308^ 64a B5 LIBRARY OF THE University of California. Gl FT OF Class ^JLAJ^ Urn versify Archivee Ubrmy ■',..,. THE BERKELEY CLUB AND ITS FOUNDER ANNIVERSARY OF THE BERKELEY CLUB 1873 — 1909 Thursday Evening February 18th, 1909 DANIEL COIT GILMAN, LL. D, FOUNDER Born July 6, 1831. Died October 13, 1908 f €>P THE Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2007 with funding from Microsoft Corporation http://www.archive.org/details/anniversaryofberOOberkrich PROCEEDINGS At Meeting of Berkeley Club, Held February 18, 1909 The evening was devoted to exercises appropriate to an anniversary occasion, and to the memory of the Founder of the Berkeley Club, Daniel Coit Gilman, whose recent death has brought to a close a distinguished and useful career in the cause of higher education. Dr. John K. McLean presided as host, and opened the meeting as follows: The exercises of the evening are to be jointly a recog- Dr. John K. nition of this as our Thirty-sixth Founder's Day ; and in McLean commemoration of the late President Gilman, our foun- der. It has been devolved upon me to give an opening sketch along both lines. Dr. Gilman arrived in California in the month of No- vember, 1872, to assume the Presidency of the University of California. That institution was still located in a scattered group of buildings in Oakland. Dr. Gilman took a house in the vicinity, and there made his home ; a home of light and warmth, and of incessant hospitality, whence went forth influences which have left permanent and most valuable marks upon the State of California and the entire Pacific Coast. The Club was established after the pattern of a very successful one of which, in New Haven, Dr. Gilman had been for some years a member. The new organization began without constitution or by-law ; but in lieu of them there were "understandings," two in number. First, the meetings were to rotate among the members' houses, and thus save rent and light. Second, no dinners or suppers were to be provided, only a collation, wholesome, but of the simplest stamp, and cold; nothing hot beyond a cup of tea or coffee. Quite naturally and inevitably the tradi- tional ham sandwich made frequent appearances at our frugal board, with other viands of like renown. Perhaps, however, instead of designating those modest repasts as "collations," a fitter and more descriptive term would be "cold rations." That expression, at all events, would well characterize the after-impression left with the partaker. The affair, as you perceive, was intended to be of a very earnest nature; — to the fullest extent a case of high thinking and plain living. These "understandings," as I find by reference to the record, remained in effect for a little more than two months and a half; after which, as first result, the re- volving luminary located. The reason for this change, not noted in the records, but indelibly stamped upon mem- ory, was the difficulty of finding each other's house, especially of dark nights and wet ones. Oakland in those days was not in either of the two senses a much dryer town than it is to-day. It was altogether unfurnished with three-branch electroliers, and except within a very limited area in the center of the town destitute of side- walks. Hence the propensity with the Berkeley Club member to get hopelessly bewildered and turned back home ; or to arrive late at the place of meeting, so plas- tered with adobe and the other ingredients of our rich and newly stirred up soil as to make it for the moment difficult to decide whether the incomer were a lofty soul seeking enlightenment along the ways of the simple life, or a stray worshipper at an altogether different shrine and follower of a different cult. As to the second understanding, touching our collation, that also soon came to grief, in an accidental way. The turn to be host fell upon a recent initiate ; who, grown familiar with the quality of our refections, but as yet re- maining in ignorance of the understanding which re- quired things to be as he saw them, he being a man more closely in touch with the good things of life than some others of us, felt so moved with compassion that when his appointed night was come he not only gathered us all up in conveyances and transported us to his beautiful home in the Rock Ridge district, but also spread out be- fore us a most elaborate and enticing banquet. You should have been there ! All stood for the moment transfixed, but none repined. No guest declined the dainty enticements, — and no subse- quent host ever reverted back to the cold ration. Later on, as you know, there came in a different system of feed- ing. In passing, it may be a point of interest to state that the only trouble or serious approach to trouble that the Ber- keley Club has ever experienced in all its history of thirty- six years has been in connection with this question of caterage. The various expedients resorted to, and the various failures experienced therefrom, could they be adequately set forth, would form an interesting and some- what educative chapter ; good for incipient clubs to study. Suffice to say that at one time, when all other expedients seemed to have been resorted to, recourse was had to the plan of the members dining at home and gathering later for paper and discussion. The result scarcely needs re- port. Five meetings saw our attendance decimated; five more would have seen it sublimated and the Berkeley Club gone up in smoke. We demonstrated to our hearts' content the fact that no association of a stated nature, however high its aims, and even though it may have been instituted as was ours for the consideration of high themes, — themes of greatest interest, literary, social, scientific, philosophic, as well as practical, — can without the adjunct of good table fare and good table talk be long kept alive. Heart and stomach were centuries ago diagnosed as being closely related to each other. Our experience seemed to develop the fact that the affinity between brain and stomach is quite as real and quite as intimate. But to come more closely to the heart of our purpose. As already stated, Dr. Gilman arrived in California and at the University in November, 1872. During the follow- ing January he invited two or three individuals to his dinner table, for the discussion with him of the desir- ability and practicability of a club, such as this has grown to be. On February sixth the same persons, together with four others, again met at President Gilman's table ; and then and there an organization was agreed upon, and the name, "Berkeley," suggested by Dr. J. A. Benton, was adopted. Several other members were elected at this meeting; who, with two a little later added, making seventeen in all, became the Club's charter members. I grieve to say that, with the exception of the present reader, none of that charter group survive. They walk in other paths; they feed on other food. With the de- parture of that sixteen went a marvelous amount of worth, knowledge, wisdom, and kindliness, transferred from this to the upper world. I cannot refrain from ex- pressing to you the pensiveness (to use no stronger term), which like a dark shadow has followed me these few days past, in which my attention has been led forward to this memorial evening. They have been passing before me, those men, the sixteen, men with whom it was such great good fortune to be associated in devising this conclave, in enjoying it together for a while, and making possible its long count of gatherings and its pleasant history. I have been seeing them again as I used to see them. I can almost see them now ; and have been stirred by them as I used to be stirred. A noble group : Durant, Kellogg, the two Le Contes, Hamilton, Sill, Benton, Mooar, Bartlett, Palmer. How their faces lighted up the place in which we met, dingy enough though it otherwise might be. How their forms lent dignity, their words loftiness ; how their humor spread as incense spicing the air, their pro- found thought and earnest words making the place at times a hallowed spot. They have gone; I only am left to tell the tale. And not only that sixteen have gone. I find that out of the one hundred and thirty-two names enrolled in our membership book at least twice sixteen other names are starred. These last, of full kith and kin with their pre- decessors, were equally gifted, equally estimable and worthy of being equally mourned for, now that they are gone. Under such contemplation, it is easy to fall into the mood of Tom Moore's plaint : When I remember all The friends so linked together I've seen around me fall Like leaves in wintry weather, I feel like one Who treads alone Some banquet hall deserted, Whose lights are fled, Whose garlands dead, And all but he departed ! This shadow, however, is but upon the one hand ; upon the other hand is light ; for here, as in the good providence of God our whole earth over, when the one side is in darkness the other abides in light, the area of the latter being ever wider than that of the former Braced by such assurance one turns back to comrades still abiding, with heart of gratitude for the greetings of a night like this and for the unclouded gatherings which have pre- ceded it. Full of hope also — so far as concerns most of us — for many an unbroken evening yet to come. A final word as to Dr. Gilman's connection with the Gub. Notwithstanding the seventeen charter members, sixteen beside himself, the entire credit of creating the Berkeley Club and of maintaining it during its infancy is due to Dr. Gilman alone. Without his initiative it could never have come into existence ; without his fostering care it could never have become a permanency. The history of the Club illustrates what appears to me one of President Gilman's strongest points. He pos- sessed in greater degree than any other man with whom I have ever been associated a keen practical, per- ceptive and creative power. I do not mean merely as to ordinary matters upon the one hand or as to theories, conclusions, abstractions, and all that upon the other, but he was endowed with an extraordinarily sharp, quick and unerring discernment, first of measures and men, and next of ways and means ; not merely as to things in themselves, nor yet as to their latent values; he had all that, and more. With it was allied the more fruitful sense of how to extract those values ; and how, once extracted, to set them into active productiveness. He seemed to grasp the whole at once, at a glance: — the metal in the rock, the particular method of extracting that special grade 8 or class of metal, of handling it when extracted, with also the ability to set in motion the required means to bring out a final, finished product; and not stopping there, but also to set the tide of this final product at earning its own daily bread. The grand incitement with him to the creation of the Club at the time this was founded lay not at all in pur- poses of mere entertainment, good fellowship, relaxation, nor merely as place and medium for the exchange of ideas and the elucidation of great themes and thoughts. He wanted it just then for a far more concrete purpose ; and to those who stood nearest him he made no secret of this fact. He wanted it as an implement, an engine, an apparatus, of which he stood at that particular time in great need. As Dr. Carey Jones in effect so well said, though put in another way, in his Memorial Address last October: After some summer days of placid waters and favoring breezes, during which the master of the craft was taking inventory, making soundings, and ordering adjustments in general, clouds appeared upon the hori- zon; little at first, no larger than a man's hand, then rearing up somewhat as mountains do. Cross winds be- gan to blow, shoals appeared and rocks ; white-caps took the place of ripples. In a word, it ceased to be clear sail- ing. Conditions arose, unexpected, perplexing, and to which Dr. Gilman was utterly a stranger. He found himself cruising in what to him was an unknown sea. He must reach out in some direction for counsel, informa- tion, advice, backing. Storm seemed imminent. He looked about him and gathered up, or rather, pro- cured others to gather for him, — for Dr. Gilman, as a skilled workman, was wisely cognizant of the maxim, "It is better to set ten men to work than yourself to do the work of ten," — he gathered a body representing the sev- eral professions and occupying, so far as he could reach, all cardinal points of mental view. Thus, partly through subjects selected for Club discussion and partly through association with individuals, he gathered ballast for his cruise. That was all he asked. He could be captain and steersman; given, to know the waters he was sailing through, and with the backing of friendly companionship he could master all else : and he did. In every reference to that period of his experience he has uniformly, in speech or letter, as no doubt to others beside myself, spoken in warm appreciation of the succor received at a time of need through the Berkeley Club. In speaking thus, do not understand me as intimating that Dr. Gilman's chief motive in founding the Berkeley Club was that he might work it and us as its members to his personal advantage. Not that at all. He at every step took good care to return a full quid pro quo; giving invariably more than he received. In this instance, as through all his life, genuine altruism governed him greatly beyond any suspicion of self-seeking. I say that this faculty of which I have been speaking, that of practical discernment of men and things, accom- panied by ability to turn the things and the people dis- cerned to their own best ends and to the best ends of the world at large, was one of Dr. Gilman's chief endow- ments. It was one main source of his great and greatly varied successes. I say successes in the plural, for Dr. Gilman's high service was extremely varied. It reached out in many directions and followed many lines, along all of which he won credit and distinction. For high service he was ten different times decorated with the de- gree of LL.D., and he is credited in the list of his achieve- 10 ments with having filled something like twenty public positions, and always to the satisfaction of those con- cerned with him. Professor George C. Edwards as an undergraduate ('73)> during the Presidency of Dr. Gilman was asked to speak of his former chief from the standpoint of that relation. He responded as follows: Mr. Chairman, and Members of the Berkeley Club : I have been asked to say something of President Gil- man from the point of view of the undergraduate. As has already been said, the University was located in Oak- land awaiting the time when it could be installed on its present site, opposite the Golden Gate. When President Gilman appeared on the little campus in Oakland his physical characteristics stimulated the first comments of the undergraduate. One said to another: "He doesn't look like a college man, his hair is cut close, his chin is clean shaven, he wears a cutaway coat of the latest pattern. His pants bear evidence of having been recently returned from the renovator, and his shoes are blackened." Another said: "He looks like a prosperous business man." Another said: "I'll bet Gillie can run a good hundred." He was a beautifully built man, a well nigh perfect specimen of the 150-pound man. There was none of the stooping shoulder or pinched countenance, or halt- ing step. His walk, quick and springy, was that of a man who knew where he was going and what he was going for. His walk was not the quick, jerky step of the egotist. A quick movement of the lower lip and the 11 Professor George C. Edwards restlessness of the dark eyes indicated an alertness not usual in the college man. His coming produced an immediate effect upon the college community and upon the public. There was a contagious enthusiasm about the man. Courses of lectures were established in Oakland, in San Francisco, in Sacra- mento, and in San Jose. Articles appeared in the daily press and in the Overland Monthly. Dr. Merritt of Oak- land, a member of the Board of Regents, became ex- tremely active in the affairs of the University — as it turned out, too active for his own peace and comfort. The University needed money. The Doctor knew that "a dollar saved is two dollars earned," and as he was in the lumber business, and an architect of no mean ability, he drew the plans and specifications for the construction of North Hall (then called the College of Letters Building), had his own contractors bid on the construction of the building, and himself selected the lumber and sold it to the Regents. It was an ill advised procedure, and caused the Doctor no end of trouble in the way of legislative investigation, etc. But the University got a building for $90,000, which, if contracted for and built in the ordinary way, would have cost the University $120,000. Through President Gilman, Edward Tompkins pre- sented the University with 50 acres of land (on the ex- tension of Broadway) which was the foundation of the Chair of Oriental Languages and Literature, now in full operation. Through the exertions of President Gilman, funds were contributed that purchased the Lieber Library for the University. By him Michael Reese became interested in the institution, and as a direct result $50,000 came to the University. The original sum has very wisely been kept 12 intact, and the interest devoted to the purchase of books. A few days ago I saw the statement in the College paper that with the income from that fund $67,000 worth of books had been bought. The interest in the undergraduates was manifested in one way by the raising of a fund which has provided the University Medal that annually goes to the most dis- tinguished scholar of the year. This Club is one of the evidences of his great and active interest. My class C73), the first class to take the full four years' course in the University, was nearing the end of its junior year when President Gilman came. During our senior year we had two courses with him. His interest lay particularly in humanity. It was men and their rela- tions to each other rather than things that attracted him. As social beings men aggregate themselves into small committees, these into states, states into nations, and nations into the family of the world. And so it was that political economy was one of the subjects that particularly attracted him, and was one of the subjects in which he was the instructor of our class. Man lives upon the Earth, and is influenced in his activities by terrestrial configurations. Physical Geo- graphy, then, attracted him and was the other subject in which he was our instructor. The recitations and lectures were held in the library, the class seated about a long table at the head of which the instructor sat. The library was then on the top floor of Brayton Hall, the old building which to-day stands on the northeast corner of Twelfth and Webster Streets in Oakland. The class had sessions also at his house, where numerous maps, photographs, etchings and draw- ings were produced as a means of instruction. 13 He was an instructor of the modern type; one who led, rather than drove ; one who invited and encouraged. There were certain words and certain gestures that were of very frequent occurrence, which served to show the character and the habit of thought. The words co- operate and felicitate seemed to be a part of the person- ality. His gestures were three in number: one in which both hands were raised and extended to the front, palms turned nearly down, with a gathering in motion that was used so many times as an accompaniment to the word co-operate. Another was with hands brought near to- gether, with the palms turned down and out, and moved as though parting the veil in order to look into the future. The other gesture was with the right hand ex- tended well to the front, palm down and fingers bent as though attempting to grasp that which lay behind the veil. Dr. Gilman's pathway was strewn with roses, but they were roses that had thorns on their stems. He did not have the support of his faculty that enables a man to do his best work. Other Presidents have lacked faculty support. In fact it is a condition so common that it may almost be said to be the rule. I think it is William Allen White, who, in commenting upon that particular phase of life, remarks that "academics are always against the government," and accounts for it by calling attention to the fact that their work is mainly given over to criti- cism, and a habit of antagonistic attitude is built up. Legislative investigations over the building of the Col- lege of Letters (North Hall) ; newspaper attacks, par- ticularly by the San Francisco Post, and an attitude of unfriendliness on the part of certain individuals who had access to the public prints, put upon him a burden that 14 was more irritating than weighty. A strong character always meets opposition and even revilement. The call came to go to Baltimore and lay the founda- tions of the Johns Hopkins University, erect it into the foremost institution of learning in this country, and pre- side over it for many years. I remember that once when I called on him in Baltimore and the conversation turned upon his experience in California, he said to me : "What- ever of success I have met with here in Baltimore has been due to my being able to carry out those principles which I clearly saw when I was in California." Perhaps I had a contact with President Gilman that was a little closer than that had by the other young men of the University. Beside being in his classes in Political Economy and Physical Geography, I happened to be the editor of the college paper. As such I felt called upon to regulate the affairs of the universe and those of the Uni- versity in particular. As the result of a certain editorial I had a very interesting hour and a half in the office of the president. Regret and kindly advice took the place of anger and resentment. Later I was chairman of the student committee that raised the money for and caused to be painted the portraits of Presidents Durant and Gil- man, which portraits are hanging in the library of the University. Upon my graduation I became a member of the faculty as an instructor in mathematics and com- mandant of cadets. After undertaking his work in Bal- timore he married a distant relation of mine. Please pardon the mentioning of these personal matters, but they are a part of my picture of the times and the man. President Gilman was not a profound scholar in the sense in which that term is ordinarily used, but he was a man of great erudition, of broad culture, and of very considerable literary ability. 15 When Daniel Coit Gilman passed over to the majority this country lost its greatest educator. I say that ad- visedly. He was a graduate of Yale, had done post- graduate work abroad; had been the librarian of Yale, a professor in the Sheffield Scientific School, president of the University of California, the shaper and executive officer of Johns Hopkins ; he caused to be brought from Europe great scholars and investigators ; he knew the line of work every professor and instructor was engaged in, and it might be fairly said that he knew the aims and ambitions of every student in the institution over which he presided. His life was an inspiration to young men, the force and effect of which will endure for many a day. He was a bearer aloft of the torch of learning and the standard of liberty, that learning which is not dogmatism and that liberty which is not license. Peace to his ashes. We are glad we have the memory. Professor Frank Soule was a member of the Faculty when Mr. Gilman was called to the headship of the Uni- versity, and spoke as follows: Mr. Chairman and Members of the Berkeley Club : Professor I feel that an honor has been conferred upon me as Frank Soule a guest of the Club by this invitation to say a few words to the memory of the late President Gilman, whom I knew very well and of whom I cherish a pleas- ant recollection. President Gilman came to the University of California in 1872. The University was temporarily established in Oakland at that time. I was a little surprised in meeting 16 such a comparatively young man, he being at that time only forty-one years of age; but manifestly he was full of energy, wisdom, ambition and the experience gained, not only as a student, graduate and teacher in the halls of old Yale, but as a thoughtful traveler and observer, and a member of one of our embassies in Europe. During all his previous life at home or abroad he had been an earnest and diligent student of educational methods and systems; and had acquired such a broad and liberal view of the entire problem of education in America, evidenced by his numerous publications upon this topic, that he was fully prepared, ready and eager to establish the policy of the University upon the widest basis of activity in systematized learning and in- vestigation, whether philosophical, literary, scientific, or technical. I have said that he was ambitious; and he was, but not in a personal, self-seeking sense. His sole ambition, to which he devoted himself night and day with all his great enthusiasm, was to develop an ideal, a great uni- versity, resting upon the highest and most useful plane. He was indefatigable, never sparing himself in setting the tasks designed for the advancement of the institu- tion committed to his care. He was a very affable man and most pleasantly approachable to faculty and students alike ; and displayed a rare tact in all his intercourse. He sought to be intimately friendly with all, and to assist and help forward every wise and approved activity. Very early in his days as president he organized the administration of the University library, and secured for it a home and support. He encouraged the members of the Faculty and of the student body to publish the results of their work and research. He strove to attract and win 17 for the University the friendship and interest of the public; as, for example, by initiating a system of public free lectures upon all popular academic subjects. He caused to be built what were known as the students' cot- tages upon the University grounds, designed to furnish dormitories in the small and isolated town of Berkeley. He also labored diligently in the outside world, in social circles, with the Board of Regents, and the Legislature of the State, to make them clearly comprehend the aim and ideals of a great university, and to instill in them the idea of the duty of all to loyally and generously support the institution. He was somtimes criticized for the great number of his social engagements; but while thoroughly enjoying the society of his fellow men, he was always devotedly work- ing to the same end — the benefit to accrue to the higher education. The Michael Reese gift to the library, the Bacon Art Gallery, the Mills Chair of Philosophy and Civil Polity, and many other public or private benefactions were the fruit, directly or indirectly, of the seed sown by him. He was the first man to propose the organization of this Club, and was its founder; and the Berkeley Club, dedicated to the free discussion of all important and living topics, was always an object of his pride and affection. During his residence at the University he was one of its most enthusiastic attendants and supporters. While his studies had been directed in his youth toward literature and the humanities generally, we soon found that while loving culture as we naturally would suppose a man of his refined fiber would do, nevertheless, he was too broad in his sympathies to unfairly favor that side of the University; he always seemed to be as eager to 18 assist and advance the course, let us say, of civil en- gineering, for example, as that of the classics or of English literature. He desired to develop all courses, and the University as a whole, in every worthy direction. As a disciplinarian, his idea seemed to be to convince and persuade to the correct view, to guide and lead rather than to drive and compel. He sought to make students, Faculty and Regents his friends; and was always ready to advise and sympathize. I well remember the only disciplinary regulation that was published in the first issue of the University rules. It was to this effect: "Every student is regarded as a gentleman, and will be treated accordingly." He was a genial, lovable man, disliking extremely all bitter controversy and demagogical opposition. In the case of his dropping two of the professors of the Faculty of that day, I feel that he was entirely in the right. One of them was notoriously inefficient and incompetent, as well as publicly abusive. The other was able, but fac- tiously in opposition in all things; and both were acridly disloyal to the the University and its ideals. The final result of their dismissal was harmony and co-operation in the life of his Faculty, and fully justified his action in this affair. If I were to pass any adverse, though friendly, criticism upon President Gilman and his administration of our University, I would say that while wonderfully tactful and diplomatic in his methods, he relied too much upon the latter means, in serious cases requiring heroic treat- ment ; and that just a little more of the Rooseveltian spirit in him would have made him more celebrated in the educational world. But such was not his nature. He was refined, gentle, and amiable to a degree, so that a strenu- 19 ous dispute of any kind was very distasteful to him and to be avoided if practicable. Therefore, from the first, I always have believed that it was with commingled feel- ings of regret, hope, and exultation that he left us ; regret in leaving the new and fertile educational field upon the shores of the Pacific, that, in his brief three years of stay he had cultivated with such ardor, in which he had planted so many fruitful ideas that still bud and bear; and with hope and exultation in the thought of building at Balti- more, free from factious criticism, a University for col- leges, as he expressed it — an institution for the education of professors for all faculties throughout America; and, as he might have expressed it, of putting the cap-stone upon our Temple to the Highest Education. This latter was his lifelong, his greatest effort and ambition. How well he fulfilled it, the history of Johns Hopkins University relates. In the story of the evolution of higher education in the United States, I believe that the name of Daniel Coit Gilman will always retain a conspicuous place. Samuel B. Christy, class '74, Professor of Mining and Metallurgy, spoke of the permanent influence of Mr. Gilman upon the students and of his qualities of leader- ship, as follows: Mr. Chairman and Members of the Berkeley Club : Professor The continued success of this Club for thirty-six years Samuel B. Christy is a str iking proof of the truth of my theme— the good President Gilman did, lives after him. In founding this Club, as your Chairman has pointed out, President Gilman had a double purpose: First, he 20 wished to establish a Western forum, where men of the most diverse opinions and training might discuss the burning questions of the hour in all freedom and frank- ness. He knew that truth always prospers when men of serious mind can talk freely and frankly together, and that, even when they cannot wholly agree, they become bound more and more with the social bonds of fellow- ship, sympathy, and mutual respect. He knew that in such gatherings public problems are gradually worked out, and public opinion is safely and surely formed. His second purpose was to secure for the infant University a loyal and disinterested body of devoted friends. How well he succeeded in both these objects, the devoted lives of those who have passed away, and the living interest of those who remain, are a sufficient proof. It is good for the living to praise the dead, but it is difficult for us of the Anglo-Saxon blood to praise the living. Some awkward self-consciousness, some fear of being thought self-seekers ties our tongues, and we with- hold the helpful word from the brave man fighting for us — until he is dead. Now that our praise cannot help him, our tongues are loosed, and we can speak from our hearts. It is well to do this, even though it is late; for the feeling that we do appreciate the services of the dead strengthens the hands of the living to still carry on the fight. It makes them feel that some day they will come into their own, and will be appreciated and understood. I never felt this sense of our cruel dumbness in the presence of the living more keenly than when, on another occasion, I had finished a memorial notice of our late Professor Joseph Le Conte. As I finished the story of his interesting and useful life for the American In- 21 stitute of Mining Engineers, of which we were both members, I was for the first time overwhelmed with the sense of how entirely my views of the aims and purposes of life had been colored by his teachings; and I bitterly regretted that I had not expressed to him my gratitude while he was living. And then, as my mind ran over the past, I realized how largely my own ideals of what this University might and should be had been due to President Gilman; and I sat down and wrote him a brief expression of my realiza- tion of the work he had done for California, just as he was laying down his work at the Johns Hopkins Uni- versity. And glad I am now that I did not wait until he was dead! It was indeed fortunate that Dr. Gilman came to Cali- fornia ; fortunate that he came in the first vigor of early manhood, with his life-work before and not behind him ; fortunate that he came with the varied experience of university life in Europe as well as in America ; fortunate that he came just when he did, at the critical period of California history. It was fortunate that he was able to rear the foundations of a great modern University on what might have grown into a collection of useful but mediocre trade-schools. No one can appreciate the work he did in those three years who did not watch the brave fight he made for the permanent interests of California. Those were days best recalled, now that they have passed, by one of his sayings at the time: "The people of Cali- fornia are so anxious to see their University grow that they want to dig it up by the roots every day to see how much it has grown over night." It has often been stated that President Gilman was driven from California by newspaper attacks. It is true 22 that there were bitter newspaper attacks upon him as there always are upon those who attempt to accomplish anything in our country. But he had made his fight — the fight of the all-embracing idea of the modern American university as against the narrow idea of the mere trade- school; and he had made it for all time. But, unfortu- nately for California, just at this moment the presidency of Johns Hopkins, which had just received a $7,000,000 bequest, was offered him. He was still sore with the strife, and the prospect of an untrammeled opportunity to carry out his ideas was what cost us this great organizer. President Gilman had every quality of a great leader except one ; his fine nature shrank too much from contest. And I believe he made a great mistake when he left California for Baltimore. If he had remained, the educa- tional history not only of California but of America would have been very different. Stanford University would never have been founded as a separate institution ; and instead of having two universities in California, largely duplicating each other's undergraduate work, he would have built up a single institution greater than either could have been alone. Upon a broad and strong under- graduate school he would have constructed with the united means at his disposal a strong graduate school that would have made California a Mecca for real scholars the world over. The wonderful tact of President Gilman has been re- ferred to by every speaker; and next to his organizing mind, it was his most striking characteristic, I never knew anyone who surpassed him in this faculty. His was "the tact that clinches the bargain, sails out of the bay, wins the vote in the Senate, spite of Webster or 23 Clay." This remarkable tact was made possible by his sensitive nature, his vivid imagination, his kindly human sympathy, and his unselfish devotion to the cause he stood for. His warm human feeling and keen insight led him to discover common interests among people in whom the casual observer could discover nothing but differences. He knew how to bring such people together at delightful informal dinners and impromptu breakfasts ; and by tact- ful emphasis on those common interests would weld the most inharmonious elements into loyal supporters of the cause he had at heart. There never lived a kinder and more helpful friend than Daniel Coit Gilman. He was a keen judge of character, and delighted to discover in young men latent capacities often unknown to them- selves, and it gave him the keenest pleasure to put stimu- lating opportunities in their way, and then stand aside and watch them grow. The story of the useful lives thus stimulated by his influence in all parts of our country is another proof that the good he did lives after him. His influence upon all classes and conditions of men can be explained only by the stimulating influence of his creative imagination, and by his kindly, cheerful, and sympathetic nature. It has been mentioned that the late Michael Reese left fifty thousand dollars to the University library. It is not so generally known that in the original will the bequest was five hundred thousand dollars; and that when Dr. Gilman left for Baltimore the donor re- duced the gift to one tenth of the original sum. No college president ever sank his own personality so utterly in the cause he loved. This was his greatest strength, for his unselfish example helped others to be- come unselfish. Many of the best gifts that since have 24 come to California have come, directly or indirectly, through his influence. The picture he painted of what a University should be was placed upon the canvas by a master hand. It was all aglow with "the light that never shone on sea or land." He was far ahead of his time, and the ideals he presented of University achievement have not yet been fully realized anywhere in the world. He came to a divided faculty, but left behind him one that was loyal and united. Fortunate indeed were they who felt the precious touch of his inspiration. It gave them courage and strength to work through the dark days that followed his departure, with firm faith in the ultimate triumph of the ideals he represented. President Gilman always opposed the lavish expendi- ture of money on college buildings. For those who urged it upon him, he used to sketch the picture of "Mark Hopkins at one end of a log and a student at the other." With the limited means then available, he felt that brains were more important to the University than buildings. He was not insensible to the educational influence of noble architectural forms, but he felt himself "a voice cry- ing in the wilderness," and he knew that this gracious task was reserved for another and more fortunate hand. But his fame rests secure: the good he did lives after him ; for he builded the Invisible University, that lives and grows and endures in the minds and hearts of a great people. 25 Mr. Horace Davis, former President of the University, was asked to speak of Mr. Gilman and his work in Cali- fornia in the cause of higher education, and responded as follows: Mr. Horace What I admire most in Dr. Gilman is the tenacity with which under most adverse conditions he held on to his high ideal of a university and worked to develop it in this institution. That ideal included breadth of range and lofty aspirations. In these aims he was supported by a body of strong earnest men in the Board of Regents, though he himself was the heart of the impulse, the animating force at the center, stimulating and directing the movement. But we must not forget the steady pur- pose and the stalwart strength of that first generation of Regents who cheered and sustained Gilman in his ambition and laid the foundations of the University broad and deep, prophetic of its present high attainment. But they met little sympathy here. Public sentiment in California at that time was low in matters intellectual and moral. We were a community of practical men, developing the material resources of a new land, our time was absorbed in the practical things of everyday life ; we had hardly emerged from the pioneer stage, the schools were low, libraries were few and small. There were not many men who could see things from a University standpoint, with the breadth and comprehen- siveness of that ideal. The first and most dangerous attack made on the University was the effort to divide it into separate independent schools, most dangerous because it appealed to class prejudice. Had this succeeded, in place of a University, we should have had a lot of small schools 26 scattered over the State, — a farmers' school here, a tech- nical institute there, and a college of arts and letters isolated by itself. The solidarity would disappear. The conception of a group of schools united in one body sus- taining one another's ambition, cheering, encouraging each other's high aims, the whole constituting a uni- versity, covering as far as possible the range of human knowledge and human hopes, all this would disappear. Gilman was a gentle nature, and ordinarily had no heart for fighting, but he fought this proposition to the bitter end. Fortunately, he was backed up by strong forces in the Board, and he needed all the strength he could gather. The farmers were against him, the me- chanics opposed him, the press assailed him, but he held his grip and won out. The University was maintained in its integrity, but only after a long and fierce struggle. And he worked just as devotedly for the highest attain- able standard of education. Here he met the same quality of opposition, the teachers complained that his standards were out of their reach, the Boards of Education said the University was up in the air. But Gilman clung to his ideals, believing the schools would ultimately reach them. The result has justified his faith and his aspirations. We were a long time getting up to his standard and it took many a struggle to reach it. Meantime he was drawn away to more attractive fields, but others stepped in to hold the fort. The hostility he met with, and the indifference of the mass of the people to his conceptions of what the University ought to be must have discouraged him and inclined him to accept the invitation to Johns Hopkins, but all the same his short administration set the pace for its future growth. Its solidarity was main- tained, a spirit of progress was engendered, and an enthu- 27 siasm for better things which made possible the wonderful advance which has since been realized. Gilman blazed the trail and we have followed in his footsteps. We shall always hold him in grateful and admiring memory. Mr. Warring Wilkinson was asked to speak of the Berkeley Club and its fellowship, and responded as follozus: Mr. Warring In Memoriam services are by nature and purpose al- Wilkinson ways of a serious character, but sometimes there is an element of pathetic interest attaching to the service that makes the occasion more than usually memorable. To- night is one of these occasions. We are here to celebrate the thirty-sixth anniversary of the Club ; we are also here to commemorate the life, services, and recent death of Daniel Coit Gilman, the founder of the Berkeley Club, the love of which seems to grow and strengthen in the hearts of its members as the years go by. The pathos of the occasion lies in the fact that, of the little coterie of coadjutors with Mr. Gilman in his enterprise, one by one has passed over to join the Great Majority, till to-night the dear friend who presides over us is the last charter member of this much loved organization, but who, thank God, still lives in full vigor of mind and body to uphold worthily the traditions of the Club and the honor of the sixteen Immortals, for so we have a right to call them who attended the first formal dinner and meeting of the Club around the table of Professor Martin Kellogg thirty-six years ago, and while I have had no opportunity of conferring with my fellow members, I am sure that I express the unanimous sentiment of you all when I 28 say that it is our earnest hope and heartfelt prayer that Dr. John Knox McLean may continue for many a year to illumine our discussions by the clarity of his vision, by the largeness of his experience, by the humor, wit and wisdom of his gentle speech, and to illustrate to us all by the bright example of his long, useful and unselfish life and career, what a fine thing it is through it all ever to have borne "without reproach The grand old name of gentleman." The organization of the Berkeley Club was one of those quiet, unobtrusive beneficences of which Mr. Gil- man during his stay in California was the fruitful source. It did not come into the world with any fanfare of trumpet and drum, nor with any literary pyrotechnics. It had no new cult, nor apostolic mission to proclaim. It did not set out to reform society or the world. It had no political purpose or aspiration, and so it has never sought its membership among the rich or the mighty, but has always endeavored to bring together a small body of fifteen — twenty — thirty, and now forty, congenial men, some clergymen, some lawyers, some physicians, many teachers, and some men of affairs with large ex- perience in the business activities of life, so as to afford as many view points as possible of the subjects under discussion. It is not and never has been a publishing club, though many of the papers read here have found their way into print, but always on the merit of the paper, and never by Club subsidy or influence. I was not a member during the coffee-and-ham-sand- wich period, so humorously described by Dr. McLean, but I have participated in its weary wanderings through the wilderness in search of manna and quails, and a 29 permanent abiding place, till our good fortune and the courtesy of the Faculty Club brought us to this con- venient haven of cheer and rest. The ritual of the Club is very simple, a modest dinner without wine ; a comforting cigar for those who want it ; a roll call ; the reading of a paper by some member in alphabetical order, followed by a discussion; a few mo- ments of hand-shaking; good-night; voila tout. No pres- ident or board of directors, no intrigues for preferment, for all stand in line, and each takes his turn as host and pays for the enforced privilege, while the cheerful spirit and readiness with which members yield precedence to their fellows, especially when it comes to the matter of reading a paper, often reminds one of the gracious self-negations of Messrs. Alphonse and Gaston. Such in brief is the story of the Berkeley Club, and the simple method of its conduct. If one should call it a social club, he would not be far wrong; if he should call it a literary organization, he would speak within the limitations of truth; and if one should call it a nursery of friendships, promoted by the genial and in- timate companionship of the table, and stimulated by the atmosphere and intellectual contacts of free discussion, he would express pretty nearly the triple function of the Berkeley Club; and if in a moment of exuberant meta- phor, I should say that here one obtains draughts from the fabled fountain of perpetual youth, there is no one present old enough to contradict me, but our Chairman, and he won't. Indeed under this arched and friendly roof, twice a month one may behold that marvelous miracle for which poor Faust bartered away his soul, so legend goes, — namely, the rejuvenation of age. Here 30 young men set the pace; the middle-aged stop the clock of time, while the old men turn back the hands. The aches and pains of life with "black care" in the saddle await us at the front porch where we left them, but when our fortnightly exercises are over, we elders slip out the back door, singing as we go the closing quatrain of the Autocrat's thirtieth anniversary class poem — "Then here's to our boyhood, its gold and its gray; The stars of its winter, the dews of its May; And when we have done with its life-lasting toys, Dear Father, take care of thy children, the Boys." And all these years of joyous companionship, of intel- lectual stimulus, of periodic, though transitory, renewal of youth, we owe to the Berkeley Club whose members will ever hold in honor and grateful remembrance the name of its founder, Daniel Coit Gilman. 31 MEMBERS OF THE BERKELEY CLUB. Thos. Addison, January 5, 1899. Wm. F. Bade, March 3, 1904. E. E. Baker, November 25, 1901. Anson S. Blake, February 5, 1903. C. B. Bradley, September 14, 1882. Chas. R. Brown, November 12, 1896. J. W. Buckham, November 12, 1903. E. B. Clapp, March 1, 1894. Guy C. Earl, September 19, 1895. John Fryer, October 15, 1896. J. R. Glascock, February 1, 1883. C. R. Greenleaf, May 7, 1896. M. W. Haskell, November 20, 1890. F. L. Hosmer, September 27, 1900. J. G. Howard, November 12, 1903. J. L. Howard, September 24, 1891. G. H. Howison, September 4, 1884. Josiah Keep, September 22, 1887. A. C. Lawson, November 9, 1899. Frank A. Leach, March 1, 1900. F. L. Lipman, May 11, 1905. J. K. McLean, Charter Member. Bernard Moses, September 28, 1876. A. B. Nye, September 15, 1892. Warren Olney, January 12, 1882. Warren Olney, Jr., March 15, 1900. Whitney Palache, January 9, 1908. Geo. C. Pardee, April 13, 1899. E. L. Parsons, October 25, 1906. Geo. C. Perkins, October 9, 1890. A. J. Pillsbury, September 15, 1904. C. C. Plehn, January 5, 1899. L. J. Richardson, November 29, 1899. T. A. Rickard, December 3, 1908. W. B. Rising, April 10, 1873. H. Morse Stephens, January 23, 1908. F. S. Stratton, January 5, 1899. G. M. Stratton, February 2, 1899. Irving Stringham, November 9, 1882. Earl M. Wilbur, December 7, 1905. Warring Wilkinson, November 5, 1874. C. J. Woodbury, September 24, 1887.