The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-02
THE LATE PROF. LE CoNr1
Personal Characteristics of the Much, Loved California Scientist.

Loved Cauforn1a Scientist. San Francisco Call:
 Joseph LeConte, dead and buried. wept ,honored and his praises sung by all who knew him. will hold a firm place in the memories of all who came under the influence of his sterling per- sonality. It was his personality, after all. that made him revered and beloved by students and the companions of his youth and old age.
 That he wa sa great scientist no one doubts. but it is not for that alone that California mourns his loss.
 He was a man so simple in nature. SO genial and warm in temperament, and so infectiously good that his per- sonality was truly irresistible. The mans scientific value. which was als ways of a positive and big quantity, was submerged by this charm. and II was Prof. Joe." the man that was the object of affection and reverence.
 Love for this gray haired scientist gre wto be a cult at Berkeley. Not only the students, but the townspeople feit his presence, and he was a mark Of esteem. respect and affection for all classes. While sociable and ligat in spirit, he did not entertain or care to entertain. yet he seemed to enjoy all social functions in which he took part.
 Prof.. Le Conte was an exceedingly temperate man-in thought, manner, and daily action-though by no means an ascetic. He enjoyed life and all things that go with 1t. Whether in the valleys or the mountains, at the sea side or in the fields, he found much to fasten his mind upon. They were not cold dust or rock or so much water to him. Le Conte was nothing if not im- aginative and poetic in everything he has done or said. In the Yosemite he lost sight two hours out of every three of the geological values. The natural beauty appealed to him, and some of his descriptions of the valle yare most beautiful and genuinely valuable from a literary standpoint.
 As bit of imagination coupled with science his students in comparative zoology will remember Le Conte's de- scription of a glass of champagne. To this scientist the peculiar power and fascination of the gurgling wine was deu to the fact that 1t appealed di- rectly to four senses.
 The description went something like this:
 The molten. somber like liquid, with its myriads of crystal bubbles rising from the depths, Its delicious flavor holding the tongue in charm that knows &. nostrils and picturing olfactory images as beautiful in their way as anything that appeals to the eye; all these make champagne. It Is the nectar, the am- brosia of the sublunar world"
 If champagne meant so much to the old scientist he showed a temperate ness that was astounding. He rarely drank more than a single glass of wine at dinner or event at a banquet, and whenever asked to fill his glass again would always reply by saying that he enjoyed the first so much ana so satisfactorily that he did not care to clog and sicken his appetite with more.
 His partial abstinence from tobacco was equally well sustained. It is doubtful If many of his friends have ever seen him smoke, yet he indulged on occasions in a short cigarette. When handed a cigarette one evening at a banquet he unconsciously took it, but realizin gin a moment tha the did something foreign to his habits laid 1t down on the table. To a question Le Conte replied: Oh, yes. I smoke, but only before going to the lecture room. and then I roll myself a cigarette. IL does me a whole lot of good. Why, I smoke as much as a quarter of pound of tobacco every year"
 Banqueting Prof. Le Conte was hobby with his friends. Scientists and lay societies made him the guest of many a special dinner. As an after dinner speaker he was always happy in his remarkshs remarks, never at- tempting the eloquent. His very indi- viduality precluded bombast or false rhetoric. When his subjectrwas to his liking. he fell right into it with dash and vigor that were surprising to his auditors. but he never cared to dis play any of his talents in after-dinner speaking. He preferred to listen, and he was a good listener.
 Soon after his return from Europe in the fall of 1892 the University Club of this city gave a banquet in his honor and gathered around the club boards was every man of educational or scien- tific note in the city at the time. Prof. Muir, famous as a geologist and par ticularly as d discoverer of glaciers. was called upon, and naturally the cry of glaciers went up. Prof. Muir spoke of the glacial action in general, and indications of it in the Yosemite Val ley. To this Le Conte interposed an objection. When he was called upon to speak he said that he would reluct- antly admit of Yosemite glaciers, but, after all it was a poor little dwarf of a glacier and shouldn't be taken into account with the big ones with small names"