THE BATTALION.
23
come to our State from these—yet we
hear in the roar of this great advance
ment a small, still voice calling for
things of old. And one heart is made
to feel that we were never so sad in
all our lives. Our time is past—the
“golden opportunity” to us has gone.
We are boys in college no more. We
are in brass buttons and stripes no
more. We have furloughs to Bryan no
more. We walk the lonesome stoops
no more. We hear the promotion lists
read no more. We stand to entrap or
ensnare the fair visitors with the
charms of the militarie no more—all
the glories and ambitions of A. and
M. cadet are ours no more. We are
passed beyond and look back to. be
moan our fate. Ah! young men, this
is no jest! Your heart is larger to-day
than it will ever be again. You can
love more fair damsels and love them
harder than you ever can again. You
can think more of her this minute and
less the next than you ever can again.
You can see more in yourself to-day
than you ever will again and more
than anyone else does now. The world
holds out to you more of her possi
bilities to-day than she ever will again.
The sun. shines brighter, the flowers
are more varied in tint and shade, the
birds sing sweeter to the college boy
on commencement day than any oth r
time in life. But to me, young man,
this is an awful sad occasion. I’ve
passed fifteen years since these ^entic-
ing allurements held themselves out to
me, and one by one the glittering,
dewy leaves and the waxen flowers
have dried and crumbled in my grasp—
I’ve found them but encouragements
along the pathway to the realities of
life—yet they served a good purpose
and are gone. This is a sad occasion
to me for the absence of familiar
faces, scattered many to the four win^s
of earth and some laid to their eternal
rest beneath the sod. No longer does
the quiet, dignified form of a Din-
widdie grace the president’s chair or
mansion, but he lives in the heart of
every co-laborer who survives him, in
the heart and life of every student
who knew him, in every hand that re
ceived his kindly grasp—yea, he lives
in the dignity and classic stability he
gave to our college. And as long as
the A. and M. shall live and her al
umni breathe the free air of Texas, the
name of H. H. Dinwiddie will live and
inspire them to higher and nobler
deeds. And when shall the common
masses forget the name of our sleeping
Sul Ross, whose mighty magic led his
Confederate ranks to victory or a will
ing death and who brought this school ^
of our first love into the heart’s desire
and reach of the common people? A
Dinwiddie to establish and dignify the
institution—a Ross to uphold and pop
ularize it—and a Foster to expand it
into the saving hope and glory of the t/
'Empire State of Texas.
And this brings me to the thought cf
my paper to-day:
Texas needs men of character and
brains.
When I chose this subject for dis
course on this occasion I did so under
the impelling thought that within the
history of our beloved State or nation
there had been no time that so de
manded men of character and brains
to uphold and carry forward her inter
ests as now. I reflected that in this
stage of advancement of our people
and nation when our resources and ca
pabilities are beginning to compare
with those of the other nations of the
earth, and it seemed that dishonesty
and mistrust had seized so many of
our public servants and leaders, that
men of character and brains were
needed everywhere—needed even in
Texas. By character I mean that
which will prompt and impel a man to
seek and to do the right in the face