Daily Kennebec journal., 1902-06-23
Bowdoin's Centennial.

class who now leave behind them the
four happy years of undergraduate
life and face the stern realities of the
bustling and not wholly sympathetic
world. Fortunate as few are those
of their number who can honestly say
at this time that they have made the
most of the opportunities their college
has given them. And for the alumni in
Maine and throughout the land who
can steal away from their work for a
few days back on the old campus it is
the happiest week of the year. Sacred
associations are again renewed and
loyal allegiance again pledged to class
and fraternity and Alma Mater.
At Ecwdoin the Commencement week
is Of more than ordinary interest and
Importance from the celebration OF the
completion of a century Of work, and
also from the fact that the magnificent
and that the announcement is expected
of material additions to the endow-
mcnt fund. Eight years ago. in 1894,
EOwdoin celebrated the centennial of
the granting of its charter with an
Grafton by Chief Justice Fuller. poem
by Arlo Bates and grand alumni
dinner with 1900 graduates present and
notable speeches by distinguished men
from all over the land. At that time
also the Walker Art building and the
.Scarlcs Science building We're just COM
pl,tcd. two buildings unsurpassed
among their kind III the country ana
10 which thn new Hubbard library viii
b.. 4 worthy addition. The literary
features of the present centennial cele-
nration will be the grafton by Hon.
Thomas y. Reed ana the poem by Rev.
samuel ". cole Wednesday afternoon.
The beginnings Of Bowdoin date back
IA years 10 1888. when the justices of
court of general sessions, and the
Congregational clergymen petitioned
the General Court Of Massachusetts.
Of which the District of Maine was
then a part, for Il charter for n coll
lece: but it was not until June a, 1894.
that the charter was granted, and the
inauguration Of the first president and
the actual beginning Of work We're
delayed until 1902 on the completion
of Massachusetts Hall, the first college
building. After the infant institution
was started on its course by the
modest though substantial benefac-
tions Of its first patron. James Bow
doin. the friend of Franklin, it de-
vcloped through much the same cX
periences as the other smaller New
England colleges; never embarrassed
other hand. generally loyalty support
ed by the people of Maine and train
ing generation after generation Of
scholars and statesmen whose names
figure largely in the history of the ma
tion-names such as those of Haw-
thorne and Longfellow, John S. G. Ab-
bott, Jacob Abbott, Elijah Kellogg,
Arlo Bates and Samuel V. Cole in liter
ature; John Appleton, Thomas Drum
mond and Melville W. Fuller in law;
Samuel Harris and Henry Boynton
Smith in theology: FOrdyce Barker in
medicine: Cyrus Hamlin among mission
aries: Joshua l.. Chamberlain and Oil
Yer O. Howard among soldiers, and in
political life Franklin Pierce, William
Pitt Fessanlan. George Evans, John P.
Hale. Scargent s. Prentiss, John A. An
drew. Thomas L. Reed and William 7.
Frye.
Removed from the great centers OF
population. BowdCin stands as a type
If the small college: for a great part Of
its existence it has had medical de-
partment but President Hyde has no
idea of expansion into a university.
| lie mas uttidItu HIS btiACi III tiiN
| sion of the small college in these words:
| For combining sound scholarship
with solid character: for making meI
| both intellectually and spiritually 1ree
! for uniting the pursuit of truth WITT
| reverence for duty, the small college
open to the worthy graduates OF every
good high school, presenting n course
] sufficiently rigid to give symmetflca
development, and sufficiently elastic t'
encourage individuality along congen'
| ial lines, taught by professors who arc
| men first and scholars afterwards. gov
| erned by kindly personal influence, anG
| secluded from too frequent contact Wltf
| social distractions. has mission whicf
no change of educational conditions
can take away. ani a policy which nc
sentiment Of vanity or jealousy should
be permitted to turn aside"
Yet Bowdon. with an academical de-
partment giving instruction to 20
Young men. is a small college only rel
atively speaking, and would seem in
deed large one TO its first president
the Rev. Joseph McKecn. who with one
/ n