, but in the city of New Haven, the |
home of the great scientist and philan-
thropist, the modification of the people
must be inexpressible. Since it is demon
strated that the flower of our youth when
it is sent TO University develops large
percentage of hoodlumism under the in-
fuence of strong drink, it may become
necessary 10 make absolute total Austen
ton .rom liquors rule for the govern
ment Of students. 1t is at least evident
that such a regulation is needed at Yale, for
this is the third or fourth instance, within
comparatively short time, in which such
disgrace as that described has been brought
upon the ancient seat of learning by the
intemPerance of students of that insiitu-
tiap