14 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
There are those who command our respect and esteem for their 
ability and scholarship, yet incite no special personal affection. 
There are others who attract us personally, whom we like, who 
become friends, but are lacking in any distinctive or impressive 
mentality. There are a few accomplished scientists and scholars, 
who are also warm-hearted, high-spirited, attractive men. 
Such a man is our classmate, John Henry Comstock, whom we 
delight to honor to-day. I wonder if we have had among us anyone 
who has attained a greater success. His whole career as student, 
teacher, investigator, author, has been a most happy combination 
of the strenuous, the simple, and the abundant life. 
Strenuous it has been, for in addition to his self-imposed tasks, 
not a little of his life work has been enforced and exacting; simple, 
because he has lived close to nature, and her laws have been the rule 
and guide of his daily conduct; and most of all abundant. Abundant 
in health, abundant in opportunity, abundant in accomplishment, 
abundant in honors, abundant in friendship. 
Demanding little he has received much. I speak not for his class¬ 
mates alone, for from all parts of the country there are men and 
women who, looking back to their college days on this campus, will in 
spirit lift to him the signalling hand, and say, “Hail friend and Master, 
thee we love.” 
The “Address by a Former Student’’ was to have been given by Dr. L. O. 
Howard, Chief of the Bureau of Entomology of the U. S. Department of Agricul¬ 
ture; but he was unable to be present, and sent a letter, which was read by 
Glenn W. Herrick. The reading of this letter was prefaced by the chairman as 
follows: 
When we think of the beauty of this lake region with its wonderful geology, 
marvelously rich flora and fauna, we feel sure that its charm must have worked on 
unnumbered generations. It certainly worked on one of Ithaca’s young men. 
He became one of Professor Comstock’s students, and decided to devote his life 
to the subject presided over by his teacher. Recommended to an assistantship 
in the United States entomological service by Professor Comstock, he has seen 
that service increase, and under his guidance as its chief since 1894, it has grown 
from a subordinate division with small appropriations ($30,000) and few assistants 
(16), to a full fledged bureau (1907) with annual appropriations of over half a 
million dollars and with a corps of over 200 assistants and investigators. 
