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

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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

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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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All of us have a part to perform in the drama of life, and whether our role shall be applauded or derided depends almost entirely upon each individual. The whole library of the chronicles of progress contains but one story — that men worth while, men who have worked, have lived, and have understood the human necessity for their efforts ; and they have devoted their energy, their ability and their determination to the attainment of some great object, and they have, by sheer force of will-power, attained it. Yes, there have been, there are, and there will continue to be some exceptions to this rule. Luck has played some part. Fortune has occasionally assisted in the achievements of a few of this world ' s characters. But luck is usually such a negligible quantity ; fortune is so notoriously fickle that he who may depend upon one or both of these auxiliaries will generally find them leading him so far astray that when at last his vain regrets shall recall him to a sense of his own shame and dishonor, he will be in the midst of the quicksand of disaster and hopelessly lost. Work, then, honest, earnest endeavor, is the sole medium that has yet produced lasting results and will ever enable a man to count his full tally in the final summing-up of the many acts of his existence. It is idle, it is foolish, it is cowardly for any man to say that he is unable to do thus and so. It is a lamentable confession of weakness for any man to admit that the buffetings of the world have disheart- ened and defeated him. It is eternally shameful for any man to confess that that derivative of the Almighty, the transcendent power of the brain, has been misused, abused or not recognized and utilized. The man who buries his talents, who refuses to do his best, who is faint-hearted and fearful, who is prone to live a purposeless life, who is captivated by and enamored of the wiles of Tyre and Sodom, is he whom everlasting confusion overtakes. Centuries upon centuries ago man struggled and toiled in darkness, the darkness of uncertainty, the darkness of ignorance, and sometimes of despair. He toiled and struggled because it was the eternal purpose of Creation that he should do so. He strived after better things, not knowing why he strived, because he was a part in the great evo- lutionary process of mankind. A force within him impelled him and urged him to seek to better his con- dition, and the world has advanced to its present stage because he did strive and did accomplish his purposes. And, down through all the centuries since, men have been striving in response to that same force, 25