The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-01-25
Many Graduates of Institution
 Attend Banquet.
Former Students Gather at Feast In New Esxchanse and speak Enthu- siasticaIIy of Growth of
 Alma Mater.

tk f s
 Men, who were students at the Uni- yersity of Alabama, last night toasted that institution and made merry at an elaborate banquet at the Exchange Ho- tel.
 University spirit has been running high in Alabama during the past year. The alumni are almost perfectly or ganized and in the last three months. there have been gatherings of the graduates in the various cities of the State. At each of these gatherings the greatest enthusiasm for the old insti- tuition at Tuscaloosa and the Greater University has been displayed.
 But it remained for the Montgomery gathering to arouse the maximum of enthusiasm. r.
 Few more distinguished gatherings have assembled in Montgomery. and just as the flower of Alabama's public men were wont to assemble around the board of the old Exchange, so was the flower of the men of Alabama, who have been before the people. assem- bIed if the magnificent now hostelry.
 At the head of the table was Hon. TIC. Mcclellan, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, an alumnus of the bni- yersity. and one of the youngest men who ever graced that bench, made world-famous by Brickell and Clay Stone and T. N. Mcclellan.
 Near him was seated PresidenA John W. Abercrombie, whose administration of the University has been the most notable in it's history. %
 Then there was Blob Graves. the young iAdjutant-General; Dr. Thomas M. owen of the Department of Archives and History; Harry c Gunnells, the newly elected Superintendent of Edu- afSy. o,,H nnhlic- spirited Montgomery banker; Dr, Flu gene Allen Smith, State .Geologist and beloved by every man who ever at tended the Tuscaloosa institution; Hill Ferguson of Birmingham, the youngest President of the alumni organization, and to whose efforts the splendid or kanization of former students is due.
 There wore probably one hundred others, all old students and few dis tlnguished guests, seated around the well-Iaden board I
 One of the most pleasant features or the dinner was the presence Of the University Glee Club, twenty-nve strong. under the direction of Tom Garner. the popular editor of The Tus- caloosa Times-Gazette. The college boys with their songs and yells thrilled the older banquetters and brought back more wildly their recollections Of the 
 ..happfest days of our lives.
 Greater .Uniyersity Sentiment.
 The great sentiment of the evening was the Greater University and the securing of a $500,oo0 appropriation for the University from the present Legislature.
 The sentiment was sounded first by Lieutenant Governor Henry B. Gray, who did not stop at declaring himself in favor of the appropriation asked for, but urged that at the next ses- sion of the Legislature the University ask for $50O,000 more.
 It was echoed by Senator Henry F. Reese of Dallas, who spoke at length on the neglect and the prejudice the Legislatures have forfnerly given and had for the institution @- ---
 He styled the University the States step child. but he declared the children of the step daughter were demanding its mothers rights and prophesied they would get 1t.
 Professor Abercrombie paid trib- ute to the alumni in it's work for the