The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-10-13
University HYMN.

University Hymn.
Dear University
Thy sons right loyalty
Thy praises sing.
For thee. our Mother dear,
Nav every coming year
Fresh crowned with joy appear
Fresh honors bring.
Heaven blessed the genial ray,
OF that October day,
When at thy shrine,
Under the poplar shade,
Their vows our fathers paid
Thy corner stone they laid,
With rites divine.
o! Thou whose promise nerved
our fathers when they served
For Liberty,
Still be their chilGren's God,
Still with Thy staff and rod
Show us the path they trod,
The path to Thee.
DIR. Vena BILE then read a most en-
couraging report of the condition OF
the University, stating that the same
report would be read before many Uni
versity alumni clubs today in many
parts of North Carolina and all over
the country, from New York to Allan
tn. DR.. Venable gave some interest
ing and amusing "reminiscences of his
early life of the University and con-
trasted the condition of the University
fifteen years ago as compared with the
present condition. The best of his
speech was noble and generous trib-
ute to the venerable and beloved IA
Their of the University DR.. Kemp
Plummer Battle. All praise to him.
Music by the orchestra. DR.. Nenable
then introduced the speaker of the
day, DR.. G.. Alphonso Smith, who was
greeted with loud and long cheers.
DR. Smiths Address.
DIR. Smith used for his subject, Lit
crature in the South" He defended
the old South in her position in the
literary field, saying that ours was the
equal of any people, and whose real
merit and value the historian would
some day delight TO tell and the poet
would thirst to sing. That while much
had been written lately about the in
efficiency of the literature and Oratory
vi the South, in my mind and opinion
the poetry, the literature and the ora
tory of the South will compare favor
ably with any country and any age
From here the speaker reviewed brief
~ some of the master pieces of litera-
ture of the South paying glowing
tributes to the authors, stating that
some of them had been translated into
more foreign languages than any
poems written by any American. He
said that the South lost her oppor-
tunity to take her proper place in the
field of literature from 1880 to 1910
for il was during these years that the
whole English speaking people learned
for the first time Of the merits AND
value of the great English authors II
was at the time when the famous and
matchless debate took place between
Daniel Webster, of Mass, and Robert
Y. Haynes, of South Carolina. AT thai
fln r1ln a
Cratory, instead of literature. But the
South did learn its ability to take q
place IN literary fields i'll 1870, ard
from that time for the fifteen years
that followed is one of the most re-
markable periods in the history of any
people. If Bryant and Irwin could find
material in the Dutch sections of New
York and New England for imperish-
able prose and verse, what may we ex-
pect from our Southern authors, in
spired by an appropriate background
gorgeouslv rich with material for both
prose and poetry alike IF you for
get all that L say here this morning
remember with me, that literature
loves Il lost cause; truth loves 4 truth.
When men fight for truth, for justice
and ask God to aid them and then
realize that defeat was decreed 70,
them, then you may expect the poet OF
that country to sing with the deepest
and most passionate love that ever fill
ed human breast; and the historian
will love to tell the story of his COM
rades in a lost but just cause.
Dr. Smiths speech was a masterfu
piece of oratory and stands among, II
not the best he has ever delivered
from this rostrum. He is easily one OF
the SmootheSt and most pleasing ora
tors of North Carolina and has place
among the best i'll the country.
During the address by DR.. Smith DR..