Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1893-10-26
PRACTICAL EDUCATION.
Hon. Chauncey M. Depew on
Cornell University.
A COMMEMORATIVE ADDRESS.

Celebration of the Quarter Centennial o
Its opening-Lessons Taught by the Lif
of Ezra Cornell-Individualit and Sci
Reliance.
ITHACA, n. Y, Oct. THE address at tn,
quarter centennial celebration of the open
ing of Cornell university was made by Hon
Chauncey NJ. Depew, LII. d. He said:
| Mr.. PRESIDENT AND LADIES AND GEN
TLEMEN-This is an American anniversary
1t celebrates life which is representative
of American conditions and opportunities
and university founded to meet the prac
tical necessities of American youth Cor.
nell was the first of the great colleges to
cultivate a field outside the lessons and
traditions Of the medRvel school men. The
most exquisite of pleasures is contact with
the perennial youth of our alma mater.
Parties dissolve, friends grow cold, loved
ones depart, and age becomes solitude,
but day with the college revives the en-
thusiasms and ambitions of the past and
puts us in touch with the hopes and aspira-
tons of the present Patriotic or CONNIE
lucrative celebrations are ephemeral. The
centuries and their divisions which mark
the recurring natal days of these great and
ever growing centers Of learning are eternal.
We admire or reverence past events as we
do statues or monuments, only when we are
in their presence. The fresh and stimulat-
ing influences of college life are ever with
u.s. Ideas are companions facts are mile
stones. Head and heart are united in the
sentiments and emotions of this day.
A Useful Career.
The life of Ezra Cornell is lesson and
an inspiration. The study of his struggles
and success is a liberal education Our
meeting would lose much of its signif.
canoe if it failed to enforce the lesson OF
the career and commemorate the character
of the founder. Sixty-ive years ago young
Cornell, who had just attained his major
ity and started out to seek his fortune,
after walk of 40 miles rested upon one of
the hills overlooking this beautiful lake
This reticent Quaker was passionately fond
of nature, and he was entranced by the
superb panorama spread out before him.
Few places on earth possess so many scenic |
The only one | know which |
with it is the view from the |
Acropolis at Athens, with the plain OF |
Marathon in front, the Pentelic mountains |
behind and the blue Egean in the distance.
The young mechanic had neither friends |
nor acquaintance in the village which
nestled at his feet, and his worldly posses
sions were all in little bundle on the end
Of the stick which served for staff and bag.
gage wagon. He had no money and only
spare suit of clothes, but with health, good
habits, ambition, industry and a perfect
of what he intended to do and
IN equal determination to do +, he entered
ithaca a conqueror. No delegation of citi-
.ens met him at the gates, no triumphal
procession bore him In a chariot, no arches
panned the streets, but the man who was
o make this then secluded hamlet known
the world had done for Ithaca
he greatest service it could receive by de
iding to become its citizen. Though poor.
lie was far removed from poverty. His sit
Iation illustrates one of the hopeful fea-
ures of American conditions. Neither
oubt nor despair was in his mind. He
lad found his place and knew he could inn
rove it. He saw his ladder and began to
limb. 1t is the genius OF our people TO
et on, and 1t is the pleasure of the com
lunity to help and applaud. Occasional
ailures test the metal of the aspirant, and
ard knocks develop grit or gelatin. There
re, unhappily, suffering and hopelessness
nd helplessness incident to the practical
iorkings of the doctrine of the survival OF :
be fittest, but vigor and manhood win
heir rewards.
Faith and works were the principles of
IRA Cornell and the carpenters bench a
latform and preparation for larger efforts I
and concentration OF effort I
ave developed the resources OF the country. [
hey have opened mines in the mountains i
nd transformed the prairies from wild I
astes to fields rich with golden grain and I
otted with happy homes. They have sug- S
ested the inventions to meet the necessi- Il
es OF the hour They are American char. o
,teristics. They belong only to a people S
no are not trained in grooves and are a
Dt taught to plant their feet only in the a
seply worn molds made in the pathway L
time by the steps of their ancestors. d
18th Mr.. Cornell these qualities were SUI b
srlative gifts. As carpenter he improved b
lie methods Of his village master; as a "
echanic he devised machines which over d
me unexpected difficulties; as an unprei- N
Iced practical man he became familiar al
lth the uses Of electricity while the pro II
ssor was still lecturing upon its dangers. w
Morse had discovered the telegraph, and al
he had lived in an earlier age he would n
we been either incareerated or incinerated. &C
gots looked with suspicion upon this OF
ssibly sacrilegious trifing with the ii
yhtning, scientists doubted the utility Of e.
e invention and congressman regarded it tr
th distrust. The inventor needed an un. of
united and indomitable man of affairs to of
monstrate to capitalists its possibilities
d to the public its benefcence, and he kt
and him in Ezra Cornell, who saw its re
ture, and upon his judgment staked the ii,
of his life aud the almost III
perhuman labors Of a decade. He owned an
ctric shares Of the face value of millions III
d went hungry to bed because he had not pr
means TO pay for a meal, and his family W
Tered because they could not be trusted all
a barrel Of flour. But neither want nor liz
BIT nor the sheriff could wrest from him su
telegraph stock / know Of no more W,
imatic scene in the lives Of any Of our 70
my successful men than the spectacle Of III
5 potential millionaire tramping through bu
highways and byways Of penury, suffer an
: and sickness, upheld By his sublime m,
th in his work and the certainty of its IA