MEMORIAL HOUR, JOHN S. HARRIS. 33 1 



a result of this hope and encouragement which he held out we see 

 today this grand showing of fruit in the next room. 



I must say one word in regard to my old friend, Capt. Cross. 

 I was introduced to him on the day he arrived in Minneapolis. I 

 became well acquainted with him immediately, and I have been 

 honored by his considering me a friend as I certainly did him. 

 He was a member of the first board of park commissioners. He was 

 indefatigable in his work. He had the enthusiasm of a man who 

 loved nature, and the fact that we have one of the most beautiful 

 parks in the southern part of the city is due to his foresight. He 

 came to me and asked me to go with him to see a little lake in the 

 southern part of the city, and at that time there was not one house 

 about it. There was only one little farm house at the head of the 

 lake, but not a street was laid out and not a house was near the 

 border of that lake. I walked with him to this lake, and all the time 

 he was telling me what it would be some time in the future, what 

 his faith was in the future of the city ; and he filled me with so much 

 enthusiasm that at the next meeting of the board of park commis- 

 sioners, through his introduction of the subject, the city of Minne- 

 apolis secured that now popular portion of the city known as Pow- 

 derhorn Lake Park. 



I will only add that when Capt. Cross died I lost a personal 

 friend, the city lost one of the most public spirited of its citizens, and 

 we shall mourn his loss for many years. 



The President : I was very glad to see that door open and see 

 Judge Hicks come in after we had given up seeing him, because 

 I know there is no one in the world that knew Capt. Cross better 

 than did Judge Hicks, and we should have lacked just what he is 

 ready to give us to round out these exercises here this afternoon. 



Judge H. G. Hicks here spoke at some length of the personal 

 work and worth of Capt. Cross. 



The President: I want to give time for each member who 

 wants to say a word to say that word now. We have all seen from 

 what has been said that Diogenes, if he had been here before these 

 men whose loss we so deplore passed from our ken, he would not 

 have had to light his lantern to seek for a man ; he could have found 

 him right here in this society. Let us have more like them. But I 

 would say do not take any one of them for a model. He who un- 

 dertakes to follow servilely any one else as his model is sure to fail. 

 But let their lives rather be a stimulus to us who remain to do as 

 noble things as they did and devote our lives to something that will 

 be of use when we are gone. When they were speaking of Mr. 

 Harris, when Mr. Owen was speaking of Mr. Harris' style of writ- 

 ing, about his simple earnestness, clearness, how everybody could un- 

 derstand what he said, and the character that ran through the whole 

 of it, I wanted to add the forgetfulness of self that you noticed 

 everywhere in his writings, in his presence, in his talks, in everything 

 connected with the man. He never forgot his ideal, he never for- 

 got the conditions that he had in his mind as being necessary to the 

 great success of the undertaking which he was laboring for. That 

 always stood before him like a beacon light. He did not think 



