The Courier-Review.
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brought their blessings to us but for the accumulations of great wealth in generous hands. It is easy to believe that the electric telegraph would have remained a curious toy, an idle and useless plaything, had not capital been massed to spread the web of wires over all the land. It is easy to believe that the invention of the locomotive, if made at all, would have been long ago forgotten had not uncounted millions been gathered and used to construct the great steel highways which alone have made it possible for this government to exercise authority and maintain dominion over an area more vast than ever before acknowledged allegiance to a single flag. All these reflections may be easily suggested, and may incline us to regard the unequal distribution of wealth as a blessing and not a bane.
It is especially easy to reach this conclusion when we stand, as we do today, on the threshold of a stately and beautiful edifice, erected and equipped by the benefaction of a lofty and loving soul, and dedicated forever to the entertainment, the instruction and the uplifting of the people.
I hold in my hand a copy of the last will and testament of William Brown Spooner, late of Boston, Massachusetts, and from it I read this clause:
"I direct the trustees acting under this will to transfer, convey and pay over the residue of my estate, in equal portions, to the Lawrence Seminary, in Lawrence, in the State of Kansas, meaning the institution with which my friend, Frank H. Snow, is now or has been connected, and to Oberlin College, in Oberlin, in the State of Ohio."
The noble wish, thus modestly and briefly expressed, has been carried out. The conditions attached to certain other bequests entailed a delay of several years in the final settlement, but during those years the estate was managed with such prudence, such sagacity and such absolute fidelity by Mr. Chas. F. Coffin, the sole surviving trustee, that when, in November, 1891, the last accounting came to be made it was found that the amount of the gift to the University of Kansas exceeded by nearly $20,- 000 the sum originally expected. The question
of the specific disposition of the gift was a serious one, and it was only after the most thoughtful consideration that the Board of Regents agreed to recommend to the Legislature that a sufficient portion of it be set aside for the erection of a Chancellor's residence, and the remainder be used in the construction of a library building. The Chancellor told us of this division in his remarks this morning, but he did not tell us that the Legislature not only approved the recommendation of the Regents, but went farther and specially provided that, in recognition of his great services to the State, and in token of the honor, the admiration and the affection in which he is held by every citizen of the commonwealth to which he has devoted his life, the Chancellor's residence should be the home, as long as he lived, of Francis Huntington Snow. The duty laid upon the Regents has been performed, and today witnesses the culmination and completion of a benefaction conceived nearly twenty years ago.
And now that the work is done, and I stand here commissioned to make personal presentation, on behalf of the donor, to the State, what shall I say?
The thorough scholar, the profound thinker, the polished orator who honored this occasion with his presence, told us a few moments ago, from the Chapel platform, that one of the first essentials in the moral uplifting of the race was kind hearts. A few weeks ago an honored citizen of our own State, a man who is "a close observer, who looks quite through the deeds of men," a lawyer who judges with keen and cold intelligence, a poet whose intuitions are quick and true, stood upon the same platform and proclaimed the doctrine, "Hearts win." He had had taken for his theme, "Success in Life." He discussed it from every standpoint, considered it in all its phases, viewed it in every light that history and experience and observation and logic could throw upon it. And the conclusion of the whole matter was summed up in those little words, "Hearts win." Not genius. Not learning. Not will. All these are good to have. Some of them must be had. But not any one of them nor all can avail to