THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



tropical suns. Astronomers who follow 

 the orbits of celestial worlds, geologists 

 who read the testimony of the rocks and 

 tell us the story of the earth on which 

 we dwell ; physicists to measure the stress 

 and strain of those great cosmic forces 

 that shape our globe, and geodesists to 

 •compute its resultant form ; botanists to 

 trace the migrations of plant life and 

 meteorologists to chart the winds that 

 waft the seed ; a physician to direct our 

 studies of the relation of health to local- 

 ity and a biologist who gives to each 

 form of animal life its metes and bounds ; 

 .a statistician who places in stately col- 

 tmms the figures that show economic de- 

 velopment and achievements and a jour- 

 nalist lays for us a course through the 

 world of letters. The world's greatest 

 inventor gratifies our Athenian thirst for 

 new things, and ofificers of the Army and 

 ■of the Navy see to it that our facts are 

 well marshaled and our conclusions prove 

 invincible. 



These men — busy men — gladly give 

 their time to the great work of this 

 Society, and, seeking no reward, find full 

 compensation in the conviction that under 

 their guidance the Society is living up to 

 its avowed purpose to increase and dif- 

 fuse geographic knowledge, and sister 

 societies throughout the world gladden 

 our ears by repeating the vesper anthem 

 ■of the sixth day of creation when the 

 Maker, in looking upon His work, said, 

 "'It is good." 



the; toastmaster 



It might very fitly be said that the only 

 reason that a man may have for the 

 acquiring of more wealth than he needs 

 for his own material wants is that he 

 may give wisely and give well; that he. 

 may aid in the betterment of mankind, 

 in the uplifting of civilization, in doing 

 something to make the burdens of his 

 fellows a little lighter, and to add more 

 to the intellectual appreciation of those 

 who study the great problems of the uni- 

 verse. There is no man in the world who 

 lias done more to help in that great work 

 of uplifting mankind than that little 

 giant, Andrew Carnegie. He does not 



expect to speak to you tonight, but I 

 know that no matter where you place 

 him, no matter from what altitude you 

 drop him, he will always land upon his 

 feet. Therefore I introduce to you now 

 to give us a few words — and they are 

 always words of inspiration when they 

 come from him — Mr Carnegie. 



MR ANDREW carne;gie; 



I have often been surprised in my short 

 life, but never quite as much as at this 

 moment. I promised to talk to the Asso- 

 ciated Press in New York, now banquet- 

 ing at the expense of the New York 

 Times, and I had just spoken to the 

 party there through the telephone. I met 

 Commander Peary and he had just pre- 

 ceded me. He is not only a fellow 

 Pennsylvanian, but he comes from the 

 crest of the Alleghanies at Cresson, 

 where I spent my summers when a young 

 man. I had the pleasure of presenting 

 to Commander Peary honorary member- 

 ship of the Pennsylvania Society recently 

 and did it in these words, and I was so 

 glad that Master Shakespeake came to 

 my relief : "Fellow Pennsylvanian, your 

 hand in mine — 'Yours is a triumph where 

 honor travels in a path so narrow that 

 but one goes abreast.' " 



I listened to what you said about giv- 

 ing surplus wealth. Well, I said to the 

 gentlemen and ladies I addressed last 

 night at the Carnegie Institute here, as 

 I pointed to the professors that were 

 gathered from various stations, from the 

 Pacific, from the Atlantic, and the work 

 they had done — I pointed to the trustees 

 who have one and all given years of their 

 life to this work — "theirs is the credit, 

 theirs the triumph. I only gave money — 

 mere dross in itself — these men have 

 given their lives, themselves, to the great 

 work of obtaining knowledge and spread- 

 ing it throughout the world, not for one 

 country, but for all the world. No 

 rivalry, all anxious to help each other 

 in the obtainment of knowledge." 



That is what makes human life sub- 

 lime. I, who only give money, give the 

 material body only. It is those workers 

 who have infused into the dead, inert 



