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[Wisconsin State Journal]
LOCAL MATTERS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19, 1878.
The ALUMNI REUNION,
At the Assembly Chamber.
Last Evening.

Year by year, as the Alumni of the
State University becomes more numerous
and noted, do the Alumni reunions assume
an importance and create an interest sec-
ond only to commencement itself. An
evidence of this growth was found in the
crowded state of the Assembly Chamber,
last evening, to listen to the very interest-
ing exercises.

In the abscence of Hon. J. L. HIGH, the
President, Mr. A. S. RITCHIE, of Racine
the Vice President of the association, oc-
cupied the chair in a very appropriate
manner. Music was furnished by the
full Captial City Band.

Stating in a few words the object of the
assemblage, the President, shortly after 8
o'clock, introduced to the audience STE-
PHEN S. GREGORY, of Chicago, an alum-
nus of the class of '70, who delivered his
address upon "The Golden Age" in a very
fluent meanner, which held the attention
of the audience throughout. We give it
in full:

The GOLDEN AGE.
Looking back through the long vista of the
past, in the mellow light of history almost tradi-
tional, we may view again the splendors of
the Roman empire and Roman civiliaztion, in
the golden age of their fullest development. The
lapse of nineteen centuries has not sufficed to
efface the memories of the glorious period, nor
to destroy the lofty monument then reared to the
greateness and glory of the Latin Race. With the
eye of fancy we may again gaze upon the Eternal
City, seated on her seven hills, in all her original
splendor and magnificence, and see her as when
"from her throne of beauty she ruled the world."
This was the period of the fullest development
of Rome's civilization. Her armies were every-
where triumphant, her military superiority fully
conceded. But she had for ages stood in the front
rank as a great military power; the lofty patriot-
ism and heroic valor of her sons had even then
become historical. And in this single aspect, the
age we are considering might not, perhaps, more
especially challenge our attention than former
periods of her history. But it was an age of
great material prosperity and great intellectual
activity - wherein the higher forms of literary
composition were dilligently studied, and the
great masterpieces of the language carefully

success. The undue desire for self aggrandize-
ment and material prosperity is the great evil of
our national character.

As long ago as Jason sailed away with his Ar-
gonauts in pursuit of the golden fleece, the love for
gold was strong in man. "Quid non mortalia
pectora cogis, auri sacra fames?" queries the
pious Æneas. We are not, therefore, discussing
any new passion of the human heart. But in the
American people, it has been becoming, little by
little, an engrossing and overmastering one, and
is now a serious element of evil in our social and
political economy. It is natural it should be so.
We have had a great country to subdue, forests to
fell, land to break, roads, railroads, bridges,
towns, and cities to build and all
nations similarly situated have had
first to acquire that material prosperity which
gives opportunity for the cultivation of the mind
and the higher faculties of man. The pioneer
must first build for himself a cabin to shelter him
and his from the inclemencies of the weather, and
then provide himself with necessary food. He
cannot in the first instance sit down in the back
woods and severly devote himself to his Euclid
or Principle or to a careful study of the classics

Our nation has been a pioneer as it were, strug-
gling for the simplest necessaries of life; and this
struggle has been so successful, and our material
prosperity has been so great, that it has come to
be regarded, whether avowedly or not, as the
chief end of man to secure the highest possible
degree of such prosperity, and to roll up a large
fortune the most commendable aim which he can
entertain. Knowledge is power. We assent to
this proposition, for it commends itself to our
judgement, with the sanction derived from having
stood in our copy-books and been traced by child-
ish finger time out of mind. But what all know
from actual contact with the world is that money
is power, and that the possessor of great knowl-
edge with no money stands but little chance of
exercising a tithe of the direct and immediate
power or infulcence wielded by him who has a
great deal of money and perhaps as little knowl-
edge as the law allows. I think it is EMERSON
who says that a man who has sixpence is to that
extent master of the world - he can buy whatever
a sixpence will pay for, and if this is true of the
possessor of sixpence, it is none the less so, and in
the same proportion of him who has a million
and what cannont such vast wealth buy?

We all recognize this power and treat him who
holds it accordingly. Nay; we even go so far as
to allow our judgement to be biased and our opin-
ions of character to be influenced to a very con-
siderable extent by the question, Has he money?
To a certain extent this is legitimate, for the ac-
quisition of wealth may frequently be due to the
possession of characteristics in the highest de-
gree honorable and commendable, and we may
therefore, from the possession of wealth, infer
the existence of these characteristics in him who
has it.

But practically this is carried to a most unwar-
rantable degree. How plain are the faults of the
poor and unfortunate, how hideous their vices,
how glaring their short comings. And on the
contray, how easy it is to discover the excellen-
cies, the good points of the more favored of for-
tune's children, particularly those who lavishly

a few men, aided by the unintelligent selfishness,
or the pusillanimity, of the greater number, would
ultimately compel society to pass through strange
vicissitades."

It seems to me that the distinguished foreigner,
in penning these lines which display that close
observation of the habits and manners of our peo-
ple, characteristic of the whole work, was some-
what influenced by his knowledge of the history
of his own country. There, Paris is France in a
sense not readily understood here. A well di-
rected mob that can gain possession of that me-
tropolis and seize the public offices there can, as
has been done repeatedly in the past, inagurate
a revolution and establish a new form of govern-
ment for the whole nation. But in this country,
nothing of that kind is possible, nor is there any
serious dissatisfaction with our form of govern-
ment. It has stood the test of time for nearly a
century without material alteration, and I appre-
hend that is is now more deeply rooted in the
affections of the American people than at any
former period in our history. But we have all
learned very effectually that no form of govern-
ment can be so wisely planned that if entrusted to
the administration of incompetent and unfaithful
public servants, it will meet the just expectations
of its founders, and the danger with us is not of
revolutionary attempts to change our forms of
government, either national or state, but rather
that those to whom we carelessly and indifferently
commit public trusts shall prove recreant to their
duty or incapable of properly discharging it.

There is no doubt but that our political duties
rest lightly upon us. In many localities it really
seems as if the office-holders and office-seekers
were the only classes who took any interests in
politics. As soon as an outsider begins to mani-
fest any interest in the subject, it is at once sus-
pected that he wants office; and generally he does.
If you mention political topics to the business
man, you perceive at once that his interest in and
information upon them are quite limited.

The general opinion among successful men is,
that he who devotes the most time to his business
and the least to politics, will accomplish the great-
est results. And the idea that he has any duty in
the premises except to make the largest possible
amount of money in the shortest possible space
of time, never occurs to him. Occasionally his
attention is called to some abuse of political pow-
er -perhaps by high taxes, and he indulges in a
fierce tirade against politics and politicians cau-
cuses, conventions and elections. Now, if he de-
clines to take from his business the time necessa-
ry to enable him to do his duty in such matters,
for fear of losing a few dollars, he must stand the
consequences. It is a short sighted selfishness
which leads him to attend constantly to all his
own petty concerns to the prejudice of great ques-
tions of public interest, and leave them to the
management of professional office-seekers and
ward bummers. And yet it is to these classes
that such questions are directly or indirectly rel-
egated in too many instances, by a kind of com-
mon consent, and they seem to be thought to have
a peculiar proprietary interest in government and
public office. In these respects we need a politi-
cal reformation, widespread and radical in it's
character. We are becoming more and more self-
ish money-getting people. We have no aristocra-

proved public sentiment, literature and the arts
shall then receive that acknowledgement and fos-
tering care so vital to their fullest development,
and all forces of intellectual effort meet with ap-
preciating encouragement.

The scholar, the author, and the worker in every
field of mental labor shall receive the fullest rec-
ognition.

Nor shall we take any steps backward in materi-
al prosperity, our commerce will still whiten with
its sails the seas in every quarter of the globe, our
granaries continue to feed the nations of the earth
and all the great resources of our country to devel-
op with increased rapidity. And here, in this
western world, we shall see a golden era of intel-
lectual and political development, of material and
commerical prosperity, such as has not been pos-
sible in any former age or any other land: such as
the sunny skies of Italy never looked down upon,
such as even the history of proud Albion cannot
parallel. And with a refined and ameliorated civ-
ilization we shall, in our political condition, fully
realize the beautiful picture which the Latin poet
has given us of his own state:
"Asperatum positis metescent secula bellis.
Cana Fides, et Vesta. Remo cum fratsi quirim
Imadabunt; diral feno et compagibus artis
Cloudentur Belilpertae."

After the applause which greeted the
close of Mr. Gregory's remarks has sub-
sided, Mrs. Clara Bewick Colby was
welcomed again by a Madison audience,
to whose great delight she read her poem,
entitled "The Song of the Plains." We
take great pleasure in publishing this
production to our readers in full, assured
that it will be gladly welcomed.

A Song of the Plains.
In Delphic oracle, the fabled gods of old.
By Pythia's mystic voice, to rev'rent seeker told
The destinies of nations, and in verse made clear
The unknown future, far as mortal man might
hear,
And oft the secrets dread of late the gods un-
sealed
To man in visions strange, or these in dreams re-
vealed
And still, as then, a times the curtain is with-
drawn,
The veil is rent in twain which hides from us the
dawn
Of things eternal; and from the clogs of sense set
free,
The hidden springs of life our spirits clearly see.
So, climbing ardently Parnassus' sacred mount,
As poets oft of old, I sought Castalia's fount
The muses' aid t'invoke: and hoping there to
drink
Rich draughts of inspiration, o'er it's rocky brink,
Into it's limpid depths I gazed with passion,
strong,
And in it's clear stream saw the vision of my
song.
Deep in the crystal flood a glen appeared.
From its green base rough snow-clad mountains
reared
Their giant heads, as if some spirit hand
Had hurled them there in strength, and bade
them stand

He ceased.

The fair Unktahe then arose.
A crescent moon was on her head. A gourd.
The earth to water, in one hand she held,
The lightning serpent, emblem of the earth's
Fertility, the other grasped. Her path
A shining light appeared, like streamlets gleam
On sunny day, but in the distance lost
In mist and shadow; for Unktahe fair
Not only rules the waters, but the night
As well, and governs then the dreams of men,
For when in morning's glow you rise refreshed,
The spectres gone which frightened you last e'en.
The burdens lightened which oppressed you sore,
You feel new hope, new courage for the day,
For noble deeds and lofty plans, be sure
That this kind goddess by your couch has stood
To waken thus she spake:

Great Spirit dread,
Far westward is thy palace high from whence
Thou send'st me to refresh this arid plain,
I caused my streams to flow through all this land
And on their banks I planted stately trees,
And blooming shrubs, and climbing vines. With
flowers
I gemmed the prairies o'er, and set the stars,
My jewels, in the clear sky close and low,
Glad made the heart of every living thing,
As in some swiftly flowing stream I worked
Or in the gently falling dew, or oft
In air above. I thus prepared the land
To woo to its embrace the passers by;
And then by night I whispered soft and low
To the white man's heart in dreams and bade him
seek
The promised Eldorado in the west
As through my land he passed in search of gold.
I marked his path with flowers that sunward
turned
Their yellow disks, § that he might know the
way,
When fortune frowned upon him, to return
Where kindly nature with unbounded wealth,
Awaited patient long enduring toil.
I warned the red man of his coming doom,
Of slow decay and death, but bade him hope
A savior from the east, and happier life
In distant lands towards the sunny south."

Then glancing fiercely at Unktahe, he,
The giant king, Haokah, forward came.
One side his face was lucid red, and one
An ashen gray. His hands held thunderbolts,
Forked lightnings played around his horned
head,
He glared with wrath as though unwilling he
Acknowledged aught above, then thus began:

"O Wakan, where the western breezes dwell,
I live and brew the storms which terrify.
Dread famine, wars, and pestilence, and fire,
My children are. On wings of mighty wind,
I traveled to and fro through this doomed land,
Contending for it with thine other gods.
I dried the streams and drove away the game,
The Indian, forced by want of food, made war
Upon his brother brave. I told him then
To murder thy white children, and to shed
The blood of women and of babes. I blew
With my hot breath upon the prairie grass,
and tall flames through the country swept, the
trees,

The nature's lavish hand had scattered round.
The trinity of fortune gathered there,
Gold, toil and hope, laid the foundation fair
Of lofty enterprise and plans sublime,
To be perfected in the coming time.
And high above the cities grandest sight,
The halls of learning rose on every height.
'Mong these supreme, their culminating good,
Nebraska's Alma Mater proudly stood
With outstretched hands the children of the state
To greet, and bid them seek within her gate
To pluck the choicest gems from wisdom's hand
And wisely use this free gift of the land.

Among the shifting scenes that thronged that
vision fair,
Thou too, our Alma Mater, bore a noble share.
Montgomery, Cross, and Wells; and one whose
name you guess-
(God bless where he is to-day) - with all the
rest,
A half a score or more - you know and love them
well,
Went hurrying by, but stopped with tender tones
to tell,
That neither labors, years, nor distance had de-
creased.
Their loyalty to thee - and thus the vision ceased.

O! Alma Mater, whereso'er thy children stray,
With longing hearts they think of thee,
And those afar - in spirit meet with us to-day,
And pledge unfaltering fealty.

For situation beautiful art though, the queen
Of this fair city of the west,
Thy name is still the spell which keeps forever
green,
Remembrances we love the best.

Once more thou send'st from out they wise pro-
tecting care,
With promise glad, thy youngest born.
Strong may they be for the world's work to do
and dare,
We welcome them our ranks to join.

And 'mong the guardians of thy present weal we
meet
Some faces old and dear; and some
Are new; but all with honor for their work we
greet,
As o'er the land their praises come.

Thou of the silver hair and furrowed brow, whose
hand
Each class hath met with kindly grasp,
Though sundered far in time, on common ground
we stand,
And bless thee for they honored past.

Long may thy life be spared the coming youth to
lead,
Befriend and cheer; then may'st thou see
Heaven's portals open wide, and on thy reverend
head
God's benedictions showered be.

And we---the living--let us drop a loving tear
At memory's shrine for those whom God,
With gentle hand, hath taken for his own this
year,
We bow with sorrow 'neath the rod.

No idlers they upon the busy fields of life,
And though their course was quickly ran,