520 
Eaton—Memorial Address. 
consin. And what Matthew Arnold said of his father may very 
properly be said of Professor Blaisdell: 
“ But thou wouldst not alone 
Be saved, my father; alone 
Conquer and come to thy goal, 
Leaving the rest in the wild. 
Still thou turnedst and still 
Beckond’st the trembler, and still 
Gavest the weary thy hand. 
Therefore to thee it was given 
Many to save with thyself; 
And in the end of thy day, 
O faithful shepherd, to come 
Bringing thy sheep in thy hand.” 
Perhaps not less marked was Professor Blaisdell’s relation to 
the commonwealth of Wisconsin as a citizen. The fact that his 
life was that of a thinker and teacher never in the least tempted 
him to excuse himself from the life of a practical man of affairs 
devoted to the welfare of his state. He loved Wisconsin. He had a 
generous pride in her citizens, in her resources, in her history, in 
her future. Any fruit that was grown in Wisconsin was interest¬ 
ing to him. The forests of the state were dear to him and he 
lifted his voice for their conservation. The hills of Wisconsin 
were hardly less dear to him than those higher hills of his own 
Granite State. A mystic, he was yet clear-sighted and resolute. 
He studied, and as far as man could do it, he solved the prob¬ 
lems of civic life and of the life of the commonwealth, and his 
counsel was sought by men of affairs. The mayor of Beloit 
would come to him for counsel, and he would go to the mayor 
of Beloit with suggestions as to the city’s civic welfare. He 
was the President of the Wisconsin Children’s Home Society, in 
whose development he felt the keenest, the most glowing in¬ 
terest, believing that by this method of taking children out of 
unhopeful environments and placing them in families of character 
we may undercut the forces of evil and save our commonwealth. 
He was President of the Wisconsin Home Missionary Society 
and gave in the last two or three years of his life a vast amount 
of effort to the cherishing of the Christian work of feeble 
churches in our state. He was chairman of the committee on Re¬ 
formatories and Penitentiaries of the State Conference of Chari¬ 
ties and Corrections, and wrote reports in this capacity which 
