Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1898-10-05
A DAY At BELOlT.
A College Which Sent 400 of
500 Qualified Sons to the
Civil War.


500 Qualified Sons to the
Civil War.
CHARACTER is ITS SPECIALITY.
ID. X. Pearson's $es0,OO0 in Gifts-Three
Years of Co charlottesville Greek Play
aud the Art observation-disclosures Teach
ers of Fifty Ycars Service.
Madison. Sept. 27.--The bell was ring
ing for afternoon prayer at Beloit col
.ege. The day was clear; the campus
vas peaceful-for it is apart from the
activities Of men-and the harvest was
in the air
The chapel is a beautiful and artistic
pile of white granite. The 400 students
OF college and preparatory school
among them seventy young women
are obliged to go to this one service
daily. but they go gladly. Recitations
are over for the day. They flock into
the buildirgs-the 'preps" go upstairs
The girls sit on one side Seniors in
sophomists. The freshmen have the
least desirable seats in the rear under
the gallery The young men sit in like
order. The pulpit is reading desk
and at IL stood President Eaton. He is
perhaps AZ years old. but he looks
younger He is tall ard athletic and
manly. There isn't much fun in him
hIf nf
earuestness. He looked to me as if he
had been brought up on farm. AS
matter of fact, his father was an early
home missionary and preached to the
same people in Lancaster for forty
years. TIE son graduated at Beloit in
1872. He took his divinity at Yale and
Andover: and polished off in Germany
| Then he was pastor until 1886, when
| lie became president of Beloit These
| products of the middle-west birth. with
| eastern and foreign trimmings. made
the finest manhood in the nation He is
| such a man as one would choose to put
| his son under
Wort Models for Youth.
| Back of hil.. in a row of chairs were
| dozen men of the faculty They looked
| earnest and good and wise. Bushnell
| and Chaplin and Blossdel have gone
| Emerson, after forty-five years ser
| vice. is broken; but Porter was there ON
| his forty-sixth year of service. He is
| little man, modest, retiring, but he is
sanity and erudite and has opinions
| 1t was notable stock these men came
| from and blood tells" One of Professor
| Porte.'s sons is the growing star of the
| Yale divinity faculty, and another is a
| high rank medical expert in Hartford,
| Conn. Professor II. M. Whitney was
| there, as he has been since 1871; and
| Burr, of whom ii is said that if every
| boy under him does not become
| valiant champion of the great Nazarene
/, it is not because the matter is not per-
.'onally and forcibly presented to him
| These pioneers f education were trained
| i'll the east usually at Yale. In fact
| Beloit is called the young Yale of the
| west. The three founders were Yale
men. The expression is more popular
| in New Haven than in Beloit. They
were Puritans and men of God. When
the start was m,tde in 1887 they had no
money. The founders looked In each
others faces until one Said:
We'll, brothers. what shall we do?'
Ano one of them said: Let us pray"
Since then there has been a good deal
| Of praying DIT the college and character
| is the chief output.
Most Spirited Music I'm the State.
President Eaton conducted me SER
| vice. He read some verses that made it
! clear that to be good in spots is not
| enough; and he offered prayer in which
he asked God 70 make that company Of
youth doors as well as hearers. Then
| followed the most vigorous singing l
| have heard in Wisconsin. There is a
superb organ and the master who plays
| it was formerly the moving spirit of the
Worcester Mass, musical festivals,
which are an event in American musical
! annals. 1t was a martial song. 1t
| savored of victory in the fight for
| righteousness. who follows in His
| train" Four hundred young voices
| Joined in. There was an inspiration In
| 1t. From the pulpit looked down faces
| of men who knew too much. who were
| too broad-shouidered. who had too much
| manhood to be cast aside az weak and
sentimental Those boys knew better.
The trees outside under which thou
SANDS of men had once walked as STU
dents who now are reaping laurels for
were taking on tinges of gold and
purple. on bronze slab in the library
near by We're the names Of forty-six
sons of Beloit who had died for their
country amid the smoke of battle. The
very atmosphere seemed charged with
memories of thelivlng and the dead: and
voices from out the past seemed to
speak to that splendid body of youth
thao s.sl Cd nd
ated.
THE God of Right goes for,is to war;
Who follows in His trainT
a Fight In Which Many Fall.
I don't wonder it is next to impossible
| for boy 20 go through Beloit without
getting converted" fsut oh! the strain
on dreams and visions tifs selfish,
crowding world puts on the e,s,4cest
youth when those sanity faces of OH
men, and the moonlight on the campus
and the organs trumpet call to the
highest manhood grow fainter and re-
| cede in the Past!
Beloit has graduated about 900 men
since it began character building. There
| have been 1000 students In all. Itg roll
showers fewer mountain paks OF emil
hence than some larger institutions. But
| the general altitude is high Horace
White financial editor of the New York
Evening Post is a graduate and has CIV
en- his college a total of 100000 Mayor
| Bundy. WIG was editor of The Mail and
| Express and daes In Paris. was another.
| The mayor was before my day on that
| paper, but / have heard his old SUBJ
| editors tell Of him He learae6 "a Drink
| in the army. but he struggled vaiiaRtly
] against it. In his remorrefui moments
| he would be found reading the Palms
] and sobbng like a child. Beloit left n
| deep htprfss; on this great genius
| Chicago has O number of notables In
| medicine. law and business who were
/ educated at Rsloit. big fiea9ty country
boys grown uI,-difficuit competitors f2r
] pale, pampernd city youth to exec
| Judge Hastings of Green Bay ia o dis
| tinguished graduate. At the recent
| Congregational conference at Sparta
there were seventies, preachers who mad
! been educated at Beloa
| Chains of the Small College.
| The plant at Beloit is worth about
| $500 Ooa There is an equal amount of en-
\ q