Brown and White Vol. 2 no. 47

              a reminiscence dr coppee in my sophomore year the uni versity of pennsylvania was mourn ing for henry reed who had been lost at sea our hopes rose high when we heard that an army man and a west point professor was to take the vacant chair he came and we were not disappointed he was then in the prime of early middle life strikingly handsome — though not handsomer than as we all knew him ki the later years when his hair was white — with that impressive charm of presence which always marked him the college was at that time little more than a high school for gentlemen's sons and few of us were eighteen his books were yet to be written his distinctions mainly to be won but as i look back it was the same man from whom we have just parted and his subsequent honors came naturally and easily i could tell stories of his kindness in those days but they are not needed ; and of his dignity always waiting to be drawn on and of his sternness on occasions in his room our usual illegal entertainments were intermitted ; but once a wretched youth forgot himself and made some foolish disturbance the doctor promptly went for him i remember keenly the sensations of that moment the boy had no character and no friends but 1 wished and probably the rest did that the floor could open under him and hide his humiliation once he called up a student after class and said mr blank,l observe a certain levity in your manner it is not much and in most men i would not notice it but it is un worthy of you the culprit could do nothing but bow and retire profoundly impressed that is the sort of a disciplinarian dr ooppee was one of us trying to be original — we were little more than small boys — handed in an idiotic essay setting forth that only moral cour age was a virtue and the physical kind was rather injurious than otherwise the doctor read it be fore the class suppressing their jeers and made one comment courage is moral his courage was at any rate after my time a man put in an ■ essay that was cribbed bodily dr coppee insisted on his dismissal though others urged that the offender's family were influential and would make trouble he car ried his point ; but he said of the matter long after i was rather coxey in those days through his life he hated to hurt anybody and loved to live in peace with ail but if he had to stand up for a principle or against a wrong he could do it like athanasius happening this way i dined with him in the president's house when the park was a wilderness and packer hall was building he spoke with enthusiasm of dr neak's splendid hymns from the greek which he was the first to re print in america ; he read a few of those little sacred poems of his own which ought to be better known though one of them is in the hymnal ; he dropped a casual remark which is worth remember ing — we were talking about doc trine and life and things at large : in a churchman's vocabulary the biggest word is duty i went with him to church and heard him read the lessons and the service as not one clergyman in a thousand can when he gave up the presidency lehigh had no chairs but those of engineering and mathematics so he took to himself almost every thing else constitutional law lie was fond of political economy he taught he used to say because there was no one else to teach it all that has changed since his complex chair will have to be re organized and simplified the obvious thing to do since present conditions would hardly justify two chairs here would seem to be to make it a professorship of eng lish language and rhetoric of course dr coppee's place largely and generally speaking will not be filled others may take his classes and bear his titles in the university in the church in the smithsonian ; all the same he leaves a gap here on the spot his loss will long be keenly and widely felt he wat the patriarch of the college of the parish practically of the town fitly was his coffin borne by the students who loved him anc followed to the grave by his lons funeral of dr coppee on saturday afternoon the body of our late president dr henry coppe'e ll.i was consigned to its last resting place the funeral was one of the largest and most impressive ever held in the beth lehems the services were held in the church of the nativity and interment made in nisky hill cemetery the faculty instructors lehigh university south bethlehem pa makch 25 1895 the brown and white vol 11 and close associates of the vestry and the faculty he was not merely an eminent functionary of several corporations an established institution and a high official here among us ; one may be all that and not leave the void which we now feel in a town of coal and iron of railroads mills and banks he represented culture literature ideas ; if he had not been here from the start the place would be other than it is nobody else among us has stood or will stand for these things as he did nobody else will draw the town to the opera house to hear a shakes pearian lecture or the best of fountain hill to a shakespeare reading in a private house the charms of his manner of his genial and gracious personality have made their mark on thousands we ought not to regret that he has been called away when his strength was scarcely sapped and spared the pain of a tottering and dwindling old age any of us may be glad to go as he has gone on the outer edge of a useful honored and happy life his work is done but its effects remain ; his noble voice is stilled but its echoes will long reverberate his memo ry is our inalienable possession no 47 and students of the university at tended en masse and a number of well known out of town people were present including w a lamberton ex-professor of greek at the university ; 11 s johnson ex-professor of latin ; alex pot ter of the class ' of 90 ; mr win lock regent of the smithsonian in stitute ; hon eckley b coxe and the following clergy : rt rev coxtlandt whitehead d d dr eliphalet potter the president of hobart college geneva n v dr f s humphreys secretary of the church board of regents ; rt rev nelson s rulison assistant bishop of the diocese ; rev taliaferro f oaskey d d acting chaplain of the university ; rev gilbert sterling rector of the church of the nativity and rev mr stone his assistant and rev fred m bird ex-chaplain of the university the undergraduate pallbearers who were v a johnson w r okeson and j l poultney of the senior class h w baldwin cl e trafton and w s avars of the junior class ; louis diven a h.serrell and p h janney of the sophomore class and t b wood c h becerra and b pl harrison of the freshman class met at the residence of the family and accompanied the hearse to the church during the time between leaving the house and reaching the church the bells both of the church and of packer hall were tolled on reaching the church the casket was covered with the pall and then slowly carried up the aisle by the undergraduate pall bearers preceded by the clergy and followed by the honor ary pall-bearers who were the faculty and the vestry of the church while dr sterling read the sentences it was laid on a bier in front of the chancel and the regular burial service of the episcopal church was read dr potter reading the lesson and bishop rulison and dr sterling the other parts when the services here were finished the casket was borne back to the hearse by the pall-bearers and the cortege started for the cemetery the clergy the family and their intimate friends ins carriages while the undergraduate pall-bearers walked by the side of the hearse and were followed by he honorary pall-bearers the in structors and the student body the services at the grave were very impressive and were con ducted by bishop whitehead an immense number were present ;. the day was warm and clear and an unbroken silence reigned save when broken by the sonorous tones of the bishop after the casket had been lowered in the grave which was lined with white porce lain bricks it was viewed by all those present walking by in turn the casket itself was beautifully in keeping it was of a dull black continued on second page