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

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There, as the sun rising above the distant horizon proclaimed the coming of another day to mark the fast ebbing life of that gigantic empire, we have heard the flourish of a thousand silver-toned trumpets, blazoning the march of a gorgeous procession, winding under the triumphal arches and through a labyrinth of heroic statues, with the mighty Caesar, fresh from his conquest of Gaul, standing proud and erect in his glittering chariot, bearing the crown of laurel upon his brow. We have followed the swelling throng across the forum and have stood before that rostrum upon which the eloquent Cicero had mounted and have heard him pronounce those burning invectives against Anthony which moved the innermost souls of his auditors and impelled them to action. We have seen this same Cicero, clothed with a calm and courageous demeanor, awaiting death at the hands of one whom his eloquence once had saved. And through all of these stirring events civilization was marching on ! We have seen the world and all mankind steeped in and overcome with a most pregnant and in- tolerable idolatry, an infectious wickedness, and an indescribable vice, and we have trembled for the fate of humanity. We have watched a brilliant eastern star ascend to the zenith, and we have followed the hard and well-defined trail of the tireless camel until we have stood in wonderment and incredulity before the squalor and poverty of a manger where our eyes stared into the face of a new-born babe. We have seen a youth, with countenance as fresh as the dewy morn and with eyes as bright as the sunshine, reflecting the purity and sympathy of the soul within, grow into early manhood. We have seen him standing in the midst of the multitude, with envious and hostile critics mocking, patiently, fearlessly and tirelessly, filled with the gentle force and fervor of a fire divine, teaching the true and abnegating philosophy of brotherly love ; and our ears have heard and our senses have told us, even though standing afar off, that the hope, the regeneration and the salvation of the world lay in the fruition of that doctrine. We have watched the spread and the influence of his teaching. We have noted the wonderfully beneficent enlightenment of it, which all history has hastened to record. We have heard the ominous tolling of that midnight bell, startling their fancied and treacherous security, which signalized the ruth- less butchery of those many thousands of men who followed its dictates. And in the gray dawn of St. Bartholomew ' s day we have seen the streets running deep in the blood of the slaughtered ones. 23

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We have heard the clash of steel against steel, the martial beat of the drum, the resounding echo of the bugle. We have heard the lamentations and the agonizing wails of despair as Rachel has mourned for her children. We have seen nations rise upon the ruins of nations only to fall in turn and be supplanted by others. We have heard the booming of great cannon, and have seen many mighty ships, with a hundred jagged holes through their graceful sides, go hurtling down the fathoms to their graves amid the mud, furnishing the obliterated sepulchres of vast hosts of men launched, in a moment, into eternity ! And c ivilization was marching on ! We have walked the streets of that truly amazing city of Athens and have gazed in enraptured silence upon her marvelous treasures of art. We have ascended the steeps of the Acropolis, and there, with the beautiful city stretching at our feet, in the shade of the magnificent Parthenon, the golden words of Plato have been wafted to our ears, borne upon the wings, of a gentle summer zephyr. Under the azure sky we have wandered, and, treading the well-worn pathway of those who had gone before, we have entered the Lyceum where, with bated breath, lest our very inhalations might be discordant, we have listened with transcendent delight to the philosophy of Aristotle. Dreaming over thoughts too deep for our understanding, we have then pursued an involuntary and unnoticed way until the rythmic resonance of the waves breaking upon the shore has aroused us from our reveries and we perceived a solitary figure pacing back ond forth along the sands. Halting ere our shoes should press upon holy ground, we have stood in a transport of ecstacy with every nerve a-tingle and the hot blood growing hotter as our hearts urged it rushing through our veins, as we heard the me- lodious discourse of Demosthenes re-echoing above the roar of the sea, while all the gods of Elysium drew nigh to listen ! And civilization was marching on ! We have toiled over the stones of Rome. That eternal city within whose walls the peoples of the world have gathered and where the history of every kindred and of every clime might be read. We have passed over the lava pavements, beyond the fountain where gladiators were wont to bathe their blood-stained bodies, and have ascended to the heights of the Capitoline hill.

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But civilization was marching on ! We have sailed the unknown and trackless seas ; have braved the storms and perils of the ocean, and, after weeks and months of unrecounted hardships and dangers, have seen, by the lightning flash, the shores of that land to which we had come but had hardly hoped to find. Well-nigh famished, we have tottered over the wastes of the desert. Fever-ridden, we have stumbled through the jungles of the tropics. Benumbed with cold, weak with hunger, we have struggled amid the blinding snow, have forded the icy streams, and, with comrades falling all around us, their prayers for help ringing unheeded in our brains, we have pressed on, borne by a diabolical and an unreasoning energy, to a country where we have witnessed the death throes of an inordinately ambitious emperor and the crumbling of an empire. But civilization was marching on ! We have watched the progress of the years. We have seen the amazing advance of learning, of science, of things worth while, and we have stood in open-mouthed wonderment and have marveled. We have dreamed of accomplishments, and have awakened to face their realization. We have thought of the chaining of mighty and often unknown forces, and have discovered the per- fection of the thought. We have stood aghast at the amazing consummations of men, disbelieving even while we saw. Some of our kindred have dived deep down among the scurrying fishes, and, within a frail shell which their genius has evolved, they have breathed the breath of life, a fellow-prisoner with them. Others have climbed the clouds, and, soaring far above the dizzy heights of the eagle, have distanced the jealous flights of the birds of the air. All of these things, and more, have we seen as civilization was marching on ! We have viewed the progress of the centuries. We have learned the lessons of time. More fortu- nate than those of our brethren who have gone before, we have seen the weaknesses of humanity and we have attended the birth of humanity ' s triumphs. We know the needs of the world ; we are able to realize the true hope of mankind. Tonight we are walking in the van of the onward march of civilization, and if we shall prove false or timorous of the trust that evolution has reposed in us, posterity will adjudge us unworthy of our place in the ranks, and we shall go down to oblivion unwept, unhonored and unsung. 24