University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

Page 26 text:

the course or separate lectures from it have been enjoyed by the people of several towns of the State. Of this course the King Lear is usually considered the finest. It is a most powerful rep- resentation of that great tragedy. Good judges who have seen the best actors of the day declare that never upon the stage have they seen the grand and pathetic character of this wonderful tragedy so vividly presented as in this lecture. The passion, the tenderness, the heart-break of the old king come living and real from the heart of the speaker, and the tones in which he utters Airs. CJ'l'llS .Y1Jfllll'01l. ' such lines as If ye yourselves are old, will cling to those pas- sages forever in the minds of those who have once heard them. The most diflicult to describe, because the most delicate and evanescent of all, is the happy humor of President Northrop, who that l1as sat in the University chapel as a student, can ever forget the rounds of laughter, the tumultuous applause, the joyous good-comradship which these sparkling sallies of the President produced. His wit never comes afterward,like the bright thoughts of most of us, it is always ready, always to the point, but always so apropos that apart from time and circum- stance it looses halfits charm. 29 yglbyraplzzbvl.

Page 25 text:

2 . A , I education good enough for the highest while not too good for the loyrap lcd ' lowest. And for the accomplishment of this I appeal to you, gentle- men, as intelligent members of the most powerful body oi' workers in the commonwealth, to give it your hearty and effective support. We can not wonder that these words and this spirit, together with the wise foresight which provided for our present course in agricultural education, completely won the case for the University. .H Prcsifleni. Xortllrop nt lfV0rk ill his Ullice. While it has been practical questions, connected with the institution which has grown with unexampled rapidity under his wise management, which have largely engrossed the aim and thought of President Northrop in the fourteen years of his life in Minnesota, still he has made himself felt in otherlines. His course of lectures upon Shakespeare has been given several times at the University and always to delighted audiences, and 28

Page 27 text:

yglbyrapkzbai. on Perhaps one of the best exhibitions of this power was his address at the Semi-Centennial Celebration of the University of Michigan in June, 1887, at which time he completely won the hearts of our neighbors of' the Peninsular State. The speech cannot be separated from the attendant circumstances, and it is impossible to represent it by quotation, but from the opening, in which he responded to President Angell's fiatterin g introduction, in the words: H I am merely a man, made a little lower than the The tree at the extreme Icft is ll nmplc tree plnntcal by President Northrop when a boy. Angells, to the rare blending of humor and pathos in the clos- ing words: I congratulate all friends on the prosperity of the University, and, as we shall tbllow in the dim distance behind you, without any soreness of heart because you arc in advance of us, we shall hope before the day closes and night shuts in, to get so near to you that you. can hear our voice bidding you God-speed as you go forward, and we can hear your voice bidding us God-speed as we come on. It was the complete expression of that genial spirit which those who know him know so well. 30