xt7q833mwv1w https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7q833mwv1w/data/mets.xml University of Kentucky. 1909  books b92-151-29579487 English s.n., : [Lexington, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Patterson, James Kennedy, 1833-1922.Smith, William Benjamin, 1850-1934. Commemorative exercises of the fortieth anniversary of the presidency of Jas. K. Patterson  : Friday, June 1st, 1909 / biographical sketch by William B. Smith. text Commemorative exercises of the fortieth anniversary of the presidency of Jas. K. Patterson  : Friday, June 1st, 1909 / biographical sketch by William B. Smith. 1909 2002 true xt7q833mwv1w section xt7q833mwv1w 















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   Addresses delivered at exercises in commemora-
tion of the forty years' service of President James
Kennedy Patterson, as President of the State
University of Kentucky, held on the University
campus, on June 1st, 1909, from 4 p. m. to 7 p. m.
o'clock.
   Judge James H. Mulligan presided at the exer-
cises.
   Rev. David W. Moffatt, D. D., pastor Emeritus
First Presbyterian Church, of Fort Wayne, Ind.,
opened the exercises by prayer.

 

                   aVrogram

JUDGE JAMES H. MULLIGAN, Presiding.
UNIVERSITY GLEE CLUB.

                   SPEAKERS
GOVERNOR AUGUSTUS E. WILLSON,     Frankfort, Ky.
JUDGE HENRY S. BARKER,
         Of the Kentucky Court of Appeals,
                                    Louisville, Ky.
HON. CASSIUS M. CLAY,
             Of the Board of Trustees,
                                       Paris, Ky.
REV. DAVID WM. MOFFATT, D. D.,
     Pastor Emeritus First Presbyterian Church,
                                 Fort Wayne, Ind.
HON. JERRY SULLIVAN,
Member of Board of Regents of Eastern Ky. Normal
   School,                         Richmond, Ky.
REV. CHARLES LEE REYNOLDS, D. D.,
        Pastor Second Presbyterian Church,
                                   Lexington, Ky.
REV. JOSHUA B. GARRETT,
       Professor of Greek, Hanover College,
                                    Hanover, Ind.
DEAN WILLIAM T. CAPERS,
             Christ Church Cathedral,
                                   Lexington, Ky.
DR. ARTHUR YEAGER,
         President of Georgetown College,
                                 Georgetown, Ky.

 

PROFESSOR HENRY H. CHERRY,
    President of the Western Ky. Normal School,
                                Bowling Green, Ky.
REV. RICHARD HENRY CROSSFIELD, D., D.,
        President of Transylvania University,
                                    Lexington, Ky.
REV. ISAAC J. SPENCER, D. D.,
         Pastor of Central Christian Church,
                                    Lexington, Ky.
DR. F. W. HINETT,
          President of Central University,
                                      Danville, Ky.
REV. EDWIN MULLER, D. D.,
         Pastor First Presbyterian Church,
                                    Lexington, Ky.
PROFESSOR JOHN T. FAIG,
             University of Cincinnati,
                                  Cincinnati, Ohio.
VIRGIL Y. MOORE, University Student.
ALPHA HUBBARD, University Student.
PROFESSOR JAMES G. WHITE,
                 State University,
                                    Lexington, Ky.

                   RESPONSE
PRESIDENT JAMES KENNEDY PATTERSON.


PROFESSOR WILLIAM B. SMITH, PH. D.,
                Of Tulane University,
                                 New Orleans, La.


 

                  contents

Address of Judge Mulligan ................. 9
Address of Governor Willson ................ 14
Address of Judge Barker .........  ......... 17
Address of Hon. C. M. Clay ................ 23
Address of Rev. D. W. Moffatt ............. 27
Address of Hon. Jerry Sullivan ............. 32
Address of Rev. C. L. Reynolds ............. 35
Address of Rev. J. B. Garrett ....... ....... 38
Address of Dean W. T. Capers ......  ....... 41
Address of Dr. Arthur Yager ............... 43
Address of Prof. H. H. Cherry ...... ....... 46
Address of Prof. J. T. Faig ................ 53
Address of Dr. Hinett ........... .......... 57
Address of Rev. Edwin Muller .............. 60
Address of Rev. I. J. Spencer ....... ....... 63
Remarks of Mr. V. P. Moore ............... 67
Address of Mr. Alpha Hubbard ............. 70
Remarks of Prof. Jas. G. White ...... ...... 73
President Patterson's Reply ....... ........ 76
An Appreciation-W. B. Smith, LvL. D ....... 83


 

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Our Honored Guest, Ladies and Gentlemen:-
3 N the course of a life time which is beginning
      to touch where the shadows fall, I have
      by chance unworthily been the recipient at
times of honors far beyond my merit; but I wish
to say as briefly as possible that never in my
career have I been so keenly and sensibly touched
as has been done in giving me the honor of pre-
siding on this momentous occasion.
  Forty years is a long span in one's affairs. Forty
years of continuous endeavor, of ceaseless labor
and travail, forty years erowned at every step by
the triumph of great things accomplished, is some-
thing very unusual,
   At the outset I might say that when I secured
by close competition the honor of presiding over
this meeting it was with the distinct understanding
that I should make no speech. Therefore, in view
of the shortness of the time, while you will be
beautifully and eloquently entertained-touchingly
entertained, if you fail to hear what you consider
a really great oration, lay it to the door of those
who so restricted me on this occasion.
  This is a unique occasion, such an one, I dare say,
as none present ever attended before-celebrating
forty years of continuous service in a great and a
noble work. Forty years marked at every step by
                                              9

 
FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY.



willing sacrifice, marvelous ability, and what is
greater, forty years almost without friction, or
without friction worthy of mention, and crowned
at last by the great success which rests on the head
of the guest of to-day. (Applause.)
   Surely a man must not only be a great man,
but he must be better than that-he must have
been a good man who could so follow the even
tenor of his way, continually rising higher and
higher with every step-and yet think of it! this
man came from Indiana. He must be a very good
man. He is unquestionably that, and it needs no
words of mine to say that he is a very great man, to
have accomplished that which President Patterson
has accomplished. President Patterson did not of
himself alone build the State University, but I
speak the simple truth when I say that had it not
been for President Patterson there would have been
no State Universitv PresiderttPatterson is as much
the maker of his college as is Mr. Carnegie of any
of the great institutions which he ever endowed.
During the forty years that he has been the in-
cumbent of this office, I have watched its growth.
I well remember when Governor Blackburn laid
the corner-stone, and when two years later
the brilliant Watterson made the dedicatory ad-
dress, and so I have seen it under his fostering
care, under the influence of his great common
sense and his powerful intellect grow up to what
it is now, and yet he is but looking forward to
what it will be in the years to come. (Applause.)
  If there was ever a man who erected a noble
monument by his life's work which entitles him
to a lasting place in the hearts of his fellows,
10

 
PRES. JAS. K PATTERSON.



surely it is the loyal man who has accomplished
this great work. Great for you; great for the
generation to come, and great for your children
after you.
   For twenty-five long years of that forty he and
I have been the closest neighbors. We have lived
all through that span of life nearer to each other
than either was to any other person.
   Here comes not only good men, but great men;
here come men from Indiana, his boyhood friends,
after the span of a life time-coming here to
clasp his hand and to congratulate and to
take part in honoring him here to-day. Surely a
man must be a good man who can have his boy-
hood friends to come such a distance at such a
time to do honor to his theme.
   There was once a Kentuckian traveling in Indi-
ana, and he fell into conversation with a gentleman
who seemed to be in very sad health, and the Ken-
tuckian let it be known, as Kentuckians are prone
to do, that he was from Kentucky, and after a time
he turned to his chance acquaintance and re-
marked: "I suppose of course that you're an
Indianian " "No," said the man, "I, too, am a
Kentuckian, but then I have been sick for a long
time." And so the tried friends of his youth,
like him grown in strength and character and
reputation-in everything showing ability, show-
ing virtues, and showing all those marked quali-
ties that make men conspicuous and great, they
come from their distant homes to take their places
by his side to give contradiction to those who say
the friendships of our youth are but fleeting; and
so we have with us to-day the friends of the morn-
                                              11

 
FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY.



ing of his life; and what stronger proof could
be asked that he is a genuinely good man, as well
as a very great one when these hale, learned and
distinguished men-though Indianians they be
gather around him to join those prominent in the
life of our own immediate community and its citi-
zenship to do honor to the guest of this occasion.
Surely it is well worth a life-time of labor and sac-
rifice to receive such an honor and distinction as
this. (Applause.)
    (At this point the Glee Club of the College
rendered a selection.)
   By reference to the programme it will be seen
that it is extremely lengthy; there are twenty-two
addresses to be made. Having myself taken up a
good proportion of the time, I regard it as only
modest that I should say to those who are to ad-
dress you, that when there is so much they
know how to say so well, that we will take the
will for the deed; we ask the gentlemen to remem-
ber that we know how beautifully and how well
they all speak-and so a little of it for this occa-
sion will suffice. This is said with a sense of jus-
tice that all may to our advantage be heard-
because this great audience is anxious to hear every
gentleman whose name appears on the programme,
and hence I venture to ask that you favor us with
your shortest address. My remarks are directed
mainly towards the first speaker-Governor Will-
son-because he is apt to be- well, just a little
long, sometimes. As we are unprovided with
lighting facilities and cots, we greatly desire to
conclude during the lingering day-light, and so I
again renew the request.
12

 
                         PRES. JAS. K. PATTERSON.

   The distinguished gentleman I have the honor
first to present to you, needs no introduction-he
is the first officer of the Commonwealth, and surely
it is a proud day when the young man who came
in the unaided days of his youth from our sister
state of Indiana, and whose growth was by little
and little through such arduous toil and endeavor,
now comes at last in his mature manhood and
fullness of reputation, to receive this ovation.
as a fitting acknowledgment of his worth, that
the best and greatest in position in the State
gather to do him honor; the honored of the
land are glad to honor him. I have the pleas-
ure to present to you His Excellency, Augustus E.
Willson, Governor of Kentucky.


 
FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY.



       Zbbrtgo of Oobtrnnr MiUion

Ladies and Gentlemen, and our Honored Guest-
,1   HHAT would you do about it, if you were
        in my place     Judge Mulligan an-
        nounced that he had accepted this nomi-
nation as Chairman of this meeting with the un-
derstanding that he would leave all the speaking
to somebody else. Well, of course, people make
promises of that kind to get office. (Laughter.)
   He has put more ginger and more fun and
more eloquence and more picturesqueness into
his talk than all the rest of us can do in the after-
noon, and so I am not going to try. When the
boys were singing that humming song I thought
of what Mulligan said, that I must not speak
more than two minutes.
   Now there was a little thing came to my mind;
it is curious how a real flashy, brilliant orator
sometimes puts his foot in it. There was just a
little jealousy in Mulligan's talk about Indiana.
The Governor of Kentucky was a resident of the
State of Indiana from 1857 to 1878, but I never
let it out before. It was a mean, unneighborly
thing for Mulligan to say he was not going to
speak, and then talk for a half hour and shut the
rest of us out.
   My neighbors and friends, it is an honor to
anybody to have an opportunity to pay this neigh-
borly tribute and this human tribute of respect
to a man whose noble life has been given to use-
14

 
                           PRES. JAS. K. PATTERSON.

fulness and to good works. I feel very deeply
what Judge Mulligan said about the character of
a man who to a ripe old age holds the friends of
his boyhood, as this our friend has held his friends
here. They honor us by showing their love to
him by their presence here. I do not know in the
history of the Commonwealth, and certainly I
do not remember in my reading of the history of
men, a single case that I could think of now as
more striking in its record of a long tremendously
hard-working life of usefulness than the life of
our friend. I do not wish what I say to take on
anything of the tone of a good-bye or a funeral.
He is cheerful; he is bright; he is earnest; his
eyes shine as clearly as they ever did; and if you
think he has lost the facility for saying in a real
strong way, with a strong clear head, you have
not talked with him lately. I believe, to put it
stronger, I am dead sure, that his determination
was never so stout. It may be improper to use
the word "stout" with reference to his determi-
nation, but I do not know of any other word that
will fit it so well. I say, he never was more
earnest; he never was more useful; he never was
more greatly beloved and admired and highly
regarded in every way than he is today; and in
the full strength of wisdom, great-hearted kind-
ness, tremendous industry, his canny Scotch com-
mon sense, and American common sense, he is
at his greatest today. But it is not what we say
today; of course, I cannot say it; but it is what is
Fhown here, what each one feels today. I am only
a short acquaintance of President Patterson's.
Many of you are his old acquaintances; many of
                                              15

 
FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY.



you his students; but there is not a soul here
today who does not have this feeling about this
man that he is worthy of the love of his fellows;
that lie is worthy the distinction of having a
great multitude of honest, thoughtful, earnest,
sensible people feel in their very heart the way
you feel, and I feel, and everybody knows, of the
usefulness of President Patterson, and you cannot
Fay anything that adds to that; you cannot think
of anything that adds to it.
   The greatest question in all life is, what shall
be thought of us hereafter; what is the record
where the accounts are finally kept But the
next thing dearest to the human heart is, what
do the people who know us think about us Do
they think this man is earnest, honest, wise, faith-
ful; his word ringing true every day They will
forget his little combativeness; they will look upon
it as an evidence of strength and not weakness;
sometimes hard-headedness; but they won't forget
his constant, sincere, honest effort. They like you
and like you in every way. We are your friends;
we honor the memory of your past work, and we
honor you still while you are with us.


 
PRES. JAS. K. PATTERSON.



           Jubgp Jarktro 0bbrtgo

3[    CCOULD well have wished that both the
       duty and the responsibility of speaking for
       the Trustees on this occasion had been com-
mitted to abler hands than mine. But while not
feeling at liberty to decline the compliment which
the imposed duty brings, I find myself emrbar-
rassed at the very threshold by my personal rela-
tions to the distinguished subject of the honors
we wish to bestow. 31y affection for President
Patterson has been of such long standing and of
so sincere a character that any eulogy I may be-
stow upon him will almost assume the complexion
of a compliment to myself.
  I met the President for the first time when I
matriculated as a student in the A.  M. College
in 1870. From that time to this we have been
friends. In looking back over this long period
and fully realizing all that I owe to him, it is a
great honor to me that during all this time I
have had the right to call him friend. In 1870,
the A.  M. College occupied and owned that
magnificent estate known as Ashland and Wood-
land, on the opposite side of the city. The great
Civil War had been closed but a few years, and
the South was still prostrate from its ravages. In
the general wreck of the great struggle there had
gone down all, or nearly all, of her educational
institutions. The result was that many of her
young men had come up to the College, allured by
                                               17

 
FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY.



the hope of being able to labor during a part of
each dav at such remuneration as would enable
them to maintain themselves at school during the
remainder. There was a very large part of the
student body composed of these young men from
the South. They hailed from the Carolinas to
Texas; they were as fine and manly a set of young
men as one could wish to meet. I mention this
fact as introductory to a statement I wish to make
concerning the relations between the students and
the President. In all the time I was at the A. 
M. College I never heard a student speak disre-
spectfully of the President; they all loved and
admired him; and as I now remember the situa-
tion, I do not believe they would have submitted
to anything which savored of disrespect to him
whom they loved so well and in whom they had
such implicit confidence. The boys I knew here
from '70 to '73 are now, if living, long past the
heyday of life. They are scattered to the four
winds of heaven. Occasionally it is my good for-
tune to meet one of them, and always the first
inquiry is for news of the President.
   During the period I was here, the A.  M.
College, although a State institution, was a part
of Kentucky University, which was then, as now
(though its name has been changed), under the
auspices of the Christian Church. Shortly after
I left school, under the influence of a disagree-
ment between the University and the State, the
union was dissolved and the State College was
established as an independent institution, and
was located upon its present site. The legislature
of Kentucky granted the College a small and very

18

 

PRES. JAS. K. PATTERSON.



inadequate annual tax for its support. This was
the occasion for the jealous animosity of every
sectarian school in the State, and soon the young
institution found itself an educational Ishmaelite
against which the hand of every sectarian was
raised in hate. It seemed to a mere spectator that
the feeble bantling thus cast upon the rock of
adversity must surely perish; and perish it would
but for the loyal courage of one man-its Presi-
dent. In the courts, in the halls of the General
Assembly, in the columns of the press, and on the
hustings, he met and vanquished all opposition.
He literally lifted up the moribund institution
which seemed about to expire from the anaemia
of starvation, and, holding it close to his own
great, loyal heart, warmed it back into vitality
and life. When I look upon these beautiful
grounds, nearly every tree of whose lawns he
planted with his own hands; when I behold these
buildings, every brick of which was cemented by
his anxiety of heart, it seems to me as if the now
.splendid institution should, in its gratitude, find
a voice, and in the language of the great Scotch
bard, say of its benefactor:

     "The bridegroom may forget the bride
         Was made his wedded wife yestreen;
      The Monarch may forget the crown
         That on his head an hour has been;
      The mother may forget the child
         That smiles sae sweetly on her knee;
      But I'll remember thee, Glencairn,
         And a' that thou hast done for me !"

   In the first law suit, instituted more than
thirty years ago, for the purpose of obtaining a
                                               19

 
FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY.



judgment declaring the tax for the benefit of the
A.  M. College unconstitutional, I, then an un-
fledged lawyer, had the honor, without fee or re-
ward, to in part represent the interests of the
school. The fight then begun lasted in the courts,
in the General Assembly, in the Constitutional
Convention, until within twelve months last past,
it has been finally settled by the judgment of the
court of last resort in the State that the Legisla-
ture has the right to make any appropriation to
the College it deems proper for its maintenance.
I shall always remember with pride that I, who
thus began my career as a lawyer trying to uphold
the right of the legislature to support the State
College, had the honor, as a Judge of the Court
of Appeals of Kentucky, to aid in establishing by
final adjudication the State's constitutional right
to maintain this great institution for the educa-
tion of its young men and women. It will always
be a gratification to me to recall that during all
of this "thirty years' war" between the forces of
learning on the one hand, and the forces of igno-
rance and its twin sister, prejudice against public
education, on the other, that I have faithfully
followed as an humble private in the footsteps of
the great captain, to whom we owe the final vic-
tory. For to him more than to any other man in
the State we are indebted for the final public
adoption of the statesman-like policy that the
government owes it as a duty to its youth that
they shall be educated, and for the legislative
recognition of the economic principle that every
dollar spent for education is more than equal in
value to ten dollars laid out for the suppression
20

 
PRES. JAS. K PATTERSON.



of pauperism and crime. President Patterson has
all his life been an educator of youth; and in se-
lecting this vocation he chose wisely and well. It
seems to me that there can be no nobler secular
calling than that of teacher: all others make most
for the things of this world; but this makes for
eternity as well. The teacher, who takes a human
soul and inspires it with the divine thirst for
knowledge, puts in motion an instrumentality for
higher things whose usefulness will only have be-
gun when the fountains of the sun have been
quenched, and the stars have withered on the face
of the firmament. As compared with knowledge,
all other acquisitions seem base and sordid. The
man who acquires money enriches only himself,
and what he gets he deprives others from securing;
the man who obtains office serves only his own
ambition, and disappoints others who desired the
same promotion; but the man who acquires knowl-
edge takes nothing from his neighbor, but, on the
other hand, adds to the common fountain from
which all may draw who will. He enriches him-
self, indeed, but he enriches as well all who come
within the radius of his influence. Knowledge,
like mercy, "is twice blessed: it blesseth him that
gives and him that takes."
   In conclusion, it gives us pleasure to honor the
President, who is just closing up a long and use-
ful professional life. He has been faithful to all
the obligations which come with the possession of
splendid abilities. He has discharged to the full-
est measure the great trust involved in his life's
work. He has never faltered in or swerved from
the path of rectitude, or "pattered with us in a
                                              21

 
FoRTiETH ANNIVERSARY.

double sense." Of him we may say, as Carlyle
said of Cromwell, "He feared God, but he feared
no one else." His whole life is a guaranty that
his daily prayer has in spirit, at least, been that
of the mariner of old, who, about to launch his
frail bark upon the treacherous sea, cried out:
"Oh, Neptune! I pray you to smile upon my voy-
age; but whether you blow me fair, or whether
you blow me foul, I will hold my rudder true."


 
PRES. JAS. K. PATTERSON.



       Zb(ret     ot 1on. C. JlR. Clap

Ladies and Gentlemen and our Guest-
[    WISH from the bottom of my heart that
      Judge Mulligan could make my speech, and
      that I did not have to make any. When I
accepted this invitation, the only reason why I did
so was because I felt so deeply interested in our
President, and was willing to add whatever I could
to this occasion in a few words.
   I am an evolutionist and consequently I am
no hero-worshiper, but I cannot contemplate the
history of this institution for the last forty years,
its beginning in nothing, and its gradual expan-
sion to its present harmonious development, and
contemplate the obstacles that had to be over-
come, both internal and external, but what I, an
evolutionist, must acknowledge that its destinies
have been directed and controlled by a master
mind. In the beginning, this college received
meagre endowment from the sale of public lands
under the Morrill Act. President Patterson ap-
preciated that unless State aid was given to higher
education, this college would never amount
to anything. At that period, you will recollect,
those of you who are old enough, that there was
no public sentiment to amount to anything in
favor of State aid to higher education. President
Patterson felt that the very existence of the Col-
lege depended upon the creation of a public sen-
timent in the State of Kentucky in favor of
                                              23

 
FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY.



highei education, and he immediately addressed
himself with all of his great powers of mind and
energy to create and educate such a public senti-
mnent. He did this by addressing the taxpayers
through the State, agricultural bodies through
the press, and every session of the Legislature
found him a constant attendant, urging and im-
pressing upon the members of the Legislature the
great necessity for their doing something for high-
er education in the State of Kentucky through en-
dowment and appropriations to the State College.
He was opposed in this by the jealousies of the
various denominational institutions of the State,
as Judge Barker has said, some taking much more
part than others; and then he was opposed by the
conservative inertia of the Legislature, naturally
economical, because composed always of a majority
of farmers, who were naturally indisposed to in-
crease taxation; and after a very strenuous fight
he passed his first bill-appropriating one-half of
one cent on every 100 of taxable property in this
State for the benefit of this institution. This bill
was followed by other appropriations, generally
for the purpose of building certain buildings upon
these grounds. In some cases not only had Presi-
dent Patterson to address himself to the Legisla-
ture on the question of public sentiment to get the
Legislature to act in favor of the legislation, but
he had to bring to bear upon the Governor every
possible reason pressing for the bill. And then I
have seen him have to fight for these bills both
on the ground of policy and on the constitution-
ality of the bills; and I myself have seen him
pitted against one of the very ablest lawyers this
24

 
PRES. JAS. K PATTERSON.



State has ever produced, and the universal opinion
of the audience that heard that argument was
that the lawyer had not gotten the better of it.
So all along the line he has fought and educated
and developed such public sentiment as was nec-
essary for the maintenance of the institution, and
regulated the internal growth of the institu-
tion by his great sagacity, by his judgment, by
his wide and accurate scholarship, his knowledge
of the classics, philosophy and history, in such
a manner as to give it the high standing which
it has and deserves.
   Some one has said that the history of the laws
of a country are a good summarized history of
the nation-of the country. In the same way some
one has said that even the dictionary of a country
was a good summarized history of the country. In
the same way, with emphasis, I may say that the
history of this college for the last forty years is a
good history in a brief summarized way of the
public life and services of President Patterson.
(Applause.)
   I have been associated with him in the Board
of Trustees now for several years, and what I am
about to say I can speak from personal knowledge.
In all my little political life, which does not
amount to much, I have been thrown with great
and brilliant men. I was in the Legislature with
Preston, Williams, BJlackburn and many others,
and I want to say that I have never been thrown
in association with a man that had better use of
pure, direct English than President Patterson.
He is always terse and direct in statement, but



25

 
FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY.

whenever it was necessary he could always draw
upon the whole realm of human knowledge in apt
illustration.
   Ladies and gentlemen, I am no flatterer; I be-
lieve in stating what I honestly believe; I believe
that today-that this very day, considering both
manner and matter-President Patterson is the
best public speaker in Kentucky.
   Now, in conclusion, I want to express the pro-
found hope and wish that many years of useful-
ness and happiness may be extended to you, and
that you may live to see this college-your child
and offspring-although it is great now, expanded
into a much more vigorous manhood, giving,
through the support of Kentucky, still greater
usefulness and education to our people. (Ap-
plause.)


 
PRES. JAS. K. PATTERSON.



Zlbbut  f f  rb. 3abib in. Mloffatt, IDID

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen-
,     0 borrow an Hibernianism if I had been
        born in my native country I should have
        been born in Indiana, but not being con-
sulted over matters in those days I was born in
New Jersey, and when I was less than a year old
was carried by my parents to Madison, Ind. My
earliest recollections are of my home on one of
those stately hills and beautiful hills, which look
down on the city, and ten miles of the Ohio River
and of the Kentucky and Indiana hills and valleys.
There I became well acquainted with and warmly
attached to a Loy whom I called "Jimmie" and
who 'called me "Davie," this latter fact testifying
that we were then not big boys. Afterwards to-
gether we used to go down that big hill every
morning to school in the city, and every evening
climb it again to sleep together not at the foot
but at the top. I was not able to recollect just
how many years ago that was, but I knew that
whenever I met my life-long friend, Dr. James
Kennedy Patterson, that he would remember, for
as "Jimmie" he had a memory for everything.
And last evening he gave me the exact dates. Still
later we met at Hanover College as fellow stu-
dents, not however as class-mates, because he was
in advance of me, and between the time I got
acquainted with him as "Jimmie," and the time he
became "Patterson" in the college, I was informed
                                             27

 
FORTIETH ANNIVERSARY.



that he had memorized the spelling, pronunciation
and definition of all the words in Webster's school
dictionary. He did not tell me that, and I can not
vouch for its truth, but I know that as "Jimmie"
he had the pluck and persistence and the memory
to do it; and besides I have always been reminded
of it by his diction, and by the facility and ac-
curacy with which he handles the English language
in everything that comes from his pen.
    When I was invited to attend this celebration
I had no thought but to come if it were possible.
I immediately began to look up the way and never
before did I so thoroughly realize how wide the
Ohio River is. On my desk were folders contain-
ing the time tables of all the principal railroad
systems north of the river, and several of them
had lines extending southward to the river; but
there they stopped. No one of them gave me any
information as to how to find a