The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-03-29

A great educational movement-mean-
ing far more than the proper training
of the Negro, much as that means
had its beginning in the work of Cen
eral Samuel c. Armstrong at Hampton
Institute He did more than any other
part of our fundamental conception
of education. He has been dead only
ten years, but the idea that he de
veloped is already fairly making its
educational corners of the world. Very
fifty on the anniversary of his birth
January 50th) appears a study of the
man and of his work by his daughter,
General Armstrong; own letters ana
extracts from his diary, his reports and
his conversations that it is almost an
autobiography.
Mr.. Robert c. Ogden, his friend from
boyhood and the chairman of the board
of trustees of Hampton Institute, has
written for these pages the brief es-
innate and "Reminiscences of him that
follow. Because of the intimate rela-
tions of these men, what Mr.. Ogden
writes is of peculiar interest:
1t was in the autumn of 1860, through
the Introduction of his uncle, Judge
Reuben a. Chapman-afterward Chief
Justice of Massac husetts-tha 1 made
the acquaintance of Samuel Chapman
Armstrong. He had just. arrived from
the Sandwich Islands prepared to en-
ter the junior class at Williams Col
lege, with the money-his own hard
earnings-in his possession to pay the
expenses of his college course. His per-
sonality was unique. and he came into
my life with the charm of a dominat-
ing power altogether new We struck
hands at the first with a grip that re-
Taxed only when he joined the great
majority.
That Armstrong. was far and away
out of the common appears in the fact
that, after the lapse of more than four
decades, his picture remains in my
thought thoroughly defined in bold.
clear outlines. He was just past his
majority, a splendid specimen of youth
full manliness. The regular features of
preston; his mouth, firmly set, betok-
ened power of decision; and his Won
derful, deeply set blue-gray eyes in
dicated vivacfous humor and keen in
telligence. In manners and speech he
was perfectly frank and his talk never
failed to sparkle with originality His
vocal organs, more than normal in
power, were never equal to the de-
mands of his mind, and his language
often indicated slight suffering in
the impetuous rapidity of utterance
that seemed like competitive strug-
gle of words to secure expression.
In reviewing the masterful results
mental, spiritu& /, physicaI-of his many
sided life, it is most interesting to re-
call the traits of his very young man
hood. Then, as misunderstanding away
traslition, despising cant, finding his
own way to truth, full of an abounding
enervescent, spontaneous activity, cour-
ageous in all things-he was pure of
heart, clean of speech, and manful in
the best sense. All this gave indica-
ton of the moral altruism that matured
early, continued to expand until the
end, and still remains a rich legacy to
the world through the objects to which
his life was given. Even in his college
days he made efforts at moral service
that were so peculiarly original as TO
be almost Quixotic and so courageous
as to approach the heroic
Great interest surrounds the salient
points in Armstrong; career. From
to early manhood he had lived
in the strong moral and intellectual
power of a missionary centre among a
subtropical people of soft and emotion
al nature. During the period of mis-
later education he was under the in
fuence of the best New England |
thought as expressed through DR.. Mars |
Williams College. and life jn |
the Berkshire Hills. In the military
service of the war for the Union and |
igafnst slavery his experiences, varied |
md deep, especially remarkable in the |