Beloit College - Codex Yearbook (Beloit, WI)

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To the memory of a loyal alumnus, who brought h onor to his college, who linked his endeavors with those ol the class of 1909 in the establishment of a Greater Beloit, and who gave up his life while striving for his alma materg To the memory of lirnrg Eirhinznn Svmith A ,Tl1is laoolc is reverently dedicated.

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I THE CODEX asiasal 16211113 Eirkinsnn Smith HERE are some lives, true and useful ones, which move in tranquil ,Z ' . -S' ways, with measured heart beats, to their natural and forseen con- fv 4 clusion. They are like long, serene summer days. There are other , ig. ,T , lives that are eager, tumultuous, rushing, throbbing with high pur- F pose, accomplishing arduous tasks in unexpected even catastrophic fi 3, ways. F hey are like rivers sweeping in torrents and haunted with the sound of cataracts. There is no question as to which of these two types of life has the more fascinat- ing interest, and draws us with deeper sympathy to generous emulation. It is eager- ness that makes us eager, profound impulses stir our hearts. And there is no doubt which of these two represents the life of Henry Dickinson Smith. Preceding him was a long line of ancestors of fine intellectual and spiritual qual- ity, reaching back to the great brain and heart of jonathan Edwards. His father, Dr. Arthur H. Smith, one of the ablest of Beloit's graduates, stands easily in the front rank of eminent missionary leaders who are profoundly affecting the destinies of the Chinese Empire. His books are already classical authorities on Chinese character and life, and his conversation scintillates with brilliant expression of insight and ob- servation. At the great Centenary Conference at Shanghai this year, two presiding officers being chosen to represent respectively Europe and America, it was fitting that Dr. Smith should be the one who represented our continent. Mrs. Smith, too, has remarkable power of concentrated purpose and of graceful and graphic expression, beneath which is the mystic's soul with unfathomable depths of self devotion. Intensity has characterized their son's life throughout. In infancy, in a land where the children are patterns of tranquility, he was a little dynamo. A story is current in one of the missionary families of Pang Chuang, which suggests in the child the qualities we all admired in the young man. The mules kept in the mission compound for the purposes of evangelizing tours, sometimes broke loose and stampeded through the premises, causing much temporary confusion. After one of these ex- periences, little Henry said very earnestly to a grown up friend: 'tThe next time a mule does that, l'll get a big stick and hit him a 777ZL'7llZ70'Ll.Y whack! How largely hiswhole life was made up of emergencies in the midst of which he stood, valiant and aflame, dealing blows with all his might at antagonists within his own soul, or grappling with situations or competitors in generous but tremendous struggle. For one so intense as he was, his power of sinking himself and his own interest in some larger interest and aim was little less than marvelous, and made him both honored and beloved. When a mere lad employed as an elevator boy, some one in the basement carelessly sent the elevator, loaded with fragile merchandise, spinning up to the top of a high building at a perilous speed. Henry clung to the ropes re- E51