Mississippi State University - Reveille Yearbook (Starkville, MS)

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Our First President. GENERAL STEPHEN 1). LEI-]. LL.l).. President Mississippi Agricultural nml Mechanical Colleye, April 1. 1880, to Maij 1, 1899. The bravest are the tenderest, Tlic loving aii ' the daring. As ;i soldier, the author of this brief sketch served under the late Lieutenant-Genera] Stephen 1). Lee the last year of the Civil War, and as a member of his faculty and as his next-door neighbor was intimately associated with him for sixteen years. In war and in peace, our first President was found, in every crisis of life, a great man — great in nobility of character thai faces duty, that rights in the open with hard blows, that is magnanimous to a defeated foe, that holds no vengeful malice against the foe who is successful. There is no finer model after which the young men of Mississippi can fashion their lives; for he was a great leader, a stanch friend, a just enemy, a generous neighbor, a loving father, a tender husband — a noble gentleman. William Howard Magruder. VI

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sioner of Agriculture, Dr. Knapp, places the Mississippi A. M. in the forefront of Southern industrial schools. President Taft, on his recent trip through the South, took occasion to commend the work done at this College. To say that these things are the result of chance, or of natural growth, is hardly to give credit to whom credit is due. Nothing great or good was ever accomplished without unremitting, self-sacrificing toil. Certainly, then, we must owe some- thing of our present standing in the educational world to the ceaseless efforts of our President, With a broader vision than ever before, he is now working to make the influence of our College felt in every corner of our beloved State. Pie will never be content until the curse of ignorance, which is blighting our country, is lifted, and until Mississippi assumes that place in the agricultural life of the nation which Nature intended she should occupy — the Garden Spot of America. Yes, the A. M. glories in her past — her Lees, her Stones, her Montgomeries and her Georges — and with hopeful, expectant eye she turns to the future. She stands today on the threshold of a wider existence. In the voiceless suppli- cation of a mother ' s love she beseeches you, her sons, to forget not your duty. Before her stretches a vista of growth, and progress, and usefulness, such as will lead to a realization of her fondest desires. Feeble as is our vision of the future, yet strengthened by the fire of love, we have caught a glimpse of what is in store for our Alma Mater. We believe in her future as we honor and respect her past. Hoping that in these pages each reader may find cause for a greater reverence for the A. M. of long ago, and a greater ambition for the A. M. of the future, we dedicate this volume to the man whom we believe will change these intangible dreams into living, breathing actualities. PI. B. Sanders, Editor-in-Chief The ' JO Reveille. » i

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GENERAL STEPHEN D. LEE, LL. D. 13