Washington and Lee University - Calyx Yearbook (Lexington, VA)

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bram cnn tapirs OME years ago the late President Harper of the University of Chicago was delivering an address of congratulation on the occasion of the inauguration of a college president. He startled many of his hearers when he suddenly turned to the new president (who had just been called from a professor ' s chair) and told him that in at least one particular he was making a tremen- dous sacrifice; that, as a professor, he had enjoyed the privilege of intimate friendship, of unreserved companionship, and of sympathetic understanding with his associates ; that, as a college president, he would be certain to find a changed situation; that, by degrees, he would drift mto a life of social reserve and loneliness, and, at times, of social isolation and exile; that the old intimacies would soon disappear, and the old companionships gradually lose their vital power. This is, happily, not the experience of all college presidents. I doubt whether it is the experience of the average college president whose happy fortune it is to serve in a homogeneous institution of high traditions. Certainly, it has not been my own experience. I have no sweeter memory of the life in Lexington than the memory of the intimate com- panionships of that life. I value nothing more highly than these friendships. They have meant everything to me. Of these friendships not one was tested more frequently, or in a larger number of ways, than the friendship of Abram Penn Staples, with whom I was as intimately associated as with anyone outside of my own family circle, and to whom I am as deeply attached as to any living man. If I were asked to name the most striking characteristic of Judge Staples (that is the affectionate title given him by universal consent), I should without hesitation say that it is his wonderful capacity for friendship, his unswerving loyalty to his friends, and his willingness to make sacrifices, if need be, to serve his friends. I have never known a student who entertained any doubt concerning the friendship of Professor Staples. Young men know that he is kindly and sympathetic in an unfailing way. He knows them per- sonally. He understands them and loves them. He recognizes the sacredness of human individuality. He recognizes the right of each human soul to work out its own destiny ; and he is the last man to lay upon it the hand of unnecessary or of unkind criticism. It can not be a matter of surprise that young men are quick to recognize the fact that in him they have a friend as well as an instructor and a guide. Professor Staples is a man of distinct and pervasive personality. He is an impressive figure. That is a great asset to any college. Have a University in shanties, nay in tents, but have great personalities in it, was the wise admonition of one of the world ' s great teachers. I have known few men of finer or more distinctive personal qualities than are possessed by Professor Staples. I would trust him anywhere and all the time. ou always know where to find him. He is the soul of honor. He is the embodiment of