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1 . : H:J
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
A BIOGRAPHY AND MEMO*
;•!".. HENRY D. PORTE:
:-
University of California • Berkeley
„
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Henry Dickinson Smith
A BIOGRAPHY AND MEMORIAL
BY
Henry D. Porter
NEW YORK CHICAGO TORONTO
Fleming H. Revell Company
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
Copyright, 1908, by
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
New York: 158 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 80 Wabash Avenue
Toronto: 25 Richmond St., W.
London: 21 Paternoster Square
Edinburg: 100 Princes Street
This volume
is dedicated to the class of 1909,
Beloit College,
which will hold in lasting memory,
the ardor in high service,
the inspiring and eager example,
of him
Whom it commemorates
FOREWORD
Why callest Thou the stainless knight,
With sword scarce proved against the foe,
Why leavest us, with many a fight,
Wearied and scarred, and fain to go?
Yet this we dimly understand,
That Life Eternal is our own,
And that the unseen Other Land
Is ours, and not this Land alone.
Once Thou didst lose Thy Son awhile,
On a strange errand, full of pain,
Yet with a Father's welcoming smile
Didst proudly take Him home again.
So now we say; If life be one
And Thou of Life the Ruler be,
Dear God, Who gavest us Thy Son,
Behold we give our sons to Thee.
From " The Parting Guest/'
ROSSITER W. RAYMOND.
" And Jesus looking on him, loved him." — R. V.
The nobility of youthful ardor rightly directed arouses
deep emotions of love and expectation. Often the signal
souls are those whose career is shortened. They still point
us to expanding powers in realms beyond our vision, but
not beyond our hope. The preparation of this memorial,
committed to me by Henry's parents, has been one of
increasing interest. The attractive series of letters, so
personal and self-revealing, were collated by his mother.
Other sources have been freely drawn from, especially
the Beloit College Round Table and the Codex of the
classes 1907 and 1909-
The verses — Foreword and Postscript — are here pre-
sented through the kind permission of their authors. To
each of the many hundred who have expressed their sym-
pathy through beautifully worded and comforting letters
and their high estimates of Henry's inspiring, though
brief influence, an additional word of thanks is given.
" The sympathies of sorrow are timeless and spaceless."
HENRY D. PORTER.
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
BORN
JANUARY 22, 1881, AT TIENTSIN, CHINA
DIED
AUGUST 8, 1906, AT GENEVA LAKE, WIS.
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
A KNIGHTLY soul! A knightly son! In
-** such felicitous phrases President Eaton
summed up for us the brief but distinguished
career of Henry Dickinson Smith. It is not
necessary to look backward to King Arthur's
time to see the true knight in his panoply. Nor
need we turn to the days of historic chivalry to
be reminded of noble youth in quest of high
service. It is not the champing steed in his array,
nor the steel-clad rider with visor down and
lance at guard, that makes the loyal knight.
Then, as now, it was the true and faithful spirit,
the pure and consecrated life, that made one
worthy to receive the touch of a king granting
nobility and knighthood. Now, as then, youth
is made beautiful through the soul within.
Strength and beauty are the forces of manliness,
equipped through service and discipline to the
right estimate of duty. Whoever finds through
work and service the joy of effort, has a claim to
honor, and is fitly called a knightly soul.
14 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Hazards are for him but the opportunity for ser-
vice. Death in victory may be the reward.
The sad event which brought a sudden privi-
lege and a speedy end to this knightly student
makes it fitting that a more extended record
should be preserved of his young and ardent
manhood. For it was in the moment of eager
self-forgetfulness, as ever impulsive in effort,
that this strong and true life was laid down.
New impulse has been given in recent years
to the study of life* adding interest to the
quondam introspective study of man. With
great minuteness and patience of detail the deli-
cate and intricate interrelations of human attrib-
utes have been watched and the studies tabulated.
The way was at once opened for a clearer study
of the child life. The marvelous years of in-
fancy, so swift in development, so far-reaching
in result, have become a real source of valuable
study. The child has been found to be the
father of the man. Personality and individual-
ity find in that child life their unique origins.
What is the gift through heredity, what the
increment of growth through environment,
find here large solution. We trace in the physi-
cal form and feature of the child the long-ob-
served aspects and attitudes of the parents. We
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 15
follow in like manner the mental unfolding, or
the moral discipline, of parent or of earlier an-
cestor. Of heredity, the scientific thinking is led
to affirm, " Heredity is the sum of environment."
But such heredity waits to find new and other
environment to mold in its measure the new and
idiosyncratic life. It is not without full signifi-
cance that our Christian thought is glad to say:
" Each life is a plan of God." No childish or
youthful life can pass close scrutiny without the
growth of assurance that resident, yet obscure,
forces have full share in the building of character.
Because of this, the modern parent learns to
prize at high value the privilege and responsibil-
ity of guiding without undue pressure the un-
folding life.
The children of foreign missionaries have an
environment of their own, in a certain measure
isolated, and valuable as a study on that account.
The childish and youthful life of such an one, if
this study may be permitted to linger a little,
will find its own interest.
A MISSIONARY BOYHOOD
Henry Dickinson Smith, the only son of Rev.
Arthur Henderson Smith and Mrs. Emma Dick-
inson Smith, was born in Tientsin, China, Jan-
uary 22, 1881. Two sisters had preceded Henry.
16 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
One sweet babe was laid away in the quiet church
yard at Tientsin.
" Pure, sweet and fair
Ere thou couldst taste of ill,
God willed it, and thy baby breath was still ;
Now 'mong His Lambs thou liv'st, thy Saviour's care
Forever as thou wert, pure, sweet and fair."
Marie Jessica, the second sister, lived to beauti-
ful young womanhood. The four years that
separated the ages of brother and sister made the
elder sisterly relation very sweet and strong as
the years passed on. A part of the new environ-
ment was that chivalry of the home life, which
meant so much for the future. The missionary
home itself was full of merriment and song.
With a devoted mother, so happy-hearted,
and a father who, though wise and strong,
made life glad for others, with quip and
merry turns of thought and speech, and often
with amusing tirades at the conventions of life,
it was quite fitting that the child should always
show a happy face, or learn to endure criticism
with a brave, struggling impulse. The winning
smiles of babyhood foretell the sympathies of
later life. It was this which led to the dear
" milk name," as the Chinese name it. " Honey
Bee," drawing sweetness from every flower of
happy intercourse, was the name which long clung
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 17
to the sparkling eyes and curly locks of the happy
child.
He was as determined in a way as he was win-
ning in smiles. A day came when he refused
to drink from the accustomed bottle. The Chi-
nese amah solved the dilemma: " He is disgusted
with the bottle and wants a cup." Thus he
graduated with honor from "mere babyhood."
One language would seem to be enough to
occupy the powers of even a strong and vig-
orous child. In foreign lands one notices the
marvel of a bilingual process. The theory that
one can learn only his own appropriate native
speech is daily disproved by abundant facts.
Especially is this true when the second lan-
guage is thought to be essentially difficult.
The missionary child, cared for and followed
closely by a native woman, learns to absorb
the double speech with equal ease. He turns
from one to the other apparently uncon-
sciously, using each with a freedom that may
well astonish those who learn in a less natural
way. The childish vocabulary may not be very
large, but is in this case made double and
thereby an added marvel. In Henry's case this
aptitude was no doubt increased by the abundant
flow of speech of his father. It was a family
amusement to recall that the elder sister at about
four years of age had expressed her pleasure
18 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
when her father was away in the country touring,
" Because then I have a chance to say some-
thing." Henry enjoyed such speech before he
could talk plainly, and doted on being governed
by " jawbreakers." His mother records that a
perverse habit of refusing to go to sleep at the
right time was broken up by a long and irrelevant
speech from his father. There floats up from
the early reminiscences the time when the pres-
ence of guests made an early sleep most de-
sirable. Why should papa not try his entice-
ments ? There rolled into his little ear the solemn
combinations: "Henry, do you know that ow-
ing to the revolution of the sun, moon, and stars
on their axes and owing to the precession of the
equinoxes every form of unnecessary bedcloth-
ing is contradicted? Do you know? Do you
understand?" ''Stand," said the two-year-old,
with a sigh of perfect content, as he took the
closely gathered bedclothes from his head and
went to sleep.
He learned to read in the new way by words
and not by letter. It is on record that the family
poet prepared two envelopes. One was marked,
" All of these
Are Honey Bee's."
When he forgot, it went mournfully into the
envelope number two;
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 19
" All the others,
Are Honey Bee's Mother's.
Energy easily develops in a growing child, and
great hopes arise. When he first saw the moon
he said: " When I'm a big boy, I'll dig it down
with a stick."
The baby days swiftly pass into childhood.
The first furlough of his parents took them to
America and into the swirl of missionary visits
and talks. In some of these visits and talks the
children joined. It was an ordeal, no doubt,
for them, and required a little bribing. A large
motive was offered one time when singing a
hymn in Chinese was on the programme. " If
you don't sing, I can't give you the red balloon
bladder." So he went through "Bright gems
for his crown." But the last verse had a varied
ending. The lad seized the hard-earned bladder
and blew a blast. No wonder the audience
laughed. This visiting brought them at last to
Wellesley and its lovely group of teachers and
scholars, six hundred and more. The artless
action of an eager child, curly-haired and bright-
eyed, made a deep impression. One day, the
morning service over, "Perpetual Motion," as
his mother called him, felt the reaction that comes
to a rapt audience when the listening is done.
He had been a good boy through the long ser-
20 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
vice. His conscience was clear. An idea struck
him. Swift as an arrow the child darted up the
aisle and flung himself into the arms of Miss
Freeman, the President, with both arms about
her neck. No matter that it was Sunday, no
matter if a beautiful Voluntary was going on.
She just looked at him and smiled like a seraph.
She understood and " loved back." This re-
minded his friends of a scene on the Road " Vic-
toria," Tientsin. A little maid about his age
appeared on the street daintily dressed. The lad
from the country, unaccustomed to other than
Chinese sights, ran up to the little maiden and
kissed her with a vigorous hug. " I just kissed
that little girl," was his simple comment. One
of the Wellesley Professors who never saw him
after he was four years old noticed one trait of
his character. " Henry was the soul of honor,
unimpeachable." There wras a touch of endur-
ance and bravery in the child. His father ex-
plained to him that his tonsils were swollen and
must be taken out; if he would be brave and sit
on papa's knees without making a fuss he might
choose anything he liked for a gift. The child
came home in triumph, with a gay red checker
board.
One winter of the furlough was spent at
Pasadena. A pretty reminder of that open-
air winter is found in a neat little water-color of
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 21
Marie Smith and Henry standing under the
gracefully lovely pepper trees of California.
The kind lady who painted this will be fully re-
membered. A second winter was spent in Hono-
lulu, with grandmother Dickinson and Mr. and
Mrs. Merritt, then of Oahu College. "The
Friend," published in Honolulu, for October,
1906, contains the following in a Memorial
paragraph: " In the early months of 1885, dur-
ing the Presidency of W. C. Merritt, Rev.
Arthur Smith, missionary to China, with his
wife, Mrs. Emma Dickinson Smith, and their
two lovely children, a girl and a boy, made a
delightful visit at Punahou. Mrs Merritt and
Mrs. Arthur Smith were sisters most tenderly
loved, and the visit of the missionary family is
still remembered. The sweet little girl, Marie,
died a few years later in California. She was a
most saintly girl whose life and death were widely
known in Oakland, where the parents were on a
missionary furlough. The ladies of the Board
remembered the young man as a curly-headed
boy who was called " Honey Bee Smith," and as
such he is well recalled by those who were here
twenty-one years ago. — M. C. A."
The return from Honolulu to China was by
sailing vessel to Hong-Kong, a long six-weeks'
sail, monotonous, no doubt, but with the unfail-
ing charm of the sea, which neither child nor man
22 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
escapes. The hardships and crudities of such a
trip are a part of its remembered joys. Of this
voyage the mother merrily said: " The soup was
cold, the wine hot, and everything else was sour
except the vinegar. The excitement of the trip
centered about the ugly creature which followed
the ship for days which the captain tried to
catch. He swallowed the pork, but not the hook,
and got away. Finally one proud day the
creature came once too often and was hoisted on
deck. It was not the ' Big Captain,' but the
little captain in kilts and curls who boasted, ' We
caught that shark.' "
Henry was but six years old when he returned
to the quiet compound at Pang Chuang to join
the little circle of children in the happy rounds
of their isolated life. It was another six years
before the family were compelled to take another
furlough. Six radiant and happy years with two
or three companions older and younger, a group
large enough to make life strenuous either in
play or study, for its congenial members. At
one time there were two girls and eleven boys
with whom to study or to romp. These were
years of rapidly increasing acquisition. A mis-
sionary child has the advantage or disadvantage
of being much with his elders, of training under
the guidance of father and mother, of speech
upon many of the larger rather than the lesser
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 23
interests of life. The tasks set for such children
must be very methodical and persistent lest they
lose the fresh opportunity given to children
in the home land. A seat in the father's study
with appointed hours of study, recitations at
suitable times, mark the daily course for years.
We need not follow all that quiet, exacting dis-
cipline except to note its progress and value.
Going to Mission Meeting every second year
with its long picnics of slow river-travel and the
excitement of meeting the large companies of
mission workers and the bands of children, add
zest to the outing and store up treasure for long
months of isolation. On one of these trips the
growth of the appreciative boy was noticed by
a lady friend at Tientsin. She had taken him
to ride. An auction bill was thrown into the
jinrikisha. The lad picked it up and read fluently
and with a sense of the fun concealed in it, " On
Thursday, these goods will be ruthlessly slaugh-
tered/' These are the days when a boy's love
goes out to all animal life. It was a pretty pic-
ture which the eager lad showed, returning once
from a northern trip; a cat in a bag, head ex-
posed, a bird in a cage fit to hold it properly, and
a small dog to be educated and duly disciplined.
These called forth the best traits of character
through the interest and care involved. When
a bleating goat was added, how complete the
24 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
joys of life! Alas, that goat! Tied by a rope
too long to the knob of an outside door, near
one's bedroom, of course, what should the poor
thing do, but hang itself in the night ! The little
dog was the surest companion and comfort. As
it grew old and had a most unfortunate cough
and asthma, affection alone could desire to keep
it alive to its last days. And such affection was
loyally given.
A boy loves to imitate his father. So Henry
carried with him in his pocket a small book from
which to read aloud when occasion required, the
other lads assisting with merry shouts when a
good thing was on. Among the treasures of this
period was a small booklet containing all the fine
conundrums, dear old chestnuts of the father's,
known to the present age. A mine of delight to
Henry, and faithfully pondered, nest eggs for
future fun. If an occasional proverb was
swiftly hurled it was but following the ways of
the Author of " The Proverbs and Common say-
ings of China."
As the children grew older it became necessary
to lay plans of study out of the ordinary course,
which might embrace as well the older sister, now
on the verge of girlhood. The subject of politi-
cal economy was one of those chosen. During
several months the sister and two boys, eleven
years old, listened for an hour each morning to
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 25
a most inviting and practical talk on the varied
themes of Production, Distribution, Wages, and
Trade, fully illustrated from abundant material
at home and abroad. About the same time
another half hour was given in the afternoon to
physiology. The local physician was supposed
to know something about that. The little class
was enlarged by having two younger lads, to
whom the comparative anatomy of birds and cats
and dogs was equally interesting. The older
boys, already well along in Latin, enjoyed strong
meat in the names of bones and muscles. They
vied with each other in the effort to remember
these and to rattle off, as Dr. Wendell Holmes
did in his classroom, the happy combination of
the " auriculo-ventricular orifice." When the
Christmas of that year came, it was the teacher
who got the diploma instead of the pupil. Henry
had gotten the skillful Chinese writer to copy on
a piece of delicate white silk, the frontispiece of
his book, — a fine specimen of the human skeleton.
This was found in his teacher's stocking on
Christmas morning.
The theory of the relation of children to the
church has undergone an entire change within
the last half century. It had always seemed to
these missionary parents that the suitable place
for Christian children was within the fold rather
than without. Whatever the future might have
26 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
to change through growing thought or larger ex-
perience, the hope was that a genuine Christian
life might grow even from early childhood. The
sister, Marie, had united with our Chinese church
at the age of eleven. Henry wished to follow
the steps of this dear sister. On his own applica-
tion and eager desire he was received into the
fellowship of the Chinese saints and of the
church universal. It was always an impressive
sight at each communion service to see often half
a hundred Chinese making devout confession of
Christ. No little pleasure was added when a for-
eign child could stand with them in the midst of
the great congregation. The test, of course,
must come when the environment, somewhat se-
cluded, should be changed.
The spring of 1893 found Mr. Smith's health
much impaired, as well as that of the dear daugh-
ter. On returning to the United States, the
autumn of the year found them making a home
in Oakland, Cal. Henry entered at once upon a
high-school course. The Oakland High School
has one of the finest and best-equipped buildings
in America, and its course is of a high order.
The lad began this course with great pleasure.
The long illness of the daughter, followed by a
season of partial recovery, was full of discipline
for them all. Rev. Arthur Smith returned to his
work in China in the spring of 1895. Madame
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 27
Dickinson, now in a gentle lovely old age, was a
noble and chastening influence in the home life.
In the autumn of this year, Marie, in the joy of
the hope that she might begin a new a course of
study, had entered the high school. Her clear
and penetrating mind and gentle sweetness of
Christian life gave promise of much usefulness.
God willed it otherwise. In a few weeks her
illness returned with new complications and she
faded into the eternal life, November 21, 1895.
There is no record of the immediate effect of
this great sorrow upon Henry. The loss of an
older and only sister, so dear, so gentle, so bril-
liant also, must have greatly influenced his moral
growth and life, deepening and elevating his
thought, enriching his experience. Henry had
chosen a classical course. He pursued it with
unwonted zeal and determined effort. He was
already attracting attention through his quick
intelligence and energetic enthusiasms. His
schoolmates could find no better name for such
an one than "Freak Smith." His having
come from China added uniqueness to this em-
phasis.*
*Mrs. Hinckley, the wife of the Clerk of the United States
Court at Shanghai, was from Oakland and a member of Henry
Smith's high school class. In speaking to a friend of those
days she remarked that Henry Smith was to her a most in-
teresting fellow student. She could never keep up with him in
their mutual studies.
28 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Vacation days often show the measure of a
lad. Henry always found some " job " to take
up. He secured a bicycle and ran on errands.
His mother records this. Passing a house a
strange lady called to him. She was alone with
a sick baby. Would he please go to the drug
store and buy her some medicine? "Mamma,
she just chucked her whole pocket book into my
hand. I made change all right and brought it
back at once. When she tried to pay me I
wouldn't take it, for you know I promised God,
if He'd give me a bicycle,, I'd do errands for
Him." It was an axiom in the family that God
was a very present help and ready to hear the
desires of each, even in the little affairs of the
daily life. We are again told of his finding a
place in a cannery, with long hot days of work
and slow advance in wages, or again as an eleva-
tor boy with the daily incidents and perils.
At length the high school course was com-
pleted. His successes in study brought him to
graduation in the spring of 1897, ready for col-
lege. During the waiting months Henry decided
to go into business. The question arose — should
he enter the University of California, or go East
to Beloit College, the early home of his mother,
and the college of his father and of Henry
Dickinson, his uncle. The associations of school
companionship and the vigor of California life
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 29
would persuade him to remain. The wisdom of
his father urged Beloit as a quieter and more
fruitful place of study, with personal associa-
tions all in its favor. Meanwhile he went to work
in a San Francisco store. In the glad eagerness
of earning money he gave himself with enthu-
siasm to the new life, and the details of business.
That great world of active effort, with its
hustling energy* was opened before him with
awakening emphasis. He decided to spend a
year in business. A cousin of his mother now
offered him a place in his business, greatly in-
creasing his impulse toward a business life. This
was well suited to the energies of a growing
youth. The steady work of lifting, carrying,
and arranging goods was well suited to his needs.
His physical powers developed rapidly and he
grew to the measure of a tall, large man, some-
what above the average height. He rejoiced in
the new found energy. But the question still
remained — should he give up study, and accept
the attractive offers of promotion and respon-
sibility?
The advice of his father was finally, wisely,
however reluctantly, accepted. His mother had
returned to China in the autumn of 1897, leaving
him thus alone to decide upon his future. The
traditions of the family finally led him to decide
on the college career. In the autumn — Septem-
30 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
her — 1898, he went to Beloit and was entered a
member of the class of 1902.
COLLEGE DAYS
Henry found at Beloit a circle ready to re-
ceive him on his own and on his parents' ac-
count. His Pang Chuang playmate and fellow
student had returned from China the year before
and was thus in the class above him. These
early friends were able to be very helpful to each
other, Henry receiving with pleased deference
the suggestions of his Sophomore elder. It was
one of the traditions of the college that Henry's
first year in college lacked the finer purpose of
his after years. Business life and its more care-
less ways needed time to be outgrown. Every
youth must pass his periods of testing in works
and ways. The siren of unbelief undoubtedly
sang its song, doleful as it may be. Happily
other influences near at hand prevented any
stunted growth. The record of his scholarship
for the first semester does not bear out any tradi-
tion of lack of purpose in study. Out of six
courses taken, four are recorded with an "a,"
excellent work, and two with a "b," good
work.
In the autumn of 1899 Mrs. Henry Porter,
returning from China, made her home in Beloit.
Henry became a member of her family and re-
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 31
mained two years in the home. He roomed in
Chapin Hall during his Senior year. The en-
thusiasm of student life had returned to him and
he made the best of those good years. His in-
terest in debate showed itself very early. His
initial entrance upon the contests in which he was
to win such fine repute was in the Beloit-Ripon
debate of his Freshmen year. Beloit did not
win, but the ardent youth had learned lessons
full of meaning for his student life. In his
Sophomore year he received an appointment as
one of the prize speakers, but the prize went to
his competitor.
During his Sophomore year the Beloit-Knox
debate was open to the three upper classes ; since
then it has been restricted to the upper two
classes. In the preliminaries for this debate
Henry, although a Sophomore, was chosen
among the elect three for the team. It was
characteristic of his unselfish character and sensi-
tive nature that he declined to accept this favored
election. He felt that the upper class man would
really strengthen the team and that he himself
should have more maturity. He therefore gave
way to the older student and had his reward in
very full appreciation of his fine power of leader-
ship later. The debate that year went to Knox,
not necessarily because he was not upon the
team.
32 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
The long summer vacation gave Henry oppor-
tunity to develop his taste for business and the
pleasure of self-help which he emulated.
During the second of these vacations, in the
summer of 1900, the terrible reports of the
Boxer massacres in China were received. Know-
ing that his parents were incarcerated in the
seige of Peking, he was in great anxiety. When
the graphic account of the wholesale slaughter
of all in Peking was published, he left his sum-
mer work and hastened to Beloit entirely cast
down. His whole course of life would be
changed and overclouded. Reassuring telegrams
from Chef oo ere long served to overcome this
despondency. When the rescue of the beseiged
bcame a great reality we may well imagine his
personal joy. " If the Hand of the Lord had
not been with us, we should have been swallowed
up quick — alive."
The problems appealing to a collegian are
much the same in all our institutions. Shall I
be an athlete, as I long to be, or give scholarship
the first place? Early in his course Henry wrote
his parents as follows: "Of course a fine
athlete may also be a fine scholar. I have known
a few such. The combination is not impossible,
but improbable and extremely rare. The reason
is that training takes so much time and strength
that few men have enough left to make good
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 33
scholars, and besides an enthusiastic athlete is
very apt to do this one thing, and have very little
interest in anything else. A good athlete must
be careful in his diet, regular in his training, and
must never sit up late. A good student is often
obliged to study hard and long. A man may
start out with the intention of doing both things
well, but sooner or later they are most sure to
conflict. He will find himself face to face with
four or five hours of hard studying which must
be done before to-morrow. Then he has to make
his choice. If athletics are uppermost in his
mind, he will study what he can and then go to
bed. If this happens often, his scholarship will
suffer. Then, since he has lost one ideal, he will
devote himself more to the other. After this he
may be a good athlete, but unless he stops train-
ing he will probably never be a good scholar. The
extreme opposite of these are those whose whole
existence is bound up in books. They seldom
witness a baseball or football game and never
think of taking part in one. They take no in-
terest in athletics or society, and if one of them
joins a debating society it is with a view to study-
ing rhetoric.
" A third class are interested in athletics and
society, but not to the exclusion of studying.
Though they may study hard it is always with
limits. These are moderately esteemed by the
34 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
professors, though they may never be brilliant in
any line. An athlete may meet with continual
disapproval of the faculty and yet be a popular
hero, while a hard student may have the pro-
found admiration of every professor and yet be
disliked by his classmates and the college. I have
settled for myself that I will not join the first
class. I am passionately fond of football and
moderately fond of baseball, but not fond enough
of either to let them crowd out my studies, nor
to give them the attention necessary to those who
get on the team. Between the other two the
choice is harder." (April 4, 1899.)
Nothing could have been more natural than
that Henry should turn toward oratory and de-
bate. Beloit had an established reputation as
a college of orators. Beginning as far back as
1874, a Beloit man won an Interstate first place.
Since then Beloit's record was five firsts and one
second in the Interstate. Of thirty-three such
Interstate contests, Beloit was represented in
twenty-two. The Association includes sixty-
three colleges. Such well-known names as
Bryan, La Follette, Beveridge, and Finley were
among the contestants and winners. The Inter-
collegiate debates were equally maintained, and
opened avenues full of interest for each incom-
ing class. In the Codex of 1905, Professor
Chapin writes : " Under the stimulus of inter-
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 35
collegiate competition, the old-time interest in
debating has revived." Beloit's first inter-collegi-
ate debate was held at Knox college at Gales-
burg in 1897. Mr. Rowell, instructor in oratory,
writes: " At the present time there is no college
in the country that has a faculty more loyal to
the value of oratorical training. The student
body is thoroughly imbued with the oratorical
spirit. Almost every man who has any ability
has at least made an effort to win a place on one
of the various contests." Henry had taken part
in the Freshman debate, as already noted. With
the Junior year he entered more fully into the
work of public speaking.
Early in his Junior year he was invited by
Professor Bacon to be one of the selected assist-
ants in the Library. He felt this as a high com-
pliment, since the work was exacting, demanding
a peculiar grade of efficiency and intelligence.
There were four such appointees, two in each
upper class, with forty hours a week to divide
between them. Professor Bacon wished only
such men as could carry the work and still main-
tain a high grade of scholarship. In close re-
lation to Professor Bacon, whom Henry admired
very greatly, and whom all the college revered
for his valorous surmounting of unprecedented
physical disability, he passed from one intense
effort to another. The first of these during this
36 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
year was his effort to gain a place on the oratori-
cal contest.
Naturally enthusiastic as well as sensitive and
introspective, his letters to his father unfold his
growing methods of discipline and his triumph
over difficulties. Early in the year he wrote:
"I have only been on rhetoricals three times.
The principal difficulty in my case is I am
apt to talk faster than the audience can listen.
When appointed, I spend from two to five
hours thinking up as good a speech as I can,
repeating it and timing myself until I have
a mastery of the points. I am apt to think of
too much to say in six minutes, and to lack
time to condense and discard. Then I am
tempted to try and give a fifteen-minute
speech in six by sheer speed, and the effect is
lost. Have you ever had this difficulty?"
(January 13, 1901.)
"I do not remember having said anything
about the oratorical contest in which I took part
last autumn. All summer I had been planning
and thinking and found a subject in the Chinese
problems viewed from the standpont of the
duty of American world-leadership. For seven
weeks I worked at it with tremendous energy. I
spent from twelve to twenty hours a week in
writing and re- writing." Sixteen men were to
take part in the preliminaries, eight were to be
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 37
chosen in December. The competitors were some
of them very strong and competent writers of
the upper class, the contest being open to Juniors
and Seniors. It was a disappointment to such
eagerness to fall behind in the race; not attain-
ing to the first three. He writes: " I have met
defeat before, never one quite like this. It came
as a storm from the blue sky. It crushed the life
out of me and took away all my energy. I can't
seem to get up any interest in oratory now, al-
though but a short time ago it was the principal
ambition of my life." (Same date.)
The studies of Junior year, psychology, ad-
vanced Greek, Biblical study in the new required
course, were full of interest to him, and debating
preliminaries added their own weight. " The
spring term of my Junior year was the hardest
of my life, and at times it seemed as if I could
not bear it, but by easing up at a crucial time
I averted a crisis." He ran the gauntlet of the
preliminaries and was selected leader of the team
for the Knox debate. The two other members
were Seniors. In preparing for this debate
Henry showed a disposition, which steadily grew
upon him, to devote himself aggressively to the
matter in hand to partial neglect of other duties.
The question chosen for debate was : " Re-
solved, that Labor Unions, as now conducted, are
for the best interests of the United States." The
38 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
artlessness of his own estimate of the effort will
add interest to the result.
A letter gives this full report of the debating
experience : " During the spring vacation I went
to Chicago and studied union labor there. The
policy of the Buildings Trades Council had been
such as to supply me with abundant material for
the negative of the question. I felt keenly the
responsibility of being leader of the team. It
means forethought, detailed planning, continual
readjustment of material and generalship. A
good leader ought to do more work than the
other two men. My own speeches required more
work and more time,, and I must keep ahead of
the two seniors. The debate took place on the
19th of April. We were met at the station and
escorted to the hotel. Throughout our stay they
were most gentlemanly and cordial in entertain-
ing us. We were not well prepared, having had
really a short time for practicing together. I
had lightened my school work and postponed
everything that could possibly be postponed, to
work day and night on the debate. The Chicago
trip had brought me great results in facts and
figures. The manager of the debate called, and
said he hoped we would not think it discourteous,
but that the local labor union had agreed to attend
the meeting in a body. This meant that we must
wage war on the Labor Unions in their own
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 39
homes and before a hostile audience. He thought
it only fair to tell me that in anticipation of any
— oh! — demonstration he had arranged to have
several policemen present to preserve order. I
offered no objection, provided in case of any dis-
order, we should have the extra time that was
lost. I was far from feeling as cool as I ap-
peared. The Knox men all memorized their
speeches. We outlined ours carefully, wrote
them out, polished them up, put the main heads
on cards. The outline method gives one control
of excellent language, yet leaves him independ-
ent of words and sentences. A glance at the
card concealed in the hand was a sure preventive
against forgetting. The debate was to take place
at eight o'clock. At seven-thirty, on looking
from my window, I saw a brass band, leading a
huge torchlight procession of working men, with
banners and mottoes, ' We are for Labor Unions ;
Organized Labor for Knox.' But these could
not prevent Beloit from making a good showing.
When we three met in my room I told the others
how I felt, and then an idea came to me. I said,
we were all three Y. M. C. A. men, and that
it was a good time to keep our Christianity with
us. Then, bowing our heads for a few minutes
we prayed that whether we win or lose, we might
not at any time forget that we were sons of Beloit
and Christian gentlemen.
40 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
" The great debate was on. The presiding
officer called on Knox's first speaker. His argu-
ments were carefully prepared, thoroughly
memorized, well delivered. In reply, I briefly
referred to his speech, stated what each of our
three speakers intended to present, outlining my
own speech. I spoke on the growth of the Build-
ing Trades Council, the most gigantic tryranny
ever established by any human institution or
agency in any free American city. A curious
thing happened here. There were in the audience
a few non-union plumbers who had been in
Chicago and had felt the bitterness of that des-
potism. The only demonstration of the evening
was when I summed up the effects of the Build-
ing Trades Council's conduct in Chicago. ' What
was the result of such an attitude on the part of
ignorant, unscrupulous labor leaders in Chicago?
Contractors, unable to satisfy their unreasonable
demands, were driven out of business; building
came to a standstill ; more than fifty million dol-
lars' worth of contracts were lost; workmen lost
thirty million dollars in wages; industry was
paralyzed; law was set aside and utterly disre-
garded; the liberty of American workingmen
was trampled in the dust/ I gestured toward a
body of rough-looking men on my right who
wore no union badges. From them broke out a
crash of applause. The offending workmen were
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 41
the scabs of whom I had been speaking. They
felt the truth of what I said. I went on to show
what I considered the true sphere of usefulness
of the unions and their limitations. It does not
increase production, nor in any way add to the
sum of the nation's wealth; it does not increase
the efficiency of its members ; it does not enlarge
profits, although by force of arms it can compel
the employer to part with some of his share, as
wages. Our opponents have not tried to prove
that the employers' share is too large or that
reason and justice demand such readjustment as
the unions try to enforce. The unions do not
claim to be altruistic organizations, working for
the good of society, but only claim that they ben-
efit the people of the United States indirectly.
Now only one -fourteenth of the working class
and not more than one-third of the total adult
population of the United States are members of
the unions, and what benefit there is may not be
necessarily for the benefit of the whole people.'
' The debate grew more fierce, the excitement
more intense as the argument drew to a close and
the contest was seen to be nearly equal. In the
Knox rebuttal I was watching every word like
a tiger crouching for a spring. The leader said :
* It is not fair to say only three per cent, of the
adult population of the United States belong to
labor unions, because that is comparing the wilds
42 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
of Arkansas with the highly organized industrial
centers. In the great cities, where four-fifths of
the labor is organized, you may properly study
industrial conditions and tendencies of to-day.'
The applause for this speaker lasted several
minutes.
' When it died away, I rose to reply, feeling
the supreme moment had come: * Ladies and
gentlemen, I have spent nearly one-third of my
first speech in a survey of the largest industrial
center in the United States, where four-fifths
of labor is organized, showing the conditions and
inevitable consequences of that strong highly
centralized form of organization towards which
all labor unions are striving, and what did my
honorable opponent say? * Oh,, that is Chicago,
that's an exceptional case.' He says we must go
to great industrial centers to study conditions
and tendencies. It is the truest thing he has said
to-night, and the most utterly destructive of his
line of argument.' I closed by putting my whole
soul into an appeal for the stability of industry,
the promotion of commercial prosperity and
supremacy and purity of city politics, the main-
tenance of social unity and peace, and the sanc-
tity of individual liberty, social status, and moral
law, so often violated by the labor unions of
to-day. The strain of the speech was something
terrific. I do not believe I could have walked off
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 43
the stage without help. Every one of the judges
gave his decision for Knox. Either the audience
was too much for them, or they gave their vote
to the men who had made the best speeches, but
they could not see who had made the best argu-
ment.
"For a time I was heart-broken, but since
then there has come a stern resolve to take life
more seriously, and win things after this." (June
23, 1901.)
It was quite true that Henry returned to
Beloit exhausted physically, and greatly op-
pressed because his team, finely equipped as they
were, had not carried the day. The sense of de-
pression lasted many days.
A later letter gives further comments on that
debate : " I think I told you my college experi-
ence up to and including the Knox debate. Lu-
cius Porter and I were very much disappointed
at the result, and I felt exceedingly tired after
four months of extremely strenuous work. There
are some disadvantages about working on an in-
ter-collegiate debate, but I believe it is worth all
it costs. Few men can have the privilege of
taking part in such a contest, and no one who has
not can understand how much it is worth. Last
year's debate was of more use to me in teaching
me how to face the world, how to deal with men,
and how to enter the battles of life than any
44 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
other semester of study that I have spent in
college. I have been asked to go in for it again
and am seriously considering the idea. I would
like nothing better than to win one decisive vic-
tory for Old Beloit before I graduate. It would
be worth all it cost." (July 26, 1901.)
But Henry's work in debating for that year
did not end with the defeat at Knox. Professor
Bacon, in spite of his physical limitations, was
always one of the most valuable debate coaches.
But even his determination could not make his
strength equal to evening work that spring, and
he called in Henry Smith to aid the Freshmen in
their Ripon debate.
Henry writes : " When the Shakespeare play
was over, I gave all my spare time to coaching
the team. I worked with individuals every spare
hour I could get through the day, and every
evening we had a consultation with Professor
Bacon and Professor Chapin. Ripon had un-
dertaken to prove that in cities of the United
States of a population of 50,000, municipalizing
of public utilities, gas, electric light, and railways,
was preferable to private ownership. This was
a question that I knew very little about, so that
every night I had to study for several hours. I
made the men work strenuously all day and go
to bed early. As for myself I did not miss a
recitation. I don't believe in neglecting regular
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 45
work for outside enterprises, and was careful to
set my Freshmen a good example. I became so
interested that I went with the team to cheer
them up. The Beloit men did amazingly well,
though defeated by unanimous decision. But
they had gained a great deal, and I had learned
almost as much about debate as they had." (May
24, 1901.)
This full year ended with another speaking
contest for Henry. He writes: "Commence-
ment was as impressive and beautiful as usual,
and a great deal more interesting to me than any
previous, since it came nearer home. Professor
Bacon always wants the men whom he honors
with an appointment on the library corps to take
front rank in whatever they undertake. He was
disappointed when the Rice prize, extempora-
neous speaking took place. Six of us took part.
The subject was given out at 7 A. M. ' The rela-
tion of the steel trust to the people of the United
States.' Twenty-seven hours of mental torture
followed. I read, wrote, tore up, rehearsed, and
waited. The judges gave the prize to one of my
classmates. The only criticism suggested on my
delivery was that I talked too fast. All three
judges gave the first place to Beaubien. No
defeat is tolerable to me till I have learned some
useful lesson from it. I have learned two
things: I must improve my delivery, especially
46 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
in learning to talk more slowly. It will be only
by doing more work than others that I can rely
on any superiority." (August 11, 1901.)
In the early days of the summer vacation
Henry attended the World's Students' Assem-
bly, at Lake Geneva. He enjoyed this greatly.
His deepening religious life found new scope.
He joined the " Student Volunteers," and re-
turned with real enthusiasm. Mr. Beach, once
of the North China Mission, was perhaps the
special influence.
" At Geneva," Henry writes, " we had ten
days of most delightful and inspiring combina-
tion of physical and spiritual uplift. The most
impressive feature, to me, was the life-work meet-
ings. Many men had come to settle such life
work problems, and many others were led to con-
sider, or reconsider, such questions in a new light.
I found myself in the latter class. I had no
definite aim most of the time, but toward the lat-
ter part of Junior year my predominating inter-
est in Political Science had seemed to indicate a
legal career for me. I had not considered it
much from the standpoint of the world's need,
nor of where I could be of most service to God
and humanity. No one was urged to sign the
Volunteer declaration: ' It is my purpose, if God
permits, to become a foreign missionary.' It is
no pledge, and is not considered such, but may
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 47
be changed as one's purpose changes. After
thinking the matter over from every possible
standpoint, I finally signed the declaration as a
Student Volunteer, and have felt much better
ever since. My doubts and troubles have lasted
for several years, and are only just now begin-
ning to get cleared up." (August 13, 1901.)
During the summer vacation Henry went to
Chicago for a few weeks to study oratory in a
summer school at the University, with Professor
W. B. Chamberlain. He took fifteen lessons.
He says of these:
" I worked hard at public speaking with Pro-
fessor Chamberlain. He saw through my diffi-
culties at once and started me on the right way
to overcome and remedy my deficiencies. He
helped me immensely, and what he did will be
of lifelong value to me."
Along the line of spiritual development it is
interesting to read from a letter to his mother:
" I am coming to sympathize more with some of
your views than I did at Oakland and get great
help from the " Daily Light " which you sent me.
I received your letters late in May, and it has
kept me thinking ever since. I believe it had
more influence over me than any one letter I
have ever received. Next year is to be a busy
happy life, but not too strenuous." That next
year was his Senior year.
48 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
One of the duties of the vacation was the prep-
aration of the Y. M. C. A. Handbook. His
business experience made the solicitation of
" ads " less burdensome to him than it would have
been to others. He made a genuine success of
it, and the literary part, full of happy hits and
quaint suggestion, made it one of the best of the
series.
The athletic interest in the college life had
awakened the physical energies of this stalwart
youth. As vacation drew toward a close, Henry
joined a camp of athletes on the banks of the
Mississippi, hoping, if possible, "to make the
team." He had, however, special limitations.
Owing to bronchial trouble he could not run or
hurdle as others. But he could throw into it the
intensest effort. He could enjoy the elan of the
strenuous struggle. In such an effort he was full
of muscular energy, eager as a racehorse to make
the supreme effort. He did not make the team,
but they elected him to the second eleven, of
which he became captain, much to his delight.
After the season was over he reported the ac-
tivities of the term: " I want to tell you as much
as I can of what I am doing and of the things
that interest me most. The Y. M. C. A. Hand-
book— before referred to — says: 'Make study
first, that is what you came for.' I know, be-
cause I wrote it myself. Which only shows that
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 49
it is easier to preach to Freshmen than to act
rightly as Seniors. International Law is a splen-
did course under Mr. Matheson, a successful law-
yer in Janesville. It is intensely interesting.
Ethics comes on Tuesday and Wednesday. We
are studying it from the point of moral standard
and of the concrete moral life. Philosophy is a
course in the history of Modern Philosophy and
the lives and ideas of the world's greatest
thinkers. This is in some respects the most
broadening course I have ever taken. Finance,
under Professor Chapin, interests me very much,
as all study and research along the line of politi-
cal science and political economy always does.
It deals with the how and why of government
incomes and expenditures. Victorian literature
is, with Miss Pitkin, an extremely interesting
study. This is by far the hardest course, requires
a vast amount of reading of the most absorbing
kind. Classic art, under Professor Wright, is
easy for me, because I have studied Latin
and Greek so much. I recognized that I
was almost wholly ignorant of art, and wanted
to learn how to study it.
" I am captain of the second eleven football
team now. The scrub team includes those play-
ers not chosen to play on the first eleven. The
second eleven men play against the first, or l Var-
sity,' every night to give them practice. I told
50 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
you why I desired to make an athlete. I care
little for football as sport. At first I hoped to
get on the first team, but the coach appointed me
captain of the second eleven and asked me to de-
vote my energies to keeping it up to a high grade.
The responsibility is by no means small, and it
has put me in hard positions many times. I
pick out the hardest things for myself. Every
captain does that. We play every night against
the strongest and most experienced athletes in
college. An hour and a half is most exhausting.
It brings as desirable results magnificent health
and splendid physique. A hygienic mode of life
is a balance-wheel, preventing excessive mental
work, and responsibility matures and strengthens.
On one occasion the first eleven had a practice
game with Rockford Y. M. C. A. When the
game was half over, the coach took out the first
eleven and put in the second. The score for the
first half was 17-0. At the end it was 34-0, for
my team had done as well as the 'Varsity, scor-
ing a triumph and making quite a reputation. A
return game was arranged. I took the scrubs
to Rockford. They did splendidly, so that the
result was in our favor 35-0. Work tells. That
is enough of athletics.
" The library work seems less to me since Pro-
fessor Bacon is no longer there; but a man ap-
pointed to an honorable position is supposed to
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 51
stick to the place while he is in school. Professor
B. picked his men and rather encouraged all his
assistants to enter into everything they could,
releasing them from library work if necessary."
(Oct. 10, 1901).
The letter-heads show that Henry was elected
Treasurer of the Y. M. C. A. " It is enough
work to occupy all the spare time of a very busy
man. The problem of raising and spending (for
the Y. M. C. A.) $175-$200 a year is not a small
one. Seniors always lead in college affairs and
for obvious reasons. My class contains only
twenty men, of whom only half are members of
this society. I hope to break in the chairman of
the finance committee to take much of the work
off my hands."
From the Codex of 1903 we learn that Henry
was associate editor of the Round Table, Presi-
dent of the Cliosophic Society, and one of the
eight speakers on the Home Contest in oratory.
Of the former he wrote: "At present I have
only to take three or four hours a week to read
proof and write occasional editorials. I am
President of the volunteer band now. We are
studying Mott's ' Evangelization of the World
in this generation.' I am surprised at his mod-
eration, and am inclined to think he is about
right. I find more time for social recreation this
year. I very much regret that I have not sue-
52 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
ceeded in getting in more music than I have.
The few lessons that I took when a Sophomore
represent all the training I have had, and now I
cannot sing. I am trying to cultivate a thought-
ful life more than ever before, realizing the su-
perficiality of a life made up of doing innum-
erable things at lightning speed, without much
thought I read the "Daily Light " which mother
gave me every day almost and try to cultivate a
prayer life of my own. You will remember that
I wrote of my bitter defeat in the Home Ora-
torical Contest and my consequent discourage-
ment. Professor Bacon said to me on my re-
turn: ' Three hundred and sixty-three days to the
next contest, Henry.' This year I had but little
time to give to it and scarcely expected anything
but ignominious defeat. My work last year was
not wasted. I got on the first eight this time and
am planning to get to work for the contest.
Heredity is cropping out in great chunks."
Professor Bacon, to whom Henry was greatly
attached, passed through a period of great
feebleness, and at last succumbed in October of
that year. Henry writes : — " I think I wrote
you of the death and burial of my friend Pro-
fessor Charles Bacon. Since then a memorial
number of the Round Table has been issued. I
have taken the place of the editor in chief, so the
editorial is my tribute to my dead friend. I have
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 53
attacked my oration seriously and am tremen-
dously perplexed to know what to do to make it
five hundred per cent, better than it was in the
last contest. Here is where I miss Professor
Bacon most. What I need more than help is to
concentrate my mental energy on this one thing
and do the work necessary to achieve excellence.
The Home Contest comes December 13. Per-
haps I have not told you of the recent formation
of an English Club here. The idea is that of a
voluntary organization to meet for an hour once
in two weeks. I pushed Professor Wallace's idea
vigorously. It became immensely popular.
About a third of the students attended the first
meeting. I was appointed a committee to draw
up a Constitution. They accepted my Constitu-
tion and elected me President. I didn't kick.
Professor Bacon cured me of that trick long
ago." (Nov. 9, 1901.)
The Oratorical Contest came off at the ap-
pointed time. The judges gave Henry only the
third place, thus leaving him off from the In-
tercollegiate.
He began planning for the following year.
He thought of the alternatives of Teaching or
Post-Graduate study. " The possibility has oc-
curred to me that I ought to go to some Theo-
logical Seminary. I have not planned for this,
because I do not believe I am ready for it yet.
54 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
If you see reasons that I cannot, why should I not
hasten to China as soon as possible. I suppose
I could plan for 1905. In one of your latest
letters you ask what I read. Perhaps you will
be interested to know what books are on shelves
of my table now. The most are library books of
which as librarian I draw a great many." There
follows a list of some fifty books, covering the
themes of semester study, or those of oration and
debate. "My library training has taught me
how to read large numbers of books rapidly and
at the same time to get from them most of what
is worth while. I expect to change at least half
of them before New Years'. I am sometimes
tempted to drop all of my numberless responsi-
bilities and retire into such a life as some of my
classmates live, of seclusion and leisure, learning
their lessons and reading many good books.
" Before I forget it, I want to answer some of
the questions in some of your letters. I weigh
about 149 pounds stripped, or about 157 with
my clothes on. The football players all weigh
after undressing and before putting on their
football suits every day and again after practice
to see how much weight they have lost by hard
work. The average loss runs from two to four
pounds* but I have lost as much as six pounds
in a hard-fought game. Of course I would gain
it back in the course of twenty-four hours. My
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 55
throat has troubled me very little since the win-
ter of my Sophomore year, when I was thought
to have consumption. That danger is now gone,
but I am always rather careful.
" Examination week is always a trying ordeal,
but it was particularly wearing for me this time,
because I have been doing almost everything ex-
cept study. I worked furiously during the week
reviewing and cramming for exams, and thereby
added four or five credits to what I could other-
wise expect. Only one or two in my class got
higher averages, so that I feel fairly well satis-
fied. I feel how far short I have fallen of a
scholarly ideal. I appreciate the force of the
suggestion made in your last letter that there is
danger of superficiality in dissipating one's ener-
gies, and am trying now to do fewer things and
do them better. I am still Treasurer of the Y.
M. C. A., but the work of collecting is being
done by the Committees, and I merely supervise
and urge the work on. Instead of going on a
begging expedition whenever a little money was
needed I inaugurated a plan of having regular
membership dues of twenty-five cents a term. In
this way $170 was raised in pledges without any
difficulty. Then all who were not members were
asked to contribute, and their generous subscrip-
tions showed that even the unreligious men ap-
preciate the value of the work. In trying to
56 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
change all this I have encountered many obstacles
and much opposition, but at every point I have
insisted on being businesslike, and the others
have let me have my way. I have already dis-
bursed $250, including the Handbook. The peo-
ple who don't approve of my methods are de-
lighted with the results, for this is the most
prosperous year the Y. M. C. A. has had. We
have started a very good Missionary Library,
which is used a good deal. This is the first thing
I have ever done on a large scale to help any re-
ligious organization, and it has been an unquali-
fied success. I am now editor in chief of the
Round Table, and although it involves some re-
sponsibility, it does not bother me much. I say
to one: 'Do this, and he does it, and to another,
Go, and he goes.' I determine what the policy
of the paper shall be, write some of the editorials,
keep the editorial staff at work, and bother very
little about details. I think I have told you that
I have gone back to the library for five hours'
work a week. I did not want to go back into
something from which I had escaped. Professor
Chapin besought me as a matter of service to
the college, which he said needed my service very
much." (February 15, 1902.)
The event of the Senior year, aside from
faithful study and library work, was once more
the Knox debate. Although it was not custom-
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 57
ary to give the honor of this debate to the same
person in successive years, he was urged to enter
the contest again, and feeling that it was due to
the college to win at least one such prize, he
once more entered the lists. It is unnecessary
to suggest again the enthusiasm and energy with
which he entered the contest. He was duly elected
leader of the fateful three. The Knox debate
was held this year at Beloit. The Beloit spirit
was manifest in the anticipatory expectation.
The usual incidents of debate appeared until
the final rebuttal, which fell to his share.
Professor Collie, in a graphic sentence, sums up
the result: " Henry was a power in debate and
became, perhaps, the most famous of undergrad-
uate debaters in our history. In this debate,
1902, Beloit had apparently lost, when Henry
rose to make his argument in rebuttal. No one
present will be likely to forget that speech. His
generalship, his quick wit, with his eager, pas-
sionate argument simply swept the Knox men
from their feet and Beloit won the decision. The
ambition of the college youth was satisfied.
Eager intensity and strength carried the day."
Of it Henry himself wrote : " The general
impression of it remains with me as being one of
the fortunate events of my Senior year. It en-
abled me to leave college with the sensation that
life didn't owe me anything. It was the fiercest
58 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
and most desperate battle I ever took part in."
The remaining interests of this year are best
summed up in his own words.
" Immediately after the Knox debate, April
19, 1 began work with the Freshman team, which
was to debate May 23, and the Sophomores, for
May 29. There was nobody else to do this and
the school looked to me in the emergency. From
one point of view it was sheer sacrifice and loss
on my part. I was tired and somewhat behind
in my studies and desirous of making them up.
On the other hand, coaching two teams would
be good practice for the Oregon place, and win-
ning those debates would be the finest kind of
recommendation and might get me the place.
Besides, the prestige and honor of Beloit were
at stake. Each team called on me in a body
and asked me themselves. I made my own terms.
They were to follow my instructions in every
detail, and I was to do for them everything that
energy and experience in debate could do to en-
sure their victory. I watched over them, sent
them to bed early, and to regular and hard work.
I would not let them go to the theater, nor smoke,
and made them work hard. It was just what
Professor Bacon had done for me. The last
week I used my influence with the faculty and
had the men excused from recitations. The
Freshmen were colts and hard to handle. The
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 59
leader was quick, bright and rather hard to man-
age, on the whole. The debate took place at
Beloit.
'* The Ripon boys tried to prove that compul-
sory arbitration of labor disputes should be
adopted in the United States. The Beloit men
claimed that voluntary arbitration was better,
and that compulsory arbitration involved a viola-
tion of personal rights and a sacrifice of individ-
ual liberty. The Beloit speeches were better, and
better delivered than those of their opponents.
Two judges voted for Beloit. A great weight
was lifted from my mind, but I became doubly
anxious over the Sophomores, who were to de-
bate against Carleton. Of course I went to
Northfield with the team. It was a fast, hard
battle clear through, and the result was doubtful
more than half of the time. Gradually the
splendid condition and training of the Beloit
men began to tell. They braced up as their op-
ponents weakened and won clearly in a furious
finish. The judges' decision was two to one for
Beloit. Maybe we did not get an enthusiastic
reception. I never was so lionized in my life.
The Sophs made old Beloit ring with their yells
and illuminated the town by burning red fire up
and down the streets. We had to make speeches
and receive congratulations and there was music
and rejoicing, ice cream, and cake.
60 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
" For over three years I had planned to com-
pete for the Hay Prize, given each year to the
Senior who writes the best essay on some topic
connected with American citizenship. I thought
winning such a prize would probably please you,
for it is a considerable honor. It is announced
at Commencement and printed in the catalogue.
In the Library I learned that only two days and
three nights remained before the essay should
be handed in. There came a fierce determination
to make the desperate attempt. I selected the
best of the available topics : ' The Influence of
the Reconstruction Policy of Abraham Lincoln
upon the Subsequent Reconstruction Policy of
the Southern States.' Never in my life have I
done so big a piece of work at one sitting. I
began to typewrite the essay in the early dawn
of the third day. After the essay was handed
in to Professor Chapin I heaved a sigh of relief
and turned to my other work. The examinations
were now coming on. At last I finished my work
satisfactorily and went off with my class for a
lark and a rest. We had a wholesome, jolly kind
of a time together, and came back sunburned and
happy. Altogether Class day was a pretty
strenuous day for me and I heaved a long sigh
when the last enthusiastic burst of applause had
died away. The next morning I went to Com-
mencement and found the exercises rather tedi-
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 61
cms except what concerned me. I drew a sheep-
skin tied in gold and labeled cum laude. Tak-
ing it all in all I was satisfied. After the Acting-
president's farewell, we took our front seats for
the announcements. Dr. Collie read from his
lists, ' The Hay Prize of $35, for the best essay
upon a topic connected with American citizen-
ship, is awarded to Mr. Henry D. Smith, of
Pang Chuang, China.' I gulped hard and looked
unconcerned, while my chum squoze my arm.
My rival had drawn the other prize, which he
sought, and we both were happy. Ten minutes
later a messenger boy handed me a telegram, as
I walked in with my class to the corporation
dinner.
" Forest Grove, Oregon.
" You were elected instructor last night. Will write
to-morrow.
" WM. N. FERRIN, DEAN."
" My three wishes had come true. I had my
diploma, my prize, and my position. The four
years of hard struggle and bitter disappoint-
ments were over.
* The corporation dinner is the last ceremony
of Commencement week. It was a swell affair
and I enjoyed it to the full and went out feeling
older, for college life was ended and real life
had commenced." (September 11, 1902.)
" The last afternoon at Beloit I called and
62 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
said good-bye to my friends. Aunt M. cried and
her father wished me well. Mrs. Chapin and
Miss Chapin and Mrs. F. gave me their best
wishes. Aunt Bessie wished me in Chinese ' I
Lu Ping An ' ; parting with Uncle Harry was
very sad. He spoke of your long friendship and
of the blessing of such love and almost broke
down when it came to say good-by. My heart
was heavy as I left him, for we may never meet
again on earth. My most solemn farewell was
to the college library, silent and deserted now.
One spot in it is forever sacred to me. Professor
Bacon's wheel-chair used to stand there and he
used to work there every day. For three years
I watched him work there; for two years I
worked and studied with him ; for one year I was
his right hand-man, and after he had gone ' Over
there/ I still worked on that spot. There I had
vowed to beat Ripon, if it were possible to over-
come such odds as we Freshmen fought against
that year, and to that spot I returned forlorn
and comfortless to gather fresh resolve. On that
spot I had vowed, as a Junior, to defeat Knox,
if it could be done. Here Professor Bacon had
bidden me godspeed with his firm warm hand-
clasp and his cheery voice, * God bless you,
Henry, go in and do your very best.' Two days
later, when I returned beaten, but not conquered,
his earnest, vibrant voice greeted me with, ' Well,
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 63
Henry, there are three hundred and sixty-three
days to the next Knox debate.' His indomitable
courage was contagious. On this very spot I had
solemnly sworn that I would fight one more bat-
tle to the very end, and to this place I had re-
turned after the bonfire had burned out and the
shouts had died away, and the crowd had gone
home, the night of the Knox debate, to thank
God for my first victory. On this same spot I
lingered in farewell. The finest students I had
ever known had worked here and grown under
Professor Bacon's care into splendid men. The
place was consecrated by his heroic life and
death.
" O God, to us may grace be given
To follow in their train."
I thought a moment and prayed on that spot.
No place has ever been associated, for me, with
so much of the strenuous endeavor and purpose-
ful resolve." (September 11, 1902.)
INSTRUCTORSHIP AT PACIFIC UNI-
VERSITY
On leaving Beloit Henry hastened West, to
spend a short time with his Grandmother Dickin-
son and his aunt Mrs. Merritt, at Tacoma, be-
fore entering upon the school year at Forest
Grove. It was four years since he had left, to
pass his college years.
64 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
We have his own full record of the new ex-
perience as instructor: " Forest Grove, Oregon.
I don't know how many aeons it is since I wrote
last, so I shall have to go back to the beginning.
I think I told you of my playing football last
term with the boys here. The idea was suggested
by some of the faculty, and I hesitated for some
time. But the precedent had been set for me by
my predecessor, Mr. Lyman, and not without
some good reason. I wanted to have as strong
an influence as possible for good, so set to work
to get in touch with all classes of students, if
possible. The athletes besought me to come and
play, the coach implored me to help him out, and
the faculty advised me to do so. I helped coach
the team throughout the season.
" I showed them how football is played at
Beloit; my experience there last year was worth
a lot. The only victory that we won was the
result of a tackles-back tandem play which I in-
troduced from Beloit and in which I led the in-
terference again and again, as we used to do at
Beloit, until somehow we smashed our way to
victory. I was abundantly repaid, for the foot-
ball men appreciated my sacrifices and I gained
a hold over them which I could not have any
other way. I refused the first invitations to at-
tend the faculty meeting, and to vote and act
with them, but a third invitation came in the
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 65
shape of an unanimous request that I join their
number and share the responsibilities and burdens
of their work. They treated me splendidly, and
have passed every motion that I have made.
" A chance came in my way to get in touch
with the other class of students, the girls. My
predecessor was elected the business manager of
the girl's basket-ball team as a sort of joke. He
accepted, but never did anything. This year the
girls came to me to know if I would help them.
They elected me manager and I set to work.
There was no place to play and they were
obliged to play out of doors. In order to play
basket-ball girls have to wear a gymnasium cos-
tume, that is sailor blouses and bloomers with
knee skirts. Practicing out of doors would at-
tract a crowd and was hardly creditable to an
institution with such a history. The trustees,
' tumbled ' and hastily raised enough to fit up a
large room, and now for the first time Pacific
University has a ladies' ' gymnasium.' The result
is showing right now. Pale, delicate girls, who
can get no other exercise on rainy days, come
flushed and hungry from the Gymnasium. The
girls' team from the Academy here is to play a
game with the team from St. Helen's Hall in
Portland.
:< I have tried at all times to co-operate with
the Y. M. C. A. here and often go to their meet-
66 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
ings. I joined the C. E. Society, and am teach-
ing a class in the S. S. On Sunday, December
21, I filled the Congregational pulpit and was
favored with a large audience. I spoke on mis-
sionary work in China, and some weeks later ad-
dressed a joint meeting of the Y. M. C. A. and
Y. W. C. A., describing some helps and hin-
drances to mission work in China. I am an hon-
orary member of the boys' debating societies.
It seems to be the only way in which one can do
young people much good, that of entering into
close and friendly relations with them.
' Within a month I have been obliged to re-
fuse calls to preach, but have accepted two calls
to speak on China. I shall continue to accept
these missionary calls as long as I can. Oratory
and debating are the chief interest in the school
just now and I am bending all my energy to
bring to the institution such success as it has not
had before. Lyman worked up some good men,
and I am trying to bring out every man who has
any oratorical possibilities in him. This week the
Home Oratorical contest takes place and a
month later the State Oratorical at Eugene. For
the Home contest eight men are working furi-
ously, rehearsing with me every day, which takes
five and six hours, in addition to regular duties.
We have two intercollegiate debates, one with
the University of Oregon, which is the strongest
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 67
debating school in this part of the United States.
All the hard work I did at Beloit last year coach-
ing two winning teams comes in handy now."
(Februarys, 1903.)
" I don't think my moral and religious in-
fluence has been as strong and steady as I meant
it to be. During the busiest part of the winter
I drifted away somewhat spiritually and have
not quite got back yet. Somehow the terrific
strain of overwork always breaks down my good
resolutions and I neglect the deepest things of
life to accomplish my immediate aim. But after
the aim is secured I find I have lost something
not easily regained. This year my eyes have
been opened to this danger and remedy and next
year I hope to avoid it.
" Aunt Marie writes me that grandma has had
another serious attack but has rallied well. When
school is out I expect to accept their urgent invi-
tation to visit them for a while. Later in the
summer I shall go to Oakland and San Fran-
cisco." (May 21, 1903.)
" I had a rather exciting time making connec-
tions in Portland, as I missed the train for Forest
Grove by a few seconds and had to make a mad
dash for it in a cab. We overtook it in a mile
and a half, as it runs slowly through the town.
It was just beginning to go fast when I jumped
from the step of the cab to the last car and threw
68 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
the cabman his fare. The evening train would
have made me too late to vote in Forest Grove.
I voted for the first time, casting my vote for no
license. The town went ' dry.'
" I think I told you how I came back 175
miles from Tacoma to vote in the election and
cast my first vote under the local option law for
* No License.' I am neither a Prohibitionist nor
a teetotaler, but I know a moral issue when I
see one, and I don't believe there is any man in
Oregon more anxious than I am to * get in the
game,' when a hot fight is raging over a moral
issue. We won by a majority of forty-one."
(July 14, 1903.)
A part of the summer vacation was spent, as
he had planned, in San Francisco, in the business
of his cousin, Mr. Howard.
Henry was as eager for a fight in business as
in debating. " In the store, good fortune began
to come to me about the time that I began to be
rested and recuperated. After six or seven
weeks a chance came to me to do some work in
the office. I have always wanted to work in the
office. I did not know anything about short-
hand, so missed my chance. But soon after there
was a chance for me to do a little work in San
Francisco as a drummer, and I jumped at the
chance. It was a hard graft, for he set me to
introduce a new line of hardware in a field
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 69
crowded to death with competition. I had only
a few days to work before going North, and the
old spirit of dare-deviltry from college days came
over mej and I went into it with more enthu-
siasm than anything that I had had a chance to
do this year. The first customer upon whom I
called said : * Why, there was a man around here
yesterday trying to sell a lot of that stuff.' To
which I responded with cheerful recklessness, ' I
have no doubt of it. There will probably be an-
other to-morrow, and I'm four weeks ahead of
the man who will be here a month from now, but
we've got the very thing you want and at the
right price.' I stayed with the gentleman more
than an hour, and returned with an order for
more than four hundred dollars' worth of as-
sorted hardware. In five days I sold little less
than a thousand dollars' worth of goods, besides
working up some deals of which the harvest will
be reaped later. It was lots of fun. Besides it
is most excellent experience. I left Oakland
September 12, having stayed two weeks longer
than I had planned." (October 7, 1903.)
The new term opened at Forest Grove and
Henry entered upon the work with renewed
eagerness. His letters reflect it: "I began my
new course in ' Vocal Expression and Delivery '
in which I am trying to give the students here
what I got in my post-graduate work in Chicago
70 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
University. This last course has proved very
popular. I intended it only for the select few,
out of whom I hope to be able to make orators
and debaters who will win this year's contest in
public speaking, but a whole raft of people
wanted to take the course. No such course is
offered at Beloit, but if there had been any such
thing it might have saved me from some of the
bitterest experiences of my life. Two of the
twelve pupils are ladies who expect to teach elo-
cution, and one of them is doing special work
with me fitting herself to go to the Emerson
School of Oratory, in Boston, for a two years'
course. I do not play football this year, but help
coach the boys at their request. I am coaching
the second team. Of course I am under no obli-
gation to do this, but I like it and need the exer-
cise. The students appreciate the help. I go to
the meetings of the Y. M. C. A., to help them
out, as it is rather small and needs all the help
it can get. I believe strongly in college associa-
tions ever since the one at Beloit straightened me
out."
In a, December letter Henry wrote more inti-
mately of his inner life: " Dear Pater: I want
to talk to you a little. I wrote to mother from
Tacoma, so you know of our Thanksgiving
there.* It was a blessing to me, as it always is,
* Henry's maternal grandmother had one granddaughter,
largely brought up by herself, who filled her heart. When this
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 71
to get away from here and to be with them (his
relatives) for a little. When I got back here,
everybody was plunged into the midst of prep-
arations to entertain a large Y. M. C. A.
convention. The convention was a tremendous
success in every way in numbers and interest.
It was said to be one of the best ever held
in Oregon. Before it was over a number of
young men, including several from Pacific
University, had made a start in the Christian
life. It brought a great blessing to this col-
dear one's marriage removed her the width of the continent it
left an aching void. Just at this time the providence of God
sent the only living grandson to the Pacific coast to live, where
he could spend his vacations with her. Into the dear grand-
motherly heart, that never grew old, nestled this strong, eager
personality, loving her back in full measure and partly filling
the vacant spot.
As each vacation came they sent a joint letter to China, which
was grandma's great delight. It was scientific division of labor.
Grandma on her bed dictated half the ideas and Henry half.
He did the writing except at the end. The words,
" Your Loving mother
" and son,
"L. S. DICKINSON,
"H. D. SMITH";
used to fade away in the midst of tears for the reader, as the
first became fainter and more tremulous and finally ceased to
appear. It was good for Henry to sit by the bed and learn
to be quiet and tender and gentle, and he brought much ozone
into the sick room with him for her. How little we thought
that after a little parting, grandmother and Henry could go
right on where they had left off in that little room in Tacoma.
Grandma had said, " How I wish that boy Henry would stay
here all the time, since he adds greatly to our happiness."
72 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
lege and helped everybody immensely. I know
it did a world of good to me. For months
I had been drifting. You know how it started.
For a long time, I had known that I was sliding
along a dangerous way, but it seemed that I
could not stop. This convention gave me the
needed impetus and although my worst problems
are not solved, I know that I am trying to do
what is right.
" It was eight months since I had received a
call to preach or speak anywhere on Sunday, but
within five days after the convention and after
I had resolved to begin again, I received a hurry
call to preach twice on a Sunday, in a neighbor-
ing town. I try to leave no duty undone — ' What-
soever thy hand findeth to do'; — and I have
wonderful joy since that convention. It struck
me as being a remarkable coincidence — perhaps
mother would call it something else. I had never
before attempted to speak twice on Sunday, nor
to conduct an entire service anywhere, to say
nothing of two of them in the same place. But
I never yet refused any such call when I could
possibly accept it, so I went. I was extremely
busy and had almost no time to prepare, about
four or five hours for my morning sermon, more
for the evening. Never have I felt more de-
pendent upon a kind Providence for help or more
conscious of receiving help and ideas when I
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 73
needed them. I preached from Matthew xi. 2, 3,*
explaining what I thought it meant and should
mean to each one of us. In the evening I talked
about China, giving them the same address that
I used last winter. I found the conducting of
two such services no small strain upon one's
strength and nerve, and am a little doubtful
about accepting any more such calls, but perhaps
I had better not cross the river before coming
to it. The people were very appreciative and
want me to come again."
In the spring of 1904, Henry's cousin in San
Francisco renewed offers to him to join him in
business. The inducements were attractive. His
estimate of them appears in the following letter:
" Spiritually I am not fitted for the ministry
and doubt whether I was ever created for that
calling or any other like it. I don't believe any
man is ever called to be a round peg in a square
hole. And yet I am by no means prepared to
say that I have chosen once for all. And I
know that to go into business with N. would
practically be to choose before I am ready. For
I know that I could make a success of business:
I like it, I do not take a sordid view of it, as I
believe you think I do. I am pretty sure that if
I should go into business for a year or two it
would be next to impossible for me to get out.
* Art thou he that cometh, or look we for another?
74 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Now the offers which he has made me are in
some respects the best and the most attractive
which were ever held out to me; the position
would be almost ideal from my point of view,
and the inducements far beyond anything I had
dreamed of in my most enthusiastic moments,
amounting to making me a partner in the firm
to a certain extent. The work would be pleas-
ant,, the surroundings congenial, and yet
Well, I have not accepted.
" I chanced to mention this uncertainty of
mind in a letter I wrote to President Eaton,
trying to get a scholarship for one of the stu-
dents here who wants to go to Beloit. By return
mail I received a call to Beloit, which I enclose,
together with various and sundry documents in-
cluding comments from people interested. I had
done nothing whatever to fish for that call, al-
though of course I regarded it as a very high
honor and was tickled to death to receive it.
There is no man in this country that I would
rather work with, and no institution that I would
rather serve than Beloit. Accepting the call
would not pledge me to remain there more than
a year. Only two men have held the place before.
One, Professor Holden, is now President of
Wooster University, Ohio. The other, Mr.
Vogt, is now General Secretary of the United
Society of Christian Endeavor. The place and
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 75
the work might lead me straight into the minis-
try. I can see how filling the pulpits of different
churches every Sunday might have that effect."
(June 3, 1904.)
President Eaton's letter:
BELOIT, Wis., February 4, 1904.
" MY DEAR HENRY: — Your letter I have read with
great interest and satisfaction. I am glad you are so
deeply engrossed in your present work, and am still more
glad that the work which I have suggested to you, for
your Alma Mater makes the appeal it does to you, and
from the motives which weigh most with you. Your letter
increases my conviction that you will find in the work pro-
posed a sphere for your best energies, in which you would
accomplish great good and at the same time grow steadily.
" Suppose you were to inspire twenty young men a year,
who otherwise would not be reached, with the motives lead-
ing to an education, for a career of positive usefulness,
and that you should repeat this every year for five years,
which is not at all an improbable supposition. What
would it mean to have a hundred lives parallel to your
own, working through your lifetime, all contributing to the
world's uplift, through the impulse you had given them!
How profoundly inspiring the thought is! It only sug-
gests how distinctly the sphere into which we call you is
one where every day's work has large issues, many of
which can be measured and estimated far more than is
the case with ordinary service. What you say about the
business positions offered you interests me much, as indi-
cating the justice of my thought in believing that you
would have good access to business men and could in-
fluence them strongly toward an interest in Christian edu-
76 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
cation. The great importance of this can hardly be esti-
mated. To help gather about the college a body of
intelligent men of means will assure its development for
the future in these material interests which are so essen-
tial to its large usefulness. Personally I look forward with
keen satisfaction to having you associated with me in this
arduous but delightful work. We know each other
thoroughly and we know we could co-operate so that each
should strengthen the other. As I think I said before,
I know no other of our younger alumni who would, I
think, be so personally helpful and effective as yourself.
I have laid the matter before the committee of the trus-
tees of the college by whom this matter is entrusted to
me. Mr. E. and Mr. P. both agree with me in the desire
that you enter upon this work. As you are the man we
want and as you cannot come to us until August, there is
no necessity of our hurrying you to a decision before you
can have your father's thought.
" With cordial regards,
" EDWARD D. EATON."
The decision was made in favor of Beloit.
The intimation that Henry was given to over-
work had evidently reached his parents and they
had wisely given him, as other friends had also,
some good advice on that subject. As always he
was fond of " rebuttal."
" I think you exaggerate my tendency to over-
work. I am tired, but in no danger of nervous
breakdown. I have learned some things by ex-
perience and am more sane than you think. I
work hard from morning to night and shall
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 77
stoutly defend my right to do so. ' Idleness is the
American Hell/ Of course I work hard. I
think the results justify me. The football team
tied with the best in the State. The orator whom
I trained won the State oratorical contest. Our
debating team went one hundred and fifty miles
and whipped the State University on their own
grounds. When I came the college loyalty was
low, athletics and debating were in a most dis-
couraging condition. This year we have won
everything. Of one thing I am sure: If I ever
make a success of anything in life, it will not be
through talent or inspiration, but through hard
work. I never expect to do less than the very
best I can. Of course I don't intend to kill my-
self with overwork. As my judgment matures
I hope to avoid setting my heart on impossible
things, and thus stave off an early death. I
think I said that my tendency is easily explained,
since I inherited all your energy and all my
mother's as well. Just now we are hard at work
preparing for commencement. I have to pre-
pare twelve speakers to appear in public. In-
cidentally I might mention that I am to sing in
one of the closing recitals of the Conservatory of
Music. You know I have been taking vocal les-
sons ever since I came here, two a week. Next
year I intend to take lessons at Beloit if I can.
Music has cost me $180 this year. It has been
78 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
worth it, and more a great deal than I could pay.
I only wish I had started earlier. For the last
few days we have been working hard on a com-
mittee which is rustling up a delegation to rep-
resent Pacific at the Y. M. C. A. at Gearhart.
This corresponds with the Geneva Convention
in Wisconsin, which I attended in 1901-2. Ever
since I was helped so much there I have done all
I could to promote such things. Last year we
worked hard raising money and getting men to
go, but succeeded in sending only four. This
year we aimed to get ten men. We have prayed
earnestly and worked hard. For the last week
we have been having noon prayer meetings, when
the committee and a few faithful ones have
planned and talked over the campaign. I have
done all I could to encourage this thing, for I
know what it means. My devotional habits are
not always what they should be, but I am very
much in earnest about this and am not ashamed
to pray, nor afraid to fight hard for something
that I know is right.
" I seldom have time for recreation, but last
Saturday I went with a crowd of college boys
and girls on a straw ride. I went as one of the
chaperones. A boy who had come in a road cart,
driving a black colt* in the afternoon took one of
the girls to ride. The colt got scared, ran into
a chuck hole, tipped the cart so that it pitched
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 79
the girl out. I saw her fall and ran as I used to
run with the football when I had a clean field
for a touchdown. Her foot caught between the
spokes and was dragged up to the shaft, which
would certainly have broken her leg in another
instant. I had only fifty yards to go and reached
her just barely in time to yank her out. She was
shrieking like a maniac with fear; the boy white,
but determined, gripping the lines with all his
might to steady the plunging beast. The girl
narrowly escaped a terrible accident, for she went
out of the cart headlong and might have been
hurt, and the colt barely missed stepping on her.
Never in my life have I been more thankful for
athletic training. Nothing in the world is so
good as football to teach a man to think fast and
to act while he thinks. I am planning to take
back to Beloit one of the students with me. He
is one of my best friends here. Last year he
won the Home contest here. Beloit is a Christian
college and he needs Christian influences." (May
29, 1904.)
Mrs. Lucilla Stanley Gary Dickinson, Henry's
maternal grandmother, died at Tacoma in June,
1904. She had passed her eightieth birthday.
Mrs. Dickinson was a woman of most interesting
personality. The Carys were Quakers from New
Jersey. They had all the quiet and sterling
qualities of their well-known sect. Some of us
80 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
remember the admirable character of Dr. George
Cary at Beloit, a friend of multitudes and a
wise and careful physician. Mrs. Dickinson was
a cousin of Dr. George. Lucilla Cary married
Mr. Ansel Dickinson, from Amherst, Mass., who
on account of ill health had given up his study
for the ministry and with a brother had moved
to Mount Zion, a few miles from Janesville,
Wis., in 1838. Deacon Dickinson was among
the men who formed the Congregational Con-
vention, in Wisconsin, fully imbued with the
spirit of church union. The early death of her
husband led Mrs. Dickinson to dispose of her
farm and to move to Beloit to educate her chil-
dren. The simple happy home on Church Street,
Beloit, will long be remembered by her many
friends. Her eldest child and only son early de-
veloped mental and spiritual qualities of the
highest merit. It was natural for the son of such
a mother to take rank as a student. Through
him we learned something of the mental power
of the mother, sustained and exact. Henry Cary
Dickinson, for whom Henry Smith was named,
was easily the first man in his college class, grad-
uating as valedictorian in 1863. After teaching
for a year he was called to Beloit as Instructor
in Rhetoric. His pupils remember the enthu-
siasm and exactness of his scholarship, and the
beauty of his life. The ministry attracted him
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 81
and he left Beloit for Andover Seminary in the
autumn of 1865. He graduated from the Semi-
nary with very high rank in a class which had
such men as Joseph Cook, Daniel Merriman,
John Taylor and Ezra Brainard, one of the
splendid classes of old-time Andover, with a
membership of forty. Mr. Dickinson accepted
a call to the church at Appleton, Wis. His brief
ministry was distinguished. In noble aspect of
countenance, he closely resembled Frederic
Roberston. And his friends were often reminded
of mental fellowship with the rightly distin-
guished minister of Brighton, England. Mr.
Dickinson was called to the Professorship of
Church History at Oberlin Theological Semi-
nary. He felt, however, that his avocation was
rather that of preaching. He showed remark-
ably winning powers of address in evangelical
efforts in aid of Wisconsin Churches. One such
series of meetings at Beloit will be long remem-
bered. The depth of his probing of the human
spirit and the tender richness of his appeals were
most effective. Ill health caused him to find re-
lief in Colorado, where he preached in Central
City. From Colorado he came home to die, in
March, 1873. One learns something of the
mother's thought and life from such a son. Mrs.
Dickinson spent two or three years in work for
the American Missionary Society in the South,
82 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Mississippi and Texas, before removing to Cali-
fornia. Later her elder daughter's home was
her own through all the years of a serene and
lovely old age. A brief reference is made to this
noble woman in the following letter :
TACOMA, July 31, 1904.
"DEAR MAMMA: Aunt Jennie and I have
just returned from the cemetery. The grass is
green and thick where Grandma lies, and the
clover blooms and the little birds sing, and over
all that peace and quiet was the golden glory of
the setting sun, like the smile of the dear God
above. ' And there shall be no more death, neither
sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain/ By her grave I prayed God to make me
worthy of the good women that have been dear
to me, Grandmother, and mother, and sister He
gave me. And to-night I go to the new life —
Beloit — to begin again and try. I enclose a few
little flowers from Grandma's grave. They will
be withered, I know, when they reach you, but
something tells me they will be dear to you. And
I send you a lock of her hair, the only one that
was saved. It was mine, it is yours now. And
I love you. HENRY."
LAUNCHING A GREATER BELOIT
Early in August, 1904, after an absence of
two years, Henry returned to Wisconsin to en-
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 83
ter upon his new work, as General Secretary to
the President. The year at Beloit was full of
the deepest interest to him. He traveled widely,
visiting high schools as well as churches in the
interest of the College. He was well received
wherever he went. It brought him into imme-
diate contact with the young people who were
planning further study. He carried forward his
work with happy energy, often occupying a pul-
pit on Sunday with his eager theme: " Christian
Education for Young Men and Women." The
Rev. Stanley Lathrop recalls such a Sunday at
Ashland, with the North Wisconsin Academy.
His address had a freshness and fine adaptation
to the work he was advancing. He was acquir-
ing a masterful way of presenting the claims of
college life and its value.
Among other duties assigned him was that of
creating an interest in the college finances among
business men. His discipline in business made
it possible for him now to meet the necessary
rebuffs with a calmer spirit. Of this side of his
work he writes :
" Since I have been working for the college I
have put in most of my time and energy in the
effort to raise money. This is the hardest part
of the work. Everyone dreads it, and keeps out
of it as far as possible. It has some advantages,
for it brings one into contact with the biggest
84 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
men in business, many of whom have built up
vast fortunes, and many of them men of the
noblest character. Also, like any other ex-
perience, if taken in the right spirit, it may
prove a means of grace. I have had some
encouragements, as I have been favorably re-
ceived by many noted men, a number of
capitalists and financiers. In such cases I
have been invited to come again in three or
six months. There are over 400 charities in
Chicago, all of them soliciting money all the
time. Half a dozen other colleges have a strqnger
hold there than we have. Most of the large for-
tunes are in the cities in these days, and there is
the place to work. I value material success per-
haps more than I should. It is not enough for
me that a man should struggle on faithfully and
bravely — he must win. Life owes me that, I
will take no less. Time and again I have been
heartsick and downcast. No friend could help
me. Only one thing could console me — Success.
Of course there is another side to it. I am sow-
ing seed which will grow. Others may harvest
the crop, but I am sowing the seed far and wide
in the best soil I can find.
" That is a little consolation, but not much, for
the future is extremely uncertain and in Chicago
the mortality among seeds of that kind is exceed-
ingly high." (February 1, 1905.)
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 85
It was most natural that Henry should take
once more a very deep interest in the College
contests, oratory, and debate.
Vivid descriptions of debating work are re-
peated: "In March the Instructor in Public
Speaking was drowned. This left the depart-
ment in bad shape. The boys asked me to help
them by coaching the three teams in the intercol-
legiate debates. That is the one thing that I am
most interested in, and more sure of being able
to do. President Eaton cheerfully assented to
my spending my spare time in such work. I
worked at it for nearly two months. Little by
little things began to look better until it ended by
being the most successful year in debating that
Beloit has ever had. We won all three of the
debates. It never happened but once before
that Beloit has won three debates in one year.
That was my Senior year. There have been hi-
larious celebrations. Beloit has been quite
stirred up and enthusiastic. This year in the
Knox debate all three of the judges voted for
Beloit. It was great fun for me. You remem-
ber I had some old scores to even up with Knox
in regard to debating. The debate took place in
Galesburg this year and was held in the same
church in which we spoke in 1901. That year
the decision was unanimous for Knox. This
year it was unanimous for Beloit. The Beloit
86 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
men were prepared for every argument advanced
by KnoXj and answered each one with lightning
rapidity and terrific force, so that after it was
over the Knox men cheerfully admitted that they
had been beaten. I got a heap of satisfaction
out of that verdict. Another of our teams won
in a debate against Carleton College, and an-
other won against Lake Forest University. Al-
together we have had good cause for congratu-
lations. You know that defeat in 1901 nearly
broke my heart, but it gave me more determi-
nation than I had ever had before. Since then I
have never been defeated in debate. Since then
I have led one team and coached seven others
and have had seven consecutive victories. So
this seems to me a good time to stop. Yet I still
have a vague hope that somehow, at some time I
may have time and opportunity to engage in one
more inter-collegiate debate. I hope before I
leave Yale I may have a chance to get on one of
the teams that debate against either Harvard or
Princeton.
" You ask me what I am doing for others.
Not much, I fear. I have tried to help in the C.
E. of our First Congregational Church. The
Society has had a very prosperous year and is in
a very prosperous condition. Sunday night,
May 7, I preached in the darky church here. It
was quite an experience for me. I gave them
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 87
just a simple gospel talk from Matthew xi, 11.
I am reluctant to fill any but a very small or very
needy church, as I realize that I am a youngster
and don't know anything about preaching."
(May 14, 1905.)
" Last night at a banquet in honor of Beloit's
victories in oratory and debate, I made a plea for
a f Greater Beloit/ and as enthusiasm was high
everyone responded well. Next day in Chapel one
hundred and fifty students signed cards promis-
ing that each would do all in his power to bring
one new student to Beloit next fall. President
Eaton feared the scheme would not work, so I
waited till he went East and got it up in his
absence. It is working like a house on fire, and
I am sure we shall succeed. Thus victory some-
times treads upon the heels of defeat, and after
I am gone to Yale, the Freshman class of one
hundred may enter upon the wise care of the
President who doubted if it could be done. Kiss
Pater for me." (May 28, 1905.)
The plans thus laid began soon to advance in
the line of reaching high school pupils. With a
clear vision he directed his efforts to lay a founda-
tion for a larger college life. The entering class
of 1904 had risen to the number of seventy-five.
He thought that by suitable effort the next
year's class could be raised to one hundred. His
correspondence became large and personal soli-
88 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
citation added to the effect of his urgency.
During the summer vacation he devised several
plans for advertising and promoting his plans.
A small folder booklet was prepared under the
Title:
"THE REASONS WHY.
" SOME INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT BELOIT COL-
LEGE."
These and a handsome blotting pad, with sug-
gestive items and a calendar showing the date of
the autumn term were sent out in large numbers
and were valuable in directing interest toward
the College. Recent successes in oratory and ath-
letics gave their own intimation. A special ap-
peal was made to the best men graduating from
the high schools and academies. The summer
was filled full with the new work. Henry writes :
" I have not had time this summer to be lone-
some, for I have been tremendously at work on
our campaign for new students. If we succeed
in getting a Freshman class of one hundred it
will be the greatest thing that ever happened to
Beloit. The largest class so far numbers eighty-
one. There is no one who believes we can get
the hundred. I am firmly convinced that we are
going to succeed and have no thought of failure.
We are still far from being sure of success. It
is blistering hot weather and everything seems
fearfully discouraging. Never mind. It will all
•^•^s*"""1
Oap*-
<IWhat other Western insti-
tution can show such a combi-
nation of advantages and op-
portunities?
Beloit is RANKED first
of all the Colleges in the West
because it IS first !^ — "
SoSff?^^^*
l^rf&Si
111 nrt AUU*" ,
tfT.^*U*-
fe^-
one" oTtsam'e'kmd"1" ^"^ nR1I>i1^
HON. ALBERT J. BEVERIDG]
Lmtcd Statti Senator from Indiana, in Sal
Evening POM, June 10, 190,.
<I You will find just such men
as that at Beloit !
«P
•BELOIT
V EL O I T. WlSCOftSIJ*
" My advice is
this: Go to col-
lege. Go to the
best possible
college for you.
You will be
better prepared
COLLEGi
of scholarship of an
3. Beloil hi
best Library am)
college in the \\
chapfl.inthee/
^^
•^
toc^rl,^'/'°rn^ Senrfte^
B«/o,V.
i* to« **.
COM?
tYlO1!
-foe!
,M^rco^one
can
JsaSs*
3gS&£
/^
^
°"^?0>
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 89
be over before you get this. My love to Pater."
(August 6, 1905.)
The effort to secure the complement of men
suggested went on eagerly until the very day of
registration. Writing from Rockland, Mass., en
route to New Haven, Henry sums up the effort
and its climax.
" I left Beloit early Friday morning. College
began there on Wednesday. I had kept still so
industriously all summer that no one but Presi-
dent Eaton knew how many Freshman we were
likely to have. The Freshmen registered on
Wednesday from 9-12. President Eaton and I
kept the secret. No one believed it possible that
we should get one hundred. For seven years the
number of men had been from 75-80. As the
Freshmen registered I slipped the enrollment
cards into my pocket, refusing to allow anyone
to see or count them. All was confusion and
bustle so that no one could even estimate or count
the number of students until it was announced.
After the address, President Eaton announced
the total number of Freshmen registered up to 5
p. M. — one hundred and twenty-six. You ought
to have heard that crowd.
' That night on the campus they had a bonfire
as big as a house and the most rousing celebra-
tion you ever saw. There really was some good
reason for their enthusiasm, for no college west
90 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
of Dartmouth has ever done anything like that
before. An increase of fifty-five per cent, in
the size of the entering class is good enough ex-
cuse for a man who is looking for something to
' holler ' about, and Beloit's students are about
as loyal and enthusiastic as they make them.
" It took me all day to settle my affairs at
Beloit, say good-bye to everybody, and pack up.
After several months of * horrid drug,' my * nice
jam ' had come all at once, and I left in a hurry,
partly for fear that I should have too much."
(September 24, 1905.)
The College Round Table voiced the feeling
of the student body over the success secured. In
the editorial for September 29, headed " Greater
Beloit," it says:
" Hopes for the Greater Beliot have been
fully realized. The announcement that 126 Fresh-
men had been enrolled up to that time was a
pleasing surprise to everyone. When the cam-
paign was started last May it was hoped to en-
ter a class of one hundred this fall. The fact
that this mark has been exceeded by almost
thirty per cent, is due in part to the hearty co-
operation of the student body and faculty, but
most of all the untiring efforts of Secretary
Henry D. Smith, who has spent the entire sum-
mer in an ever active campaign for new students,
and his splendid success is a source of gratifica-
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 91
tion to every student. Not only has an immense
amount of correspondence been carried on dur-
ing the summer, but by personal visits to many
who were doubtful he has persuaded them of
the merits of Beloit and has succeeded in getting
them to come here. Mr. Smith devised a novel
scheme last spring for enlisting the student body
by having cards given out among the students
which all those who were willing to use what in-
fluence they could towards getting one new
Freshman were requested to sign. Nearly all
responded, and these were kept in touch through-
out the summer with the progress which was be-
ing made, by letters from Mr. Smith. The best
wishes of the college community go with him into
his new field of work at Yale Divinity School,
where he will continue to do things for the
Greater Beloit which he has made a reality."
One of the members of the entering class
writes: "A great triumph for Henry Smith.
He deserved it." Everyone was enthusiastic
over his efforts. In the Codex of that autumn,
Henry writes of the celebration in fitting meas-
ure:
"THE MAKING OF GREATER BELOIT
" That celebration under September skies is
memorable only as it marks the beginning of a
movement destined to grow and triumph. The
92 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
new idea is really as old as the college : for many
years the trustees and alumni have felt that Beloit
ought to have more students, that an effort
should be made to swell the number of young
men and women who enjoy the privileges and
opportunities of college life. It remained for
the undergraduates themselves to organize and
conduct an enthusiastic campaign for new stu-
dents with a definite view in aim. The campaign
of 1905 centered about the effort to secure one
hundred Freshmen in the class of 1908. To all
the undertaking seemed a large one, to many it
seemed utterly imposible. But few things are
impossible when the old Beloit spirit is thoroughly
aroused. During the summer many a student
worked with untiring zeal. The trustees sup-
plied without stint the needed funds for the
campaign, and friends of the College who could
do no more sent ringing messages of encourage-
ment and good cheer. The plan was at best
merely an experiment, a theory, and many a mis-
take was made and many an opportunity dis-
covered too late. Yet a kindly Providence
seemed to favor the movement from the first.
From the Atlantic coast to the shores of the
Pacific new students began to send inquiries and
applications to Beloit. Before the sun had set
upon registration day a great victory had been
won, for one hundred and twenty-six Freshmen
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 93
had been enrolled. Many thoughtful friends of
Beloit, remembering well its splendid influence in
the days of small numbers, have asked solicit-
ously to what this matter may grow. It should
be said at once that those who have at heart
the best interests of Beloit College do not wish
to see it grow into a great university. Nor even
into a college so large that the advantages which
it to-day possesses will be lost. But Beloit may
increase its present enrollment by one half or
more without losing that precious individual as-
sociation of each student with his fellow students
and with every member of the faculty, which is
the unique advantage of the small college. Many
a student and alumnus must work faithfully and
loyally before Beloit can reach her numerical
ideal; many a strenuous summer campaign is
still to be waged before that victory will be
won.
:' The flames of the bonfire are dying down.
The students turn away from the gay celebration.
In each heart is the conviction that the greatest
glory of Beloit is in the future, not in the past.
Men may come and do their work and pass on,
but the spirit of the college is immortal. In
loyalty and reverence for the traditions of the
past, with pride and joy in the glories of the
present, with courage and enthusiasm and high
resolve for the future, the sons and daughters of
94 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
our Alma Mater will press forward to the splen-
did achievement — the making of the Greater
Beloit."
In regard to the same, Dean Collie has writ-
ten : "The Greater Beloit will come in the future
and it will be Henry Smith's credit that he gave
it the first great impulse in the forward direction.
His methods of advertising the college were
models of their kind and will set a standard at
Beloit for years to come."
THE LAST YEAH
The year at Beloit had strengthened Henry's
plan for further study. He hastened from the
West to join the entering class at Yale Divinity
School. He was to make one of ten men from
Beloit in the school, eager to complete prepara-
ton for a life of service. The outlook for the
young theological student is always most stimu-
lating. The modern methods of Biblical study
along historical lines, open doors hitherto un-
thought of. The range of historical and theo-
logical studies widens rapidly and the technical
student finds himself all at once in contact with
the great problems of the moral and spiritual
life. He comes into touch with the multitude of
thinkers, exegetes, dogmaticians, philosophers,
whose problems must be understood, appreciated,
and directly applied to the work of practical liv-
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 95
ing, moral and social. Such a trained mind as
that of Henry Smith seizes upon the modern
and active methods of research with delighted
eagerness.
In the letter already quoted from he says: " I
mean to settle down quietly at Yale, live simply,
study hard, think deeply, pray more, worry less,
and sympathize always. It is not hard for me to
do things, it is very hard to live quietly and think
deeply. The man who does not do so is shallow."
In the new-found and most congenial Univer-
sity life he soon found himself quite at home.
His interest in the new work he mentions in a
brief letter to the Round Table:
' We have found Yale simply splendid. One
can't help being enthusiastic about it. The Yale
spirit is magnificent, and the opportunities tre-
mendous. The Beloit delegation are trying to
give an account of themselves here. Three of
the four editors of the Divinity Quarterly are
Beloit men and the Divinity choir is made up en-
tirely of Beloit men. The work is mighty hard
here, and does not leave much time for fun."
Rev. Wilfrid Rowell writes of the same great
interest: "Beloit men find in Yale Seminary the
place they need. They find it supplies the things
that the collegiate course could not give. They
discover here a goodly fellowship, a thoroughly
theological and practical training, and an inspir-
96 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
ation for the greatest work in the world — the
Christian Ministry."
Under such circumstances, Henry Smith
found place for some of his exuberant energies.
We find him as an assistant writer for Professor
Kent in the preparation of his Old Testament
Studies, and later as assistant Editor of the Yale
Divinity Quarterly.
The Beloit Round Table for December,
1905, was issued as a Yale number. The ar-
ticles were furnished by the Beloit men at the
Yale Divinity School, full of Alma Mater
loyalty.
Among these papers, it fell to Henry to write
of Yale Athletics, which he did in a very enthu-
siastic article, entitled: "The Yale-Princeton
Football Game." A few paragraphs will show
the spirit of the whole.
" To a Westerner one of the most attractive
features of Yale life is the intense enthusiasm
and loyalty of the students and alumni for their
Alma Mater. A new student feels its influence
at once and finds it getting a stronger grip upon
him as months and years pass. This spirit ap-
pears in many ways and places. In the fall the
chief interest centers about the football games,
and it is there that the greatest demonstrations
of the Yale spirit may be seen. . . .
" After the game the Yale brass band led the
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 97
way round the field, followed by two thousand
Yale men, eight or ten abreast, arms locked, joy-
ously dancing the serpentine. Before the cheer-
ing section of the orange and black they pause
to give a long cheer for Princeton's men, which
is heartily returned. One side is happy, and
both are satisfied, for both have done their best,
and there is no greater victory than that. As
the happy throng moves homeward one cannot
help catching a little of the Yale spirit from
their chorus:
" ' In after years should trouble rise
To cloud the blue of sunny skies,
How bright will seem, through memory's haze,
The happy, golden, bygone days.' '
His growing interest in the University led
almost immediately into lines with which he was
happily familiar, and from which he hoped to
add to the worth of the Divinity department.
This letter is full of the old fighting spirit :
" Recently it was announced that a series of in-
ter-collegiate department debates would be held
for the championship of the University. Some
of the Seniors have persuaded me to go into it.
The Divinity School has never yet won in the
championship, and the men in other departments
consider the theologs as pretty poor. So Teddy
Lathrop and I went in together with a third man
98 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
from Iowa. Our debate with the Law School
was pretty warm, but we won an unanimous ver-
dict of three judges. Next Friday, December 8,
we are to debate against the Academics, that is,
Yale College. If we win, it may perhaps bring
some credit to the Divinity School. Each mem-
ber of the winning team will receive a handsome
silver cup appropriately engraved. Lucius
laughs at my debating any more — says I wish
more scalps to hang at my belt. But I don't feel
quite like that. I am willing to do some extra
work if it will give Yale men more respect for
the Divinity School. So we are out to win if
we possibly can." (December 3, 1905.)
The end of the first term in the Divinity
School found Henry among the recognized
scholars of his class. Among others, he gained
an Allis Scholarship, the prize given to each man
who gained the second grade average.
In the middle of January of this year (1906)
Henry had the delighted privilege of welcoming
his father, Rev. Dr. Arthur Smith, returning
from his mission work in China.
Dr. Smith had been invited by his Society, The
American Board, to return home, and aid in the
effort to secure a million of dollars as a Centen-
nial Haystack Memorial. Dr. Smith's first ad-
dress in the United States was in the Plymouth
Church, Brooklyn, this church having adopted
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 99
him some years before as their Missionary.
Henry met his father in New York the day be-
fore that address. It was twelve years since they
had seen each other.
In the letter which follows we come into touch
with that beautiful family life which no decade
of separation nor earthly change can diminish.
"NEW HAVEN, January 30, 1906.
MY DEAR MOTHER: Of course you will want
to know all about Pater's arrival and our meet-
ing. He has told you of his triumphal trip
across the continent, and of what he saw and did
in San Francisco and Los Angeles. I went to
New York Friday night, January 18, and met
him at the Grand Central depot. I should have
recognized him from his latest photograph, but
my own memories were pretty vague. We went
right up to my room at the hotel to talk it over
and then Pater said: ' Come, Honey Bee, let's
have a prayer.' ' Isn't that just like him? ' Of
course we had a tremendous lot of back conversa-
tion to make up, and I don't see when we are
ever to catch up. He talks about 250 words to
the minute and I do the same — that makes five
hundred; but there aren't minutes enough. As
I had not been in New York for twenty years,
I did not know anything about the town. But
Pater knows the place pretty well, even if it has
100 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
changed a good deal in thirty-five years. We
waltzed around town at a great rate, called at
Revell's, at the Presbyterian headquarters, where
Pater explained some things about the massacre,
lunched with Mr. Beach, and did no end of
errands. Pater does not seem to have lost any
of his energy. In the evening we went over to
Brooklyn. Mrs. Hillis had been so kind as to
invite me to spend Sunday too. They have the
most delightful home, beautiful pictures and art
specimens arranged in exquisite taste. Sunday
morning Pater spoke in Henry Ward Beecher's
pulpit, and I sat in the Beecher pew and was
much impressed with the historic surroundings.
Pater spoke in the morning on the relations be-
tween the East and the West. He spoke very
rapidly, but it was very interesting. People in
the gallery leaned over listening eagerly to every
word. After the service nearly the whole congre-
gation remained to shake hands with him. The
people were introduced and hustled along, but
even then it took forty-two minutes for the line
to pass him. That evening he spoke of the work
of the American Board in China. He spoke
more slowly and made a tremendous impression.
Hundreds of people stayed to shake hands, and
so he held another soiree, so to speak. My birth-
day was a very happy one, though I could not be
with Father. I found on my desk the dearest
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 101
little picture of my * guardian angel' [his
mother] and a * Chinese Poor Thing ' (Mrs. Hu,
a Bible woman). It was the sweetest thing you
could have sent, Mater, and I almost feel as if
the long years since 1897 were bridged at one
step. It is as natural as can be of Mrs. Hu,
and it seemed to me that you had changed just
the least little bit, but not near so much at Pater.
" I have much work to make up. I have de-
cided to try for a place on the Yale debating
team, which debates against Harvard in March.
Of the 75-100 men who compete for places,
three are chosen. The competition is terrific.
It is hard work, but I think I can help the
Divinity School a little. Anyway I am going to
try.
" Good-night, Mater, lots of love. We both
pray for you every day. As ever,
" HENRY."
The delight of the son in being with " Pater "
once more was matched by the joy of the father
in seeing his strong, stalwart son, already win-
ning repute for energy and success in his lines
of effort. A son has no greater joy than to
measure the strength of his father's hold upon
men, and estimates the deep esteem of vast
numbers .of people over good work faithfully
done. One of the fathers of the Church, a
102 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
layman of blessed memory, has embalmed such
esteem in the fine sentence, "There is an elo-
quence in service." There could be no greater
joy to a father than to find his little son grown
to be a strong man among men, already finding
his way to large service.
During the spring Henry and his father were
together for ten separate visits a few days at a
time, entertained by kind friends, who enjoyed
their happy, social intercourse. Dr. Smith was
several times with Henry in New Haven. The
last of their days together were spent there,
precious days made merry and wise, with no
shadow of the coming longer separation. God
veils our joys from us as well as the shadows
which, like the ocean mists, so stealthily steal
upon us.
The most engrossing external matter during
the spring was the Yale-Harvard debate, open
to all post-graduate students. As a competitor
in the preliminaries, his previous experience
stood him in good stead, and he won the leader-
ship in this debate. One of his fellow debaters
was a Senior in the Divinity School, and the
other was in the Law Department. His pre-
decessor at Forest Grove, also a Beloit man, had
led the Harvard team a few years before and had
won. He hoped such a result might fall to
his lot also. The subject for debate was the
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 103
" Municipal Ownership of Public Utilities in the
City of New York." Following out his previous
methods, Henry visited New York and called
upon Mr. Belmont, the financial head of the New
York City Railways, thus learning from head-
quarters all the facts and figures necessary for
the debate. The debate was held at New Haven
in March of 1906. Perhaps to no other debate
did Henry give so much time and labor. He
felt the need of the most elaborate effort, and
as leader spared himself no labor. He prepared
briefs for himself and his two fellows, and spent
many hours of day and night in writing and re-
writing the essential parts of the arguments.
Yale was not the winner of the debate, but the
debaters won fine repute for their splendid effort.
The Congregationalist of April 7 had a para-
graph regarding it : " Rev. Dr. Arthur H.
Smith has a son in Yale Divinity School who
represented Yale in the annual debate with Har-
vard last week. He has the fluency and the
brilliancy of his father, and a resourcefulness
which is characteristic. Set in this debate to at-
tack municipal ownership he went right to head-
quarters— Messrs. Belmont and Ryan — for facts
about the situation in New York, as private mo-
nopolists see it. When told by the Yale coach
that a certain line of arguments advanced by
Yale had at least five objections filed against it,
104 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
young Smith said there were at least twenty-five
objections, named them, and then turned round
and rebutted them."
In the Alumni Weekly of Yale University
is given a complete report taken verbatim of the
various speeches of both negative and affirma-
tive. It says of Henry: " Mr. Smith won com-
mendation by his able summing up of argument."
His very familiar delivery seems to have slightly
amazed the less rapid-going Easterners, for we
find the editor saying, when he explains the in-
completeness of the arguments as reported in his
paper. " In such a rebuttal as that of Smith of
Yale, however, whose talk was more rapid fire
than is heard on the debating or any other plat-
form, it is doubtless true that here and there a
sentence was skipped." One of his dear friends
and fellow students in speaking of the debate
wrote: " It was simply fascinating to hear Henry
in his swift and convincing speech. He talked
like a streak, but every word was clear, and the
movement and effectiveness were remarkable. He
has a rare gift in being able to say vigorously
what he knows, and to think so cogently on his
feet." The Rev. Jason Pierce, the other Divinity
student on this Yale Team, now a Pastor at New
Haven, in writing for the Divinity Quarterly a
year later, regarding "Debate at New Haven,"
said of Henry Smith, " He was in some respects
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 105
the most brilliant man whom it has been my ex-
perience to have met."
A letter to his mother gives Henry's own
story of the debate, with his plans for the sum-
mer:
" DEAR MOTHER : Pater was here four days
last week and will be here three days this week
and two next. He has been whirled around so
fast that he has only made flying trips here be-
fore, and this is almost the first real visit we have
had. Even now we are both too busy to visit as
much as we should like to.
" I was exceedingly disappointed at the out-
come of the Yale-Harvard debate. I have asked
Aunt M. to send you the clippings about it. I
got acute laryngitis in New York three weeks
before the debate, and lost my voice, I recovered
my voice the afternoon of the day of the debate,
but it didn't sound much like mine and I was
pretty shaky. After the debate I had an attack
which laid me up for nearly three weeks. I
missed nearly all my classes for nearly six weeks.
That makes a mountain of work to make up. I
cannot say the prospect is cheerful. I think I
mentioned before that I expect to return to Beloit
this summer to work for the college. They will
give a campaign fund to work with and as
many stenographers and assistants as I want.
We are to aim for a class of one hundred and
106 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
fifty. I think we can do it. I am on a committee
here to start a similar campaign for the Yale
Divinity School. I did not want to get roped
into this at all, but the situation here is bad, and
something must be done right away. The Divin-
ity School is decreasing in the number of stu-
dents nearly ten per cent, yearly. I am to write
a little pamphlet, setting forth the advantages
of Yale Divinity School, before I leave here, and
will start the ball rolling. After I leave the
Professors are to follow the thing up.
" I suppose you have been informed of the
uniform and complete success of Pater's tour.
He has been enthusiastically received everywhere
and has met with a most gratifying response, and
I think it is largely due to his work that the
American Board has pulled through its greatest
crisis.
" Probably Pater has told you of what I
should like to do in the future. If the American
Board will appoint me to North China, I should
like to go out in 1908. I should want to live at
Pang Chuang the first year ,or two to study
Chinese with Pater." (April 29, 1906.)
The good work which Henry had done for
Beloit had attracted the notice of the Seminary
faculty, and he was asked to prepare a brief
pamphlet setting forth the advantages of theo-
logical study at Yale. He accepted this inter-
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 107
esting task and before the Seminary year closed
there was published a handsome booklet of some
twenty pages under the title " Why Choose Yale
Divinity School." It was issued under the direc-
tion of the Students' Committee on Publicity
and Promotion of which Henry was chairman.
The advantages were collated under seven gen-
eral heads, each skillfully expanded by the
editor, in finely selected quotations from educa-
tional experts, or in his own growingly wise sug-
gestions.
YALE DIVINITY SCHOOL
" I. Offers invaluable University privileges ;
"Wide range of studies; Broad culture; Influence of
great Masters; Contact with many kinds of men; Humani-
tarian study and scientific method, and training to deal
with great problems.
"II. Yale Divinity School has a strong Faculty. [Here
followed a list of the members of the Faculty with a note
of the graduate honors and of the published works and
articles of each Professor.]
" III. Yale Divinity School maintains a broad course
of study. For more than two centuries Yale has stood
for honest, exact, scholarly study. The Divinity School
is particularly strict in this requirement. The spirit of
the Divinity School is strongly against bigotry and preju-
dice. It is conservative with that liberality which dares
to prove all things and hold fast that which is good.
" IV. Yale Divinity School furnishes excellent oppor-
tunities for special preparation.
" The Department of Missions offers extraordinary op-
108 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
portunity for study of a most important subject. The
courses on Asiatic history are of great advantage to stu-
dents. The Department of Christian Sociology offers
courses of great interest. The Department of Pedagogy
affords comprehensive training. The system of scholar-
ship aid is so arranged as to cultivate self respect and
independence.
" V. Yale Divinity students enjoy exceptional religious
privileges.
" Daily service in the Marquand Chapel, Weekly meet-
ings in the Y. M. C. A.; The University chapel services
on Sunday; The churches of New Haven; The Volunteer
Band.
" VI. Yale Alumni do good work.
" VII. A unique combination of special advantages.
Yale enjoys a delightful location; is near New York City;
the social life of the Divinity School is exceedingly pleas-
ant and attractive. The atmosphere of New England is
conducive to calm and thoughtful study of great problems.
The religious atmosphere of the Divinity School is a
powerful influence for the development of Christian man-
hood.
" No man ever regrets having chosen Yale."
The Divinity Anniversary this year was on
June 9. The examination came the previous
week. Henry writes of the end of the school
year and his summer plans:
" June 2, 1906.
"DEAR PATER:
" I was very glad to get your letter from La
Mesa, and drop you a line, although we are in
the dizzy whirl of the last days of school. I
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 109
have taken five exams out of seven. Hebrew
comes on Monday and later at Beloit an exam
in Browning, which will be sent to me. After
that is off, June 12, I must prepare and publish
a pamphlet for Beloit. This must be published
and in the mails not later than July 1. About
July 1 I expect to send out letters to about
five thousand young men who are just gradu-
ating from high schools. After that the work
will be merely correspondence. About July 30
I expect to take a stenographer and a type-
writer to Lake Geneva or some other cool place
or shady resort and spend two weeks in a riot-
ously good time, tramping, boating, fishing, and
living in the woods. After August 15 I hope to
have an assistant for the last month, a young man
who graduated last year. I want to break him
in to the work, so that perhaps he can take it next
year, if I want to do something else.
" Last night we four spent an hour in the
college yard at one of the Yale ' sings.' The
orchestra played until it was dark, then we sang
college songs (about two thousand of us) , sitting
around the old fence and on the grass. Last
of all we gathered in a close group and sang
' Bright College Years.' Yale men always take
off their hats when they sing that song, and as
they sing the last line they raise their hats and
pledge themselves to each other as man to man,
110 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
' For God, for country, and for Yale.' The
commencement exercises of the Divinity School
are on Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. The
four speakers from the graduating class are all
from our crowd, three of them Beloit men. I
have made out my application and sent it in to
the Prudential Committee of the American
Board, for appointment to The North China
Mission."
The Divinity year at New Haven closed on
the 6th of June. Henry hurried West to Beloit
to carry on once more the campaign for that
Greater Beloit which had begun so auspiciously
the autumn before. His plan of campaign lay
fully before him on the strenuous model of the
previous year.
His first effort was the issuing of a booklet,
similar to that just issued at New Haven, under
the title
"Will It Pay?"
"(Some interesting facts for High School Graduates).
This was issued as the Beloit College Bulletin,
July, 1906. Vol. 8, No. 5.
It easily divides itself into two parts:
"I. Will it pay to get a College Education ?
"II. Why Choose Beloit?
" I. Will it pay to get a College Education?
For the man who studies Law?
For the man who means to study medicine?
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 111
For the man who is going into the ministry?
For the man who expects to teach?
For the man who is going into engineering?
For the man who intends to go into business?
For the man who does not know what he is going to do ?
" II. Why Choose Beloit College?
Beloit possesses the advantage of an independent
college.
Beloit has the best equipment, a strong Faculty, main-
tains a high standard of Scholarship, has a fine body
of students.
Beloit's graduates succeed.
Beloit offers an unique combination of special ad-
vantages/'
Each of these suggestions were carefully elab-
orated, and a fine series of quotations were fit-
tingly summed up in the (selected remark of
President Cyrus Northrop of the University of
Minnesota, from his address at the Yale Bi-
Centennial Celebration :
" If I were seeking in the whole West for a
Young Yale, I should go at once to Beloit ; and
I have no hesitation in saying that there is no de-
nominational or independent non-sectarian col-
lege in the West that is better than Beloit."
Aside from sending out these pamphlets in
large numbers Henry hoped to increase an inter-
est through personal correspondence. A personal
secretary and occasionally three or four type-
writers became necessary for him to keep up with
112 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
his overflowing correspondence. Such work,
coming after the year of effort at New Haven,
was no doubt a drag upon his physical powers.
His father sailed for China early in July. He
himself in August, with his stenographer, went
to Lake Geneva for the relief and recreation
which that beautiful resort affords, if it does
not compel.
Henry's summer letters tell of his work:
"DEAR PATER: In one of your letters you
refer to Dr. Patton's correspondence with me.
I filled out the necessary papers and sent them
in. I gave fifteen or twenty references, and I
know that Dr. Patton has written to some of
them, as I learned from Dr. Leavitt, who was
one of them. Your letter of June 15 told of
your visit in Forest Grove the week before. P.
wrote me that your talk to the students was the
most interesting they had heard for years, and
that they could have listened to you for another
hour with the greatest interest. Your account
of your visit at Walla Walla was very interest-
ing. It rather staggers me at times to think of
my distinguished father, Rev. Arthur H. Smith,
B. A., M. A., B. D., D. D., LL. D., P. Q. D., X.
Y. Z., etc., after dinner speaker, and Missionary
set loose on China, at large!! I guess you will
be glad to get back to Pang Chuang. If I
should go out in 1908 I hope you will be living
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 113
somewhere where I can go and live with you for
a year. I should want to live with you for the
first year, if possible, and devote my entire time
to the study of Chinese. Dr. Patton seems very
keen to have me identified with the Board as
soon as possible and sent out just as soon as I am
through Yale. I should like very much to come
back to Beloit for one year more. I love the
college and Beloit seems more like home to me
than any other place in this country. There is
a great deal to be done here and I should like
to do it.
" When I reached Beloit I contracted the
worst kind of a ' Girl-fever ' that I ever had.
Spring weather and the College atmosphere are
demoralizing. I would start across the campus
to see what my stenographers were doing, but
on my way would meet some fair maiden whom
I used to know. When we returned after an
hour or two from down by the river side I would
be very likely to meet another one. As I knew
how long and hot and lonesome the summer
would be I did not take any pills to cure that
June madness, but had all the fun I could be-
fore Commencement came and it was all over.
Dignified professors observed my antics with
amusement, and kind old ladies regarded me with
an indulgent smile, for Beloit people are very
nice. My attack of feminamania did not pre-
114 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
vent me from keeping three stenographers at
work at the top of their speed the entire time.
Commencement came off nicely. This one had
no sadness for me. I did not feel that many
intimate friends were going out of my life and
was only happy in meeting old friends and
acquaintances."
"BELOIT, Wis., July 15, 1906.
"DEAR MOTHER: I think I told you about
Pater's different visits to me at Yale, and what
delightful times we had. I was mighty proud to
show him off to everybody, and I think he en-
joyed meeting my friends. He had many en-
gagements, but we managed to get in some fine
visits, which I shall never forget. Have I ever
written you about Mrs. Frank Porter, of New
Haven? She had heard of Beloit's increase of
students last fall and conceived the idea of try-
ing the same thing in Yale Divinity School. I
prepared a little booklet of twenty pages setting
forth the merits and advantages of the Divinity
School as a fine place to study theology. A
thousand copies of this pamphlet were published
and sent to young men just graduating from
different colleges and to graduates of Yale who
were asked to help. I am hoping they will get
a good entering class.
" Seven of our ten Beloit-Yale men came back
to Beloit to Commencement. It was a delight
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 115
to me to get back, for the longer I am away the
more Beloit seems to me like home. We were
very much shocked to hear of the sudden death
of Professor Stevens of the Yale Divinity School.
He was considered one of the greatest theolo-
gians in the country, and will be a terrible loss
to the Divinity School. He was a delightful
teacher. I enjoyed his lectures immensely.
" This summer I am working for Beloit again,
and we hope to get a class of one hundred and
fifty Freshmen. In order to do this we are en-
tering upon such a campaign of correspondence
as I never heard of before anywhere else. We
have the names of all the students who graduate
from high schools in six neighboring States this
year. I am having printed a picture folder con-
taining forty-six views of Beloit, and a thirty-
six page pamphlet setting forth the advantages
of a Beloit College education. These are to be
sent with a personal letter, enclosing stamped
envelope for reply to each one of those boys.
All will go together, so that next week I expect
to send out 6000 personal letters and 9000 of
each kind of pamphlet. That tremendous volume
of mail will open the battle — what will follow re-
mains to be seen. I have four stenographers
under me, working at the top of their speed, and
must have another to-morrow as four can not do
my work. Outside of working hours I find de-
116 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
lightful things to do, for there are some mighty
nice young people in this town whom I have
known for years. Although we hope that this
summer will mean great things to Beloit College
it is not going to wear me out as it did last
summer. The Old Beloit is fast growing into
the Greater Beloit that I have dreamed about
and worked for. Old John Pfeffer still rings
the bell, but he is almost the last of the Old
Guard. It is late and I must stop. Give my
love to everybody and keep lots for yourself."
In the previous letter to his father Henry also
wrote :
" Professors Porter and Pearson have been
granted pensions from the Carnegie fund. Their
retirement removes the last of the £ Old Guard/
The Trustees have authorized the enlargement of
the faculty by the addition of four new men.
This is the first conspicuous result of the increase
in the number of students. My work is pro-
gressing fairly well. I was obliged to go in to
Chicago for some days to use the city libraries,
as I could not get hold of the facts and statistics
here.
" About August first I hope to take the best
stenographer to a nearby summer resort for a
few days.
" With lots of love— HENRY."
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 117
GENEVA LAKE
Henry went to Lake Geneva for his rest. The
morning of the 7th of August he had at-
tended the usual praise service, in which there
were that morning some special suggestions, very
comforting and refreshing to those weary in soul
as well as body. Returning from this service,
a morning swim was in order. Miss Ruth Ma-
cumber, of Beloit, and Miss Van Aiken were
going in also. Miss Van Aiken, not feeling well,
was still upon the shore. Miss Macumber was al-
ready in the water, and Henry some little distance
from them. Miss Van Aiken very soon discovered
that her friend Ruth was struggling in too deep
water and called for help. Henry, without a
moment's delay, pushed out to the rescue. As so
often happens the weaker and struggling one
pulled down the strong one, able to help. Miss
Van Aiken, on the shore, noticed the struggle
gave what help she could and summoned others
through her cries of distress. Henry's body was
in the water scarce more than twenty minutes.
It was found that Miss Macumber had quite
succumbed. There was, however, great hope
that Henry might be won back to life. Dean
Collie and his wife devoted themselves to the
courageous task, and skilled physicians made the
long effort to attain the result. After many
118 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
hours there was a faint flicker of life and to the
great joy of the rescuers, a slow return to con-
sciousness. Then followed the delicate task of
maintaining the life thus feebly restored. Under
ordinary circumstances there was a fair chance
that the dear patient might be fully recovered.
He had, it is true, greatly exhausted his nervous
energy in the continuous effort of the summer.
When he slowly opened his eyes and began to
speak in a feeble way he could not recall the situ-
ation, wondering where he might be. The night
wore away and a new morning dawned while the
effort to sustain his strength went on. At last
it became evident that his vital force was slowly
ebbing once more. At the end of twenty-one
hours of this remarkable effort, due to the patient
solicitude of Dr. and Mrs. Collie, the precious
life succumbed to exhaustion. Thus ended, on
August 8, the splendid energies of a noble young
life, so full of hope, courage, and persistent joy
in service.
The body was taken at once to Beloit, where
the funeral services took place in the College
Chapel on Friday. It was an interesting and
peculiar providence that Rev. W. C. Merritt, the
husband of Henry's Aunt, Mrs. Marie Dickin-
son Merritt, was passing through Chicago
from the far West when he heard of the ac-
cident and hastened to the bedside of the dear
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 119
young man. He found, however, that the
body had been taken on to Beloit and fol-
lowed thither. On Friday, August 10, the
few friends still to be found in town during
the summer vacation gathered to show their
deep regard for Henry and fullest sympathy
with the parents in China, who could not know
for some weeks of their great loss. The simple
and impressive ceremonies were enhanced by
the lovely gifts of flowers and by the added
depth of sorrow of the parents and friends of
the lovely young woman on whose behalf Henry
had so unwittingly laid down his life. The par-
ents of Miss Ruth Macumber laid a beautiful
wreath upon the casket with the well-chosen
motto, " Greater love hath no man than this, that
a man lay down his life for his friends."
The question naturally arose: Where should
be the final resting place for the precious body?
Henry's uncle had been buried at Appleton; his
sister was laid away in Oakland, Cal. Should
Beloit be chosen or one of the other now sacred
places? Even Mr. Merritt did not feel author-
ized to determine the choice. It was therefore
left to be decided later, when his parents could
make the decision. In the meantime a private
mortuary tomb in the Beloit cemetery was kindly
placed at the disposal of Dr. Collie, and the re-
mains were borne thither. The sunset glow of
120 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
the radiant Wisconsin air fell softly around the
closing scenes of this ardent and inspiring life.
Spoken words seem inadequate to express the
thought or emotion whose depth are seldom
reached except in the quiet of the hidden man of
the heart. It is enough to say in the words of the
Apostle, " Thanks be unto God who giveth the
Victory." It is the victory over the mortal life,
over time and sense, which unfolds as the years
pass on.
An effort was made by Dr. Collie and Rev.
Mr. Merritt to give Henry's parents word by
cable of their great loss. It appeared best, how-
ever, others, who had perhaps a larger ex-
perience of such matters, to delay, letting the
impress of sorrow reveal itself through the let-
ters which were sure to hasten Chinaward. The
event proved that this was quite the best. Dr.
Arthur Smith was just about arriving in Shang-
hai, at the time of Henry's death. He planned
at once to go to a summer resort near Kiu-Kiang
in central China. Mrs. Smith was still at Pang
Chuang, but shortly after went to Shanghai and
joined her husband on the 15th of September.
Her husband met her at Kiu-Kiang, whence
they returned to the mountain retreat. On ar-
riving at Kuling, in the evening, they received
the first intimation that some disaster confronted
them in a telegram from friends at Peking —
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 121
" Love and Sympathy, Prayers." They waited
three days in wondering, fearing expectation,
when on the 18th letters came bearing the sor-
rowful tidings. Dr. Collie had sent, as others
did, a full account of the disaster and of the
funeral services. A few sentences from Dr.
Smith's personal letters will give a glimpse into
the thought of the parents.
" During the three days of interval, when we
knew that something was coming but did not
know what it was to be, we said to one another
that no matter what it was, we were not afraid
of it — and we were not. So many, many people
must have been praying for us; indeed most of
the letters which reached us this evening spoke of
that, almost the only thing that friends could
do. I sent a cablegram to Dr. Collie, with the
word * Beloit,' because it seemed much more fit-
ting that he should be buried there, where much
of his important work was done, than in a place
with which he had no association. We feel very
sure, as so many letters and President Eaton's
telegram and letter repeat, that Henry's influence
will be much greater for good on the life of the
college than if he had lived."
On receipt of the cable from China it was at
once arranged to transfer the body to a perma-
nent resting place in the Beloit cemetery. On
Saturday, September 22, the final services, brief
122 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
and simple, were held, attended by members of
the faculty and such students as had received
word of the interment. A memorial service was
further held in the college chapel at Vespers,
Sunday, September 30. The services included
also a memorial of Rev. B. Royal Cheney, pas-
tor of the Beloit Second Church, who had died
in Italy, and was buried at Florence. The
lovely cemeteries of our land, tenderly cared for
alike by public and private interest and love, be-
speak the living faith as well as the deepest emo-
tions of the inner life. A sweet solemnity gathers
round each single tomb, and the universal voice
rejoices in witnessing to the " Hope of a blessed
immortality." Spiritual longings surround these
blessed dead with a reality which even the stress
of active living cannot surpass. Whatever be
the veil which hides from us our own, with glad
Christian confidence we recall the words of the
Master to whom we owe this hope. To such a
hope there are no Dead. God is the God not of
dead men, but of living souls.
FUNERAL SERVICES AND
ADDRESSES
FUNERAL SERVICES*
The funeral services over the remains of Henry Dick-
inson Smith were held in the college chapel Friday after-
noon, August 10, 1906. The service was very simple
and impressive because of its simplicity. The casket
was fairly buried in a background of golden glow, pure
white lilies and carnations. There, in the peace and
quietude of the beloved chapel, with the windows of the
chapel radiant with the rays of the afternoon sun, a
large gathering of college and town people assembled
to pay their respects to the memory of one whom they
had come to love and appreciate as a friend; as a ser-
vant of the highest ideals of Beloit College, whose life
had been devoted to the furtherance of these ideals in
the attempt to found a greater and better Beloit.
Death has stayed the hand of the sculptor, the master-
piece remains unfinished, but the inspiration of the noble
life such as Henry Smith's will remain forever in the
hearts of all true sons and daughters of Beloit. Dean
Collie spoke in behalf of the college, Rev. E. P. Salmon
in behalf of the trustees. Rev. W. F. Brown offered
prayer, and Mr. Darwin Leavitt, '04, who was with Mr.
Smith at Yale, told of his life there. The Treble Clef
* The following reports of these services, with the addresses
given at them, are reprinted from the Beloit College Round Table
for October 5, 1906.
126 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
choir sang the beautiful hymns, " Hark, Hark, My
Soul" and "Peace, Perfect Peace." Rev. Robert C.
Bedford pronounced the benediction. At the close of
the service, a telegram from President Eaton was read
by Dr. Collie.
St. Johnsbury, August 9.
" Please express at the service our love and grief for
this loyal knightly son of Beloit. His great heart and
eager brain were tirelessly devoted in the noblest service.
Deploring the bitter loss to earth, we reverently recog-
nize his call to a higher mission."
The remains were temporarily placed in the Broder
vault at the cemetery, but on receipt of instructions
from the parents in China, were removed to the grave
on September 22. Brief services were held at this
time in the presence of the faculty and the student
body.
PRAYER AT THE CHAPEL
BY REV. W. F. BROWN, D. D.
O God, the giver of all good, we thank thee for those
good things that are given only to be soon taken away.
We thank thee for daylight, though it quickly changes
into darkness ; we thank thee for the flowers that give
us their bloom and fragrance and then fade; we thank
thee for the springtime with all its new life, that soon
changes into the heat and discomfort of summer; we
thank thee for children, the young lives given for our
care and for our comfort, those boys and girls who
quickly grow up and go off to homes of their own, per-
haps thousands of miles away — go out of our lives and
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 127
yet not out of our life. So we thank thee for this
young life, so briefly enjoyed, his father's comfort, his
mother's joy, an honor to his college, the pride of his
classmates, the friend of so many. We are glad that
he possessed those friends and that they possessed him.
With personal delight we all watched the young sculp-
tor as he blocked out his life's design and wrought so
earnestly at his work. The blows of his mallet were
so vigorous, his chisel was so sure and the design so
noble that we felt certain he would produce a master-
piece. And then came the silent, muffled form and the
extended arm and that resistless touch upon the work-
er's hand, and he had to go. We know not why the
sculptor was taken away from such promise and pros-
pect of honorable achievement, but we feel sure it was
not because his work was imperfect or the worker un-
worthy. He has gone out of our life, yet, as we believe,
not gone out of life. If angels bless thee and do thy
commandments, harkening to the voice of thy word,
we are sure that this redeemed soul will just as willingly
hear thy commands and do them in heaven as he did
on earth.
Lord, let not this name pass from us, but may it re-
main in this place as ointment poured. May the fra-
grance of this short life of good Christian service, so
freely poured out for others, linger here as one of this
school's most precious memories. May it not be too
much to hope, too much to ask that the inspiration of
our young brother's earnest spirit may pass into some
other, who shall take up the sculptor's fallen mallet and
chisel and yet finish the masterpiece of life which he
128 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
had begun so well. God of mercy, comfort the father
on the sea, and the mother in distant China, and the
other relatives and friends wherever they are. We know
not why this loss has come. We only know that thou
doest all things well. Since death is but thy messenger
and takes us not out of life, but only to the heavenly
place and work prepared, we humbly trust and hope-
fully submit all to thee. May even this sad event only
renew and strengthen that trust. May full comfort
come to all who must bear sorrow, even as springtime
comes after winter.
We ask it for Christ's sake.
COLLEGE MEMORIAL SERVICE
Memorial services in the memory of Henry D. Smith
and Rev. B. Royal Cheney were held in the chapel last
Sunday (September 30, 1906) afternoon. The vesper
choir sang the beautiful anthem ; " Peace I leave with
you." Rev. W. C. Merritt of Tacoma, Wash., uncle of
Henry Smith, spoke of the life of his nephew. He said
in part : " I will mention a few of the instances
which I remember in Henry's life. The first was
when, at the age of four, he came to our home
in Honolulu. The bright face and energetic voice
of the boy gave promise of the man. The next incident
was at a similar service to this, when he stood at the
grave of his only sister. His mother was with him, but
his father was in China. As a hymn was being sung
Henry took a handkerchief from has mother's reticule
and wiped her eyes from tears. When later, after being
an instructor, he came to our home at Tacoma, he was
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 129
the tall, broad-shouldered, splendid-faced young man.
There is a lesson from his life. Life is the great prob-
lem, not death. An early or sudden death is for God to
decide; it is for us to attain early a strong life. It
is not just how long we live, but how strong. Not long
ago Henry had to overcome a great temptation. His
cousin, successfully engaged in business in San Fran-
cisco, urged him to turn his abilities in that direction.
He declined, however, for he had dedicated his life to
the work of his father and mother in the great mission
field in China. Then he took the work of the secretary-
ship of the College, and had a vision of ' Greater
Beloit.' He gripped the vision and the vision gripped
him and Greater Beloit became a reality."
EDITORIAL
In the bereavements of Rev. B. Royal Cheney and
Henry D. Smith the college has sustained an inestimable
loss. The tragic sweep has left a feeling of silence in
the hearts of Beloit men and women — has wrapt our
Alma Mater in a pall of sorrow for her sons whom she
loved so much and who so much loved her, and whose
departure from this mortal life was so unforeseen and
unexpected, who
"Waned not as light from the landscape at even,
As mist from the mountain or snow from the hill —
But passed as a star from the azure of heaven,
A flash from the clouds or a ray from the rill."
In reviewing the life of Henry D. Smith two factors
become paramount, two qualities in that life, " not
130 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
long, but strong," worthy of our best thought and
highest emulation. The one was his enthusiastic and
conquering attitude toward all activities into which he
entered; the other his profound, loyal, and rooted de-
votion to his Alma Mater. It is needless to speak of
Mr. Smith as a worker. He was a worshipper of work.
The Beloit-Knox debate of 1902, the Yale-Harvard
debate and the " Greater B'eloit " are instances in a life
whose course was steady and determined, of a person-
ality which was firm in its resolve, unremittent in its
endeavors, invincible in its purpose. Not only did he
work, but he worked with a faith that makes the result
come true. In himself, in others, in the object to be
accomplished he had faith. It stimulated his efforts
and brought to realization the thing desired. On all
occasions Mr. Smith exhibited unwearying and unre-
lenting fidelity toward his college, for he was a gentle-
man always and everywhere. He was interested in
every phase and department of Beloit, and in every un-
dertaking he stood on lines ready to lend immeasurably
of his inspiring influence, which was not the aroma of a
violet, but the perfume of a forest of pine whose fra-
grance is spread far and wide. What tribute can we
pay him, what better and truer, more expressive of the
service rendered than link him always with the name,
" Author and founder of Greater Beloit."
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
DEAN G. L. COLLIE
Henry Smith, one of the most devoted and loyal sons
Beloit ever sent forth, died at Lake Geneva on August
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 131
8, 1906. His death resulted from exhaustion brought
on by his heroic efforts to save Mists Ruth MacCumber
from drowning.
Henry was the son of Dr. Arthur H. Smith and Mrs.
Emma Dickinson Smith. He was born at Tientsin,
China, on January 2£, 1881. The first twelve years of
his life were spent in China, with an interval of two
years and a few months spent in the United States and
in the Hawaiian Islands. In 1893 Dr. Smith brought
his family to this country, leaving them here while he
returned to China. The family made their home in Oak-
land, Cal., where Henry attended the High School, from
which he graduated in 1897. After graduation he
spent a year and more in business in San Francisco,
where his energy and his marked business ability at-
tracted the attention of his employers. He decided that
he must have a college education, and refusing all offers
to continue in business he turned his face toward Beloit,
entering college in 1898. It was appropriate that he
should select Beloit as his college. His father was a
member of the class of 1867, a famous class in our
annals. His uncle, Henry Dickinson, was a graduate
in the class of 1863. Both father and uncle had been
instructors in the college, both of them true-hearted
alumni. Henry Gary Dickinson has been dead more
than thirty years, yet his memory is cherished by scores
in this community and in the city where he labored,
Appleton, Wis. Because of these relationships of the
past, this ardent, enthusiastic youth of seventeen, who
revered his family, would naturally come to his father's
Alma Mater.
132 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Henry was always a perfect dynamo of energy, his
working hours were filled with all kinds of useful ac-
tivity, he did not neglect his studies, and yet he did
not devote himself absolutely to them. He entered into
all of the varied life of the college. He became one
of the most famous undergraduates the college ever had,
his enthusiasm and undaunted courage were infectious ;
they begot like qualities in his fellow students. Who
can forget his rooting at games or his rapid-fire speeches
in the chapel or on the campus when he strove to awaken
the flagging enthusiasm of his fellow-students. Study
is perhaps the first requisite in a scholar's life while in
college, and yet how important that other activities
be maintained, how dull and narrow our life here would
be with nothing but study in it. We need the athletic,
musical, and literary influences as well. How grateful
I am to students like Henry Smith, who have great
natural endowments, who could take first rank in their
studies, but who sacrifice this laudable ambition in order
to develop other sides of college life. This very thing
Henry Smith did, and his memory will be very dear to
me, because though a student, he sacrificed the high at-
tainments in scholarship of which he was capable in
order to quicken student life in general. He was an
earnest worker in the Y. M. C. A.
In the autumn of 1901 he accepted the thankless
task of captaining the second team in football. There
is honor, no glory in this kind of work, nothing but
hard knocks and harder work. It was characteristic of
him that he accepted the difficult position and put his
energy into it. Never before nor since has the college
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 133
had such a " scrub team " developed. He kept its mem-
bership full, he got his men out, and he made them play
to the limit of their strength. He was a power in
debate, and perhaps became one of the most famous of
undergraduate debaters in our history. In the Knox-
Beloit debate of 1902, Beloit had apparently lost the
debate when Henry Smith rose to make his argument in
rebuttal. No one who was present will be likely to for-
get that speech. His generalship, his quick wit, his
eager, passionate argument simply swept the Knox men
from their feet and Beloit won the decision. To show
the many-sided character of his participation in college
affairs, let me enumerate some of the offices he held while
in college: Member of the Ripon debate, manager of
the Greek play, athletic editor of the Round Table,
participant in the prize declamation, member of class
football team, captain second football team, leader of
the Knox debate, vice president Archean Union, presi-
dent Cliosophic, treasurer Y. M. C. A., assistant li-
brarian. From the outset of his career he took great
interest in public speaking and debate. He was a hard
and consistent worker along these lines. At the Fresh-
man banquet he gave a capital speech on the subject
of " Co-eds." He was a speaker on Prize Declamation
in his Sophomore year, selecting a piece entitled " The
Battle of Gettysburg." In his Freshman year, he was
leader of the Ripon-Beloit debate, which Beloit lost,
but he had the training which prepared him for the
notable victory in the Knox debate already mentioned.
After graduation he was tendered the position of in-
structor in public speaking in Pacific University, Forest
134 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Grove, Ore. He was very successful in his work there
and raised the institution to the first rank in that line
of work among the colleges of the Puget Sound region.
He threw himself into the work there with characteristic
abandon and intensity. His uncle, Mr. Merritt of Ta-
coma, tells me that he would come to his home occa-
sionally so exhausted that he would sleep for a day or
two, only being aroused to take nourishment. This
utter disregard of his health and comfort while doing
his work was always a marked feature of his career.
After two years of labor at Pacific he was called to
Beloit to act as assistant to the President. He con-
ceived the idea of a Greater Beloit, and gave himself to
this idea with rare force and business acumen. He
toiled day and night to effect means by which the college
could be built up. He convinced doubtful trustees that
his plans were feasible, he enthused faculty, alumni and
students until all joined hands with him to carry out
his purpose. We all know the success that attended
his efforts. The Greater Beloit will come in the future,
that is assured, and it will be to Henry Smith's credit
that he gave it the first great impetus in the forward
direction. He had rare ability in collecting and pre-
senting facts succinctly and forcefully. His pamphlet,
" Will It Pay," is an instance of the successful way in
which he presented the arguments in favor of a college
education. His methods of advertising the college were
models of their kind and will set the standard here at
Beloit for years to come. He was a great promoter in
his field, and yet he cared little for his position, but
much for what he could accomplish. It was his plan to
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 135
give his life for missionary service in China, to carry
on the great work which his parents are now doing. He
had completed one year of study at the Yale Divinity
school in furtherance of that purpose. Already he had
made application to the American Board to serve under
its direction. The last letter I wrote in his behalf was
one to the Secretaries of the Board urging the fitness
for that service.
He had returned to Beloit in June to carry on his
campaign for 150 students. He had sent out thou-
sands of letters to prospective students all over the
Northwest. Wearied with his exacting service he had
gone to Lake Geneva for a brief vacation. A day or
two before the accident which terminated his life he
came over to our cottage and talked eagerly and earn-
estly about the future of the college. He feared that
with increasing numbers among students and faculty
the old ideals and purposes would be lost. I tried to
assure him that this result was not likely, and that we
of to-day would make every effort to keep the college
true to its best traditions. Within seventy-two hours
he lay dead in that same cottage — even in his dying
hours his whole thought was for Beloit. In a true sense
he is a martyr in the cause of the college. He had used
up his vitality in its behalf and was unable to overcome
the effects of his accident. Since his death many tributes
to his worth and zeal have been received — and all were
sincere and true in their appreciation.
On August 10 he was taken to the well-beloved chapel,
and simple services were held there, his silent form sur-
rounded with a wealth of golden glow, the college color.
136 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Our deepest sympathies are with the parents in far-
away China, now bereft of their only child. Yet even
in our sorrow and their grief, we all have reason to re-
joice that men of his heroism, his knightly qualities are
still found among men.
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH AT YALE
REMARKS BY DARWIN A. LEAVITT
For five years I have been having the privilege of
knowing Henry Smith as a student, four of them spent
at Beloit and one fruitful year at Yale Divinity school,
so that while not intimately associated with him as some
others have been, I have yet been near enough to feel
that now I have lost a personal friend, one of Beloit's
ablest and noblest sons.
Henry Smith's student life was marked by its abun-
dance, as shown in the variety of his activities and the
efficiency with which he conducted them. He was a bril-
liant student, as his first term's record at Yale shows:
yet he never attained distinction in scholarship, as he
might well have done had he devoted himself solely to
study; because his conception of college life was too
broad for that. So he plunged deep into the literary
and athletic activities of the institution, and as captain
of the second team in the football season, and member
of three debating teams at Beloit and one at New Haven,
as editor of the Round Table, and future editor of
the Yale Divinity Quarterly, and as an enthusiastic
advocate of the honor system in Beloit College, in all
these ways he left a permanent impress on the life of
the institution. His special gift was in debating, and
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 137
his services to Beloit were not measured alone by the
debates in which he actually participated, but by those
as well for which he was of material assistance in bring-
ing victory to Beloit by his efficient training of other
debaters. In 1902 Henry led a winning team against
Knox and coached the two lower classes, which
were likewise victorious. Three years later, when he
was here again as secretary of the college, he coached
the three debating teams, and once more won all. These
two were the only years in which Beloit won three
debates.
Henry Smith was a man of marked usefulness and
loyalty to his college and to his friends. He would give
himself without sparing whenever he saw any need that
he could supply, even at great cost to himself and
against the advice of his friends. He was always ready
to believe the best concerning his college and his friends,
and vindicate them against any criticism that might be
offered. But his friendship did not spend itself in
words. He lost his life trying to save a friend, and
greater love hath no man than this. I could not speak
of Henry as a student without mentioning his uncon-
querable enthusiasm and optimism. Others might be
discouraged in the face of an impending crisis, but not
he, and before long his courage and hope would com-
municate themselves to the rest of the students, and in-
spire them to work with him and meet success. In the
words of a favorite poem of Henry's he was
" One who never turned back his back, but marched breast for-
ward,
Never doubted clouds would break,
138 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Never dreamed though right was worsted, wrong would triumph,
Held, we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better,
Sleep to wake."
He has fallen asleep, to wake into a yet more glorious
and fruitful life.
MEMORIAL NOTICES.
The following obituary references appeared in the
Yale Dwmity Quarterly for October, 1906 :
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Henry Dickinson Smith, '08, died August 8, at Camp
Collie, Lake Geneva, Wis. The previous day he was
in bathing and went to the assistance of a companion
who was drowning. The shock and the exposure re-
sulted in his death, although consciousness was restored
for a few hours by the physicians. Henry D. Smith
was the sgn of Rev. Arthur H. Smith, D. D., LL.D.,
the well-known missionary of the American Board in
China. He was born in Tientsin, China, January 22,
1881. He graduated from Beloit College in 1902, and
then was instructor in English and Public Speaking in
Pacific University, Forest Grove, Ore., for two years.
He entered Yale Divinity School in the Junior Class
one year ago. He was class deacon, an Allis scholar, on
the editorial board of the Quarterly, a member of
the Yale debating team that met Harvard in the spring,
and was chairman of the students' committee on pub-
licity and promotion, in which capacity he compiled
the pamphlet, "Why Choose Yale Divinity School?"
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 139
At the time of his death he was Field Secretary for
Beloit College.
Mr. Smith was characterized by a brilliant wit, a
remarkable executive ability, and an unusual power of
concentration. His enthusiasm for any work in which
he was interested was almost unbounded, and he could
put enthusiasm into others. He was most unselfish in
his disposition, modest >and retiring in manner, and had
a deeply spiritual nature. The foreign mission service
was to have been his life work, as he had already applied
to the American Board for appointment when he had
completed his Divinity course. His promise for future
usefulness was most unusual, and his loss is one that
will be inestimable to the Divinity School, the mission
field in China, and to all his friends East and West. The
strong characteristics of his life will always be an in-
spiration to all who knew him.
W. A. ROWELL.
The Middle class has adopted the following resolu-
tions in memory of their former classmate, Henry D.
Smith:
" Whereas, God in His inscrutable providence has
taken to Himself the soul of our beloved classmate —
Henry Dickinson Smith — we, the members of this
Middle class of the Yale Divinity School, desire to
express our great sense of loss occasioned by the death
of our brother, withal a noble death, for ' Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends.' We remember with pride his unusual bril-
liance and ability, and the large promise he gave of
140 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
usefulness to his generation, and we bear in grateful
remembrance his unique spirit of devotion which allowed
no consideration of personal interests.
" Therefore, be it resolved that we hereby extend to
his parents in their bereavement our heartfelt sympathy,
with the assurance that to those who knew him best the
example of his devoted life will be a never ceasing
inspiration.
" Be it further resolved that a copy of the foregoing
be sent to the parents of our departed brother, and that
a copy be sent to the Yale Divinity Quarterly for
publication in its next issue.
" Signed on behalf of the class,
" THEODORE B. LATHROP,
" WALTER L. FERRIS,
" ROBERT BELL, Secretary."
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 141
From the Codex* published by the Class of 1909,
of Beloit College.
DEDICATION.
To the Memory of a Loyal Alumnus
Who Brought Honor to Hit College, Who Linked Hit
Endeavors With the Class of 1909, in the Establishment
of a Greater Beloit, and Who Gave up His Life
While Striving for His Alma Mater,
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH,
This Book Is Reverently Dedicated.
There are some lives, true and useful ones, which
move in tranquil ways, with measured heart-beats, to
their natural and foreseen conclusion. They are like
long, serene summer days. There are other lives that
are eager, tumultuous, rushing, throbbing with high
purpose, accomplishing arduous tasks in unexpected,
even catastrophic ways. They are like rivers sweeping
in torrents and haunted with the sound of cataracts.
There is no question as to which of these two types
of life has the more fascinating interest and draws us
with deeper sympathy to generous emulation. It is
eagerness that makes us eager. Profound impulses stir
*The Codex is a college record book published by every
alternate Junior class. The volume of 1909 was in part a me-
morial to Henry Smith.
The students of the college purpose to offer more enduring
testimony to the worth of Henry Smith's character and influence
and to their loving interest in his memory by raising a monument
over his grave.
142 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
our hearts. And there is no doubt which of these two
represents the life of Henry Dickinson Smith.
Preceding him was a long line of ancestors of fine
intellectual and spiritual qualities reaching back to the
great brain and heart of Jonathan Edwards. Henry's
father, Dr. Arthur H. Smith, one of the ablest of Be-
loit's graduates, stands easily in the front rank of emi-
nent missionary leaders who are profoundly affecting
the destinies of the Chinese Empire. His books are al-
ready classical authorities on Chinese character and life,
and his conversation scintillates with brilliant expres-
sion of insight and observation. At the great Cente-
nary Conference at Shanghai this year, the two pre-
siding officers being chosen to represent respectively
Europe and America, it was fitting that Dr. Smith
should be the one to represent our continent. Mrs.
Smith, too, has remarkable power of concentrated pur-
pose and graceful and graphic expression, beneath
which is the mystic soul with unfathomable depths of
self-devotion.
Intensity has characterized their son's life through-
out. In infancy, in a land where the children are pat-
terns of tranquillity, he was a little dynamo. A story
is told, current in one of the missionary families of
Pang Chuang, which suggests in the child the qualities
we admired in the young man. The mules kept in the
mission compound for the purposes of evangelizing
tours, sometimes broke loose and stampeded through
the premises, causing much temporary confusion. After
one of these experiences, little Henry said very earnestly
to a grown-up friend, " The next time a mule does that,
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 143
I'll get a big stick and hit him a * 'mendous whack.'
How largely his life was made up of emergencies in
the midst of which he stood, valiant and aflame, dealing
blows with all his might at antagonists within his own
soul or grappling with situations or competitors in
generous but tremendous struggle!
For one so intense as he was, his power of sinking
himself and his own interest in some larger interest and
aim was little less than marvellous, and made him both
honored and beloved. When a mere lad employed as
an elevator boy, someone in the basement carelessly sent
the elevator, loaded with fragile merchandise, spinning
up to the top of a high building at a perilous speed.
Henry clung to the ropes regardless of the imminent
danger to himself, was carried to the topmost level,
and descended safely with the freight unbroken. In
the autumn of his senior year, when the football season
seemed darkening to disaster, it was he who organized
the second eleven, and so held them together, and so
flung them upon the college team that the latter gained
from the encounters a reinvigoration which carried
them to victory. The winning team was greeted with
well-deserved plaudits; it was enough for Henry that
his exertion, which gained him no distinction, had given
the team the means of triumphing, and so had brought
honor to Old Beloit.
Disciplined by defeat in debates of preceding years,
his senior inter-collegiate debate was characterized by
a resistless leadership which won the decision and lifted
the college to a high pitch of enthusiasm. He just
missed his " magna cum laude " by his devotion to these
144 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
interests of the college; but he made the sacrifice with
a heart single to the wider interest he was serving, re-
gardless of the cost.
Next came two years on the faculty in a little college
in the far West, where a handful of students became the
winners in contest after contest in oratory and debate
under the inspiring guidance of their young instructor.
Then he was called to the service at Beloit along the
lines of self-denying labor, at the same time that he was
urged to enter upon business openings at the West,
giving fine promise of larger pecuniary returns. It
was the day of ultimate decisions. He turned his back
upon prospective wealth to give himself to the college,
and eventually to the work for the great and needy Em-
pire of China, whose call to him grew more distinct and
imperative witih the passing years. During the year at
Beloit, he delighted on returning at night from a day
devoted to college business, to give himself until the
morning to studying with the prospective debaters the
question chosen for their contest; and no team which he
coached failed to win the decision of the judges.
It was during this year that the idea of a Greater
Beloit took possession of him. How he inspired stu-
dents and Alumni with his project, how he wrought day
and night throughout the summer for the realization
of it, and how the entering class that fall registered an
increase of fifty per cent, over the usual Freshman num-
bers,— all that is a part of Beloit history. But it is
not generally known that he went to Yale Divinity
School with health seriously impaired by the physical
expenditures of his summer's campaign, so that he was
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 145
gravely warned by his physician of the peril of such
lavish giving of himself even in such a cause. It is
most fitting that the class which entered Beloit that
year, the class of 1909, should cherish the memory of
Henry Smith with peculiar affection, regarding it as in
a special sense their own possession. May it not be
theirs to take up and complete the wide life work which
was in the horizon of his thought and purpose.
At Yale he had hardly recovered his health when he
was chosen as one of the contestants in the Yale-Har-
vard debate. Again his whole being was thrown into
the effort; an embarrassing illness set in; but on the
very day of debate he regained his voice, went into the
struggle with every power keyed to the highest point,
was believed by Yale to have won the debate, — but lost
the verdict. That night he had a long debate with an
old friend upon the meaning of defeat. It was no easy
task for him to give up anything on which he had set
his soul. He felt that he had been chosen, not merely
to do his best, but to win, and that without the verdict
on his side the ideal was not attained. Through what
hard struggles he obtained self mastery ! at what a price
he gained freedom!
So with unconquerable energy he came back once
more to Beloit, cherishing a vision of a yet greater
Beloit. He pressed impetuously through the first stage
of the campaign, and went to Lake Geneva to snatch
a few days rest before it was time for the second stage.
There, at the sight of a young life in peril, he flung
himself into the lake, and in the supreme effort to save
was himself overborne. In spite of all the resources of
146 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
devotion and skill lavished upon him in days and nights
of agonized effort, he passed beyond the reach of eager
hands and the sight of loving eyes, in his delirium dic-
tating letters and yet more letters about the college, of
which he had spoken in his last letter to his parents as
the dearest place in all America to him. Could a young
life fulfill more completely the high aspirations which
the poet has imagined for us:
" In some good cause, not in mine own,
To perish, wept for, honored, known,
And like a warrior overthrown."
But not to perish. Such a life as that of Henry Dick-
inson Smith transcends the measure of the local and the
transitory. It requires the background of the universe
to render it explicable, and eternity for its field of ac-
tion. Springing from a far-reaching and widely influ-
ential past, it beckons toward a life worthy of its hopes,
its struggles, its equipment for service. Into what
ampler opportunities, what larger ministry, what higher
leadership our friend has been called we do not know,
but the thought of him challenges us to look forward,
to strive, to expect.
LETTERS
LETTERS OF HENRY'S PARENTS
FROM DR. SMITH
It is such an unexpected mercy that I was called home
as I was and that I was able to be with him for longer
or shorter periods at ten different times, and get to
know him. He was indeed a dynamo of energy and
gave promise of the largest usefulness. It must have
been some other and very important work to which the
Lord merely transferred him, and we can not think that
he is not as energetic and as fully occupied there as
here. The college will doubtless know how to conserve
his influence in wise ways, and his name will be asso-
ciated with a phrase which he originated and the work
which he instituted. It was a great mercy that Mr.
Merritt could be present at the first service and also at
the later one. Professor Stevens, of the Yale faculty,
and Henry will have opportunity to meet so much sooner
there than here than either of them expected. There is
his dear sister and his Grandma Dickinson and so many
others, more there than here. It will not be very long
either before we shall be united. His mother is strong
and brave as she always is, and we face the future
without fear.
We have been speaking about the advisability of
a memorial volume about Henry. The idea would be
a sketch of his life work and numerous extracts from
the letters we have received, such as to illustrate that
149
150 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
work. We do not want any flattery, any disguises
of the devious ways by which he came into bright
light, or the fact that he used up more of his nervous
force than he could spare, leaving far too little reserve.
We have received thus far in this month one hundred
and twenty-two letters, and there must be many more
to come. They are full of the most beautiful thoughts
in the most beautiful language — a moral and spiritual
comfort, a marvel of inspired expression — meaning the
impartation of consolation and strength. I should like
to have you understand how we feel about this sorrow,
or at least to get our point of view. Many hundreds,
probably many thousands, had been praying for us,
long before we knew there was any special emergency.
The Lord sent me to America when I was averse to
go. The Lord brought Emma here when it seemed
as if she could not come. The work that Henry was
doing, was going to do, we knew, everybody could com-
prehend; why it was suddenly stopped, nobody could
comprehend. We were being conscious of being carried
over the swamps of doubt and darkness on the wings
of angels, as we should be if we crossed the Tai Hang
mountains into Shansi in a balloon, instead of bumping
over the stones of the Ku Kuan pass. We were greatly
surprised, we were disappointed, but we were not stunned
or for a moment overwhelmed. Why should we be? If
the Lord who took him from China to America, from
Oakland to Beloit, from Beloit to Forest Grove and back
again, then to Yale, then pro tern to Beloit, and then
into the vastly new and larger sphere of action instead
of to Yale by the steps we thought of, what is there
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 151
about the last that should disturb the balance or poise
of our lives, of our trust, our certainty, that this is the
best thing for him now, for us, for the North China
Mission, for everybody. Instead of finding or feeling
that this is strange, it seems strange not to feel so. His
work is finished — the last touch to what is now the com-
pleted picture. It can never be undone or diminished,
it is ours forever. We rejoice that the Lord gave us
two such children — that He thought them worthy to be
used earlier than we had thought and longer. We have
no " grief " whatever, at most only
A feeling of sadness and longing
That is not akin to pain;
And resembles sorrow only
As the mist resembles rain."
This hill has been to us a mountain of blessing and of
the presence of the Lord. Wherever we are the Lord is
leading, will lead us. The first Sunday after the news,
in the Ku Ling church, they sang that familiar hymn
of Faber's, and some of the verses come back to us —
home to us, as never before:
" He always wins who fights for God,
To him there's nothing lost;
His will is sweetest to him when
It triumphs at his cost."
A full setting of this experience cannot be told. We are
sure it will mean so much to the college, to the classes
whom he was the means of gathering, and as E. P. Sal-
mon, says, " to fresh generations of students, among
152 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
whom he will always be a living tradition, and so it will
go on forever and forever."
FROM DR. AND MRS. SMITH
RULING, September 26, 1906.
BELOVED FRIENDS :
We have measured your love by the wonderful an-
swers to prayer in our hearts these days on this moun-
tain-top with God, and with new-born sorrow.
We want you all to know of God's wonderful good-
ness to us. Let us go back and trace the steps. On
October 19, 1905, Mr. Smith left P'ang Chuang for his
travels over the Celestial Empire to see missions for him-
self, while Mrs. Smith broke up the home and went to
work in the new parish of Lin Ch'ing. A few weeks
later came the request to go to America and help in the
million-dollar campaign. He shrank exceedingly from
this, and felt sure he was not the man, and longed in-
stead to go on with his work in China.
He yielded to the pressure and went. He was hurried
past his life-long missionary friend, Dr. Porter, whom
he sorely longed to see, to New England, where the
leisure between his various engagements permitted him
ten brief visits with dear Henry. He had not seen his
boy for almost eleven years. He had left him a small,
unformed laddie. He found him a man full-grown, a
student in the Yale Divinity School at New Haven. We
had thought of a vacation after the Missionary Con-
ference of 1907. We did not see Henry graduate from
college, but perhaps we might from his theological
course. How good our Father was ! How much those
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 153
visits meant at the time! How beyond all price their
memory now! There were years of arrears to be made
up. As Henry wrote back gayly to his mother : " Papa
talks 250 words a minute, and so do I, and that makes
500, but there aren't minutes enough ! "
He also said, with boyish exaggeration, meant only
for a mother's eye, that at one place where Papa was
especially rapid, Henry enjoyed seeing people leaning
over the galleries lest they lose one word. The record
of Henry's work and the kind words said of him made
his father's eyes shine. Seven times he made his son
short visits in New Haven, thus coming into touch with
his theological friends and professors.
Again the boy wrote : " I was mighty proud to have
all my friends meet Papa." Twice, in New York and
Brooklyn, delightful new circles of friends welcomed
father and son, and added to their joys, while Henry's
dear, beloved friend, ex-President Eaton, brought about
a delightful reunion, by having Henry go with his father
to the missionary meeting at Dr. Eaton's church at St.
Johnsbury, Vt. Twelve years ago, realizing sharply
that our little man had many temptations to meet, and
that we had not been all we should be as guides, we
knelt and gave him to God, agreeing to keep our hands
off and remember whose boy he was henceforth.
The Father took us at our word. When we wished
Henry to keep pace with a friend and enter college very
young, his heart turned instead to business. It was
God's choice and vindicated itself at once, by better
appetite, better sleep, and fine physical development.
Into that business he went with all his might. It was a
154 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
humble occupation and a child's might, but even there
he was faithful. He was the elevator-boy, and when one
day a careless hand in the basement sent an elevator
load of fragile things spinning up, at a speed which
threatened to smash them all, Henry hung on to the
ropes with all his strength, and was carried up to the
lofty ceiling and came down safely with nothing broken !
His mother was easy about him at noon, as the em-
ployees all had lunch in the store. Fancy her sensa-
tions when he told her one day, in his frank way, that
he had become very tired of the meals there, and had
been around sampling all the nearest city restaurants,
drinks and all, and did not like them at all!
Always he was kept. More than once his head was in
the elevator shaft at a very dangerous moment. Once,
trying a friend's bicycle before he had learned to ride,
he could not guide or stop it, and ran directly in front
of an electric car! A few minutes later a very white
boy came back pushing a very wrecked bicycle.
When high-school days were over, and the big showy
universities beckoned with siren finger, God led HIS BOY
to the small Christian college with its blessed Christian
atmosphere, and to the dear town, where people were
so kind to him, for Grandma's sake, and Uncle Henry
Dickinson's, and Papa's.
From college one looks ahead. One day he had a view
down a Golden Lane. It looked very inviting indeed to
the boy, to whom money meant power to do many large
and fine things. He thought it over gravely, and for
weeks was allured almost to his undoing, but his good
angel never left him, and he turned his back on this
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 155
most tempting business offer, and decided for a theo-
logical course at Yale.
One of his parents shrank exceedingly from having
him play football, but he was not our boy and we left
him free. He played, and won his little laurels there,
and came out with all his bones whole, and a physique
which made us praise God for overruling our fears.
We coveted him for mission work, but we held our
peace. And he was sure he was " not fit." One of his
parents said one day, " Dear Lord, if Thou should'st
call Thy boy to work in the darkest corner of Africa
and we never see his face more — Thy will be done."
Slowly, gently, gradually it came, but the decision
was final. He must help China. He did not see the
mighty under-tow that brought him into that harbor.
Years before the women of our Chinese church had set
their hearts on it and had taken " no rest " and given
God "no rest" about it.
The mission heard with joy, and at the last meeting
held out loving arms of welcome to him and to Lucius
Porter, his life-long friend. We fondly thought there
might be another David and Jonathan in the North
China Mission, " two hearts that beat as one," but " my
thoughts are not your thoughts."
His heart had come to be right loyal and loving to
Yale. He longed exceedingly to win one little laurel
wreath for his theological friends. He went into the
debate between Yale and Harvard in " Municipal Own-
ership." He fought his way heroically through moun-
tains of extra hard work, and through a harassing ill-
ness of two weeks, which kept him in his room and made
156 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Mm miss many recitations. Specialists pulled him
through, he recovered his voice the very day of the
debate, went into it with all his soul — and lost it!
Chastening after chastening had come so. He seemed
to himself to win everything he ever gained as a foot-
hold through ghastly defeats. But the next time found
him dauntless as ever, and just as intense.
Beloved child! As a baby in arms he was a little
dynamo. The other baby born in the same house at
the same time kicked leisurely and methodically, one
foot, then the other. Henry always kicked as hard as
he could, and with both feet at once. Dear Heart of
Fire ! His lamp could not be turned down, and his en-
gine was built without brakes, and so, for sweet Ruth
Macumber, and for his beloved Beloit, the dearest place
in all America, as his last letter had said, that lamp has
burned its last drop of oil!
The Great Livingstone died on his knees, praying for
Africa. Our boy, our " Honey Bee," from the humble
little far-away village home in China, passed over the
dark river, dictating more letters and ever more, to win
more boys to his beloved Alma Mater.
And so our Darling has skipped the missionary grade
where we thought his education would be still finer, and
has received his promotion.
And what of us? His mother after a year of espe-
cially strenuous missionary work was with great diffi-
culty persuaded to come down to Central China for a
two months' vacation, as it seemed likely we might not
meet again for many months, and we had already been
parted a year. She left the Shantung church, praying
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 157
•for a great blessing on their meeting; a mighty new
infilling with the Holy Spirit!
On the 14th of September, after a hard journey, dur-
ing which in a collision her steamer was stove in aft,
and they might so easily have all been drowned, she
reached Kiukiang, and set eyes once more on Henry's
father. What a joy it was to talk over the visits with
the boy. How we read and re-read his last bright
earnest letters, full of his stenographers and his new
pamphlets, and his grief over Professor Stevens, and
his plans for China. Next day we climbed the magni-
ficent heights of Kuling, where we were to rest together
— an ideal plan, with such scenery, quiet, cool and se-
cluded. Upon Mr. Smith's table lay a telegram from
Peking : " Love, Sympathy, Prayers. Porters, Shef-
fields."
The swift thought flashed through my mind and
came to my lips, " Henry has been drowned ! " I put
it aside. Three people had just been drowned here in
China, and I thought that suggested it. We stood and
looked into each other's eyes, and Henry's Father said:
" Whatever this news is we are not afraid — are we,
dear? " and Henry's mother thought of what was sung
at Marie's funeral, and said:
" I cannot fear Thee, blessed Will,
Thine empire is so sweet."
On Tuesday, the 18th, a whole sheaf of letters from
four different States brought us the news ; to the Father
first. He broke it to the Mother when she came in
from her nap. The human Mother was stunned for a
158 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
moment and slowly faltered, " But — he — was — all — we
— had — left." For one second it was impossible, in-
credible. " No," corrected a gentle voice, " we have
each other." In an instant she remembered — God, and
her constant motto came at once to her lips. " It's all
right. Praise God any way."
Beloved, your prayers have not been in vain. God
has held us on that table-land ever since, not asking
" Why? " not crushed, not even " dumb, because Thou
did'st it," but praising Him, with each fresh pang, as
we bury hope after hope. He pours the balm in, and
we are comforted again at once and are strong, and
the praise wells up anew.
If the secretaries had cabled us the mother would
have received it alone in the midst of intense heat and
hard work, and feeling more weary than for years. God
guided the kind hearts to withhold it. We thank Him
— and them.
We thank God for royal love and hospitality from
the Y. M. C. A. here.
The few friends left up here have been lovely in
their sympathy; the majestic beauty around keeps us
close to God. The long walks invigorate. Every hour
together is so sweet, so precious. Last night's mail
brought twenty letters, from the Secretaries, the Presi-
dent of Beloit College, his Professors, his friends and
ours. We were humbled and almost astounded as we
read them. Was it our child of whom they spoke such
wonderful words? Oh, thank God that we had any-
thing so precious to give Him! "
Who are we that we should be so honored !
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 159
And now for our " new China," that so sorely needs
alert, devoted, self -sacrificing lives! O beginnings of
the Greater Beloit! Precious, dearly-bought classes of
1909 and 1910, we look to you. Who will step into
that vacant place, close up the ranks, and march
with us?
By the pain, by the costly sacrifice, by the long years
we must wait to hear again his dear voice say : " Father,"
" Mother," we charge you, PRAY FOR CHINA ALWAYS.
Mrs. Browning wrote:
"Dead! Both my boys!'
One of them shot in East by the sea,
And one of them shot by the sea in the West!
If you want a great song for your Italy free,
Let none look to me!"
On the suimy slope of beautiful " Mountain-view,"
in Oakland, Cal., lies the daughter whose every heart-
beat was for China, who lived — in America — only to
get through her studies and hasten back to her dear
adopted home; asleep by the sea in the west.
In the city of his love, our dear Beloit, lies the boy
who was to have moulded lives perchance in the T'ung
Chou college ; asleep in the east by the lake.
And yet our song is ready.
A few more beautiful days together and we two must
part again. The precious books that are to help China
must be written. That means for their author a city
and libraries.
Two hungry, needy parishes are already pulling on
heart strings. (How their tears will be flowing for
us at this moment!)
160 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Their prayers will soon woo one of us back to work,
while the other goes on his way alone.
We thought of all that this morning, as we climbed
the hill, and then we looked at each other and said —
"Hallelujah!"
Give God all the glory, and for the unstinted
and exhausting kindness of Dr. and Mrs. Collie through
those three days, for her heroic fight to save the pre-
cious life, for the Y. M. C. A. workers who toiled all
day by her side, for the college chapel full of sympa-
thizing friends, for the kind words said then of our
Beloved, for the lovely decorations and the beautiful
music by the Treble-clef Club, and for kind Miss Bro-
der's cemetery guest-room for our Dead, until he find
his last home, we thank God and bless you.
We thank a kind Heaven that sent to stand by that
casket one ownest own, the far-away dear " Uncle
Will." (Rev. W. C. Merritt, who married Marie Dick-
inson.)
As the letters pour in by the score, how we praise
God for them. Surely never before had mourners such
wise, taught-of-God Comforters !
Ever yours, for Christ,
For China
and
Beloit,
EMMA DICKINSON SMITH,
ARTHUR H. SMITH.
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 161
" Bless the Lord Who crowneth thee with loving kindness and
tender mercies."
RULING, KIANGSI, October, 1906.
MY DEAR FRIEND:
Thank you so much for your very kind letter. Our
sorrow has opened a Golconda mine of friends, such wise,
sweet, comforting letters! So many beautiful souls,
who have come out of God only knows what Geth-
semanes themselves, and have dwelt thereafter " in the
secret place of the Most High." They know how to
comfort. Praise God for them ! The long printed let-
ter will tell you general details. There has been no re-
action. We are still steady, and brave, and triumph-
ant. We hope some time to have a memorial volume
of Henry's life. But just now would you like to share
with us some of the b«tlm God has poured into sore
hearts, making them praise Him even in the fires?
Ex-President Eaton said:
" Dear Henry, he is, and always will be, very dear
to us. So noble a heart, so knightly a spirit. Such
dauntless courage upspringing invincibly in the face of
temporary defeat. Such almost resistless energy ; and
a capacity for enthusiasm for the best things that was
the very soul of leadership. His loyalty and affection
are among my life's most sacred treasures." " I thought
any missionary board was to be congratulated upon the
opportunity to secure such a recruit, and now God has
taken him through the gateway of a last supreme self-
devotion. God grant that many another young son of
Beloit may be truer and more heroic because of the in-
spiration Henry has imparted in his swift and eager
life of service."
162 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Dr. N. B. Hillis, pastor of Plymouth Church, wrote :
" No event for years has so overwhelmed me. Some
time ago I became acquainted with the work that Henry
was doing among the college students. His enterprise
was new to me, and as I looked into it I found hope for
the future — and now comes the end of all hope for his
continued work here. He was one from whom his father
and mother could never have expected too much. The
early death of a gifted boy is one of life's darkest
problems. Had I known of his death and funeral, I
would at any cost have made a long j ourney , a pilgrim-
age, to stand by his bier and represent Plymouth Church
and the multitude of friends you have made in this
country, and by this simple act to have testified at least
to the profound sympathy and sorrow that I have for
his father and mother."
Professor Robert Chapin of Beloit College wrote :
" I have rejoiced greatly in his intellectual brilliancy;
his wonderful energy, his ability in leadership, would
have won for him distinction in whatever channel they
were directed. I think that no one ever handed in to
me so complete a note-book on American history as
his. I thought that he was making a splendid gift to
China."
Mr. E. P. Salmon, one of the trustees, said :
" ' If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto
you.' By his very death Christ's Spirit actually passed
into the disciples. It's something so in the death of our
loved ones. Our immortality stretches both ways, on
into the future, and back into the present, until the
present becomes the past. Henry has actually entered
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 163
into the life of Beloit College in this way, and is one of
our Immortals. You can hardly realize what he has
been to Beloit College, and now the impression is grow-
ing stronger and stronger. We shall have a special
memorial service for him. I doubt not his spirit will
take possession of us all as never before."
Rev. Robert C. Bedford of the class of '72, Beloit,
says:
" His creation of the ' Greater Beloit ' will become a
familiar story, and will pass into the splendid traditions
of the College to the end of time, and so he will live in
his works though we call him dead."
Dr. Josiah Strong writes :
" My heart is broken for you and your wife. Such a
death seems so needless and such a waste. I am told
your son was the most brilliant and the most promising
young man that had been in Yale Seminary for many
years. Surely his service will be rendered when it is
most needed. I love to think, therefore, that perhaps
he will do more for the world now than had he remained
in the flesh.
" And this we are sure of, that a heroic, self-sacrific-
ing death like his must have a profound influence for
good on others. It may have been precisely the one
thing needed to change the character and life of some
who knew him. I do not want my dearest friends to
explain to me ; I like to give proof of absolute confidence
by declining an explanation. Perhaps we shall not
care to claim the fulfillment of the promise, * Thou shalt
know hereafter,' because our confidence in God has been
perfected."
164 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
Rev. Cephas Clapp of Forest Grove, Ore., whose
children were Henry's pupils in elocution, wrote:
" Sometimes I think that the early death of Bishop
Hannington and McKay accomplished more than a long
life could have done. Who can say but that a score or
more of earnest young people may be stimulated to
take up the work. My children thought him to have a
willingness to work and sacrifice himself for his pupils
with an abandon that knew no bounds. He gave them
not only good measure, pressed down and running over,
but he gave them everything that was in him. He
seemed to teach each pupil as if there was something
in them worth bringing out, and he was determined to
bring it out, cost what it might to him. He spared
no pains, counted no cost to his time and strength, made
each pupil a separate study. He criticised with care-
fulness and yet with consideration. He showed them
their faults in style and finish, but they were not dis-
couraged. They will have reason to be grateful to
him all their lives. The Master does not do all His
work with mortals. May the Master give you Himself.
You gave Him a beautiful accomplished daughter, one
who will be a bright and shining star in the galaxy of
Heaven; and now you have given Him all that you
had left — your only son — there remains nothing more
to sacrifice. You have laid it all on the altar. But
do not for a moment think that you have placed the
Lord under obligations from which He cannot free Him-
self. Trust Him for that. He will not leave you His
debtor. Sometime, somewhere, here or up yonder, He
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 165
will compel you to break forth into thanksgiving and
praise, and hallelujah.
" Uganda, in Central Africa, is being won for Christ
by men who have volunteered because others had fallen.
Your beloved China may be enriched by many soldiers
because your boy was taken. At any rate, you have
your two treasures laid up in Heaven. Your hearts
are already there, and when your work here is com-
pleted you will join them in a still more glorious work."
He did! He has! How can we ever thank Him
enough for the tidal wave of prayer that has buoyed us
up, floated us on our rocky grief, and now bears us
back strong and willing to our widely separated work.
God is so good. Here more than 4000 feet above the
sea, and 400 above nearly all neighbors, we have had
Him and each other. We have never had such a rest
and visit in nine years ! Our beloved Chinese parish
have wept and loved and fasted over us so tenderly.
The evangelist wrote to us in his quaint Chinese way :
" The young teacher Ming (Henry) was one day
sporting in the water, joyfully. Just then, all of a
sudden, the Lord Jesus came and stood by the lake and
noted how well they were doing it. His heart went to
them with great love. Although it was doing them so
much good to be there, as He thought of it, after all,
that was not as good as for them to go to his Peace-
Joy-Garden (Heaven) and disport themselves. They
would enjoy themselves better than ever there. So it
came about that the loving, loving Jesus led them away.
166 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
" When the young teacher saw Jesus, his whole heart
went out to Him in love, and he was delighted to go
with Him. As they passed the lake, a mournful hymn,
like a dirge, floated back to them. It was his young
brothers of the Y. M. C. A. But ahead they soon saw
a great multitude of angels who had come out to meet
him, and they sang a new song, and these were the
words, ' Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. They
rest from their labors and their works do follow them.'
The joy that those two have (Henry and Ruth) every
day and always with the Lord Jesus is past all telling.
We people on this side the water though, detained for
a while, cannot refrain from scattering our tears — but
after all — we are going to them and we too shall have
that unspeakable joy."
A Beloit College friend, Mr. Lewis, wrote to a friend
of his and ours as follows :
" It seems so impossible. Almost anyone ought to
have been taken in preference to Henry. He was so full
of energy and ambition, so willing to give himself for
others. Beloit College has lost one of her noblest sons,
and one who was doing more for her than almost any-
one else could do. As President Eaton expressed it,
' the earth has suffered a loss.' I had learned to think
a great deal of him and have been strengthened in every
way by knowing him. I am glad to have known him
and I feel that his death was fully typical of his whole
life, the giving of himself for others. I want to bear
your sorrow with you, and to rejoice with you in the
memory of his life and his character."
Mrs. Professor Frank C. Porter of New Haven said :
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 167
" We were very proud of his success as a debater.
He did the whole work for the team and was altogether
the most brilliant debater on either side. The Seminary
felt a great pride in him. Then he did so much for his
class. In the spring he did that fine piece of work for
us in the little pamphlet, ' Why Choose Yale Divinity
School ? ' His loss is a great one to the Seminary alone.
He would have been of inestimable help in the next two
years. New Year's night at the Seminary he perfectly
convulsed everybody by his wit and flow of language.
" But his prospective loss to the service of the world
is a still greater one, for he had immense possibilities
of usefulness before him. It is a comfort to think how
he had given all his splendid talents to the service of
God."
Professor Frank C. Porter's estimate is below:
" He impressed us as a man not only of very bril-
liant intellectual capacities, but as one who had a rare
ability to concentrate himself upon the task in hand,
and work at it with eagerness and energy; and also a
still more rare unselfishness of devotion to the cause
or the person that claimed his service. He never spared
himself, and seemed not to let the thought of himself
have a place in his plans and efforts. He had con-
tributed a great deal to the life of the Divinity School
during his year with us. Such a life has done a great
service on earth, and is fitted for the greater service
in the realms of God's great Kingdom."
From Henry's Uncle, Rev. Wm. C. Merritt:
" The one word that best describes Henry's character
to myself is — intense, and he was so in a large and fruit-
168 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
f ul way. As President and Mrs. Collie said : ' Many
men at seventy have not accomplished what Henry has
at twenty-five ! ' We had a wonderfully illuminating
sermon this A. M. on the life, training, and work of
Moses. It closed with * when you are ready for it your
bush will burn, if not here in this world, yet in God's
world.9 So it is, and Henry will yet do his work for
God — where God wants him."
From Mrs. E. R. Wagner, San Jose, Cal. :
" Henry made us a precious visit three years ago,
and won the love of every one of our children. They
are deeply touched by this experience; we have loved
no other young man as we loved him. That was a time
of great perplexity, anxiety, and temptation to him —
the temptation to a business career. He talked it over
so freely with us, and I felt then that one of the most
beautiful things God had ever given me to do was
that chance to help Henry. How wonderfully he was
led out of that hard place ! "
He wrote soon after : " I think God will not let me
make a mistake." These are his exact words : " I am
willing now, as I have not been before, to follow wher-
ever God seems to lead the way for me, and I don't be-
lieve He will let me make a failure of life." (July 2,
1904.)
Thank God for such friends as ours, and for such
letters. Ask Him that we may give nobler service for-
ever for all His mercies at Kuling.
God bless you all and comfort you all as you have
comforted us.
MRS. ARTHUR H. SMITH.
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 169
LETTER FROM PROF. R. W. RAYMOND
BROOKLYN, N. Y., January 14, 1907.
During the recent visit of Dr. Arthur Smith to the
United States, it was our privilege to entertain him
repeatedly, for considerable periods, as a guest in our
Brooklyn home, where he became an admired and be-
loved member of our family circle. And we love to re-
member that in our house he enjoyed, after years of
separation, his first reunion with his dear and only son.
We prepared for their accommodation separate
guest chambers ; but they begged the privilege of room-
ing together; and often, in passing the door of their
room, I heard the low tones of reading, conversation,
or prayer. That room, already made sacred to us by
reason of many memories of love, joy, sorrow, and
death, is now also, and forever, associated in our minds
with a grateful recollection of the close and precious
intercourse between such a father and such a son, under
circumstances so far transcending the ordinary expe-
riences of human relationship.
As you know, the son was just deciding, or had but
recently decided, to devote himself to the work in which
his father and mother were engaged. He made this
decision, under the guidance of the Divine Spirit, with-
out the least pressure from his missionary parents.
A venerable clergyman once said to me, " I have been
consulted by many young men who were thinking of
entering upon the Christian ministry ; and I have never
let one of them go in, if I could possibly keep him out !
For I hold that, if a man be not so called of God as to
170 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
disregard human dissuasion, he is not called of God at
all!"
Without going to this extreme, Dr. and Mrs. Smith,
as I personally know, had conscientiously left their be-
loved son to higher guidance, and held themselves ready
to accept his choice of any profession in which a Chris-
tian man could usefully and honorably serve his genera-
tion. All the deeper, therefore, was their joy in his
final, free decision ; and I cannot but feel that the hours
of new and exalted fellowship spent by Dr. Smith in my
house with his son, who had thus become also his
brother and comrade, prepared them both for an in-
separable companionship, whether in the visible or in
the invisible world.
After such a mutual consecration to the service of
the Kingdom which embraces both worlds, the accident
of death can be no more than any other accident of
physical separation. These two enjoyed a reunion and
a new union, which defied the trivial obstacles presented
by oceans and continents. Why should it not now defy
an outward separation, possibly even less worthy to be
considered between souls thus fused into the Life Eter-
nal which now is, as well as shall be?
It is for this reason that we congratulate our dear
friend Arthur Smith upon the precious intercourse
which he was permitted to enjoy with a son so soon to
enter, by a hero's death, into the beckoning glory of
the world invisible, while we thank God for the privilege
granted to us, of providing an upper room for such a
meeting.
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 171
LETTER FROM PRESIDENT W. N. FERRIN OF
PACIFIC UNIVERSITY, FOREST GROVE,
OREGON
My acquaintance with Henry D. Smith began with
his engagement as instructor of Public Speaking in
Pacific University. During the two years in which he
served in that capacity, I came to know him well, and
the acquaintance thus formed was maintained by occa-
sional correspondence during the years following until
his death.
Mr. Smith came to Pacific fresh from college. He
was strongly recommended for the position which he
came to fill, and his work in it showed that the endorse-
ments were fully justified.
He was inexperienced and impulsive, and had some
things to learn. I was glad to advise him occasionally,
as need required, and found him always ready to re-
ceive suggestions pleasantly, and to act upon them
promptly and cordially. His relations with his fellow
teachers were uniformly pleasant. His natural impul-
siveness led to occasional mistakes, but these were of
the head and not of the heart.
In his dealings with students, both in the class-room
and out of it, he made himself rather a fellow-worker
with them than a master over them. When he trained
students for oratorical and debating contests he entered
into the work with all the zest and eagerness that his
intense nature was capable of. In preparing for the
contest he spared neither the student nor himself.
There are traditions about the Campus that upon more
than one occasion he kept the young men at work in the
172 HENRY DICKINSON SMITH
reference library until the small hours of the night,
when it was necessary in order to complete, within a
required time, the investigation of some topic connected
with the question to be debated.
All of Mr. Smith's work as an instructor was charac-
terized by enthusiasm and indefatigable energy.
He took an active part in the religious life of the
college. As the youngest of the instructors, and only
one year out of college, he entered easily and heartily
into the work of the Student Christian Association,
and was made welcome in it.
It is doubtful if any instructor ever at Pacific Uni-
versity for so short a time received in so large a measure
as he did the respect and esteem of the students.
Only a few days before his death I received a long
letter describing somewhat in detail the work which he
was doing in advertising his beloved Alma Mater to the
young people of the adjoining region, and giving me
the benefits of his experience in the work. I had written
a letter in acknowledgment when the press dispatches
brought the news of his tragic death.
The gallant act which cost him his life in the effort
to save the life of another was characterized by the
same generous, impulsive thoughtfulness for others
which marked all that he did, and showed him in high-
est degree to be a true Christian gentleman.
THE ESTIMATE OF FRIENDSHIP
LUCIUS C. PORTER
Henry was always ambitious, he was always develop-
ing every power he possessed. He wanted to become his
most effective self. But the controlling ambition for
self -development was not selfish; it was guided at all
times by the altruism of service. Effective service — for
his class, for his college, for China — was his conscious
purpose in every plan and effort for advance in per-
sonal power. We often talked together of these things :
of a man's duty to himself and of the claims of service.
This was our conclusion: The most completely and
successfully developed man is the most useful.
From his Sophomore year, the question was settled
for Henry. The intense application to every task that
called for larger effort, the eager struggle for victory
in each contest, were expressions of this loyalty to
service.
This incident, not known to many, illustrates his
point of view. In the Sophomore year he entered the
preliminary contests for the Knox debate. Other con-
testants were upper-class men. He was still a Sopho-
more. But in the preliminary contest in the Society he
was chosen as the third man of the three to enter the
final contest, winning over a Junior who was regarded
as a strong speaker. Henry had made a fine record.
But at this point he felt that the best service for the
173
174 HfeNRY DICKINSON SMITH
College would be from the older speaker. He had won
the place, but he voluntarily resigned in favor of the
other man. He felt that his own service would be
stronger the next year. The other man took the posi-
tion, and those three Cliosophic men were the three
chosen to meet Knox. They lost that year's debate.
Henry had done what he felt was best for the College,
he had shown how fully he made the best service his
ideal.
Henry's eagerness for victory was a part of his ideal
of complete service. He could never feel satisfied with
honest effort alone, because he could not feel that he
had done his best unless that best was better than his
opponents. It was this that brought the dismal
reaction in cases of defeat. Others may not agree
with this ideal of victorious achievement of the ac-
claimed victor. But they must understand that it was
a part, not of selfishness, but of his service. He and I
have many times discussed the question of the relations
of struggle and contest to the proclaimed victory. Fre-
quently it was after some experience of defeat. We
did not agree. But I always admired Henry's belief:
" The team," he would say, " is sent in to defeat the
enemy. If it does not win, it has not accomplished its
great purpose, it has not performed its best service."
Conscientious effort, a strong fight against odds,
he could not view as any excuse for failure to win;
even the evident superiority of the opposition did not
modify his conviction that the defeated team had not
fulfilled its purpose, had not come up to the full meas-
ure of its service.
HENRY DICKINSON SMITH 175
The Henry of intense application, of furious work,
of highest lambition, was such because he wanted to be
the Henry of completest service. " Ich dien " was the '
motto blazoned on his banner. He fulfilled it to the
unmost measure.
POSTCRIPT
My Darling Boy, so early snatched away
From arms still seeking thee in empty air,
That thou shouldst come to me I do not pray,
Lest by thy coming Heaven should be less fair.
Stay, rather, in perennial flower of youth,
Such as the Master, looking on, must love,
And send to me the spirit of the truth,
To teach me of the wisdom from above.
Beckon to guide my thoughts, as stumblingly
They seek the kingdom of the undented,
And meet me at its gateway with the key —
The unstained spirit of a little child.
F. G. PEABODY.
MRS. EDWIN LONDON
SEATTLE, WASH
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