176 



Sierra Club Bulletin. 



ADDRESS AT MEMORIAL EXERCISES.^ 



By Alexander G. Eells. 



It has fallen to me to take part to-day, on behalf of 

 the Alumni of the University of California. 



To say what the name Le Conte signifies and stands 

 for to me, or to any other of the older graduates, is far 

 beyond my powers of expression. "Dr. John" and "Pro- 

 fessor Joe" ! The names call up images of the spring- 

 time of one's life, with its freshness and vividness, when 

 all was eager anticipation^ and a rosy haze veiled the diffi- 

 culties and dangers — the chivalric period, with its rain- 

 bows of promise and its sowing of the seeds of future 

 achievements. 



Dr. John I met unawares during my entrance exam- 

 inations, those days of dread to the stripling applicant 

 for admission from a country school. Restless from 

 nervous apprehension I had wandered to the end of the 

 old "dummy" track toward Oakland, and was sitting at 

 the station, waiting for the car to take me back to Berke- 

 ley, when a most kindly old gentleman sat down beside 

 me and drew me into conversation. If he had been my 

 own father, his sympathetic interest could not have been 

 greater, nor his words more full of cheer and encourage- 

 ment. The incident is amongst the most vivid of my 

 college recollections. 



Professor Joe I first met, soon afterwards, at one of 

 the home-gatherings which were common then. I can- 

 not explain the fascination which led me shyly to follow 



* See page 254—" Notes and Correspondence." — Editor. 



