20
THE BATTALION.
Fourth. It insures a quiet but effec
tive self-control of the whole being, both
mental and physical. To illustrate:
Have you not more than once seen tne
green, gawky student make his first at
tempt at serving on a literary program.
The effort was painful both to him and
to you. He was nervous and ill at ease.
If he had a declamation the words would
seem to cleave to the roof of his mouth,
and possibly in the midst of his lines he
would forget what came next, and in
great confusion and humiliation he
would take his seat. But, my friends, I
have noticed that these hopeless cases
have lots of pluck and perseverance.
They don’t give up, and in a year or
two that same young man is a crack de
bater and a fluent orator.
The literary society did much for him,
but, young men, believe me, not more
than it will do for you if you will but
give it a trial.
The valedictorian of my class was such
an one, but when we stood on the plat
form to receive our diplomas, there were
very few dry eyes after Huck Watkins
had finished. His efforts—his work
within these very walls—had made him
a finished orator. ,
When Henry Grady (and I speak his
name in loving reverence) was a student
at the University of Virginia, his bi
ographer tells us that his hightest hope
and ambition was to win the medal of
fered by the literary societies and to
represent the University as final orator.
It was in that forum that Grady’s
matchless intellect conceived the theme
of a “New South,” and in the classic
halls of old Charlottesville that the rav
ishing sweetness of his eloquence was
first given to the world. And, young
men, if you would read a gem, get Gra
dy’s speech delivered before his old so
ciety ten years later. Read it, and you
will thank God for Grady and rejoice
that the South produced him.
Perhaps the two most brilliant men
in Texas to-day are Senator Chas. A.
Culberson and Hon. Dudley G. Wooten,
and it has been my pleasure to hear these
men (they were in the same class at the
same university) discuss their college
life, and it is a fact that one of them at
least gave up his degree for the sake of
doing more work in the literary society,
thus showing the tremendous importance
he attached to it.
Young men, you are missing great op
portunities for self-improvement if you
do not avail yourselves of the privileges
of these halls. It is a fact that the
young men who have achieved the high
est honors in their college career at this
institution have been, nearly all of them,
men who took prominent place in so
ciety work. Not only that, but some of
the most distinguished alumni the Col
lege has to-day were society men. There
is a great deal of significance in this
fact and history will repeat itself. The
young men who will take the highest
honors this year, mark my prediction,
will be members of one of these societies.
And now let me make a few sugges
tions as to the methods which can be
legitimately employed to increase inter
est and promote enlarged success in your
work.
First, a question: Does the faculty
cooperate with you? Do the professors
encourage you with their presence in
your Saturday night meetings ? Do they
respond gladly when you ask them to oc
casionally appear on your program? I
suppose surely they do, and I honor
them for their presence here to-night. I
want to say to them that it lies very
largely in their power to make or mar