University of Texas Austin - Cactus Yearbook (Austin, TX)

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Drury ' s Bluff, Winchester, Fredericksburg, Antietam, Malvern Hill, in Maryland, in the invasion of Pennsylvania, in Pickett ' s charge at Gettysburg. After this great battle, he was made prisoner and taken to Johnson ' s Island in Lake Erie, where he spent nineteen months as a prisoner of war. The winter of 1863-64 was one of unusual severity. Lake Erie was frozen so that wagons crossed from the mainland on the ice. The prisoners had one blanket each. Our prisoner and his bunk-mate put their blankets together and interlined them with newspapers to keep out the frost. The tedium of captivity was relieved for a few by the formation of a club for reading, the study of French and German under the tuition of Major Julian Mitch- ell of South Carolina, before the war attach of the United States Legation at St. Petersburg, an accomplished linguist. The women of Kentucky, old and young, were banded in every town and city for prison relief, and it was through the medium of this prison ministry that Captain Clark became acquainted by letter with her, who, after the war, was made his wife. Letters accompanied bales of clothing and boxes of Kentucky justly celebrated good things, and the girl who wielded the pen of a ready writer was often called upon to act as scribe. And thereby hangs a tale. An exchange was secured for Captain Clark through the Hon. Garrett Davis, United States senator from Kentucky, and he rejoined his command on the north side of James River, one month before the surrender at Appomatox. He was sur- rendered at Appomatox with Lee ' s brave remnant of a glorious army. On his return to Mississippi, that State in the throes of reconstruction offered no field for a young soldier whose family fortunes had been wrecked. He went to Kentucky, edited a paper called The Kentucky People, at Harrodsburg, and was there married to his present wife, Florence Anderson Clark. Together they edited the paper; together they made the old Kentucky home blossom as a rose; to- gether they sought a new home in fair Texas. For ten years Captain Clark was the partner in practice of law with Colonel James Q. Chenoweth. He was appointed one of the Regents of the University of Texas by Governor Ireland; became interested in the institution, then in its infancy; was made Proctor, Librarian, Registrar, Custodian-General, and removed to Austin in July, 1885. He has seen the University expand from its chrysalis state in the old temporary Capitol to its present dimensions. To it he has given eighteen of the best years of his life; to its students he has given the rare spectacle of a mind and heart unruffled by toil, undisturbed by petty personal ambitions, and unclouded by life ' s vicissitudes — the example of youthful heroism in defense of principles, of life-long devotion to duty, and of utter incorruptibility in the discharge of its obligations. His son, Carroll, is married and holds a position in the Confederate Home ; his daughter, Miss Edith, teaches English literature in the Denton Normal. She holds both the B.Lit. and M.A. degrees from the University. These brief sentences do not touch the hem of his larger life. That is written in the hearts of those whose lives his has touched and awakened. The revolving years alone can measure his influence. Long live this philosopher of cheerfulness, this dispenser of the wine of kindness. May many, many lustrums rest on him lightly. Long live the Judge! So say we all. Long live the Judge ! 10

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Judge James B. Clark. Rabbi Ben Ezra, who had tested the joys of youth and had grown old, once said: Come, grow old along with me, The best of life is yet to be, The last of life for which the first was made. The well-known and much-beloved subject of this sketch, the white-haired, ruddy-faced old gentleman, familiarly known as Judge, furnishes a striking exam- ple of the wisdom of the Eastern sage. He has learne d somewhere the secret of perennial youth. Eighteen years of service in a position where his work is largely of exacting detail has not dampened his ardor or dulled a naturally keen and lively mind. He is the youngest old man of his day. No one ever saw him with the blues. His companionship with young men is a source of delight, his gallantry proverbial. Both the young and the old seek his counsel. His friendship is the one connecting link that binds hundreds of students to their college days. They may forgetjall else and yet remember one man whose interest and friendship were disinterested and genuine — the spontaneous expression of a gentle nature that reflects kindness as the flower sheds perfume. Such a life confounds the wisest philosopher. Its power is hidden to the most reflective. Simplicity and genuine- ness deceive by their transparency. Often only death can reveal to us the man in his proper perspective. So, while we know we love the Judge, it is hard to define him. He doesn ' t fit into any of our preconceived pigeon-holes. His personality is bigger than any description. The affectionate regard of many hearts, we alone may presume to translate in one particular: The best of his life is in the present, though he is growing old in years. He is our model old man. We shouldn ' t mind age, if it led into the paths of peace and usefulness in which he daily walks. This Cactus is his, in response to a unanimous demand, and we honor it by printing a brief story of his life. James Benjamin Clark is a North Carolinian by birth, a Mississippian by adop- tion, a son of General William Clark and lyouisa Pearce Lanier. General Clark removed to Mississippi when the subject of this sketch was an infant. General Clark was a planter, owning many negroes, and for a time was Treasurer of the State of Mississippi. Judge Clark ' s mother died when he was five years old. He was next to the youngest of ten children, and his elder sisters were to him in loco matris. At the age of twelve he entered Franklin College near Nashville, Tennessee, from which he graduated after four years. Later he entered Harvard University in the Soph- omore Class, and graduated in 1855, being valedictorian. He studied law, and in i860 went to Europe, expecting to travel for several years before returning to the United States. How rudely these plans were mter- rupted and the dreams of youth dispelled, the history of that time will tell. He returned home, went on to Richmond, and to the front at Manassas He was enrolled in the Eighteenth Mississippi Regiment, Barksdale ' s Brigade; was at 9

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PAGE FACULTY 17 CLASSES 37 FRATERNITIES loi CLUBS 149 ORGANIZATIONS 163 PUBLICATIONS 178 ATHLETICS i95 LITERATURE 219 ADVERTISEMENTS 329 II