22
THE BATTALION.
have given it aid with reasonable liberality, although more
room is needed so that all who desire may be accommodated ;
the people have been friendly to it and patronized it ; a wise
and patriotic management has directed it, and a noble and in
telligent body of students have attended it until we haye the
language on the catalogue realized an institution “where boys
are equipped for their future career by the fullest develop
ment of their powers with reference to the wants of life and
where they are acquainted thoroughly, both theoretically and
practicrlly with the duty, the dignity and nobility of labor.’’
Opening with five professors it now has a busy faculty and
official list of thirty-five engaged in teaching all the practical
relations of life from plant disease to veterinary surgery,
from carpentry work to bridge building, and to this is added
the embellishment of letters and the expansive development
of the pure sciences. With the advancement of the state the
college has advanced. Commodious dormitories have taken
the place of crowded wooden barracks. We now see artesian
water and ice, under the early regime I remember the tank
and the tadpoles. We now admire a magnificent herd
of fine cattle in the early days there was one lone animal, a
fertile subject of mention by the press of the state and a con
stant source of bereavement to the college and its friends.
He stood grand gloomy and peculiar wrapped, in the solitude
of his own importance. The entire farm has been turned
into a beautiful garden. A splendid library and reading room
and museum have grown up and all that contributes to a
student’s welfare, information and advancement is found at
his elbow.
In the progress our state has made during the last two
decades I claim for this college a share of the glory. Those
she has sent out have contributed in all the essentials of the
states advancement. They have assisted in uncovering her
mines and working her ores ; they hav« utilized her timber
and advertised it abroad ; they have helped to span her with
rail roads ; they have bridged her streams, they have beauti
fied her cities with their architecture ; they have improved
her country roads ; they have taken part in improving her