ALPHA DELTA PHI REUNION DINNER, NEW YORK, i875. ALPHA DELTA PHI REUNION DINNER IN NEW YORK I875 WITH A REGISTER OF MEMBERS IN NEW YORK NEW YORK PRIVATELY PRINTED I876 Press of Kilbourne Tompkins, Agent, I6 Cedar St., N. Y. NIW-YORK, November I, 1875. DIEAR BROTHER: It is proposed to hold a Reunion Dinner of members of ALPHA DELTA PHI, resident in New-York and vicinity, and such others as may be able to attend, on Thursday, the 18th instant, at seven o'clock, at Delmonico's, corner of Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street. It is hoped that the attendance will be large, so that the gathering may be a full representation of all chapters and classes, and therefore a more pleasant renewal of the old ties and associations. You are cordially invited to be present. Should you be able to be with us, please notify BRO. GEO. N. HALE, No. 7 Beekman Street, New-York, who will forward the ticket; if not, we trust to hear from you by letter, which should be:addressed to BRO. R. R. BOWKER, Box 4295, New-York. Your brothers in A. At.., JOHN JAY, Chairman. R. R. BOWKER, THEO. W. DWIGHT, GEO. N. HALE, Jos. H. CHOATE, TALCOTT WILLIAMS, A. S. SULLIVAN, FRANK L. STETSON, EVERETT P. WHEELER, GRO. N. MESSITER, Committee. PURSUANT to this invitation, which was issued by a committee appointed in October, I875, by the GRADUATE ASSOCIATION OF ALPHA DELTA PHI IN NEW YORK, about one hundred members of the Fraternity resident in New York and vicinity, with others from different parts of the country, gathered at Delmonico's, Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street, New York, Thursday evening, i8th November, I875, at seven o'clock. There were present brothers of the Hamilton, Miami, Amherst, Columbia, Urban, Yale, Harvard, Brunonian, Dartmouth, Kenyon, Bowdoin, Peninsular, Rochester, Geneva, Williams, Wesleyan, Union and Cornell Chapters, and from the traduate Chapters in Albany and New York. At the dinner Bro. John Jay, (Columbia), presided and acted as toastmaster, supported by Bro. Lewis Collins, (Union), the President of the Fraternity, and Bro. George William Curtis, (Brunonian). A few of the songs of the Fraternity 6 ALPHA DELTA PII had been printed for the occasion, the music being led by the Alpha Delta Phi Quintette Club, of Amherst College. The large hall at Delmonico's, in which the dinner was held, was hung with the colors and emblems of the Fraternity in green and white, and the tables were decorated with the colors of the Chapters whose members were seated together. After grace by Bro. Prof. J. G. Barton, D.D., (Manhattan), dinner was served, after which, on the removal of the cloth, the President of the evening called the gathering to order, and made the remarks following: JOHN JAY. Gentlemen, Brothers of the Alpha Delta Phi Before introducing the toasts of the evening, I beg leave, with your permission, to return my thanks to your Committee for the honor they have conferred upon me, and on behalf of the Committee and myself, I beg to assure you of the pleasure with which we welcome you,. coming as you do from different sections of our country, and representing so many institutions of learning. Our table to-night is surrounded by gentlemen distinguished. in various walks of life, and there are others who I am sorry are not here, whose names are honored at home and abroad, representing the pulpit, the bench, the bar, and the press: the professor's chair, the clinique, the study and the studio: names that assure us that Alpha Delta Phi, brief as her existence has been, already numbers among her sons illustrious representatives of the highest types of the American scholar and the noblest traits of the American character. RE UNION DINNER. 7 It is nearly forty years since I assisted in establishing our order in Columbia College, where I hope it may be revived, and it was with satisfaction that I accepted soon after my return from Vienna, a cordial invitation from the Brunonian Chapter to assist at a reunion at Providence. At the supper, which was attended by more than a hundred delegates from fifteen or twenty chapters, Dr. Hale stated that in all the colleges the chapters represented an unusually high grade of character and scholarship: and the tone of the spokesmen for the various chapters exhibited a perfect harmony and a generous rivalry. I returned from Providence with the impression, I might perhaps say the conviction, that our Fraternity, affording a common basis of association for all the colleges in the land, and connecting the collegians and recent graduates with the older graduates in active life, offered a convenient and effective machinery for good: that it might be so guided and developed as materially to assist in adjusting the relation of the American scholar to his age and country: to elevate and improve our collegiate system: to purify and invigorate the national atmosphere, moral, intellectual and political: and to introduce with greater unity into our national politics, that high element of culture which, when combined with a wise patriotism, commanded the admiration of Europe, and called forth the memorable tribute of the Earl of Chatham. This centennial season, carrying our thoughts backward to the historic past, and onward as we attempt to scan the future, reminds us of the duties of to-day, and justifies our consideration of the means by which these duties may be best performed. The discoveries, inventions, and changes of the century, the steam engine, the railroad, the steamship, the electric wire, the adoption of universal suffrage without 8 ALPHA DELTA PHI the check provided by our fathers, the extension of our territory, the increasing immigration, the abolition of slavery, all enable us to see the magnitude of the work performed in our Revolution and the weight of responsibility which that work has devolved upon us, more clearly than the framers of the Republic, far-sighted as they were, could possibly have foreseen themselves. In 1788 Henry said in the Virginia Convention that "on the great theatre of the world our little American affairs vanish." But to-day Europe, busied as she is with wars and rumors of war, instigated by dynastic ambition, international hate, or popular revolt against oppression, finds time to watch and wonder at the progress of our transatlantic Continental Empire. Whilst counting the millions and yet increasing millions enrolled in the armies of the Continent, whilst piling higher and still higher the gigantic cost of military preparation, Europe recognizes in our Republic, with its army of 30,000, the great invincible power of the future. It sees us exercising throughout the world the power of attraction and the force of example without fields bristling with bayonets or hills frowning with the cannon of Krupp. As Governor Seymour said the other day, " We have taken from Germany more men than Germany took from France, and more than that we have kept them." But while we appreciate the strides with which our country has advanced in Science and Education, in Population and Wealth, whatever the pride we may feel, and rightly feel, in a review of the condition of America, I think we feel rather less pride when we regard the moral tone of our politics and the actual working of our institutions, whether national, state, or municipal. They all teach us the same lesson, not that we may sit down in peace and quietness, but that "eternal vigilance is the REUNION DINNER. 9 price of liberty." In this city that lesson has been impressed on us day by day, as we were openly robbed in the light of the sun, and as we are confronted when we seek for justice, by lawyers claiming to be respectable, who bring their professional learning, experience and skill to deprive us of redress, shielding the thieves and sharing the plunder, in defiance of public right and public opinion. In view of such evils, fraught with ruin and disgrace, we may well invoke the aid of our Fraternity. While we recognize the necessity of political parties and their legitimate advantages, the country has a right to regard her scholarly citizens as exercising a clearer mission; she has a right to expect them to bring the light of Revelation, the lessons of history, the wisdom of the past, the science of modern times, to assist in solving the problems of the present. Who but American scholars should be the first with fearless utterance and cultured skill to announce and provide against the subtle danger that increases with our increasing greatness, to guard the purity of public opinion, the integrity of our common schools, the usefulness of our collegiate system, and to impress upon each successive generation of Americans the principles of freedom of conscience, of thought and of speech, and that duty of allegiance to Country, with all that the word imports, on which will depend in the coming centuries the policy, the honor, and the destiny of the Republic. I give you the first toast, to our Fraternity, "ALPHA DELTA PHI!" At the close of Brother Jay's speech, the company sang the Fraternity song, "Xazpe, AXqaJs ra zlX i" after IO ALPHA DELTA PHI which Brother Collins responded to the toast of "Alpha Delta Phi," as follows: PRESIDENT COLLINS. Mr. Chairman and Brothers. The Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity had its origin in a combination of circumstances almost entirely different from those attending the foundation of any other similar institution. These, in connection with the characteristics of its originators, gave an impulse and direction to their efforts, and the efforts of those who have followed them, which, even at this distance of time, are the main controlling and inspiring influences in the Fraternity. While local differences have modified to a greater or less extent the original purposes of the Founder and his associates, as the enlargement of the field rendered necessary, still the great fact remains that the Fraternity is now essentially the same as they established it, and that their lofty aims have but gained strength and permanence in the lapse of time. Hamilton College, the seat of the mother chapter, formerly had two flourishing literary societies. These, as sometimes happens to such institutions, came to be, instead of fields for profitable literary exercise and culture, arenas for the exhibition of feats of political ingenuity. The contests of intellect gave place to a conflict of wit and shrewdness. Forgetful of the truth that place honors not the man, but the man the place, discarding all notions of earnest endeavor in the way of self culture, and engaging eagerly in hot strife for empty honors and places stripped utterly of credit in the absence of ability, men converted the societies into wrangling grounds for their'worst passions. During this state of things Samuel REUNION DINN-ER. I I Eells was a student at Hamilton. He drew around himself such earnest men as remained in an endeavor to amend, at least so far as they were concerned, this disastrous state of things. The first great intent of the founders was to supply the want of good, sound, constant, and well directed efforts at literary culture, and the second, as necessary to the accomplishment of this end, the formation of such ties of brotherly regard as would at once destroy feelings of bitterness and animosity, all motives of selfishness, and all the modes of deceit and trickery by which vanity and presumption seek to gain unworthy ends, and finally to substitute for these powerfully disintegrating forces the strongest bonds of kindness, charity and fraternal love, Thus would be born a kindlier spirit pervading all the doings of the Society, and rendering its efforts not those of a struggling crowd of eager contestants fighting for personal triumph but of a family in whose performances each should feel an interest deeper than any personal interest could possibly be, and in whose triumphs each should feel an exultation far removed, both in kind and degree, from mere personal vanity. The!condition of things which gave birth to Alpha Delta Phi has in a measure passed away. The little band of five who met secretly in Hamilton College have now their names first upon a list of three thousand, many of which are famous and honored throughout the land. The little faintly twinkling star that then trembled and flickered in doubtful uncertainty has grown to a star of the first magnitude. The Fraternity from its humble beginning has assumed such proportions and acquired a prosperity so wide spread and apparently permanent, that it will probably outlive all of those who are now enrolled upon its lists, and extend to generations to fol 12 ALPHA DELTA PHI low the blessings of which we have been the favored recipients. The average college student who has had no advantages, except those of the college course, commonly goes forth into the world unfitted for it. In the cloister life there is very great temptation to become narrow, bigoted and conceited. Forgetting that learning is never a worthy end, but only a means to other ends, he lifts himself upon his narrow pedestal in the exclusiveness of little greatness, and effectually repels all the sympathies and regards of men. Very many of the failures of brilliant college scholars may be traced simply to this. The Alpha Delta Phi Fraternity holds the remedy. Let one and all assist her in giving to the members not merely intellectual culture and genial kindliness, not merely strength of mind, but strength of character, to make of them scholars, gentlemen, good citizens, honest men. Seven years since the speaker conceived the plan of a Record, which if carefully kept would do much toward establishing a greater degree of intimacy between the chapters and the members, and also a sense of pride in the reputation of chapters, which would encourage to worthy deeds. Believing the rewards of an institution, as a general rule, are bestowed upon its most worthy men, the distribution of the prizes and honors was made the basis of the Record. The Record extends to the neutrals and to all the societies in all colleges where are chapters of Alpha Delta Phi. Some extracts from the Record I will give. In I868 HAMILTON says: "We have a complete list of Prizes and Honors taken by A. A. a. from 1832 to i860. During that time we took over Ioo Prizes, while no other society took over 40. I do not recollect how many valedictories we took in that time, but know that in thirteen consecutive years we had eleven valedictorians." AMHERST says, "From the year'38 to'7I, inclusive, there were 45 valedictorians, and 35 salutatorians taken by the societies as follows: A' UNIO DINNER. 15 And now you ask me to respond to the toast of " The Scholar in Letters," as if I were not considering, this very hour, what top-dressing I should give to the home lot, and if the cabbages are all covered in. Well, the grass tips next spring, if I see them, will give me greeting and recompense. True, I do hear my boy decline his caput and scan his "Arma virumque cano," and on that music I do float back pleasantly on the tide of letters, and shall, with newer zest, at the time of your Thursday festival (to which I cannot come save in imagination), and in that way only listen to the Dishing and the clanging of thecourses at Delmonico's, and the better sounds that are to follow. Pray listen for me and applaud for me whatever true and honest things are said, and keep all silence for me if any shams, of whatever sort, have utterance. Very truly yours, DON'D. G. MITCHELL. Edgewood, November 16. A.. COXE (Urban). BUFFALO, Nov. 16th, 1875. Dear Sir: I believe it was always the honorable character of our Society that it included the working class in our colleges, or at least a fair proportion of it. In this respect, I may claim to be true to our traditions, being, always, forced to plead work on hand when invited to such pleasant festivities of A. A. A. as those of the I8th inst. are quite sure to be, under the care of your Committee and its able i 6 ALPHA DELTA PHIZ Chairman, Mr. Jay. Tho' I am sorry to be unable to take part in them, I can assure you that this will detract very little from the cheerfulness of the occasion, as I have found, by long experience, how true it is that "All work and no play Makes Jack a dull boy.' I rejoice the more that so many others find time for such social recreations as are proposed, recreations wellearned, I am sure, by the noble and honest work, in many honorable, vocations, to which, as I observe with pride, the lives of our brothers are so generally devoted in all parts of the land. I am, dear sir, Faithfully yours, A. CLEVELAND COXE, Bz'shop of Western New York, JAS. RUSSELL LOWELL (Harvard). ELMWOOD, I7th Nov'r, I875. Dear Sir: My engagements are such that it will not be in my power to be present at the dinner to-morrow. I can only send you my good wishes and say prosit! Begging you to convey my good wishes to the Committee, I remain, Your brother in A. a. O., J. R. LOWELL, It had been hoped that Bro. Rev. R. S. Storrs, D.D., (Amherst), would be present to respond to the toast of " The Scholar in the Pulpit." He was, however, unable RE UNION DINNER. 1 7 to attend, and the Chairman read extracts from a letter from him, as follows: (I seem to have no alternative. I am so buried in work, that I could hardly get time to eat the dinner, and as to responding to the toast, the brothers present would certainly wonder how I ever got into the Fraternity, and I could only illustrate it by contrast. I am thoroughly sorry to say this, for I should love to be present. But it seems as impossible as to reverse the East River, or turn Delmonico's into a church." The Chairman then called upon Bro. Rev. E. P. Rogers, D.D. (Columbia), to respond to the toast. He said: E. P. ROGERS. I rise, in obedience to your call, Mr. President, because you are our presiding officer, and because you are just one year my senior, in membership in our Society. But you see before you, not a " scholar in the-pulpit," but a very embarrassed man out of the pulpit. About three minutes before we were invited to take our seats at this table, one of the brothers coolly informed me, that I was expected to respond to this sentiment, " The Scholar in the Pulpit," in place of that splendid scholar and eloquent orator, Rev. Dr. Storrs, who was prevented from being present with us this evening. You can fancy my feelings at such an unexampled and unwelcome communication. There was once an aged and venerable clergyman, remarkable for the use of the same formula in the introduction to every sermon, who once preached on the text, "Adam, where art thou." He began in this way. " My 18 ALPHA DELTA PHII Brethren, this subject, naturally divides itself into three parts: First, Man is, generally, somewhere. Second, He is often apt to be where he has no business to be. Third, If he does'n't take care he may find himself somewhere where he don't want to be! " I stand before you this evening, Mr. President and fellow members, a striking illustration of the third head of this venerable clergyman's discourse. I certainly find myself somewhere where I don't want to be-and that is, in the place which was to have been filled, and would have been so much better filled by that distinguished (( scholar in the pulpit" whose absence has caused us all so much disappointment. There is surely, Mr. President, no sphere in life where thorough scholarship is more needful and appropriate than the Christian pulpit. The grandeur and importance of the themes which it discusses, and the close relationship its teachings sustain to all the varied interests of society, demand that its occupant shall not be inferior in culture or scholarship to any other member of the brotherhood of letters. And we may safely appeal to history to prove that there have always been distinguished scholars in the pulpit of every age. In fact there was a time when nearly all the scholarship of the world was in the hands of the clergy. It has been no less truly than beautifully said, that "in the dark ages it was the church, which at immense pains and cost preserved the learning of the world, even as the mother who lay freezing on the snow wrapped her tattered garments round her child which she warmed in her own bosom." There is a natural propriety, sir, that the occupant of the pulpit should be a scholar. The knowledge of divine truth has close affinities with all other knowledge, and the text-book of the RE UNION DINNER. 19 pulpit is the noblest classic in the world! And while all truths possess the power of educating and enriching the human mind, it may be claimed that there are none with which the intellect of man has stronger natural affinities, or which possess a more masculine power of development than the truths which emanate from the Christian pulpit. Yet there is sometimes, in certain quarters, a disposition to decry and sneer at scholarship in the pulpit. An individual once said that he saw no reason why ministers should spend so much time in study and preparation for the pulpit. For his part, he remembered an instance recorded on high authority, where even an ass had been inspired to open his mouth, and rebuke a learned prophet. The reply was, that there were instances enough in modern times of asses who opened their mouths and criticised a learned ministry, but the difference between them and the ass referred to was that they were not inspired. I can only add, Mr. President, in closing these entirely unpremeditated remarks that we need not go farther than the records of our own Society, to find many distinguished instances of" THE SCHOLAR IN THE PULPIT." To the toast of " The Scholar in Politics " Bro. Curtis (Brunonian), spoke as follows: GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS. Mr. Chairman, and Brothers of the Alpha Delta Phi. It is very pleasant to arise to respond to the toast proposed by our Chairman, who both by his own career and 20 ALPHA DEL TA PHI the name he bears is the best illustration of it. You remember the old English dramatist Decker, in speaking of the founder of the religion of Christendom, whose gospel was a message of good will to all men, and especially to the poorest and most forlorn, describes him as " the first true gentleman who ever breathed;" and in that spirit, the public career of our Chairman, begun at the angriest moment of the stormiest debate of our politics, has shown to all American youth that it is the instinct of the educated American gentleman to stand firm and forever by the most wretched and most forlorn of his fellow citizens. By the name you bear, sir, (turning to Bro. Jay) you recall to us that scholar, that patriot, that friend of Washington, to whom Daniel Webster paid the lofty and famous compliment, "When the ermine of the Judicial robe descended upon the shoulders of John Jay, it touched nothing that was not as pure and as spotless as itself." And where, gentlemen, where shall we look for a nobler and more pregnant illustration of the toast to which I am to respond, than to the career of the first Chief Justice of the United States? For by the familiar phrase, "the scholar in politics," I understand not merely the educated man, nor the man of any particular college, nor of any college, but simply intelligence, character, and trained ability, devoted to public affairs. I know of course, as we all know, that reputation of distinctive scholarship sometimes wins for statesmen or public men a character of abstraction and impracticability. We hear it constantly said that "book learning is a poor match for native common sense"; but what is book learning but the accumulation and record of the experience and sagacity and general knowledge of the race? It is, at this moment, the pivot upon which all the great material enterprises and operations in Wall Street and of all the RE UNION DINNER. 21 other great money centres of the world turn. They rest for their security upon the educated chemist, the geologist, or the mechanical artisan, whatever may be his scientific pursuit or his department of knowledge, bringing his book learning and his mother wit into practical application to the facts of nature, of the earth, of the soil, of the sky, of mechanical structure in every department. And so in Congress, it is the experience of every man who reads the debates, that an orator, finding himself short of argument, turns to his opponent and charges him with " going down to his book learning," as if his own little experience, gained in the gossip of some little country post-office, were to be matched with the accumulated riches of the greatest minds and of the greatest statesmen, all of which combined makes the light of wisdom by which the world walks triumphant upon its way. Conceited ignorance is forever sneering at educated, scholarly statesmanship. They say that the scholar is unpractical, that he is visionary. But a hundred years ago at this moment, when Edmund Burke arose in Parliament, the Scholar rose: when Edmund Burke poured out all the treasures of his thought and knowledge in the affluent and splendid speech which is still the glory of parliamentary eloquence, the Scholar spoke: when in the matchless discourse, which our brother Storrs last spring before the Historical Society, catching its glowing inspiration and echoing its music, so nobly and adequately interpreted,-when Edmund Burke laid down the true principles of government, according to the traditions of the English people, it was the Scholar warning his countrymen that when America was wronged, liberty was imperilled: and because the warnings of the Scholar were denounced and derided and the advice of selfish and craven practical statesmanship was followed by England, 22 ALPHA DELTA PHI America was alienated, and the British empire rent asunder. I am aware that it is not at all the exceptional power of Edmund Burke which we mean when we speak of the " Scholar in Politics." We mean simply experience, intelligence, and trained ability, devoted to public affairs. I am aware of the familiar slang of the phrase; but if at this moment we call upon the Scholar, as we do call upon him by our presence here and by this toast, if we call upon him to go into politics, it is because we know at least that ignorance is not better than knowledge, that honesty is more economical than knavery, that trained ability is more efficient than venal partisanship. That is the significance of the toast to which I respond, and who should be the active missionaries of this faith, except those who believe it,-except precisely the kind of men I see around me at this moment at this table? In my own neighborhood, which is your neighborhood, there are plenty of gentlemen,-I have several in my eye at this moment,-whose life is a perpetual sneer at political activity. By political activity, I do not mean necessarily entrance into public life. It is, as I conceive it, not the political duty of any man to get office, but it is the political duty of every man to see that only good men do get office. How many careers are there,-public careers,-at which the longer we look the less we see? How many more are there, at which the longer we look the less we wish to see? And yet, unless fit men do get into position, unless the right men do get hold of public affairs, we know that the public safety is everywhere imperilled. I have in my mind a friend and neighbor who never votes; he wonders that I take an interest in politics, and he sighs for a kind of political Utopia. Also in my neighborhood the only meeting which all my neigh RE UNION DINNER. 2 3 bors attend, which all of them make it a religious duty to attend, is the school meeting, and consequently the school district is the best governed community for school purposes of any that I know. In that town meeting, character and education and intelligence have the ascendency which, if they will go into other meetings, the same character and intelligence will always have and will always maintain. There are those who tell us it is an " impossible dream;" there are those who tell us "you cannot do it," and there are newspapers which are said to be read in every college, which constantly tell us "you cannot get a busy and active man to take an interest in politics." If that be so what have we asked Europe to this country to see? America has asked the whole world to come to its centennial celebration next year, and, if this be true, to discover that America is a failure. We shall say to the world: "' Behold, we have subdued a continent, we have created a nation, our railroads are endless, our resources are infinite, our invention is wonderful, our enterprise is incredible, but-we are governed by Rings. We are slaves of public thieves. We do what the worst men in the community insist that we shall do. There is no political health or heart or hope among us." This is the feast, if this be true, to which we have invited every nation in the world to come here and sit down to. I for one do not believe it is true. I believe that there is still strength in the American mind, that there is still purpose in the youth of America; and yet, we are unquestionably tonight representatives of the dangerous class in this country. It is among the men that we represent that there is this indifference, this negligence of the political interests. Every drunken man, every brutal man, every ignorant man, votes. The slums and the gutters go to the polls and we do not. We are in collusion with the 24 ALPHA DEL TA PHI knaves who empty the slums and gutters into the ballot box because we won't take an interest in politics, until we are driven to the polls, and then we are forced to the simple alternative of voting for one of two men, both of whom we despise. Please God, gentleman, this shall not be so! Please God, it shall not be so! Every man here, every man in every college in this country, every intelligent man, whether he be a graduate of the common schools, or a valedictorian of the highest college,-every such man feels within him something that assures him that the centennial year is to be, after all, the year of the " Scholar in Politics." It is to be a year of the revival of the spirit of a hundred years ago, when Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and George Washington were leaders in American politics. I know and you know that the demand of the country, ripening more and more, is the demand for the loftiest character, for the most trained ability and for the widest experience for the centennial President And here and now let us make ourselves into apropaganda of that faith; let the spark which is kindled in this room fly burning and flaming over the whole land; and then gentlemen, the secret of our Society will be an open secret, then the country will be a vast fraternity of Alpha Delta Phi, and in that centennial jubilee of the United States which is hastening on, the motto of our Society, manus multc, cor unum, shall be the conquering legend of the Republic. The song following Bro. Curtis' speech was "Integer Vitae," sung by the Amherst Glee Club. The next reg RE UNION DINNER. 25 ular toast " The Scholar at the Bar," was responded to by Bro. Jos. H. Choate (Harvard). Jos. H. CHOATE. Bro. Choate opened with a reference to the chapter he represented, "each member of which collectively and individually was preeminent," and "as fair samples of mediocrity" he named James Russell Lowell, Edward Everett Hale, and Samuel Elliott. I thought so before, he continued, and, after all I have heard, I am now sure that the continued existence of Alpha Delta Phi is the striking illustration of the survival of the fittest. None know better than these gentlemen who sit at these tables how in its contest with societies of similar but lesser names it has driven them to the wall. Think how all these rivals have paled before it,-the Psi Upsilon, the Omega Phi, the Chi Psi. Where are they? And as each represents a different species of mankind is not our presence here the best proof that we have survived them? The beginning of all good things, let me remind our Chairman, was not in 1776, but in 1832, a year in which our society was founded and which -I was born in it-I have always reverenced as an important epoch in the history of the world. It is a fact, gentlemen, that modern progress dates from the foundation of our Society. Since that time the burglar alarm has been invented. Why, Mr. Chairman, your renown has all been won since your initiation-so has mine. Like the chosen people of old, it has always seemed to me that the members of the Society bear in their own person the sign of their membership. Can we not see it in our Chairman, when so draped as to his shoulders with the American flag and the star and crescent on his breast that the Bourbon paled before him? So with every man 26 ALPHA DELTA PHI here. Had any one heard of them before they were initiated? Has not every one heard of them since? The toast of " The Scholar in Journalism " was next responded to, by Bro. Rev. Wm. Hayes Ward, (Amherst), Superintending Editor of the Independent. WM. HAYES WARD. Mr. President and Brothers Two special qualities which the Alpha Delta Phi Society has, it seems to me, particularly cultivated in its members are: first, thoroughness and accuracy of scholarship, and, secondly, purity and singleness of character. No qualities can be more essential to worthy success in journalism. That editor who is too careless to give accurately the facts of the day as they occur, might as well go out of his profession, While that journalist who puts no conscience into his work, and who has no high aims to exalt public morals and purify public affairs is a disgrace to the whole profession. The English writer who in a late number of the Contemporary Review, said that 200 acres in Cincinnati were once given for a Stainer violin and that on this land the city of Pittsburg was now built, had not received his training in the Society which we represent, nor had that litterateur who to-day called at my office and in reference to a certain subject insulted me by saying that he knew what my editorial opinions were on the question, but he would like to know what were my personal opinions. Perhaps the two leading editors in the United States are members of this Society, and they are remarkable illustrations of the power of REUNION DINNER. 27 these two principles. One of them, I regret, is not here to-night to respond to this toast, (Mr. Marble of the World), but in his absence I can speak with more freedom of one honored member who has for years been the representative of these principles in his warfare with everything low and disgraceful in politics, in fighting down all evil and corruption. I thank God for the influence in this direction which Mr. Marble has in his own party been exerting for years in our country. In the other political party of our country the leading editorial place is held by a brother whom we have had the pleasure of hearing to-night. Who is there that has not felt the influence of Geo. Wm. Curtis, not merely as a gentleman of culture, but, far more, for that intense earnestness with which he has given himself to fighting every corrupt influence in our government, and making politics an honorable profession. What does not the nation owe to the man who has held before it the idea of a pure civil service, and who, when he found the official support which should have been his, had failed him, refused to compromise with the system of political spoils, but withdrew and stood by himself, in silent protest against the evil. When Greek liberty was crushed at Chaeronea, its surviving friends set up as a monument on the site a colossal lion. It has never yet been figured, but a late traveller describes it as a statue of wondrous majesty and dignignity, with a strangely human expression of grief, and almost angry protest, against the degeneracy of the people which had but a hundred and fifty years before, on the occasion of the victory of Marathon, entered upon its national life and set up on that battle field a triumphal lion as the symbol of victory. The traveller who has described the Chaeronean lion, tells us that a swarm of bees had made their nest in its mouth. As I read the 28 ALPHA DELTA PHI account to-day, I could but think of our own honeymouthed orator who has made us forget how sweet are his words in the dignity of his majestic protest against the political evils of the day. Would that our great national parties in the coming Centennial year, might put forward as their presidential candidates men actuated by the same high principles as Manton Marble and Geo. William Curtis. The sixth regular toast, to "The Scholar as Educator," was omitted, owing to the absence of Bro. Prof. Theo. W. Dwight, L. L. D., (Hamilton), of Columbia College Law School, who was to have responded to this toast, but was debarred from being present by illness in his family. To the seventh toast, "The Scholar in Medicine," response was made by Bro. Prof. A. B. Crosby, M. D., (Dartmouth), of Bellevue Hospital Medical College. A. B. CROSBY. Mr. President and Brothers in Alpha Delta Phi: A few evenings since I had the honor to deliver a lecture before the Young Men's Hebrew Association, in this city. At its close a Rabbi, learned among his fellows-and agreeable among all men-thanked me for the effort I had made, in phrase too complimentary for repetition. ( But," said he, "there is a saying among my people that the best of the Physicians go to Hell." Figure to yourselves, my friends, that I am called on to respond for the scholar in a vocation where those most RE UNION DINNER. 29 to be commended are predestined to damnation. I revolt from this Talmudic version of my craft, and appeal to a more orthodox authority. A few years since our AEsculapian poet, Dr. Holmes, who represents in his own person at once the scholar, the poet, and the humorista superb triune man-wrote a novel called the " Guardian Angel." In this charming book, the " Scholar in Medicine" drew the villain of his story in the person of a young clergyman. The clergy of New England took the worthy Doctor severely to task for his sacrilege, but he rejoined that his villain was not the representative of a class, but only one bad man of a class. However, as the clergy were much aggrieved, Dr. Holmes promised to write another novel in which the villain should be a doctor. He tells us that he searched the old Bay State indefatigably, and at length after infinite trouble he found a doctor who was a villain. Fancy to yourselves his chagrin, when on completing the second chapter, he had the mortification to discover that " the fellow was an irregular practitioner." Think of it, throughout the length and breadth of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, not a single villain could be found among the doctors. If there be truth in the tradition of the Fathers, that morality and religion are the foundation stones of all education, then it must be confessed the " Scholar in Medicine" rests at the outset on a substantial basis. But Mr. President, as I note that we have just " heard the chimes at midnight," and as I mark the scholastic epigastria before me distended with the rare viands of Delmonico, I can not but feel that it were better not to discuss " The Scholar in Medicine," but rather to consider the propriety of " Medicine in the Scholar." Still, the " Scholar in Medicine" is by no means the rare entity that he was not long ago. There was a 30 ALPHA DELTA P1HI time when if in a family there was a boy crippled as to his legs, weakened as to his intellect, and with too little villainy for the law, he was thrown bodily either into Divinity or Medicine. Thank God, so far as the latter calling is concerned, that time has passed, and the laity no less than his confreres offer a premium for the "Scholar in Medicine." Having had the honor of lecturing in seven different medical colleges in America, and having spent the last twenty years in immediate connection with medical students, I can in this matter speak by the card. It gives me pleasure to state that the preliminary preparation is more extended, that the acquisitions of the young medical man are fuller and richer, and that the percentage of liberally educated men who enter on medical study is constantly increasing. There is still room for improvement, but there are good signs in the heavens. And when in periods of grave public peril a yawning abyss of contagious or epidemic disease refuses, as in the fabled story of antiquity, to close, unless some brave one will plunge into its deadly chasm, the victim is never wanting, and is oftenest found among the " Scholars in Medicine." Noblesse oblige. There is the less need for me to respond to this sentiment, since each brother present here to-night is the representative of some intelligent physician, who doubtless facilitated his entrance into the world, gave him the right hand of fellowship, and mayhap, even before his first infantile yell whispered into his ear the shibboleth of A. a. c5. I know of no way of accounting for the level head and scholarly attainment which we have just been told are the striking characteristics of A. a. O., save only that the members of the Fraternity have invariably come into the world head first. Nor is " The Scholar in Medicine" without his reward. Among my esteemed colleagues in the Dartmouth REUNION DINNER. 3 Medical College, was a distinguished gentleman* who had occasion to render intelligent and efficient aid to a celebrated lawyer of this city. I know it has been said that " to be a lawyer, is to be an high priest of the devil," but even if Bro. Choate were not at my side, I should deny it. For this great lawyer has built at Dartmouth the finest Pathological Hall in America, and has furnished the means for filling it with the most beautiful preparations to illustrate this most important department of medicine. And this is the noble tribute that Mr. E. W. Stoughton, of this city- primus inter primos among the great lawyers of the metropolis-pays to intelligent medicine. I cannot but acknowledge that the lawyers ever gracefully award to my profession its dues-unless it be in the courts, and there they give us something more. A few weeks since I had occasion to perform a slight surgical service for a legal gentleman of rare accomplishments in New England, a service which ignorantly performed, would not have been a blessing. I have received a letter from him so complimentary that even my modestywhich for a moderate compensation Bro. Choate would swear to-prevents me from reading it. But even at the risk of trespassing on your time and patience, I can not refrain from giving you a brief extract from this gentleman's letter. He writes, (" What a delightful profession yours is when compared with mine. The law is harsh, oppressive, conferring but few favors or blessings, unless, which is very rare, you save a man's estate or his character, and then it is truly benevolent; but your profession, at all times-in every condition-is to comfort,,condole and bless; to bind up the broken bones; to heal the wounds; to assuage pain; to save life-all like the blessings conferred upon us by Heaven. No won*Prof. E. E. Phelps. 32 ALPHA DELTA PHI der that St. Luke was called the beloved physician; that Esculapius was nurtured among the gods, and that medicine was considered a sacred, a divine art in the olden time." I trust it may not seem frivolous if I adduce other testimony in the same vein, but immediately personal to myself. In my early professional life in New England I was called to see a fair-haired, blue-eyed boy of five, who, in a slight altercation with an old mare's heels, had got a cruel laceration of the upper lip and cheek. While my horse was being harnessed, I retired to the secrecy of my closet, and, although I did not pray, I read in a serious vein Mr. Erichsen's views on the subject of contused and lacerated wounds. Over the miles of muddy road intervening, I had abundant time to assure myself that I was learned in re wounds, at least in my own conceit. The little patient lay pallid and motionless on his mother's lap, bloody and dismal. The boy's name was Briggs, and, to add greater horrors than the name of Briggs could give him, they had called him ( Darius." Although I called on him both as " Briggs" and'" Darius," there was no response. Turning then to the stricken mother, with all the tender sympathy of manner of which I was capable, I asked her to call to the little one, as he might respond more readily to the familiar maternal tones; and the mother, looking volumes of gratitude, but with streaming eyes and in tones dulcet and liquefactive, said, "Darius, dear, can't you open your eyes, and look at this pretty man." Now, in Heaven's name, my Brothers, was there ever a more superb tribute to intelligent surgery, and incidentally to the personal charms of the operator, than this? Need I say anything more for the " Scholar in Medicine?" Is there-as I have a horrid suspicion there is-an undergraduate here who asks for more? Let me assure REUNION DINNER. 33 him, if he is not content, that I will treat him for an acute disease, and give him so much " intelligent medicine" that, at no distant period, he shall cry out as I do now: "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace." The next regular toast, to " The Scholar in Art," was responded to by Bro. Daniel Huntington [(Hamilton), Ex-President of the National Academy of Design. DANIEL HUNTINGTON. JMr. President and Brother Members: I came to this meeting expecting to see presiding, at this table of magnates, an array of venerable men-grave and silver-haired, to whom I must look up with reverential awe. Instead of which I see only comparatively young men, learned and illustrious though they may be. In looking over the catalogue of members, to my surprise, I find that I am the eldest initiated of all present, and therefore, as a patriarch, I am privileged to greet you and say to this large assemblage of young men, " Hail and welcome, Brothers!" At this late hour I will not attempt to speak at length to the toast of (