Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1897-01-17


tails going through "the setting up mo-
TONS" subsection to a 16-year-old officer
IN the corps Of cadets, association with
racks under military discipline. They
simply prefer a different regime, and
thus our university is deprived of the
very class that would contribute most
largely to its dignity.
As to athletics, I agree with well
Wisher." This feature is the craze OF
the day, and will no doubt wear itself
ont. 1t is in every college, but the great
numbers in the greater colleges and UNI
versities furnish student body of earn
est workers, and this makes prominent
the intellectual features.
The fast life touches the individual
boy, but need not. If he attend to his
duties. acts manly and shows himself
worthy, there Is not particle of dis
count on him among the boys or among
the citizens of Tuscaloosa. 1 believe the
most Serious detriment to the university
has heen the selection of presidents on
the oEder suggested by well Wisher,"
viz: Business men see no reason why
a .schoolman should not be business
man; but the president of great uniVer-
sity, as we want ours to be, should bear
tha imprint of a man of letters. We do
not send our sons to college to take
business course. We send them there to
develop. to fit them to cope with life.
We want them in touch with scholars,
with gentlemen big-brained, .big-hearted,
of 2great attachments, philosophers, sci
entists, masters in their departments and
liberal hearted in all things. The presi-
dent should represent the highest pos
slbilities of cultured, intellectual man
hood, so that he may sustain the ideal or
young manhood, and become greater and
grander as the boys become better ac-
quainted with him; so that as he moves
through the country and appears in as
sembies he will impress everybody with
his learning, his dignity, his modesty and
his worth.
A man of a different model, no matter
how much we admire his personal purity
of character, his military and civic, and
business and social qualities, cannot
measure up to the full stature of the
president of a university. He should
FIRST have the qualifications I have mem
toned, and then, as in the case of Solo
mon let the other things be added. He
takes charge of young man at period
when 1t will not do to tamper with pos
sibilities. He must have experienced the
things to which he invites young man.
hood.
Drs. Barnard Marley, Garland. Car.
los G. Smith but stop. The age / hope
has not grown so commercial in its esti-
mate of man as to forget his greatest es-
sentials, nor should 1t be SO touched with
fatalism as to ignore the delicate truth
that when youth is stepping into man
hood his environments largely shape his
life; the impressions from within and
from without are fixing his destiny; his
models should be the best
"Well Wisher" endorses the president of
the university as "a scholarly, Christian
man." and says "the faculty cannot be
surpassed" and yet he says that every
man connected with the school from
president to janitor should be asked to
resign that his place may be filled by
new blood" strange doctrine The
same causes that strangle the present
incumbents would strangle the new
blood" well Wisher'' reminds me of
the countryman who voted against Ar
istides because he was tired of hearing
him called THE Just"
am surprised that "Well Wisher"
claims that the university is not
suffering for lack of means. If
he will look into the history
of other universities he will find
so many things that money can do and id
doing, that he will surely not offer the
argument that there is no lack of means
at our university. We are, as a state,
simply INDUCING in the extravagances
of economy, while we permit the present
insufficient endowment of our university.
Say what we may about the Offering of
prizes and scholarships, those great
schools are most flourishing, and the
educational spirit is most alive where the
enQOWmenIS ana donations allow these
tangible and lucrative evidences of eff
forts and abilities. The state ought not
to give anything as charity, but scholar
ships and prizes should be established
as rewards of meritorious attachments.
well Wisher'' is right about the powers
to be granted the president and about
the non-interference of trustees, but L
cannot understand how the university
has come to be regarded a school for
the rich. l do not see how we could wipe
out all distinctions of wealth and power
ty, but the conditions there as to dress
and social intercourse seem to me as fair
as can be made. All wear uniforms; eat
at the same tables, move together and
while poverty is always inconvenient, it
is possibly less troublesome there than
at most other places.
1t is a well known fact that a we'll
man can be made sick if everybody that
meets him asks what is the matter with
him. The universitys reputation has
suffered accordingly.
Several of the professors ought to be
made emeriti The new blood" would
thus enable DIR. Wyman to compile for
publication his histories of our state
No man in the state knows as much of
our history as he does, and the state
would confer a lasting benefit upon its
future If 1T would give him time to write
professor.
JOEL c. DUBOSE.
Jan. 16, 1897.
rheumatism originates in morbid con-