DARTMOUTH NIGHT

"Now in the name of him who stood that Dartmouth might stand I bid you pledge your love, your honor, your loyalty and your life." These words spoken by Melvin O. Adams, Esq., the presiding officer, and followed by the Dartmouth Song in unprecedented vigor and volume, closed on Friday evening, October 18, the impressive celebration of the "Dartmouth Night" of 1907.

With Webster Hall filled to overflowing — every seat occupied — with seventeen hundred students, alumni, and guests filling the great colonial auditorium, hung with the portraits and paintings of Dartmouth's distinguished sons, the meeting from beginning to end was one of intense .enthusiasm and unparalleled spirit. The large, well-lighted hall, with noble pillars and lofty apse, resounded again and again with ringing cheers and with enthusiastic, almost tumultuous, applause.

With President Tucker giving the opening address, and formally dedicating Webster Hall, with Mr. Adams as presiding officer, with Judge Cross '41 to arouse the spirit and to awaken the memories of the past and bring them vividly into, the present, with Mr. W. D. Quint '87 to infuse into poetry not only the humor and the pranks of the early days, but to stir even the most sluggish feeling by the sentiment of his poem, "The Iron and the Gold,''it is small wonder that the large gathering was moved to enthusiasm.

Dartmouth Night of 1907 was successful in every respect and the significance of the celebration was doubled by the simple yet impressive dedication of Webster Hall for academic uses.

At 7.45 the peal of the College bells summoned the undergraduate body, and promptly at eight o'clock President Tucker opened the meeting with his address of dedication.

President Tucker said :

Gentlemen of the College, of the Trustees, of the Faculty, graduates and undergraduates:

On the day on which Chief Justice Marshall announced the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the Dartmouth College Case, Judge Hopkinson, associated with Mr. Webster as counsel for the College, wrote to President Francis Brown a letter of jubilation, closing with these words: "I would have an inscription over the door of your building, — Founded by Eleazar Wheelock, Refounded by Daniel Webster."

In that period of the one building the suggestion of Judge Hokpinson might have been carried out in its literalness, but the event which he had chiefly in mind was too near for men to think much of the way in which it should be put upon record. We can see more clearly in historic retrospect the significance of that event because of its relation to the greater event which had preceded it. The College was worthy of being refounded in law, because it had been founded in sacrifice. It was the sacrifice of Eleazar Wheelock which made the argument of Daniel Webster persuasive with tears,a kind of argument never before heard in the Supreme Court room of the United States. While, therefore, we hold together in our reverent and affectionate loyalty the names of Wheelock and Webster, we hold them in discriminating loyalty. We have erected this building which bears on its front the name Webster Hall, and it may seem fit to the trustees to write upon or within the building the inscription to which I have referred. I trust that we shall never erect a building to Eleazar Wheelock. The only fit memorial to the heroic founder is the statue of the man himself, placed where it may command the daily life of the whole College, from which he withdrew his name, but into which he put his spirit. The laying' of 'the corner stone of Webster Hall in 1901 was the objective point of the Webster Centennial. At the ceremony Mr. Streeter, of the Board of Trustees, presided, the corner stone was laid by Lewis Addison Armistead, great grandson of Daniel Webster, and the address was given by Ex-Governor Black of New York, of the class of '75. The general exercises of the Centennial, in charge of Professor Justin H. Smith, had been introduced on the previous day by addresses by Professors John K. Lord and Charles F. Richardson. They were continued in the evening by an out-of-door celebration of "Dartmouth Night." On the morning of the same day exercises were held in the College Church, of which the principal features were an oration by the Honorable Samuel W. McCall of Massachusetts of the class of '74, and the conferring of honorary degrees. The exercises of the Centennial closed in the evening with a banquet at which the President introduced the guests of the College; His Excellency, the Governor of New Hampshire, Edwin Webster Sanborn, Esq., of New York, Professor Francis Brown, the Honorable David Cross, Dr. William Everett, the Reverend Edward Everett Hale, Senator Hoar of Massachusetts, and Chief Justice Fuller of the Supreme Court.

The alumni subscription for the erection of Webster Hall had reached the sum of $50,000 when it was arrested and diverted by the burning of Dartmouth Hall. The rebuilding of Dartmouth, the hall which held the traditions of the College, instantly took precedence as a matter alike of loyalty and of necessity. The subscription for Webster was merged in a subscription for the Dartmouth Buildings Fund designed to replace Dartmouth and to add the present hall. But it is quite fair to all other alumni and friends of the College to say that we owe this hall to the special gift of $50,000 by the Honorable Stephen M. Crosby of the class of 1849, an ardent lover of the College and an ardent admirer of Mr. Webster.

Dartmouth Hall was built and furnished at a cost of almost exactly $100,000. The cost of Webster Hall as it now stands, including the site of the building, is $133,417, for which the treasurer has cash in hand to make complete payment. For the general furnishings of the building and for such adjustments to its uses as may be required, there remains about $11,000 in uncollected subscriptions, a part of which may be considered available.

This enumeration does not include the gift of $7,000 by J. Wyman Jones of the diss of '41, to be expended in bronze doors upon which will be inscribed the names of his class: a fine suggestion of the way in which the alumni may increase the value of the hall in itself or in its furnishings. If like gifts for Dartmouth — the clock, the gift of Dr. W. T. Smith, and the bell, the gift of J. Winslow Peirce '05,— are included in the Buildings Fund, the total amount subscribed and received in gifts is $254,161. The original amount asked for was $250,000.

At the time of the laying of the corner stone, Mr. Streeter announced that the building then contemplated would be devoted in part to offices of administration. The original intention of the trustees was outgrown in the years of delay, fortunately, as we can now see, leaving for larger fulfillment his statement of the chief use of the building. "In a stately hall," he went on to say, "will be gathered and preserved all that will keep in the general mind the romantic beginnings of the College, her splendid history, and the fine achievements of her more illustrious sons in the work of the world.'' How well this idea, with others of a strictly practical nature, has been embodied by the architect, Mr. Charles A. Rich of the class of '75, is attested by the judgment of all who are present. Would that he were here to recognize and acknowledge this universal sense of satisfaction in his work.

As a memorial hall its walls will be enriched with portraits and tablets. Later the rooms below may be fitted for a museum in which may be gathered objects of historic value. For the present distribution of portraits we are indebted to the artistic sense of Professor Keyes. In the apse are gathered such portraits as we have of those associated with the origin of the College, of those more immediately connected with the Dartmouth College Case, and of the past Presidents of the College. At either end of the hall under either gallery, are small groups of men eminent in their different callings, lawyers, physicians, ministers and missionaries, and educators. And in the separate places upon the walls above and below are the portraits of benefactors and of individual alumni. The portraits of the trustees and of the faculty remain as yet in their respective rooms in the Library; and College Hall will be used hereafter as now for individual portraits.

Of the various representations of Mr. Webster in the possession of the College, two portraits have been selected and placed on easels in front of the columns supporting the apse — one by Alexander showing him as a comparatively young man (he was about thirty-six when he argued the Dartmouth College Case) and the other by Ames showing him in his maturity.

In the apse stands the mahogany office desk of Mr. Webster, presented by Professor Justin H. Smith, happily identified in part by the notes of the speech in reply to Hayne which were found in one of the drawers, and beside it the office chair of Mr. Webster in use at Marshfield, presented by Judge Richardson.

I trust that the College may yet possess a much larger collection of the memorabilia pertaining to Mr. Webster, including a compete collection of the portraits painted at different periods, and also the portraits of several of her distinguished alumni of which she is not now possessed, notably those of George Ticknor, Thaddeus Stevens, Joel Parker.

Webster Hall will also serve the various uses of the general assembly hall of the College. It has already been fitly used for the opening exercises of the year and for Vesper services. It will be used for lectures and concerts under the auspices of the College, and for College plays, and for many of the meet, ings which bring the whole College together. Though no action has been taken by the trustees and faculty, I assume that it will be used for Commencement. It will not be without regret that we part company on Commencement Day with the old College Church, down whose aisle for more than a hundred years the graduates of Dart, mouth have passed from the College into the world. The Baccalaureate will, I assume, retain its place.there, but the inconvenience of the church for the processional features of Commencement has necessitated this hall with its ample spacing of aisle, platform, and apse .As the platform will be used from time to time as a stage, it will not be seated with fixed seats, but the apse will be seated with stalls.

This building then, being now substantially complete, with no debt or liability of any kind resting upon it, thewilling offering of alumni and friends,1 ask you, the, recipients of the gift, torise in acknowledgment of the gift, asin your presence, by the authority of theTrustees of Dartmouth College, f declare the formal opening of WebsterHall. And acting in their behalf I setapart this hall to the uses for which itwas designed — to preserve the honorable and inspiring traditions of the College, to bring our illustrious dead intodaily fellowship with the living, toQuicken within us the sense of a common inheritance and of a common duty, toenlarge our knowledge of men and ofthe world through the spoken word ofscholars, discoverers, -patriots, and benefactors of their kind, to refine our manners and to stimulate our taste throughaccess to art, to give to us the full advantage of quick and ready contact ofone with another, of each with aI, andof all with those who represent the interests, the intellectual wealthand themoral necessities of the world; and having fulfilled in us these objects of ourdesire, to send us out year by year inspired by example and fellowship, andcharged with the sense of duty. Tothis end 1 implore the protecting care ofAlmighty God upon this building andupon all who from time to time maygather within its walls, and the assurance of His blessing that the spirit ofthe fathers may rest upon their childrenand upon their children's children whilethe College shall stand.

Following President Tucker's address the glee club rendered Richard Hovey's "Men of Dartmouth.'' President Tucker, after referring to the origin of Dartmouth Night in the old chapel and its outdoor celebration at the time of the Webster Centennial introduced Mr. Adams as presiding officer, saying in part: "I have asked to preside, the man than whom there is no one more capable among us to evoke the Dartmouth spirit, the man who while Old Dartmouth was still burning sent out to the alumni on that memorable occasion what he declared was 'not an invitation but a summons' (words which have become classic in Dartmouth literature), a man ever ready to respond to the call: — I take great pleasure in introducing Mr. Melvin O. Adams of the class of '71.''

Mr. Adams, with deep feeling, and characteristic dignity, spoke in part as follows:

"This latest, luminous Dartmouth Night already leads us into a new and ever brighter Dartmouth day. The spell of this glorious and magnificent memorial temple is upon us, and enshrined in our hearts is that inscription of Judge Hopkinson's, more enduring than if it were cast in bronze, or carved in stone. Every man feels the masterful grasp of the past upon his shoulder as he takes up his task and shoulders the responsibility that this noble building puts upon him." Mr. Adams, in acknowledgment of the glowing tribute paid him by President Tucker, then referred to his part in the rebuilding of Dartmouth Hall, declaring that it;' was but his opportunity — the time when the .play came his way, and one which, since it occasioned an almost "pontifical blessing" from President Tucker, he prized more than any other that had ever come his way.

In introducing Francis E. Clark '73, he said: "Here is a man who like the Galilean has become a fisher of men, who has manned a squadron, and set sail, with the searchlight of truth and righteousness, — a man whose life-work had been quickened by the Dartmouth spirit. I beg to present the Reverend Francis E. Clark of the class of '73."

Mr. Clark said in part:

"Dartmouth is a college of traditions. Every Dartmouth man ought to find constant inspiration in the story of the romantic beginnings of the College. Money may build dormitories, but it cannot make traditions;-and back of all these beautiful buildings is the noble and eternal spirit that produced them.

"With this in mind, there are certain things that I would do if I were again living my undergraduate days at Dartmouth. First, I would become better acquainted with the hills and the valleys and the plains of Hanover. Nowhere in the world is there a more striking example of rural Again, I would become better acquainted with my fellows. The value of association with men is a value which cannot be learned from books. Finally, I would become better acquainted with Dartmouth's history, and strive, with that history as an impetus, to take a sympathetic interest in people and present problems. Then, with all sincerity, I could look up into the faces of the great alumni pictured here, and say, Thank God, I am a Dartmouth man."

After another selection by the glee club, Mr. Adams, in a most humorous speech, introduced Wilder D. Quint '87, who read the following poem :

THE IRON AND THE GOLD

Once on a time — all stories thus commence, At least, whose pedigrees are worth two penc e—

A Freshman sought the Hanoverian sky, Resolved in his young soul to do or die. Here on this very spot he pitched his tent, Large as to size and moderate in rent, And from the windows of his great square room

He heard a wail from out the gathering gloom

Of "football, Freshie; Oh, bring out your ball."

And, answering to that kindly caterwaul, Pie joined the shaky army of his class, An atom in a squirming, smothering mass. Once, tossed aside by physics' natural rule,

He heard a bearded Junior's: ''in, you fool!"

And venturing to ask the reason why, "It's Dartmouth spirit, boy; get in, or die."

He found himself one hot September day Bared to the waist and oiled for deadly fray,

One of a desperate, gladiatorial band Sworn to protect a cane from Soph'more hand;

Beheld the throngs to view, from far and near,

The choice athletic show of all the year. He felt the shock of battle in the street, And in his midriff, too, and on his feet. He gasped and wheezed and pulled and hauled and bled

For three long, awful hours until, half dead,

He and his gallant comrades lost the prize Mainly because of pepper in their eyes. Yet even so, imbibed with boyish trust More Dartmouth spirit with the Dartmouth dust.

One later day, morn's exercises done, In that lost, sainted room of prayers and fun,

Our Freshman, smiling a bravado smile, Placed on his fated head a tall, silk tile. Enough! The enemy with frenzied roar Swept like a whirlpool out the chapel door. The Dartmouth spirit smote that luckless hat,

Down o'er the Freshman's ears propelled it flat,

Then tore it strip by strip from off his head Regardless if his hair came out instead. And thus, in divers ways and many a place. Our Freshman thrived and grew in strength and grace.

Hard hit sometimes, but hitting hard again,

And deeming it disgraceful to complain. Now,as he turns the Fates' completed page, He knows he lived in Dartmouth's Iron Age.

Crude, noisy, swaggering times, I ween, The days of pumps, stoves, mud, and kerosene;

Of midnight hen-coops cackling in dismay When Dartmouth spirit passed along that way;

Of country dances ending oft in riot; Of tin-horn symphonies to break the quiet That professorial homes demand by right, And now, I'm told, obtain by day or night; Of wondrous costumes shrieking to the air; Of Babylonian beards and perfumed hair; Of Kibling's Op'ry House, that Thespian den

Where tragic "ham-fats" roared on six by ten;

Where dear Hank White retold his minstrel jest

And Barnabee's "Cork Leg" led all the rest;

Where "The Mikado" burst upon the town And college fiddlers squeaked the chorus down;

And where, constrained to work his passage in,

Our Freshman played a stringless violin . Such was the closing of the age I sing, And I, who walked therein, this tribute bring:

Uncouth, perhaps it was, uncultured, raw, Esthetic joys of life it seldom saw;

Yet from that smelter was the iron wrought

That made men stout of soul and firm of thought,

Who "kept the league of heart to heart,'' indeed,

And made their college love their purest creed.

Twice have ten years sped away with equinox' races,

Twice have ten springs filled the air with their blossoming perfume.

Twice have ten winters thrown down their rich robes of pure ermine,

Over the sentinel hills standing guard 'round our Dartmouth.

Changed are the streets and the ancient familiar places;

Temples spring up as by magical craft of Aladdin;

Rub but the lamp and behold the genii are ready

Serving their master and bringing whatever is called for.

Even the night is no longer lit only by heaven,

For, mid the branches of elms, look, yon star-points

Glow in the dark like great fireflys caught and imprisoned.

Vast is the change in the outerward dress and appearance,

Vaster the number who sit at the feet of the Mother;

Yet in the keen air I catch the old spirit of Dartmouth,

Hear in the shouts and the songs the same splendid fealty,

See in the faces of youth nothing less of endeavor,

Know that in spite of the years the real Dartmouth endureth.

This is the golden age, truly, the epoch of beauty,

Yet is the iron beneath it, the iron bequeathed you.

You have adorned it, but, thanks to the Fates, you have kept it.

So, in this place, with its name and its calling heroic,

Type of that forehead of majesty, front of great Jupiter,

Worn by that champion of old whom forever we honor,

Here, even here, are the iron and gold intermingled,

Each to the other an ally, defying the future.

Battles must come — but the men of old Dartmouth can fight them ; Victories be won — for the men of old Dartmouth are strong;

Causes be lost — yes, the gods are not always impartial; Yet in the losing what matter, if winning were wrong?

Honor's bright face smiles in field, in the world, in the cloister; She holds the shield o'er the heart of the man she may love,

Girds on his sabre and sends him to conflict exulting, Hands him his colors — you know them — as gifts from above.

On to the fight, then, whatever the foe to encounter, You with the new blood of youth burning hot for the fray,

Only remembering Justice is comrade to Courage, "One and inseparable,'' - Dartmouth shall show you the way.

Professor Richardson was next introduced, and in a short but characteristic speech said:

"Too often we make the mistake of believing that Webster's only service to the College was the colossal service that he rendered in his great plea in the Dartmouth College Case. In point of fact, however, his loyalty to the College, from first to last, was nothing less than consecration. In his own choice of this College; in his fidelity to every undergraduate and village duty; in his constant self-sacrifice to assist his brother Ezekiel, who was a Freshman when he himself was a Senior; and last, by sending his son Edward here (in Judge Cross' class), he expressed his abiding faith in the College. The memory of his unfailing loyalty should inspire every Dartmouth man today with the determination that his influence shall be the means of sending to Dartmouth at least one student who would not otherwise have attended this College."

Professor Richardson read the following selection from Webster's "News-Boys' Message to the Patrons of the Dartmouth Gazette" January 1, 1803, and preserved in a' manuscript of Webster's undergraduate and early verse which has recently been acquired by the College:

"Let winter clothe the earth with snow, And Boreas, if he chooses, blow; The slow-paced moments to beguile We'll talk of politics a while.

''It might amuse one to behold, Like Julius in times of old, How Bonaparte uprears his head, Astonished Europe strikes with dread. And condescends, to save all strife, To elect himself consul for life. How England murmurs at the times, And Portugal, in silence, pines; How Italy, and Switzerland, Are, by his majesty's command, Made 'indivisible and free'; How Spain, submissive, bends the knee: - Meanwhile, by cabinet collision, Goes on the business of partition. See how the rulers of our nation, Conduct their mammoth reformation.

Lo, on the wide tempestuous sea, Of Godwin's plauded liberty, Our public bark is tempest-driven, Lost to all hope save that in heaven."

The glee club then rendfered the oftensung but ever effective "Hanover Winter Song," after which Mr. Adams introduced as the last speaker of the

evening, Judge Cross of the class of '41, who was received amidst an enthusiasm of applause that swept in waves over the great audience. Judge Cross, deeplY affected, spoke in brief as follows :

"As I look about this hall my deepest emotions are stirred. I wish I could express the feelings that came over me when, in company with dear Doctor Tucker, I first entered this beautiful hall. But I cannot tell them; they lie too deep for speech.

"This hall is a fitting memorial for Daniel Webster. It is Websterian. How many times have I enjoyed standing at the Crawford House in the White Mountains and looking at Mt. Webster. I never tire of looking at that mountain; it, also, is Websterian. I have seen Daniel Webster in the senate. I saw him in 1843 at Bunker Hill. I saw him as he spoke to fifty thousand people, and I was thrilled by his eloquence.

"But Daniel Webster, . great as a statesman, great as a lawyer, was withal a son of Dartmouth. He was our brother. You remember how he went home to Salisbury and fired his brother Ezekiel with enthusiasm to enter Dartmouth, and how, while teaching over in Fryeburg, Maine, he copied deeds that he might send Ezekiel a litle money. Has that brotherly love ceased? No! It exists today. It will abide forever.

"Brothers of the class of 1911: It is seventy years since I came to Hanover as a Freshman — seventy years! — and it seems one bright, continuous day. I almost wish I could enter the class of 1911. But no! Your years are before you; mine are past. In all that you do, be loyal brothers. Remember, as Doctor Tucker has said, that 'the spirit of altruism is a compelling force today.' As you read this book ['Human Bullets'], cultivate the spirit of helpfulness. Be true, be honest, be loyal, and you will give expression to the blessed Dartmouth spirit.''

The evening was then closed by all rising for the "Dartmouth Song," and in acceptance of the pledge to the College, called for by Mr. Adams.