University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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Blue and Gold 19O4 [18 ITO5T 7 Laying of tKe Corner-Stone When generations yet to come shall resolve themselves to the task of writing the history of education from the very beginnings of time down to their own day, the laying of the corner-stone of the Hearst Memorial Mining Building at the University of California will mark an epoch in that narrative. It is not given to us;, with our narrow horizon, to judge of the significance of the events ' of that sombre wintery day in November of last year that marked the inception of one of the noblest ideas ever conceived - the erection of a mighty group of buildings of granite and marble, more enduring than Cheops or Gizeh, devoted to advancement of human knowl- edge. November 2Oth was not an ideal California day and the heavy down pour of rain robbed the occasion of much of the academic pomp and circum- stance that would otherwise have attended the laying of the corner-stone. But, not even a bounteous rain from out a threatening sky could prevent some two thousand students, faculty men, and invited guests of the University from attending. The mining students, two hundred strong, attired in the regulation denim blouse, trousers, and cap with the crossed hammer and gad symbolic of their profession, occupied a reserved section

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Blue and Gold 1904 FRANK XORRIS In Frank Xorris ' work there was a buoyant enthusiasm which rever- berates amongst us after his death. Even in the gloom of realism in his tales there was a dash of youth and hope. In our regret over his demise we have the stirring right to think we once numbered him amongst us. Students in California who write are bound to feel relationship with Frank Xorris ' life. He wrote and worked where they now are forming sentences. He wrote his Junior farce. He was on the staff of his class ' BLUE AND GOLD. He wrote for the college papers. Socially he was a fra- ternity man. He was one of the founders of the Skull and Keys Society, and it is said that much of the ritual was arranged by him. He was a good college man. As a literary man Xorris was a leader in America. He set upon a new field to p icture. Then into his writings he cast an enthusiasm for his sub- ject which covered a multitude of venial sins. J. M. Barrie ' s Tommy has said. Where the heart is. there is the treasure. This is the epitome of Frank Xorris ' artist creed. His heart was in writing, and he wrote books that make readers tremble with thought and he was a student at the Uni- versity of California. It will always be a satisfying thought to us that we had the opportunity to cheer him in life as sympathetically as we mourn him in death.

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Blue and Gold 19O4 near where the ceremony took place. The ceremony itself began at 3 130 and was very simple. With a silver trowel presented her by her lifelong friend, Mrs. C. E. Anthony, Mrs. Hearst applied some mortar to the granite base block and then handed the trowel to her son, William Randolph Hearst, who smoothed the plastic substance with the precious tool and in turn handed it to President Wheeler who did likewise. At this juncture Mrs. Hearst said a few impressive words relative to the significance of the ceremony in which she was the chief figure. The speech has already become an integral part of the Greater University. It is as follows: ' This corner-stone is laid in honor of an earnest student of mineralogy, a practical miner a man who measured men by their truth, and methods by their honesty. It is our sincere hope that the department work of the Hearst Mining Building will add to the world ' s scientific knowledge, and that students here may be inspired to the highest ideals of labor. The speech concluded, a signal from the master workman, and the huge white granite block, bearing the simple inscription A. D. MCMII was slowly let down upon the bed of mortar that Mrs. Hearst had prepared for it, thus was the ceremony carried out that marked the inauguration of work upon the magnificent Cyclopean building that will house the great- est school of mines in the world. Prior to the laying of the corner-stone, President Wheeler delivered an address which from its nobility of spirit, eloquence of diction, and sincerity of tone is worthy to go down in the history of the day ' s events. In a passage worthy of a Macaulay, he said: Out of the seething ebb and flow of shifting public interest, in the midst of the vain and transient cries of market place and forum rise the solid walls, the stern, clean pillars of the University to vindicate in the name of that assembled and clarified knowledge we call Science, of that harmony of thought we call Art, and of that digest of experience we call History, the steadiness and order of human life, and to pro- claim that man liveth not by bread alone and that it is the things of mind and spirit that are eternal. In concluding. President Wheeler said: This then is the memorial we found today, better memorial and more lasting than the pyramid that Cheops reared; better because it stands to help the life of men toward better things: more lasting, because it grafts itself upon the richest, warmest blood of the generations, and looks toward fruitage in the life of all the days to come. And the measure thereof no man can reckon. Here let it stand to tell of a virile character that struggled with nature and rude beginnings and struggling won, but blended in the message must ever lie reminder, though she wills it not, of a gentle woma n whose thought went forth unceasingly to others and others ' good.