Mississippi College - Tribesman Yearbook (Clinton, MS)

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Alumni and Alma Mater The real wealth of an educational institution is not found in the magnificent buildings which adorn her campus; not in the splendid equipment of libraries and laboratories; not in acres of land nor in million dollars endowment, but in the men who bear her stamp; whose faces have been turned in the right direction under her influence; whose minds have been quickened in thought and in action; whose hearts have been surcharged with noble impulses by the personal touch of faculty and students, and the wholesome atmosphere which pervades the place. Yes, by her fruit she is known. I he fruit tree may be good to look upon; its trunk may be stately; its branches may be shapely; its leaves may be symmetrical, but the real test of its worth is the kind of fruit that it bears. The factory may cover acres with suitable buildings; it may have in operation the most perfect and up-to-date machinery; it may have in its employ thousands of skilled workmen, but the factory is judged only by the finished product which comes from her planes, her spindles and her forges. 1 he story is told that, passing the college buildings at Cambridge one day, a cynic accosted a gentleman coming down the stone steps. “And what do you manu- facture here?” was the question. Power, sir, said the gentleman, who chanced to be one of the professors. “Oh, indeed! What kind of power?” “Come along with me, sir.” He took him into a room. The wall was covered with pictures. 4 ‘These are some of our boys,” said the professor, sweeping his arm. The cynic looked up. There were Edmund Spencer, John Dryden, John Mil- ton, Thomas Gray, Samuel Coleridge, Lord Byron, William Wordsworth, Lord Tennyson. They passed into another room, and there were Oliver Cromwell, William Pitt, Lord Palmerston, William Wilberforce, Lord Macaulay, William Thackeray, Bulwer-Lytton, Abraham Cowley, George John Romanes. “Do you see that seat there? That was Sir Isaac Newton’s; the one behind it Jeremy ' laylor’s; the one behind it Bishop Lightfoot’s.” Mississippi College for almost a century has been a power plant for the creation of personality, and she has been continually, year after year, projecting into the public life of our state and nation, and to the uttermost parts of the earth, clear thinking, stout hearted, earnest and efficient leaders, who have taken their places in every department of life. And should a cynic pass this way, I would point him to the governor’s chair, in which sat one of Mississippi College’s sons, and gave the state one of her best and most efficient administrations. I would direct to him the national congress, where is to be found two of her splendid sons, ably and honorably representing the people of their respective districts. One of whom, even before his seat had become warm, when one of the most vital questions concerning congress at this session arose, he came forth from obscurity and delivered one of the most masterly addresses ever heard in those historic halls. The veterans of twenty years of legislative experience rushed forward and warmly congratulated him upon his maiden effort, declaring that 8

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Editorial e ENTLE reader, look not with a critic’s eye on this volume in which we have attempted in mirthful mood to picture to you our college life. Approach it in the ge- nial spirit in which we offer it to you, and you may be able to while away pleasantly a few hours which other- wise might hang heavily on your hands. As you scan its pages and en- joy its sports and jokes, you may re- call the pleasures of your own school days, and in its gallery of pictures you may see some familiar faces that it is pleasant to look upon again. 7

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rraar 3 n -is.. it would have done credit to those of maturer years and much more experience. I would show him the ermine of a Supreme Court judge, so modestly and so effi- ciently worn by one of the sons of this great institution. I would call his attention to the nine able sons in our state senate, and to as many more in the house of repre- sentatives. I would direct him to a half dozen or more college presidents who claim Mississippi College as the dynamo whence came their power. I would mention by the score, teachers in public schools and colleges who are making their impress upon the men and women of this generation. T. hen I would take him to every town and hamlet in this state and show him some of the manifestation of the power generated by the great power plant at Clinton, in the lawyers at the bar, in the doctors with the patient, in the business men in banks and stores, in the farmers on their well im- proved farms. Finally, I would carry him to the churches, and let him listen to the truth as it is being proclaimed by hundreds of Mississippi College’s sons; their mes- sages burning with love, their hearts pulsating with interest for their fellows, their souls aflame with the passion of eternity. Should the now believing friend ask me the secret of this institution’s power, I would tell him, that in the first place she has never offered any short cuts to glory, or any by-ways to success. While others have sacrificed scholarship for numbers, Mississippi College has never made one bid at the cost of efficiency. Her curriculum has always been full throughout the entire four years, her instruction has always been thorough. In the second place, the environment has made a very large contribution. Edu- cation is largely atmospheric. The University of Athens, in its era of supremacy in the first and second centuries, could not have flourished elsewhere. Rome was in- evitable. The University of Alexandria was well located for its time. So Missis- sippi College located in the Athens of Mississippi, where every hill is full of historic interest, where the atmosphere is purer, the sun shines brighter, the flowers bloom more sweetly than in any other place in the world. The very air is electric with spiritual power. If a boy comes here scoffing, he leaves praying. It is simply irre- sistible. It is the invisible that makes a great institution. Great men make an in- stitution great, and the qualities that make great men are invisible. Long may Mississippi College live! that she shall hold up an idealism of the best in human life; that she shall permeate our industrial system; permeate our com- merce; permeate the growing thousands with the desire for the higher enjoyment and best expression of intellectual and spiritual life, and that all that touch her shall be- come lovers of art, lovers of nature, lovers of all that is best and divinest in the earthly life. 9