To the son of any college, although he does not make his connection with
his college a profession, a return of Commencement Day recalls many
memories. It is likely also, after nearly a quarter of a century, to
cause some reflections. It is, I suppose, to give tongue to such
memories and reflections that after-dinner speaking is provided. After
all due allowance for change of perspective, going to college was a
greater event twenty-five years ago than it is to-day. My own memories
are not yet ancient enough to warrant their recalling. The greater
events of that day are too recent to need to be related.

But I should fail in my duty and neglect my deep conviction if I did not
declare that in my day there was no better place to educate a young
man. Most of them came with a realization that their coming meant a
sacrifice at home. They may have lacked a proficiency in the arts of the
drawing room which sometimes brought a smile; but no competitor met the
Amherst men of that day on the athletic field or in the postgraduate
school with a smile that did not soon come off. They had their pranks
and sprees, but they had the ideals of a true manhood. They were moved
with a serious purpose. He who had less lacked place among them. They
are come and gone from the campus, those men of the early nineties, and
with them went the power to command.

Those were days that represented especially the spirit of President
Seelye. Under his brilliant and polished successor the Faculty changes
were few. There was Professor Wood, the most accomplished intellectual
hazer of freshmen. There was Professor Gibbons, who was strong enough in
Greek derivation so that every second-year man soon had a clear
conception of the meaning of sophomore. After demonstrating clearly that