Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-08
SCOTCH PROFESSORS.
Pen Pictures of Noted Men Seen at
Edinburgh Commencement.
THEY HAVE WORLDWIDE FAME.
Chancellor Inglis, Principal Muir and the
Learned Teachers.
INTERESTING CLASSROOM STORIES
THEY HAVE WORLDWIDE FAME.
INTERESTING CLASSROOM STORIES
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.I

4uC ceremony Ol III tuC
University of Edinburg takes place in the
spring. Our university is not yet furnished
with a common hall. In this respect it is at
present surpassed by Glasgow, which has in
the Butte Hall one of the finest academic
halls in the kingdom. This deficiency is,
however, in course of being splendidly sup
piled, for the McEwan Hall, now a-build-
ing, promises to be at least as magnificent as
that of Glasgow. 1t is the gift of Mr.. Will
lam MeEwan, a wealthy brewer of Edin-
burgh, and one of the members of Parlia-
ment for the city, and its cost will be nearly
$500, 600. In the meantime, the university
holds its collective meetings in the Synod
Hall, on the Castle Terrace.
The annual laureation, or commencement
Rs you say in America, affords an excellent
opportunity for seeing the celebrities of the
university grouped as if for picture. 1t
is gay and interesting scene. The body of
the hall is filled with some hundreds of
young men wearing academic caps and
gowns and hoods, distinctive of their differ
ent degrees, all looking bright and happy in
the prospect of receiving the reward OF their
labors; but many of them bearing in their
pale faces the outward aud visible marks of
the examination ordeal through which they
have recently passed. The galleries are
thronged with their friends, most of them
ladies, who have come to see them capped
s'vith the erudite hand of Chancellor In
glis."
LOOK AT THE CHANCELLOR.
The chair is occupied by the Chancellor of
the university, and round him are clustered
the members ofthe Senatus Acadenicus and
the honorary graduates. The Chancellor is
man worth looking at He is John 1nglis,
the Lord Justice General, or President, of
the Court of Sessions, the Supreme Law
Court OF Scotland, man OF power in Edin-
burgh, and bevond it, in many capacities.
He was elected to the Chancellorship in
1869, in succession to Lord Brougham. He
owed his election partly to his personal mer-
its. no doubt, but chiefly to the TACT that, as
Lord Advocate, he was the author OF the
universities bill of 1858, which re ormed the
constitution of the Scottish universities, and
started them on new career OF unexampled
prosperity.
Mark him well; he has strong Scottish
face bespeaking a will that is not easily
tnwarted. He is the greatest living lawyer
in Scotland, and he has had few equals in
the past. He is also a Tory of the Tories,
and there are few things done by his party
in Scotland in which his firm hand is not
concerned, though it never appears on the
surface of things.
That solemn looking elderly gentleman
near him, with gray hair and beard, is Sir
William Muir, Principal of the University.
He is a venerable looking man, with mild
and lac6-luster eyes, which indicate an
amiable and benevolent character. He is
in his list year.
CELEBRATED HIS GOLDEN WEDDING.
The celebration OF his golden wedding on
the Sth of February last was an occasion of
great rejoicing in academic and fashionable
circles. Sir Williams reputation was made
long ago IS an administrator in india,
where he reached the high offices of Lieu
tenant Governor of the Northwest Provinces,
and Financial Minister, and finally was
appointed a member of the Supreme Coun-
Gil He has also a literary reputation as
the author OF standard ''Life of Mohomet %
His election to the Office of principal was
due, in part at least, to the fact that his
elder brother, DR.. John Muir, a distin-
guished Oriental scholar, was the founder oi
the Sanscrit chair in the university, and
rendered it important service in other
ways. The principal is also vice chancellor
of the university, and takes deep personal
interest in the moral and religious welfare
of the students, with whom he is great
favorite.
Near the Principal there sits a man with
strongly marked features, a keen eye and
grizzled beard. That is David Mason,
pro essor OF rhetoric and English litera-
ture; the friend of Carlisle, whom he resem-
bles in many features Of character, and
more and more in personal appearance He
is undoubtedly and far away the greatest
man ofletters now living in Scotland. Even
in the university he is a giant among pig
mics. When all the professors around him
are forgotten he will be remembered as the
author OF 1.-THE Life of John Milton and the
History of His Time, " not only the greatest
work on its subject, but one of the few books
produced in this country that will live en-
duringly.
A FRIEND OF Co-EDUCATIoN.
In politics he is a strong Liberal, and he
has made himself prominent as an advocate
OF the claims of women to participate in the
higher education and in the learned pro-
fessions. His style is undoubtedly ponder
Gus, both in writing and in speaking, but it
is full of matter and profound in thought.
He is a most effective lecturer and orator,
seizing with strong Aberdonian grip the
points which strike him as most material,
and pounding away at those with peculiar
rotatory action OF his clenched fist which
helps to drive conviction home. Though 6e
years of age, he is still iull OF fire and vigor,
When a student grows Indifferent OF
troublesome, Mason has quiet way oil
putting him down, or pulling him up, which
rarely iails. Not long ago he was annoyed
BY some students reading an evening news
paper in mis- class-it meets al O'Clock in
the afternoon-especially on Fridays, when
College NeUS is published. One day a
student took out his newspaper as soon as
the lecture began, and read it right under
the Professors nose. The Professor seemed
to take no notice of him. In the course o.
his lecture, however, he had occasion tc
speak of newspapers in literary connec'
tion. He came to the words, "The char
acter of a newspaper" then, pausing for 6
moment or two and fixing his gaze on the
offender, he continued. sis not such that il
should be read in the Rhetoric class" If the
young man had had bucket of cold watel
thrown over him he could not have looked
more miserable. The ofense was not re
pested.
CHARMING AT HIS PIPE.
Delightful as Mason is in his classroom,
or in general society, he is most charming
when you meet him with few select friend
over a quiet pipe. His "reminiscences of hi.
college days at Aberdeen, and his descrip
tions OF fellow students, are wonderfully
raey and graphic. He has also delightful
Understandable and personal, and no
hearsay-of Douglas Jerrold, Dickens ano
Thackeray, whom he met frequently during
his residence in London. In many respects
Masson's position in Edinburgh is unique
both as a teacher and as a man of letters.
The emelaneholy-looking sage beside him
with the dreamy eyes and the untldy beard
l.. Def Can,phall Fraser who succeeded th