The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-06-03
MEN, WOESEN
 AND THINGS


 the happy faces of the graduates finger ing before my gaze.
 The college has had a good year and
 Dr. C. c. Daniel, the president, the fac
 ulty and the board of trustees were all
 in high good humor. While the grad
 uating class was small yet it goes out
 having done fine work, to make a place
 for itself as former classes have in
 the great world.
 | l hardly know which gives me more pleasure, the happiness of the graduates
 or the joy of their parents It means in
 many instances hard work on the part of the students and self sacrifice on the
 part of the fathers and mothers; ,but when the glad day comes the hardships and deprivations are forgotten and laid proudly away in the sheepsSin.
 never make the trip to the Birming- ham-Southern but I feel more than over paid in getting a chance to get the glo- rlous views from the high ground on which the college Is located. It iss to me one of the supreme outlooks in the entire district It is in a virgin forest, with the teeming valley below. and to the south the mountains of iron, while to the north are some of the great indus tries To the west are Ensley and Besse- mer and to the east the great city itself.
 
 Birmingham-Southern College, like many other institutions of learning, began to erect buildings without a proper plan having been selected. Howard College made the same mistake; but both have hadScompetent landscape artists to aid in correcting the errors and all the new buildings will be erected in keeping with general scheme. The Science hall, an up-to-date building in every way, graces the spot designated for it by the experts, and so does the new dormltory.
 The present building, which faces the street, at the proper time will be turned around to face west. It is solidly built of brick and while there will be , some considerable expense, it will present no real difficulty to the contractor who undertakes it. Further south when the funds are in hand, will rise the great ad- ministraton building which will be the center of the new group of buildings now on the programme when the half million dollars to come out of the drive | in connection with the education is | raised and supplemented by quarter ot a million more.
 This brings me to the address of the morning by Dr. J. D. Simpson on Dreams and Dreamers The dreams behind those who have the shaping of the college are on a great scale. They growing power there is in Alabama Methodism and the possibilities which | lie hid in the great district in which
 their denominational school is located Out of these two relations will be born a college worth while.
 l had heard my friend. Dr. J. D. Simp- | son, speak on number of occasions, but | had only heard him in a serious vein, and l was not prepared for the light ness of touch with which he handled the | baccalaureate address. Being guilty my | SCH OI dIlHCIlnS COHlflenctIleHlS on SuCn occasions, and also being familiar with the average type of matter. style and oratory dealt out to audiences, I was ready to submit to hearing lot about character, preparedness, "oppor- tunity,' etc.
 But I was wrong in my calculations, | had taken along book to read if my attention lapsed, but when the good doc O0t gnipu I forgot all ahOut the vol ume in my lap and was all ears to hear what he was saying. for he was talking 1 in natural way like a human being, | and not in the disguise of commence ment orator dispensing wisdom for the | benefit of graduates who during the whole four years had been fled up' on similar diet until they loathed the very mention of it.
 | Some commencement orators seem to l think that it is absolutely obligatory to repeat a lot of commonplaees with an air of profundty as if they were dis pensers of new order of wisdom or l to choose deep subject about which they know little and their hearers less with the object of getting for themselves the name of being students; or they get to- gether string of elevated moral maxims | and fire them broadcast in the hope that | the audience will regard them as de- | lenders of the faith. But why go on de- , soribing them? If You have been com | mencement-goe you know them just as well as l do and description is waste iof time.
 1 Now, Dr. Simpson, when he got on his feet, did not give one the idea that he felt that he was bearing the burden of Atlas on his shoulders, and consequently he wasn't ashamed to tell some corking good jokes, draw some homely pictures, paint a few gems scatter some chunks of common sense. grow reminiscent, ride abreast of his day, and take peep into the future These things I am jotting down are but signboards to let {, those who did not have the pleasure of | hearing him know that he made a hu- ! morous talk shot through with darts of real genius.
 He used Mark Twains> My Boyhood Dreams in a most artistic way. If you arc not familiar with it you have missed | one of the quaintest and most delicious l bits of fun- making ever indulged in by ] that most remarkable American, Samuel l Clemens. He pictures an evening in which William Dean Towels, John Hay, Thomas Bailey Aldrich, Brander Mat 1 thews George w. Cable and Joel Chanler Harris related what each in his youth had looked forward to being when he reached manhood's estate.
 | According to~Mark, Howells' ambition was to be an auctioneer. Hay aspired to be a horse doctor. Matthews sighed to l be cowboy, Cable hoped to be the l ring master in circus, and timid liar ris dreamed of being a bNccaneer The