He slipped into the office with a quiet apology for the intrusion, to
say that he had enlisted in the naval reserve. Not expecting to be
called for a month or more, the call to service had come immediately.
His only concern over this was due to the fact that he must leave the
Library on such short notice, and he was distressed to think that his
leaving thus might inconvenience those who remained behind. Two years
ago he had entered our employ, in the hope that proximity to the
University would render it possible, while earning his living, to take
part-time work on the hill. So thorough was his industry that before
long, aside from his full-time employment (with service faithfully
rendered), he was carrying two-thirds of normal undergraduate work.
How he carried it is indicated by the fact that, though preparing
himself for an engineer, he was prevented from winning the annual
prize for excellence in English composition only by virtue of the
limitation of the award to students doing full-time work.
Thus the Library lost a faithful worker; thus the nation gained an
excellent soldier. Of such stuff are the men of our new army made.
Unless we mistake greatly, the German nation will live to rue the
course by which its government goaded the American people to the point
of taking active part in settling the great question whether autocracy
or democracy shall perish. Quietly and without heroics our splendid
youth have appraised the situation, and having appraised it, with a
smile have offered themselves and their hopeful futures upon the altar
of human freedom, only regretting as did our particular hero, the
inconvenience to others which their sacrifice may involve. We will not
offend his modesty by placing his name in type. To him and all his
kind we offer a reverent Godspeed. The nobility of their offering is
inspiring enough; that it should have been necessary in the full light
of the twentieth century is one of the ghastliest facts in human
history.