Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-05-05


The address at the dedA iation exercises
of the new Carnegie IibrarA at the Tusl<e.
gee (Ala.) institute TuesdA was MADE
! OF the Review of Reviews. DrA shaw sac
in part:
My keenest wish is that Mr.. Carnegi,
could be here today. While this "a 1antiiu
library building has been rising bArlck pS
brick upon it's Arm foundations, very many
other library buiidings-many of men
greater In size than this and cost a INC
portentiousness of architecture-have al Sc
been building In different parts OF tn
land through the generosity of the maA
who has made this building possible. But
of them all, this one 1 think would give
him the deepest pleasure, If he could see
for himself what we are privileged to see,
and could know what we know of its
value and its significance.
What wonderful carrying power has
good thought, followed by a kindly deed.
Out in Pittsburg fifty years ago was
certain Col. Anderson, a business man,
who had perhaps 800 or 400 books in his
house. He believed in reading. and un-
like some others who believe in ii, he
loved his books so much that he wanted
them to serve the best ends of usefulness
and inspiration. And so he loaned them on
Saturdays to the poor working lads OF
rIttsburg. Andrew Carnegie was one of
the boys privileged every Saturday to
draw book from this little private libra
ry. And that is why this new library
stands here today associated with his
name. He resolved as a boy that If he
ever acquired the means and found fitting
opportunity, he would help pobr boys to
read good books just as Col. Anderson
had helped him.
But other good thoughts followed by
noble deeds had created Hampton insti-
tute, had there trained the young founder
of Tuskegee institute. and had made this
place conspicuously mt to be the recipient
of carnegie library-otherwise 1t would
not have come. Thus in the course of the
years it always, without fail, so works out
that all the separate streams Of good
thought and deed unite and blend in one
great river of human progress. When
Carnegie had those boyish impulses to
achieve and to be useful, he was not an
important person-only a poor immigrant
boy, working for 20 cents a day. When
Armstrong first cherished the aspirations
that his great career fulfilled, he was a
boy away on in the Sandwich islands. But
when In these later years the Armstrong
idea meets the Carnegie idea, then this
library building springs at once into be-
ing. The man who introduces ale one
idea to the other, the indispensable link
is your own leader. Booker T. Washing
ton. But bear IN mind this one thing.
that is for our encouragement and for
our strong Incentive: a. Is not so much
to the powerful Carnegie, to the great
educators Armstrong and Frissell, or to
the famed head of this institution that
what we see is to be credited. IL is to
the good thoughts and purposes of their
early years that these later fruitions are.
due. 1t was easy for Mr.. Carnegie to make
the efforts and sacrifices as a boy that
fixed the lines of his career and his cnar-
acter.
Two lessons for us then stand out plain
ly: First, most lives are shaped by the
purposes and determinations formed In
youth. Second. almost every noble
achievement that affects the welfare of
many people. is the result of the ultimate
meeting of the hopes and aims of differ
ent people. formed quite separately in
remote and obscure days.
The West Virginian boy determined to
go to Hampton to school; and nothing
daunted he masters difficulties and goes
This great school is here, we are all here
the new Carnegie library is here--because
that boy, through Gods providence
leading. went to hampton. Every
man who has liveu to do SER
vice that his fellow men recognize
as good, knows well that the things we
praise and call great are merely the out
working in one time of occasions made
long before, in humility and perhaps in
pain. Make your life plans when your
hearts are strongest and when your minds
are clearest. when you seem to catch
glimpse of heavenly visions. Then settle
down to the humdrum, plain everyday
task of carrying out those plans. That.
1 am very sue. wound be in the line of
Mr.. Carnegie's advice If he were here.
It matters little in the long run whether
or not the things we accomplish are rec
ognized as important, and we are given
personal credit and honor. But be sure OF
Fl hof I oh to l.
in the deepest sense. If we do our best.
however small our places in life may seem
to be. some deed or word or influence of
ours will find it's way in association with
the acts or words of others, to the doing
of some great thing in the world that
could not have been done, but for us-you
all see how this material structure is the
result OF cooperative effort, for you know
who drew the plans. who excavated for
the foundations. who made the bricks.
who laid the walls. who did the wood
working, and who contributed the brains
and the labor that the other processes re-
quired. And you all see how the coming
mere today of the company of friends as
sembled by Mr.. Ogden has required the
faithful and skillful help of many men
connected with the great railroad organi-
nations Of our country, and that the fall
ure Of any one of these men to do his
duty might have been disastrous. But my
essen goes deeper than these things. My
lesson is that all worthy human life and
work is so interdependent that away of
n the future there is some beautiful and
useful thing-just as beautiful and useful
at this Carnegie library-that will be made
or married. according as the humblest boy
Or girl in this institute now makes his
aims and plans Alright, and lays hold of