3° 



ADDRESS OF THE HONORABLE ERASTUS BROOKS. 



I have been reminded, Mr. President, since I entered this beau- 

 tiful hall this afternoon, that I am to speak for Mr. Sibley. I have 

 neither gifts, nor knowledge, nor grace of language, thus called up- 

 on, to do fitting honor to the office entrusted to me. 



Looking upon this portrait, I may say in the language of Mil- 

 ton, 



" Come, then, expressive silence muse its praise," 



for in the silence of the portrait more than in the language of the 

 speaker you may find a fit recognition of the great service Mr. 

 Sibley by his many gifts has rendered to Cornell and to the State 

 at large. In my knowledge of men I know of no man who would 

 better illustrate the rise and progress of the American nation than 

 the founder of this University and those who, like Mr. Sibley, 

 have been associated with him in promoting great public work in 

 the establishment and building up of great universities ; and I 

 hope I do not trespass upon the office which I hold, when, in the 

 dim future I see, and in faith believe that Cornell is to be second 

 to none in any of the States of our most prosperous and favored 

 country [applause]. And no man of the present time has con- 

 tributed more in a practical way and for a practical purpose to the 

 present necessities of the country in the promotion of the mechanic 

 arts, — "the blacksmith's hammer and the woodman's axe;"' and 

 no man is doing more in the saving of time — time being money, 

 — time being prosperity, and time in this rapid age of ours means 

 that men seem to live longer in results in a year than they lived in 

 a score of years in times that are past — I say I know of no man 

 who better illustrates the rise, progress, and prosperity of the 

 American nation, than Hiram Sibley. Born among the poorest of 

 the poor, one of a family of fifteen with remarkable peculiarities, 

 inheriting but indigence, but with indigence a large intelligence 

 and thrift, with a zeal that never faltered, a courage that never 

 failed, and with a hope as boundless as life itself, he loved in- 

 dustry, thrift, and enterprise, and was in all these qualities an ex- 

 ample to all men around him. Such men never fail. 



This portrait better than any words I can express illustrates the 



