The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1894-06-14
RICHARD HRINSLkY SHERIDAN.


| SiiDJefI OF the Annual AuufeSSD N Kew. w
Ill. Milburn.
Again at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon
a large crowd assembled at Trinity
church to hear the annual address deliv-
cred by Rev. DR.. W. II. Milburn.
DR.. f. 4. Yates, in introducing the
speaker, said His name is a household
word wherever the English language is
spoken and he is known to everybody on
the two continents.
DR.. Milburn said:
| must begin by saying, or attempting
to say, what pleasure it gives me to
stand again in the presence of a North
| Carolina audience. | very much ques-
ton if the invitation which brings me
here had been from some other part of
the country whether Or not | should
have declined it but | could not decline
the request of Trinity college to come to
Durham. SO profound is my affection
for the people of the Old North State :;
so clear and vivid my recollection of the
an pie hospitality; the ever generous
sympathizers, the quiet, modest, gentle
people whom | encountered in my years
s%oiourn in the state-sO delightful this
recollection, so inspiring that | could
not refuse
| am sorry for you that you are obliged
to listen to me or any one else in such
weather as this, or at such an hour, 4
O'Clock of a hot summer afternoon, after
the other services that you haye at
tenCel.
1t shows that you are certainly pine
knots and eau stand anything. | trust
+boroForo +hot Won will hoor Owl For,
bear with me while attempt to tell you
of the weired, strange, and thrilling
story of the man whose name has just
been mentioned. Richard Brinsley Sheri.
dan, one of England's most iilustriOus
Oritors and wits, was born at Dubli in
1151 and after a most eventful life found
a resting place for his ashes at last in
the greatest of Englands mausOleums,
Westminster Abbey, in 1916 His age
was five and sixty years; he was by turns
a Ounce. a dandy and a duelist, running
away with the prettiest girl in England
without a penny to support him; a poet do
ing grim battle with stern fate, overthrow
first in the lists, but still u]ndoubted and ir
represible, winning his spurs, and crowned
with Europe's laurel of fame ridiculed and
derided, but hiding his time, and putting
himself under thorough drill after wears of
patience and discipline, AT a single bound,
reaching the very heights of eloquence, as
founding the world, his friends, the council
ors, the mobiles and the princes of the world
His course is like an Alpine traveller,
who loses his footing and so precipitates
himself into the CULTS of destruction,
shame, death, leaving a moral for all
young men, which is more the reason
why | select this subject for Trinity Col
lege at this commencement.
Born as | have said in Dublin, bis
grandfather. Sir BrevaId Richard Sheri-
dan, a man of brilliant parts. but indo
lent, careless, indifferent as 10 duty and
engagements, qualities which descended
TO his grandson Dicks own father was
an actor, the author of a p~ronOuncing
dictionary of the English language, a
teacher Of ]elocutiOn, and the husband of
an attractive woman, by far his richest
endowment. Dick was one of many
children. His mother tool Dick when
about the age of ) or Is years with one of
his brothers to a gentleman who was
then opening a school in Dublin and said
Il have been the only teacher OF my boys
and | am able therefore TO guage their
abilities; | believe them 10 be the two
most hopeless Ounces that it has ever
been my lot TO come in contact with"
The nobility Of England did not then,