The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-02
|DR. KENT'S ADDRESS
DELIVERED TO sTUDENTs or
 MILITARY INSTITUTE.
Sound Advice to Young xsn-Fif- teenth Annual Session of the College at Marion Comes
 to an End.

Military Institute closed Wednesday. The feature of the finals was the bril- | liant and thoughtful address of Dr. | Charles w. Kent, Professor of English Literature in the University of vir- | ginia. Although the speaker came | from Virginia to Marion to address the | corps of cadets, his speech is of vital | interest to all Alabamians.
 Dr. Kent began his address by al- l luding in most complimentary terms | to his esteemed colleague, Prof. Noah | K. Davis so long connected with How ard College and Judson Institute and | then referred to the high esteem in
 which Marion Military Institute is held l by the University of Virginia, in which | so many of it's recent graduates had been gladly received. He then said in part:
 No Virginian should feel himself . | stranger in Alabama. The romantic history of this States formation Is | linked to Virginia by numerous names. Your Constitutional Convention now in I session in Montgomery must have turned many students to your famous | Convention of 1919. The Constitution then adopted was in large part drafted by Judge Clay, of Virginia birth. Will liam Wyatt Bibb at first Congressman and Senator from Georgia, then first
 territorial Governor of Alabama and | chosen your first State Governor un- der this Constitution, was from the same Virginia County from which my oldest brother was called from the
 peaceful environments of his school in- to the storm of civil war. Your first | long term Senator, Wuker as we'll as | Hopkins, Davis, and others of the Con- | vention. were all Virginians by birth. | As I glance at your map I note that Washington, Madison, Monroe, Mar | shall. Jefferson. Lee, and other noted Virginians were among your heroes, and as I read your history I am re- | minded constantly of prominent Vir- | ginians. My heart was thrilled " hen I first learned of the famous Canoe Fight. and it seemed in keeping with the eternal fitness that the h'.ro of that exciting contest. Big Sam Dale, should have been of that rock-ribbed county that gave the adventurous Houston to Texas.
 "Pardon me for adding with rride that our educational relations are even closer. The gallant young command ant of the University of Alabama, who Is now your distinguished Superinten- dent. with Lieutenant Toy-now a dis tinguished Professor of Harvard-held with his battalion of brave boys tte Tuscaloosa bridge,
 
 Federal troops for eight hours, re- ceived his splendid military training which for so many years he has here exemplified, at the Virginia Military Institute. We claim the finished man, but you furnished the native material of which such heroes are made. And these, my young friends, whom I honor for their collegiate experiences | and now for their ability as the right and the left hand of their distinguish father. did me the honor to give atten- tion to my instruction. Long may he, the father, live to counsel and direct and these his sons to learn his wisdom and execute his plans!
 But let me revert to more remote | history. Your State University was | founded, I believe, in 1881. Governor Moore, of this city. if I am not mis- taken, appointed James c. Birney to make a tour of the older States and select for the new University a presi- dent and faculty. The first tender of the presidency was to Dr. Robert Maskell Patterson, then professor of Natural Philosophy in the University | of Virginia. He did not accept, but MT. Birney was successful in procur- ing for the chair of Ancient Languages a young gentleman who had already | SiNCh ploAlloC OL tnC dDHtty anu i fiuence he afterwards displayed in your State. I refer to Henry Tutwiler of I blessed memory. It was my pleasure l and privelege not more than two years | ago to be in Harrisburg, his native town, end to pay to his worth my feeble tribute. All institutions are known by their fruits, and in fair Ala bama the University of Virginia would be content to be known by Henry Tut wiler. His alma mater is proud of his standing and influence as a student. his sbility as professor, his career J as a citizen, and counts him among the jewels mother prizes. AS a Vir- | ginian, from the University of Vir- ginia, would speak in his spirit of A Man Foursquarc.
 The aboriginal Greeks when they looked upon the beauty of this state might we'll have exclaimed Here We | Rest but the visitor today is rather | struck with the restless activity" i Praising this prosperity, the speaker adverted to the dangers of Commer- cialism which were to be averted by, nen not by milionaires.
 What Is needed" he said lis rot thousands of hands housed in novels, but hundreds of hearts in happy homes: sympathy and cooper | dIlOI-ilOt SlIiheS anu An | other danger is absenteeism. This must be corrected, not by antipathy to imported capital, but by Sbctdness and energy on the part of tllef wong men of the South. If the young men of the South would work at home as hard as they have to work when they seek forturies in the North and West, they would succeed here as they nearly always do there. The dignity of la bor must be believed in, not as an academic theorism, but as a practical matter. No man should lose caste or endanger for an instant his social standing by honorable work whether
 with his head or his hands. It is a senseless distinction that places the
 loudly dressed clerk on $4 a week above the mechanic who earns his $3 a day.
 It takes more brains and brawn, too
 to design and build a machine, even If
 you do get your clothes dirty and your
 hands begrimed, than it does to keep
 clean behind a counter. am not dis
 paraging shop boys or store keepers
 or any class of honorable toilers but
 I am protesting against our inclina-
 tion to write down a man who shows
 more ability and skill in some other
 directions.
 For these false estimates ladies are
 In part to blame. Smile on the hand
 soiled by honorable labor; scorn the
 heart sullied by false and foolish pride.
 The befouled overalls of the rignt-liv-
 ing mechanic are purity itself com
 pared with the besmirched characters of loose-living and loose- -principled
 gentlemen The South needs more men
 willing to do her work with a will