The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-06-13

address was read by Waldemar Van
Colt and as it is of interest to the
members of the Alumni association and
others as well The Herald gives it in
full as follows:
To the Alumni Association of the Uni
versity of Utah:
Dear Friends-In accordance with the
custom of the association | have the
honor to perform. by message from a
distance, a function-aimost the sole
function pertaining to its Presidency.
This association seems to me Ike an
endless procession into which the young,
the buoyant and hopeful make entry and
from which an equal number in the great
eiiiuS of time, one after another, drop by
the wayside and are lost and forgotten.
If the lives of these were investigated
and their varied events and fortunes gen.
eraiized they would. no doubt. be found in
a measure, to reveal and illustrate, in
their ending, the chance of life-unknown
TO Il degree to those whose careers are at
their beginning.
What is it that binds together into an
association the alumni of a university.
Who can describe the tie? Who make
clear the affinity?
Ii is not a thing to be touched or seen.
1t is intangible and indescribable. We
may think we feel its relationship. and
sense its beneficence. 1t is not a ses.ai
cident of its existence. We know by eX-
perience that the journey to the goal of
membership is a long one, ana the ROAD
beset with difficulty.
NOT ALONE a MEMORY.
It is not alone a memory. because this
IS the property as well of those without
as of those within our charmed circle.
| see in mental retrospection a piece of
land. an enclosure, corner lot-in Its
center q square structure OF stone-old
red sandstone-surmounted with a square
single roof, bearing aloft a turret con-
tanning port holes. Old fashioned Win
dows admitted broad sunbeams from a
cloudless sky through smokesess atmos-
phere-
To this each day came boys and girls,
young women and young men, rudy,
smiling, hopeful.
Each morning saw some task begun
Each evening saw its close
In the bright lexicon of these young
people there was no such word as fail.
But the scene closes. More than a gene
ration has passed. Where now is the
piece of land-the corner lotx Ii is now
Gods acre., and typihes the resting
place of departed memories and IS the
tomb of buried hopes.
Where now is the square stone building
! It too has been rent and not one stone
rests upon another. And where now are
the boys and girls, and what OF their
youthful dreams, their hopes and their
Their dreams and air castles have given
place to the stern realities of life, Their
hopes unrealized and abandoned IN many
d
| turn persisted without fulflllment- As 10
aspirations all had them and struggled TO
attain them-many in vain others, per
| haDs. as such things are viewed OBJECT
/ lively. succeeded beyond the measure of
/ fondest hope to find the summit of
earthly aspiration after all but common
place
that train of thought-those fading mem
| cries suggested to or revived in the MIND
by this association embracing, among
4 -
knew as attending this institution OF
/ learning in it's primitive days.
The fact that We all attended the same
institution, that our efforts were dlrecleu
to the same END through similar courses
! OF study-that in many respects we
learned the same things, became possessed
| of common knowledge. and as IL were
grew to be brothers and sisters in edu-
cation. that in our preparation for life
we Travelled side by side, the one ever
ready TO lend to another a helping hand.
That we dispersed and severally PECAN
/ the battles of life with an equal X not
common stock of intelligence-all these
have brought us together-united us In
sympathy and are the enduring bonds OF
our association.
7 entered the university on the 9th of
March. 1869. 1t had but recently been put
in charge of DIR. John r. Park. who, from
the home of my boyhood, had been IN
vited to become its president. Almost
all memories relating to education at
that time cluster about the name and per
sonality of DR.. Park. He was the Dio-
neer OF academic and higher education in
Utah. The little country school at ORA
per TO which. as a stranger. he came in
Tie early SOS. and his attentive sympa-
thetic EFFORTS to point and guide the way
/ to new and strange fields of intelligence.
to the higher walks of learning, to some
OF rs. are cherished and hallowed recol-
lections.
FOUNDATION OF THE UNIVERSITY.
To Law the foundation of the University
of Utah was no easy task. The institu-
ton was almost without money and
without resource. Competent teachers
Strong prejudices prevailed against all
efforts to extend education bevond the
rudiments or common branches. The
notion got abroad that knowledge, such
as the university would inculcate. would
lead the students away from the pre-
cepts of religion and the faith of their
parents In the midst of the most dis