Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-04-13
NEW DOCTORS.
Graduating Exercises OF the
Medical College.
THE vALEDICTORY BY e. L. PUETT
DR., Walter Lindley Gives the Young
Physicians Much Good
Advice.

place last evening at the Fort-street M
E. Church, which at 5 O'Clock was well
filled with the friends of the two young
men who were on this occasion added tc
the list of physicians entitled to practice
in this State. The exercises opened with
an invocation by Rev. DIR. Hutchins, af'
ter which Rev. M. NJ. Bovard, DID,,
President of the University, delivered an
address, in which he spoke of the i'm
portance of the work upon which the
graduates were about to enter. He gave
them great deal Of excellent advice and
impressed upon them the necessity oil
keeping abreast with the age and con-
tinuing their studies until their life's
wo K has been completed. Mr.. E. L.
Puett, to whom the duty of delivering
the valedictory had been assigned, was
then introduced and said:
The months of March and April are
memorable in the calendar of the medi-
cal student, from the fact that during
these months he must pass through the
trials of those examinations which he
must pass to the satisfaction of his pro-
fessors before entering the profession
which he has selected in which to per-
form his life work. What that life shall
be, what it will accomplish for the good
of humanity, will depend much upon
the character of the man, upon bis
power of analysis and his ability to util-
ize facts, and the tact and wisdom with
which he conducts himself among his
patients. To properly fit himself
for this life work, the student
of medicine should have at least
the thorough groundwork of an
education, ,as we'll as for any other vocation
in life. The young man or woman, hav-
ing passed the limits of childhood and
being about to enter the larger world of
manhood or womanhood, with its mani
fold struggles and aspirations, is con-
fronted with the question: "What must
l do to fit myself most completely. not
for being citizen merely, but for being
all that doth become man, living in the
full light of the Christian civilization of
America" Our country asks US to be
educated for her sake, aad the noblest
aspirations of our being still more i'm
peratively ask it, for our own sakes.
After treating Of the necessity of the
student choosing the profession for
which he was specially fitted, and re-
viewing the advancement made in the
medical profession, the speaker said: In
the medical department of the Univers-
ity of Southern California, we recognize
school as yet in its infancy. but one to
which we can point to with pride, not only
on account of the eminent men con-
nected with the institution aud the firm
basis on which it is founded, but the
high standing it occupies among the
Of tho hoo
taken this standing, and we have ample
assurance that it will continue to stand
in line with the foremost colleges of the
United States. To maintain this stand
ard it is necessary to have men who have
done good work in their lives and who
are willing to t ach others how to work
for themselves, how to Judge for them
selves and how to think for themselves.
Such men, we are proud to say, compose
the faculty of this college. That is the
true academic stage in every mans life
when he learns to work, not to please
others, but to please himself, when he
works from sheer love of work and for
the highest of all purposes, the conquest
of truth.
To the Members of the Faculty:
Although our school life among you is
at an end and you no longer act in the
capacity of teacher, yet we realize, as
you have often told us that when a
student graduates, his studies have but
fairly begun. The three years which we
have spent under your instruction have
been years spent most pleasantly by us,
and in the years to come, We
will ever be grateful to you, as
we are tonight, for your untiring
efforts in our behalf, and for the
many great truths and ideas which you
have constantly been setting before us.
The old adage is: cas- the twig is bent
so doth the tree incline" In applying it
to our medical career, we can only hope
and trust that we may in the future carry
out and follow closely the valuable in
structions which we have received from
you, and which we have ample reason to
appreciate so highly. Your work as in
structors has certainly been most salts
factory and pleasing to US as students,
and wherever we go into the wide world
our best wishes will always 60 out to the
faculty of this school, and may your fu-
ture efforts continue to be crowned with
the greatest possible success.
And now, to the students who remain
in college, we can only say, may success
attend all your efforts in attaining a
medical education. Some of you in one
year, some in two years, will graduate,
and / am sure if you continue as you
have begun, your greatest anticipations
of medical education will be realized.
Trials and tribulations we have expert
.enced together, but this has only made
our relationship the closer, and in the
years to come it will be source OF great
pleasure to me to call to memory the
many pleasant acquaintances made in
the University Medical College. Let us
remember, however, that if hard work
is not another name for talent, it is the
best possible substitute for it. In the
long run, the chief difference in men will
be found in the amount of work they do.
Let us not trust to what lazy men call
the spur of the occasion. If we wish to
wear spurs in the great tournament o
life, we must buckle them to our heels
before we enter the lists. Men look with
admiring wonder upon great intellectual
effort, like Webster's reply to Hayne
and seem to think that it leaped into life
by the inspiration of the moment. BuI
if, by some intellectual chemistry, We
could resolve that mastery speech int
its several elements of power and trace
each to its source, we should find tha
every constituent force had been elabor
ated twenty years before, it may be il
some hour of earnest intellectual labor
Occasion may be the bugle call tha
summons an army to battle, but the bias
of hNxps rRf 0lre