Honolulu star-bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1912-2010, 1912-08-21

The reunion of graduates at COM
1rencement time has become a regu-
| lar feature at nearly all of our col
leges. To come back" has develop
ed into one OF the functions and priv
ileges of the graduate. The triennial,
sexennfa1, decennial and other ami
Nersary classes have a selected COM
mittee who prepare for all the de-
tails of the celebration, hire sleeping
! quarters, dining-rooms and club
/ houses.
Dr. Francis f. Clark is quite right
that many of the alumni reunions at
our colleges are conducted in an un-
worthy way. Let me put myself in
! hearty accord with him on that
score -.
Yet let me speak, too, of another
side of the picture. In my recent fif-
teenth anniversary at Yale, where out
of two hundred and fifty living mem.
4 bers Of the class one hundred and
fifty returned the drinking was on a
/ very limited SCALE And the eneour-
aging thing was that saw man after
man who in college had been known
as a drinker now refuse to drink at
ALL And out of the one hundred and
| fifty men l saw only two under the
influence of liquor. My observation
in the last five years is that in. most
of our colleges drinking. is less than
it used to be-, ,,.
/ My thought turns particularly to
the large and bright side of these col
4 h. L4
been out ten, fifteen or twenty years
are no longer boys. They have met
the problems of the world, the sor-
rows and; the joys of a. large portion
/ Of lifess road. They come back to re-
Ihort to each other something of what
they have found. Some have found
one thing, some another, the reports
do not all agree; and yet the compar-
ing process does this much, it makes
every one feel that We are all work
ing in the same world; and it adds
tremendous value to the field of our
labor. What great help to find that
some man of whom you least expect
ed it was glad to hear you tell of
1 your life and worki & ~, sss
| l was surprised to find that many
: WIZ "OulO HUI ONA " OAu4NA
lberships were nevertheless deeply and
! vitality interested to- hear of church
1 problems. And nothing was more
I signfficant than what occurred at the
fclass dinner . Cheers were being
4 giyen for some of the speakers, when
8 suddenly. some one cheered one of the
4 Clergyman In the class. Then in a
Il perfectly SPONTANEOUS way the whole
room gave the college cheer for each
separate clergyman, calling out the
names with rounds of applause. s.
It. was not compliment nor, affecta-
/, ton, it was just spontaneous ex-
q preston of what men really feel
lRboHt the church but seldom speak
Iout For fear that some preacher had
! been omitted, one of the eheerers
Furried oVefIto me. and asked Have
1--we left out any Of your ministers? p
had q plan behind 1t. No other group
of men, as "a group, had this tribute
i paid to them os-their profession:
u / do not believe that the ministry
is a. defunct calling, even in the eyes
OF men of the world. l believe the
church is still looked to, now, more
than ever looked to, as q, bulWark and
defense; and as college men size up
their battles in the world, read thei.
: defeats and. their temporary successes,
something grips them and tells them
that, after all, the institution which
looks upon. these by the light Of etern-
J itX and not by the changeabIe and
4 Pickering torch of tire has the one
\ and only vital message for heart and
mind ]. doubt II any group of men ex-
Icept a college class would have given
the unconscious testimony to the
| There was no tribute paid to money,
as such. We all knew who had been
the. men of means when in college
and by mere chance heard of one or
two who since graduation have been
very successful, but other than this J
left the reunion, as did every one else,
not seeing a sign whereby one would
4 know who had much or who had little
That the money element was in the
background Is shown by the fact that
no definite sum was asked for. Every
man was asked to send any amount
he could for all expenses, and ON
reaching the reunion no more was de-
nanded, ana no one except the com
mittee knew what any one else contrir
buted. That some gave much and
some little can be seen by the fact
that surplus of $4,000 was given ~
the class to the university. and that,
on the other hand, there were four
union was only one dollar apiece.
These things are hopeful :igns in
material age and T am glad to believe
that the colleges are still placing char
doubt if in any other body of a hun
dred and fifty men the thought Of the
distinctions of worldly success could
have been thus conspicuous by its al.
sence.
There was still another tribute. It
was that, paid to work and worth, es-
pecially in the case of men who in col
must have given a lifelong inspiration
to some of those who years ago were