The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-03
WORK ON COTTON MILL
 AT SILURIA UNDER WAY

| Work has been started on the main
 building of the cotton mill at siluria be-
 ing erected by the Siuria Cotton Mill company. It is expected that the struc- ture will be completed within from sixty to ninety days.
 The spur extension from the main line of the Louisville and Nashville out to the mill Is entirely completed so that the shipping In of material and machinery is much facilitated.
 should win for itself the plaudits of all whose pulses quicken with admiration for the gallant souls that weigh not self or life against peril and need and the cries of pain and suffering. In immortal verse Euripides sang of Hercules and his rescue of Alcestis from the grim custody of the god of death, and her restoration to husband children and the old roof tree. Deserving, too, the grace of song and the warmest gratitude of the human heart Is the physicians battle with the angel of death and his rescue of loved ones over whom rests the shadow of those dread and awful pinions. The conception of the Greek poet was but beautiful fancy; the service of the physician is a grand fact.
 Now, gentlemen of the graduating class, who gc out tonight with the stamp of our oLle college upon you, who are to wear the honors of the medical profession and to bear its stern responsibilities, permit me to offer a few plain, but we'll meant, | suggestions:
 Value of Purpose.
 First let me commend to you the value of of a phanpplpse olution to do your work with thorough ness and to win the success that ever
 waits upon courage, decision and sacri- flee Turn the pages of history and from its store house of wisdom draw lessons of hope and of truth How did Dcmosthenes overcome the difficulties of
 bashful awkwardness, of a stammering tcngue, of a weak and frail body, until he stood forth the type of popular and forensic eloquence, until the centuries have enshrined him in their annals as the
 colossal figure in the world domain or
 oratory? By the purpose to succeed, by unswerving determination to master cir , cumstances. and stand forth the cham
 pion of human liberty, the protector of | constitutional government. the magicia Il
 whose wand of speech led at his will the
 proud senate of Rome, "a council of | kings' and calmed the madness of un- | thinking thousands. By the purpose to | rise above the allurements of idleness. to yield to rest only the hours that nature | exacted to fill the measure of mans e. sponsibilty, and to polish the rough stone , of inherent mind until it shons forth, the gem of developed intellect.
 Purpose is the key to result Purpose. | clear, clean, unalterable, brings frnition ! to hope; bids the warm fancles Of youth
 take form and shape as the realities of a splendid manhood and an old age. whose silver locks are badges of honor; changes
 the whisper of pure ambiu)l to the resonant utterance of success, and crowns with the laurel of triumph ths victor CT the battle ground of life. To Gladstone, man of purpose the determna.ion to master troubles. difficulties anG dangers, made plain the mysteries of 8. tte craft and administration and gave 1tu power for thirty years to lead the fortunes of | the British empire. Bismarck would place
 upon the map of Europe a great people
 and country, owning allegiance to one
 sovereign at Berlin; purpose with him
 moulded petty principalitfes Into the
 world power whose majesty demands the
 respect of the nations of earth.
 The Presbyterian pastor in d small
 town in Virginia one night called upon | an almost unknown man to lead In prayer. | Haltingly, feebly, and finally with dis asre- the prayer was uttered. Ia. minis
 ter, in pity for the bashfulness that could
 not lead, said: T will not call upon you l again." The reply Gall upon me every | time. I will conquer this timidty," was
 an index to the purpose that sooh after | led brigade, then a division, than an
 army corps, like the Nemesis of war, like
 thunderbolt of battle, to strike an armed
 host and break It's serried ranks;to the | purpose that caused him to stand amid l rifle crack and cannon roar and the srm
 carnage of the stricken field like a stone
 wall on Bull Runs bloody ground.
 Early Professional Life.
 In the early period of your professional
 life, when perhaps patients will not | throng your consulting rooms and your | automobiles 8ill not run down men,
 women and dogs, as they rush In frantic | haste to bear you to expectant hundreds,
 when leisure Is more in evidence than a bank account pleasure will whisper, "To-
 night the theatre; now a card party; the
 next a dance.f Then purpose while not
 despising soma recreation, will say, Not
 thro' pleasures soft and easy pathway shall you go onward to the usefulness, ! the power, and the fame of Marion Sims and John A. Wyeth. My gifts are not for
 him who dawtles by the way, plucking
 apples that become dead sea fruit not | for him who coVetS the tinsel of society
 exquisite, not for him who earns the title | of leader of the gfSman, but for him who
 would be a leader in thought, leader in | mind-force, a leader of the high activities
 that make the man."
 The exhortation to be men of purpose | leads naturally to my second suggestion, | continued study The diploma of your col | lege is to all who know the wise and dis | tinguished men who are your faculty | sufficient evidence that you deserve your | degree. But had those who have taught
 you ceased to be students when they 1 ceased to attend a medical college, not
 one of these splendid men would have
 been your teacher. Up to this hour they | have guided with master hands your fn- | tellectual development; they have led | you in the ways of research and investi- 1 gation; now they send you forth to walk | alone and choose your own path
 The little room with its table and chair l and lamp and a modest number of books
 might seem to some to promise weariness | of body and loneliness of soul; but in that students room for eacn one of you. young gentlemen, is vast possibility; fin | that room is the opportunity of prepara- ! ton for that which is to be; there books ! will be your companions, books by means l of which you may speak to years dead | and gone, and bid them live again with | their mentions and with the wisdom, that made those years great and weighty;
 in that room. pondering the lore that