SOCIAL SERVICE IS
NEXTIN IMPORTANCE
TO BIBLE STUDY
STUDY OF WORLD CONDITIONS,
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL, OF
VAST IMPORTANCE
INTERESTING COURSES WILL BE OFFERED
Clases In Social Service Are Well
Attended—Open to All the Uni- j
versity Students.
The work of the social service de
partment of the Y. M. C. A. next to
that of the Bible Study Department,
is the most important of the associa
tion’s undertakings. Its aim is to
give the students some side lights on
the great social conditions and prob
lems around us. It also makes a care
ful examination of important move
ments taking place in foreign coun
tries. It is pre-eminently a course in
practical Sociology, from a Christian
standpoint.
The promotion of these studies is
based on the theory, that the Uni
versity is training men to be leaders
in the life they enter after leaving
college. The Y. M. C. A. believes
that men educated at the expense of
the state should be able to lead in
matters of social betterment as well
as in engineering feats, economic and
political movements, or literary pur
suits.
In order to accomplish these re
sults, a carefully organized system of
classes, lecture courses, and special
addresses on social problems at
home and abroad is prepared. On the
whole the students are quick to take
advantage of these opportunities.
About thirty men were enrolled in the
most important course of last semes
ter. A large proportion of these were
in regular attendance at the class
meetings. The students’ appreciation
of the efforts and expense involved in
securing lecturers of prominence, is
also manifested by the way they at
tend the lectures. Some of the larg
est men’s meetings of the year were
those which gathered to hear J. Merle
Davis speak on the social and religious
conditions in Japan, and Mr. Marion
F. Kees on “The New China.” These
are questions in which thoughtful and
broad minded students are interested,
and they take advantage of every op
portunity to learn about them from
authoritative sources.
The classes which have created the
most widespread interest during the
current year, have been, “The Ameri
can of Tomorrow,” a study of the im
migrant problem in America, led by
Prof. A. R. Sweetser; and a class in
"First Aid to Injured.” This last
mentioned is a series of lectures by
local physicians, designed to show the
men how to be useful in emergency
cases. Much interest has been shown
by the members of the class, and the
attendance has been large from the
beginning.
Two other classes are now being
organized for the present semester.
The one started first is for a study of
John R. Mott’s book, "The Decisive
Hour in Christian Missions.” This
book gives in a condensed form, a
comprehensive view of the rapid
present day transformation of the
nations, and the part that organized
Christianity is playing, and will play,
in this movement. Mr. Mott, a man
of world wide renown, has traveled
extensively, anil has more than once
been called to the councils of the
crowned heads of Europe, and the
governing bodies of America. He is
a product of the American universi
ties, and is the man who organized
the V. M. C. A. in the University of
Oregon in 1S'J2. This class will be
led by Howard Zimmerman, the head
of the Social Service Department of
the Association, lie has made a care
ful study of the subject and is pre
pared to make it both interesting and
instructive. The second course, to be
given later in the spring, will be a
series of lectures by Dr H. S. Wilkin
son of the Eugene M. E. Church on
the subject, "The Social Evil.”
Another important part of the work
of the Social Service Department is
the assisting of Y. M. C. A. work in
foreign lands. The colleges of the
Northwest support two Y. M. C. A. j
workers in Japan, Mr. W. M. Vories,
in charge of the work in Omi Hachi
man, Japan, and Mr. J. Merle Davis,
in Tokio. The social service commit
tee raises between twenty and thirty
dollars a year for their support.
DOCTOR THOMAS CONDON
A CHRISTIAN LEADER
(Dr. Joseph Schafer.)
It is fitting for the Christian Asso
ciations, and indeed the entire Uni
versity, to stop a moment in their
multiform activities to consider the
beautiful life of the revered teacher
who passed from among us five years
ago, and whose ninetieth anniversary
occurs one week hence. For no col
lege was ever more richly blessed in
its Christian leadership than was the
University of Oregon during the first
thirty years of its history while Doc
tor Condon was adding his gentle,
fructifying influence, to that exerted
by other strong Christian men and
women.
Thomas Condon was born in the
south of Ireland on the third day of
March, 1822, ninety years ago. He
came of strong Northman stock blend
ed with the native Irish. There is a
tradition that one of his ancestors
had been ennobled for merit by Wil
liam the Conquerer, but Doctor Con
don never insisted on this point, and |
was disposed to laugh it away with
some humorous remark.
Though his spiritual inheritance was
evidently great, his material inherit
ance was correspondingly meagre. He
was born poor and at an early age
came with his father and family to the
City of New York. There the boy at
tended school, spending some of his
leisure hours gardening, studying the
revolutionary antiquities of the place,
and hunting rabbits in what is now
Central Park. A few years later he
went with his father to Michigan, in
duced there to by the emigrating ex
citement following the general busi
ness eonapse or me rate mimes, v^rie
of the incitements to this immigra
tion in his case, as he testified long
afterward, was a delightful book by
Charles F. Hoffman, entitled, “A Win
ter In the West.” Hoffman was en
thusiastic in his description of
Southern Michigan, with its fertile
soils, its plane of gently undulating
surface, and its famous “oak open
ings,” the pastures and playgrounds
of innumerable herds of deer.
For various reasons, the Condons
did not settle in Michigan. Instead,
the young man worked, taught school
and studied in the lake region of
western New York, finally completing
a course at Auburn Theological Sem
inary. In 1852 he shipped “around
the Horn” with his family and estab
lished himself as a missionary in
Western Oregon. Twenty years were
given to missionary and pastoral la
bors, after which he could still devote
a third of a centruy—the ripest, most
fruitful period of his life—to educat
ing “Tfie younger men and women of
our state. This part of his career be
gan at the Congregational College at
Forest Grove; when the University of
Oregon was opened, in 187(i, he was
chosen its first professor of geology
and natural history, filling the former
of these positions for practically thir
ty years. He died on the 11th of Feb
! ruarv, 1907.
The external history of Doctor Con
don’s life is already very well known
, to the older persons about the Uni
versity. Others may readily famil
1 iari/.e themselves with the facts print
ed in the Condon Bulletin (published
; by the University) and with many
other facts and incidents which their
elders will be proud to communicate.
Moreover, the date of his departure
from among us is so recent, that even
the school children of Eugene can
have seen him on the streets, on the
University campus, in the church, or
walking among his shrubbery at the
I Condon home. Those young persons
! who can still recall his figure and
countenance are to be congratulated,
for each of these can carry with him
as he travels the doubtful, danger
infested pathway of life, the image of
a true man. a knightly soul, whose
mission it was to make the world a
safer place for such as they to walk
forward in. Knowing him, they
should find it easier to believe that
there are always some who, like him.
stand ready at every alarm to go
“down into the dark regions to fight
monsters” for them.
Many in these last years have earn
estly contemplated the character of
Doctor Condon; not a few have inter
rogated it, to know what was its fund
amental characteristic. The answers
have been variously expressed, but it
seems to me they can all be summar
ized or most truly interpreted by the
word, “health” (or “wholeness”) as
that word is understood and used in
the writings of Carlyle. “The healthy
know not of their health, but only the
sick.” “So long as the several ele
ments of life, all fitly adjusted, can
pour forth their movement like har
monious tuned strings, it is a melody
and unison; Life, from its mysterious
fountains, flows out as in celestial
music and diapason—which also, like
that other music of the spheres, even
because it is perennial and complete
without interruption and without im
perfection, might be fabled to escape
the ear.” The healthiest man, either
on the physical, mental or spiritual
side of life, is the least conscious of
his state of health, and because un
conscious, most effective in his activ
ities. Such is the thesis of the great
Scotch moralist, and whether or not
one agrees with all of his conclusions,
it affords a reasonable philosophic
basis for the analysis of character.
I have every reason to believe that
the theory can be applied to Doctor
Condon on the physical side. While
of only medium stature, he was
strong, well knit and, as I have un
derstood, so perfectly whole that un
til his latest years he was almost al
ways fit for duty, and so fit that he
could perform it not only without in
conveniece, but with joy; never think
ing of his body “as the prisonhouse of
the soul,” but as a “vehicle and im
plement *** pliant to its bidding.”
Those long excursions in the John
Day canyon, along the seashore, over
the lava beds and through the moun
tains, which were but an incident in
his scientific labors; the arduous tasks
connected with his ministry and his
professorship—all these seemed but
the necessary activities of a complete
ly effective frame and organism.
His physical health was the type
and index of his mental and spiritual
health. In each the keynote was ac
tivity—free, joyous, effective activity.
Providence had endowed Doctor Con
don with two transcendant gifts, the
basis of all great human achievement
—the poetic imagination and the
“open, loving heart.” These, under
the impulse of the healthy activity al
ready described, unlocked for him on
the one hand the secrets of God’s na
tural universe, on the other the pro
founder secrets of the human heart.
He was at the same time a scientist
and a misisonary. The two profes
sions blended perfectly in him and
could not conceivably have been sep
arated. As a scientist, he questioned
the rocks and drew from them testi
mony as to the course of Nature’s de
velopment during aeons of time—
truths that startled many by their
challenge to old belief. He would not
doubt these mute witnesses; neither
could he doubt God’s witness in the
souls of ancient prophets, or in the
divine light that irradiated his own
inner being. Because he was a healthy
spirit, as well as a healthy mind, he
pressed forward with unwavering
faith, and whenever he found truth,
whether in science or in revelation,
he recognized it as the Truth of
God.
Lastly, because he was whole—not
partial, not divided—he spent his
years, his energy, his ripest powers
(with a wealth of affection given to
the few), guiding the youth of Ore
gon along a pathwey beset with pe
culiar danger—a pathway which in
that transition age could not be avoid
ed—and he led them triumphantly
in to those large places reserved in
God’s faultless economy for the high
er life of the spirit.
Do Not Forget
when going home on your vacation,
to take home a box of “OTTO’S”
VICTORIA CHOCALATES, the best
chocolates made.
Have you paid that dollar to the
Emerald? Do it now.
Weber's Milwaukee Chocolates at
the Obak Cigar Store.
Registered
Optometrists
Factory °n
Premises
Burgess Optical
Co.
Wholesale and Retail
OPTICIANS
591 Willamette St. Eugene
Dillon Drug Co.
527 Willamette Street
Exclusive Agents for
Whitman's Candies
Try a Fussy Package
Capital and Surplus, $235,000.
We have room for your account and
we want your business.
The Store that Saves you Money
on Furniture for Students
PIERCE BROS.
FANCY GROCERIES
FRUITS, VEGETABLES
Phone us your orders. We have
our own delivery wagons. Phone 53.
DUNN’S BAKERY
U. of O. students welcome to Eu
gene. You are invited to inspect our
plant and our goods. All kinds of
pastry, sanitary wrapped bread.
Heinz’ goods, Aldon confectionery,
chewing gum, etc.
Dunn & Price
Phone 72. 30 East 9th St.
Electric Cleaning and
Pressing Co*
Clyde L. Stratton, Prop.
Cleaning, Pressing, Repairing
We make a specialty of cleaning
and pressing ladies suits and evening
gowns.
Agents for Edward E. Strauss & Co.
Superior Tailoring—Popular Prices.
22 W. 8th St. Phone 827.
Geo. Sovern
Proprietor Combination Barber Shop.
519 Willamette St. Phone 641-J.
COCKERLINE & WETHERBEE
Fancy and Staple Dry Goods,
ladies’ and Men’s Furnishings.
Men's, Youth’s, Children’s Clothing.
Phone 42.
FINE CUTLERY
KOH-I-NOOR
The “Quality** Shop
Confectionery and Ice Cream
that is superior
Hot and Cold Lunches
Call up 578
Varsity Chocolates
Something entirely new. A delici
ous whipped cream, with a milk choco
late coating.
A trial will convince you of their
superiority.
Palace of Sweets
SPORTSMEN’S SUPPLY HOUSE
Gymnasium and
Football Outfits
Eugene Gun Co.
DESIRABLE
XMAS GIFTS
A larger line than ever this year.
Special things in Brassware, Silver
Novelties, Picture Frames, and Nov
elties. Select your goods now and
I will lay them aside for you.
Seth Laraway
Bob Murphy
Around the Conner from Otto’s
melvin Hansen
The Realty Dealer
Acreage and City Lots a Specialty.
474 Willamette. Phone 881.
Oregon !
Here’s
Success
To You!
476 Willamette St, near Poet Offlee.