The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1899-05-13

ing into life and sees us out of it with
what grace we may. lie is the true
appraiser of personal values-a kind
of confessOr-generala high priest of
the human side of us. The fairest of
us are on our guard to him. You may
be sure. too, young gentlemen. that
the tremendous responsibilities and
grander sides of the medical career
are not lost to the dulIest mind. We
all understand how the doctor cam
not atone for his errors any more
than the pilot can atone for having
run his ship upon ragged rock. He
must have a clear brain, n self-reliant
will. an absolute consciousness. Ii is
to me the one great career that sug-
gests amid the roar of our times the
age of chivalry.
II congratulate You upon this au-
spicious beginning of a great career
full of stern duty and trial. but full
also of high endeavor and noble SER
vice to men,"
POSSIBILITIES OF THE SOUTH
President Alderman declared that
the southern half of the Union offered
to the thoughtful man the most in
teresting study of tendencies and
possibilities and duties of any organic
ed democratic State. The citizen of
the South who had reached man
hoods estate in 1860 and was living
today had lived in two worlds. The
world of his youth was analysed and
described. as was the silent revoIu
ton which in the last generation has
transformed the enlightened mediae-
valism of the old days to an industrial
democracy. 1t was declared that the
ancient. forceful and unique civiliza-
ton bred into the brain of, the people
was going down before the strenuous
influences of innovation and modern
ism, and whether there shall issue
something really better than the old
blending its lovableness and charm
with the vigor and freedom of the new
is the task set for the generation of
southerners. Surely. there has been
no such inspiring call to youth and
noble public service since Stein and
Fichte lifted bleeding Germany from
under the footprints Of Napoleon's
army and led her radiant and pros
porous into the family of nations a
new social world is being built"
The speaker then declared that the
raw material for citizenship and
growth existed abundantly in the
South. whether it issued out of the old
family stocks. sobered and broadened
by poverty and fortitude, or whether
it issued from the ranks of the plain
people who fought our battles for us
who Inherited the English conscious
ness, and whose forefathers reaped lib
ertv as a reward of sacrifice in nun
dred battles.
COMMON SENSE PATRIOTISM.
The speaker spent some time in
analyzing the need of common-sense
patriotism and in preaching the duty
of educated men to take a hand in the
rough work of democracy. In conclu-
sion he said: 'I'he Yankeeized South
erner will not stand the test, indeed
cannot; the people will recoil from
him as from alien leadership, for they
have a feeling in their hearts that the
South has something high, precious
and distinctive in manhood and lead
ership to contribute TO American civ
iliZation. 1t cannot be mere fond
dreaming to believe that it is the here
ditary right of the South to bring
forth out of her travail and her agony
something fair and good, of her own
likeness and pattern, the old refined
gold which disaster and defeat could
not tarnish. beaten by tiercer civic
forces into finer. subtler form some
thing born out of the tutelage of self
denial and remuneration, the inheri-
tance of integrity and steadfastness
and conservatism and the environment
of freedom and danger and opportun-
ity. The spirit of his fathers brave
and simple men, who held fast and did
not compromise, ought to be in him
and shall be in him. Sordidness and