Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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Dr. Alfred J. Morrison A presiding officer, on one occasion, introducing a distinguished representative of a certain university, said, This university never sends out any bad men and never keeps any. Naturally every institution takes pride in the attainments and distinction of her sons, and doubtless all send out their good men. The alumni are the real index of what a college stands for and does: and, if this standard of estimate be adopted, Hampden- Sidney will not only not suffer by comparison, but may even afford to be proud of the good name her sons have carried for her to the world. It is a popular and well-attested verdict that Hampden-Sidney graduates make good teachers, good lawyers, doctors, preachers, and good men in the various activities of business life. Not only so, but from the great universities, where accuracy of scholarship and thoroughness of attainment are the requisites, comes the word that the sound and careful training of Hampden-Sidney men. admitted to the advanced courses of instruction, is always recognized and becomes at once an asset to the credit of the men themselves and the institution they represent. Surely, then, it is praiseworthy and significant that the sons of Hampden-Sidney are always able to secure for themselves at least a fair degree of success in the world of business, and often- times to win the enviable badge of scholarship in the realm of letters. It is not improper, therefore-much less is it boastful-that the students of Hampden-Sidney, through the medium of their annual publication, the KALEIDOSCOPE, should talce occasion, from time to time, to voice their feelings of admiration for the high standard of excellence the old College has always set and successfully maintained for herself and her sons, and particularly now is it befitting, as that sentiment finds its expression in the dedication of their present volume to one whose name stands for scholarly ideals and recognized literary attainments, to an alumnus of the College who has contributed no mean part to the reputation of his Alma Mater in the realm of letters and learning,-to one who needs no introduction here, Dr. Alfred Morrison. Not only thus is a praiseworthy sentiment happily expressed and a well-deserved compliment gracefully paid, but in this act of the KALEIDOSCOPE Staff may be dis- cerned a laudable desire, on the part of the student body generally, to record their appre- ciation of the many and valuable services rendered them by one who has proved himself the best friend the literay publications at Hampden-Sidney have ever had. His interest in the success of the Magazine and the KALEIDOSCOPE has always been warm and unfailing, and many a time he has come to the rescue when these publications needed just such a true and helpful friend. As, in a larger way, Dr. Morrison may aptly be characterized as a product and an exponent of Hampden-Sidney scholarship and culture, so too, in a special sense. he may be regarded as truly representative of her best literary traditions and impulses. Himself, in his student days, closely identified with both Magazine and KALEIDOSCOPE, he has ever since sought, no less by his generous assistance I0

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than by his sympathetic interest, to uphold and advance their fortunes, and, with a well- placed emphasis, he has all along stressed their value and importance as Hampden- Sidncp publications. ls it not unusually appropriate, then, that on the dedicatory page of the present volume of the KALEIDOSCOPE should appear the name of one who has done so much for the success of past issues, and who stands ever ready to give freely of his time and of his labors to each succeeding year's staff? Moreover, it is desirable that a place of permanent record should be given in the annals of the Institution to the name of one who, both by ancestry and birth, as well as by association and training, carries, in his person, so many of the traditions of the College, and who, in his unremitting study of its past, displays an intensity of in- terest and a beauty of devotion that are equalled only by the accuracy and range of his knowledge upon all matters touching the College and the community,-for, as said of him in a recent issue of the Magazine, perhaps no other man living knows as much about the history of Hampden-Sidney and Prince Edward County. Early transplanted to Hampden-Sidney, and brought up from very infancy in this spot of so many fine associa- tions and of such splendid inspiration, educated within these College walls,-nay, more. a grandson of the Rev. M. P. Atkinson, D. D., for years an honored and distinguished President of the College,-Dr. Morrison is, by every consideration, as he is every whit, a son of the College, and it is no wonder he has so well fixed in his nature the distinctive elements of Hampden-Sidney tradition, sentiment, and culture. Thus singularly and fortunately ordered in his birth and bringing up, he may surely be regarded as the heir of the Hampden-Sidney ages, and into his keeping have been committed very largely the College archives of a hundred and thirty-five years past,-a trust to which he has proved himself loyally true and abundantly equal. The Staff, then, not only has done a fitting and an appropriate act in thus honoring Dr. Morrison, but has rendered the College a real service in placing upon record some account of an alumnus, whose merits, for their own sake, may well be written in the College annals, and whose name, for all it represents, cannot afford to be omitted from any register of Hampden-Sidney's notable and illustri- ous sons. Born in Selma, Alabama, July l lth, IS76, the son of the Rev. Alfred and Mrs. Portia Lee Morrison, Dr. Morrison came, in early infancy, to Hampden-Sidney, and here he has spent the greater part of his life. He entered Hampden-Sidney College in the fall of l89l and graduated four years later with the degree of A. B. The session of l895-6 he spent as a graduate student in the department of Modern Languages at the University of Virginia: during the session of 1896-7 he taught at Locust Dale Academy, Madison County, Va., again, in i897-8, he became a student of the University of Virginia, this time doing graduate work in the school of Latin: and then during the session of l898-9 he was an Instructor in the Baylor's University School, Chattanooga, Tenn. ln the fall of l899 he entered the Johns Hopkins University as a student of the Romance Lane guages, and received the degree of Ph. D. from that lnstitution in l902. His work ll