The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-07-19
AN ALUMNI ADDRESS.

1t sometimes happens that outside Of
literary channels one finds rill Of
truest literary merit Such is the case
with the address of j. Allen Watts,
Esq, of Roanoke, before the Society of
the Alumni OF. the College of William and
Mary on the occasion of the celebration
of the two hundredth anniversary OF
the charter Of the college, delivered June
FL, 1893, printed copy of which is now
before US. We confess to having read
it twice already and will read it many
times with pleasure and profit.
First lies the charm of it's diction,
simple aad direct, with no more Of
latinity in its Anglo.Saxon strength
than gives grace and felicity from the
pen OF student and lawyer. We
quote sentence in which he speaks of
his graduation eighteen years ago: 81
took occasion then, mayhap feeblY and
falteringlY, and, hope, modestly as
becomes boy, but surely earnestly,
sincerely and truthfully, to acknowl-
edge our Indebtedness for all we had
iCSSiNCo III hHOMiCNSO hlnQncSo.
That is a beautiful sentence.
In this day when the average college
graduate is man" on familiar terms
with the world and ready with opinion
on every question which has puzzled
sages since the world was young, it is
pleasant TO hear that honest phrase
applied to college graduate, mod.
estlY as becomes boy"
But in the larger view of the address
one catches its broader spirit and in
tent The life Of that good old college
at Villa msburg has been full and
honest one. Its clustered memories of
great sons; it's traditions running
back two hundred years; its stat
ure and direction; it's influence
upon the country's history, are such
that no modern university, endowed by
the generosity of millionaires surfeited
with wealth, can ever hope to attain.
The college was old when one of her
sons wrote the Declaration Of Independ-
once, and five Of them were numbered
amongeits signers. Three Presidents
are on her honored rolls. And with this
record the writer has shown sound iudg-
ment in laying stress uponth thorough
groundwork in statecraft and political
economy which William and Mary has
always inculcated.
But the good old college has taught
her sons to look ahead, and the writer
bravely grapples with the problems of
the future. The destruction of slavery
as involving the machinery of produc-
ton was trivial incident com pared
with the downfall OF the idea it in.
volved. Already the ways of free pro-
duction are mastered, but the social
problems involved in the freedom and
acknowledgements OF servile race and
the adaptation TO their government OF
laws designed for different people re-
quire generations yet to settle
1t is history that vanquished, but
cultured nations have taught their con-
qucrors. Greek slaves educated the
sons of Rome. The Roman empire
moribund gave light to Goths and
Vandals. Moorish science remained to
teach the proud Castlian. SO shall
the South from her stern necessity
teach the world the most diffiult
lesson yet offered statesmen and nations
the peaceful intercourse and &C. opera.
ton OF two dissimilar peoples on parallel
planes, in which their very dlssimilarity
shall be m ade cord OF strength, and
inurc TO the greater prosperity Of the
South.