Furman University - Bonhomie Yearbook (Greenville, SC)

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sidere l invidious to name these men, or others who from the earlier (lays by their achievements and general worth have added to the lustre of Furman's name. The class of 1856 gave to us Col. It. B. Watson, of Ridge Springs, S. C., the apostle of sunshine, and the pioneer peach grower of South Carolina; Jas. X. Nash, attorney and teacher, of Atlanta, (la.; and W. 11. Perry, who represented his district in Congress. Space will not allow us to comment upon the classes year by year, but it will be news to many among us to know that Furman University has furnished professors to Cornell, Rutgers, Chicago University, Johns Hopkins University, Richmond College, Wake Forest College, Clemson College, the State Normal School of Washington, Mercer University (including a president), Judson College (a president), Baylor University, and the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Probably the most famous Sanskrit scholar is an alumnus of Furman University—Maurice Bloomfield of Johns Hopkins University; while another alumnus, John M. Manly, of Chicago University, stands at the head of English scholarship in the United States. Editors, lawyers, physicians, missionaries, teachers. preachers, legislators, civil engineers, merchants, and planters—the time would fail us to appraise the value of the contribution in manhood which Furman University has made to the good of the state, the nation, and the world. THE PRESENT DAY OBLIGATION The splendid record of the past enjoins upon us, as no mere exhortation could do, the obligation of maintaining in the enlarged Furman of today the ideals and the spirit of the earlier years. Who are the men upon whom this responsibility rests? The present Faculty of course; and we wish we could introduce these men one by one to all our people. In their special training for the positions which they occupy they represent Harvard, Yale, Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Colby, University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania, University of Virginia, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in this country; and Cambridge (England), Paris (France), Leipzig and Berlin (Germany), abroad. It will he seen that these men are fully competent to maintain the standards set by Furman, Judson, Reynolds, and Edwards. The Arts degrees offered by Furman University today are standard and represent a sound liberal education. A CALL AND A CHALLENGE The facts here brought together constitute a call and a challenge. The South Carolina Baptist State Convention has here a great enterprise on its hands, a great and growing and quite incalculably useful enterprise of a fundamental and essential importance to the progress of our people. It enshrines as no other enterprise does or can ever do the traditions and spirit of our history in this state; the great names of that history arc forever linked with Furman University. These great Page Thirtren

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scribed by Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Also in 1908 a commodious dormitory was built for the Fitting School. On December 31, 1909, largely through the efforts of Rev. E. 1 . Easterling, Financial Agent, all the conditions in reference to the James (’. Furman Hall of Science were met. The work of erecting the new building was begun in the year 1910, and it was formally opened with appropriate exercises on January 18. 1912. It contains a Museum of Natural History, with a well arranged display of many specimens, a laboratory of Physics, another for Chemistry, another for Biology, another for Psychology, besides private laboratories for the Professors, and several recitation rooms, etc., besides a finely equipped lecture room with gas. water, electricity, projection lantern equipment, etc., and seating capacity on highly inclined floor for one hundred and fifty. FOI R LINES OF EXPANSION There are four lines of expansion which lie before us, calling us to increased devotion to the largest single enterprise conducted in common by the Baptists of South Carolina. These are. viz.. 1st. Endowment: 2nd. Loan Fund: 3rd. Courses of Study; 4th, New Buildings. Of course expansion in these lines will be accompanied by a steady, but we hope not too rapid increase in the number of students. The present endowment amounts to $225,000 and il is urgently necessary for us to press on with the endowment of the institution as rapidly as possible to the $500,000 mark. With the increase of the student body which this material expansion will certainly secure, it will be increasingly necessary to provide aid for worthy young men who have brains and pluck, but no money. At present our available loan fund for others than ministerial students, amounts to $4,000 and only the interest of some of this money can be distributed. The ideal plan for the aiding of young men is to lend them without interest sufficient money to put them through college, the loans to bear interest from the date of their graduation. In this way considerable capital could be invested in the befit of securities, viz., manhood. A sum of $20,000 could be administered by the Faculty in this way in the very noblest service of the Kingdom of Christ. SOME DISTI NtH'lSHEl) ALCMNI This extended enlargement of the material equipment does not necessarily ensure better work than was done in the earlier days. A glance at the list of the Alumni will show that, from the beginning Furman University has maintained an exalted ideal of scholarship. The very first class to graduate gave to Southern Baptists their veteran hero missionary, Rev. .1. B. Hartwell, and to the South Carolina brotherhood the incomparable John 1. Williams. It will not he con- Page Twelve

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Spirits of the past who rule us from their urns and who invested their love and prayers and gifts invite us of the present generation to join them in their service of all coming generations by like investments of love and prayers and gifts. A prosperity such as they never saw has dawned upon us; resources beyond their dreams are at our command. And they challenge us to do with our means as well as they did with theirs. Men and women of South Carolina who love Christ and their fellows can win no surer title to the gratitude and veneration of coming generations than by linking their names with Furman University, and joining hands to make the University what the opening future demands. As compared with such a use of our resources, the building of private fortunes is despicable indeed, which, as Mr. Andrew Carnegie has lately said, “ministers not to any taste worthy of man.” Surely the time cannot lie far off when individuals, some of whom are reading this article, will, of their own judgment as to wise investments and without solicitation put their thousands into Furman I ni-versity. Of all such we may be sure that generations to come will rise up and call them blessed. •Cook: Education in South Carolina, p. 20. •Cook: Op. Cit., pp. 34-35. Page Fourteen