University of Maryland Baltimore Dental School - Mirror Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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THE MIRROR ions on stubborn questions and told us to draw our own conclusions. Permit us to add our greatest respect, esteem, and best wishes, to the blessings and congratulations conferred upon you by hundreds of our predecessors. During the last midsummer vacation in our several homes all over the country, we received the sad inteUigence that Death ' s angel had entered into your midst and taken to rest one of our most beloved professors. Dr. Thomas S. Latimer. Words fail us in the expression of our grief. He was a man in every sense of the word. In the classroom he was firm, thorough, willing and faithful, even though in his last years it gave him great personal inconvenience to attend to his manifold duties. In the sick room he was gentle, kind, loving, patient and sympathetic; and known all over the city as the student ' s best friend. Many a student has called upon him for medical advice when his only ailment was homesickness and has come away with a light heart, the result of Dr. Latimer ' s kindness and sympathy. Those of us who have been so fortunate as to have been associated with our dear departed professor will carry, in memory to our graves, the picture of a model man. To the Class: Fellow Classmates: Tonight we are on the verge of a new career. What that career is to be is largely dependent on us as individuals. For three years we have been endeavoring to gain the knowledge sufficient to enable us to go out into the world and serve our fellow- men as dentists. Our instruction has been able and without egotism ; we can truthfully say we are well equipped for entrance into the portals of our chosen profession. The goal to be aimed at by every individual in the class should be the top of the ladder. Be not content to be one of the many, but strive to be one of the few. If any one of us has entered the profession of dentistry with the expectation of a life of ease he will be sadly dis- appointed or make a failure; for like success in any other line, success in dentistry is dependent upon hard work. We should aim at per- fection in all our operations, never slighting the least jot. New ideas, 20

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THE MIRROR were not disappointed. Not only is the Baltimore woman beautiful to look upon, but she has a personality which distinguishes her as one of the foremost in the land. In a few days we leave you and your good city. Some of us will feel a certain something missing in the region of the heart; others who have been more fortunate, have succeeded in effecting a fair exchange in that commodity, whilst others are richer in friends and friend- ship ' s tokens; but all replete with recollections of pleasantly and profit- ably spent days. Faculty, honored and esteemed gentlemen: Wisdom may be attained by many by dint of hard work, but to teach others is a gift which few possess. Your proficiency along this line is manifested by the success which has crowned those who have been under your intellectual guidance. Look where you will, on this or the other side of the mighty water, and you will find in many of the high places of our profession repre- sentatives of this our Alma Mater, many of whom you have instructed. Today you are masters of your respective professions, not simply because you possess the required knowledge, but because of the right application of such knowledge and it has won for you the laurels you so well deserve. Not only have you narrated to us your numerous successes, but also j our failures. This is indeed where you have exhibited to us your nobility of character, as it is human nature to secrete the failures in the innermost depths of the heart. Your teachings have been characterised by firmness, thoroughness, willingness, patience, and kindness; and if we have been faithful we need not despair of the reception our educational status will meet in the world of thought. A great responsibility rests upon you as educators; for As the twig is bent so the tree inclines, and the first impulse of the thought we receive, we are prone to carry with us through life; your teachings will be a nucleus around which to fashion our future studies and research. You have taught us to think and act for ourselves, not to accept one theory or one statement but have revealed to us different opin- 19

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THE MIRROR new methods in practice, will be advanced every day. We should advance with the age so that no man may say of one of us ' He belongs to the realms of the past. The prospects for the right kind of a dentist were never better than they are today. People in general are educated to the care of the teeth. Our public schools all over the land teach the children the necessity of preserving the dental mechanism for the prolongation of life and health. The standard of the dental profession has been, and is being raised daily. We are no longer alluded to as tooth carpenters but are considered professional men of a high type. With this fact in mind, wherever we locate let us show by our knowledge and skill, and above all by our intercourse with our fellowmen, that we are entitled to the honor and responsibility which has been entrusted to us. We came together in the fall of 1904, representatives of various parts of this and other countries, some from Canada, some from Cuba and Porto Rico, and some from a majority of the States of the Union. We were strangers to each other, to Baltimore, and to the profession. Soon, however, we came to know each other for we were brought together forcibly by our friends, the Juniors and Seniors, and painfully humiliated bj ludicrous decorations. We were introduced to Balti- more, joined by ties we could not sever. Our introduction to our pro- fession came at the hands of our beloved professors, in the shape of lectures, clinics, etc., and at the end of the college year we left for our respective homes. When we assembled again in the fall of 1905, we found that a few of our number were not with us but others had come to take their places . The Junior year passed pleasantly but comparatively unevent- fully; and when we again assembled in the fall of 1906, it was as Seniors, and for the first time we began to realize that we were nearing the end of our college days. This year has been one of earnest, faithful work, and tonight we have reached the goal toward which we have striven for the past three years, and the coveted reward, the sheep- skin, the thought of which has stimulated us to renewed effort when we were depressed by the many petty annoyances of our struggle, is within our grasp. Is it strange that tonight we should be happy; 21