Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

Page 30 text:

Address at the Funeral of Jane Lathrop Stanford Res-. Chas. R. Bkown [■ . ha c reached the place where we are to render this last sad office to all that remains on earth of this honored and g-enerous family. The dust returns to dust as it was. but the memor} ' of what they have been and ha e done will abide here forever, and the helpful influence of the service they have ren- dered will rest uneeasino-ly upon our State and our Nation, and upon the yountj manhood and womanhood of lands across the sea. The his ' h office of sorrow has been abundantly declared in literature, in art and life. Idie sweet singer of Israel, looking back upon the supreme bereavement of his life, said : Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress — the suffering had served to widen the range of his sympathies and to extend his purpose of usefulness. One of the most widely read poems in the English language sprang from Tennyson ' s sorrow o er the death of his friend Hallam. The lo ■eliest building which adorns the earth, the Taj Mahal, grew out of the sorrow of a generous man over the death of his devoted wife. The strains of that I uneral March and Seraphic Chant, by Ciuilmant, wdiich alone is able to contend for pre-eminence in that field with the celebrated composition of Chopin, was written within three days after the death of the composer ' s mother. Somehow the eyes that have been washed with tears, come to have a clearer vision of the beauty of holiness and of service and of God. We think of all this as we gather here around this mausoleum and imdcr the shadow of these noble imiversitv buildings. It was far away in sunny Italy that the light died out of the sky for these devoted parents. Possessed of ample means and with the highest aspirations for the de -elopment and usefulness of their only son, it seemed, when he died, that the very purpose of exist- ence for them was utterly gone. lUit in the ' er}- hour of this overwdielming sadness, Senator Stanford rose up and said, The children of California shall be my children — and the plans for this splendid institution began to take shape in his mind.