A beautiful stained glass window in memory of the six graduate students who gave their lives during the World War has been presented to the University by the Graduate College Union. The memorial is on the southern side of the entry room adjoining Procter Hall.

The window was dedicated on Memorial Day. Dean West presided, Professor Charles W. Kennedy '03, representing the Graduate College Union, made the presentation address, President Hibben accepted the gift on behalf of the University, and the exercises closed with a prayer by the Rev. Dr. Alfred B. Baker '61. Professor Kennedy's presentation address was as follows:

"It is a proper instinct of the heart that prompts mankind to memorialize noble living and heroic death. It is natural for admiration to desire that a memory of those who have lifted our manhood a little nearer the stars shall not perish from the records of our civilization. It is natural for love to wish that there may be some structure of marble or granite, some memorial of bronze or glass, that may serve as the shrine of memory, in the shadow of which men may cherish an enduring faith in the nobility of life and the greatness of man's immortal spirit.

"With such motives of affection and honor we, the members of the Graduate College Union, for whom I have the privilege to speak, have caused this window to be installed and dedicated to the memory of six former scholars of the Graduate College, our fellows and our friends, who gave their lives in the Great War: to Charles Ferguson Cook, Charles Linnaeus Cumming, Charles Paul Giessing, William Orr McConnell, Herbert Edward Rankin, Simon Ercile Twining.

"As we stand before the glowing spaces of this window, and read these names enrolled, memory turns back to the days in which the storm of war broke over our country. None of us who saw it will ever forget the swift and joyous devotion with which Princeton answered the call. Across the years comes the sound of cheering - cheering until the ancient walls of the campus reechoed - and the tramp of marching feet - when youth went forth to war as to some high adventure. All material concerns, all ties of home and kindred, all the thousand gossamer threads of fragile and beautiful interest that bound them to the world of nature and of men, even life itself if need be, - all these which formerly filled their minds and claimed their first affection, were suddenly thrust down from their high place, and a principle, a cause, supremely worth fighting for, supremely worth dying for, possessed their lives.

"They went forth to dwell with dirt and hunger and disease. They witnessed man's incredible crime and folly, and his astounding heroism. They saw a common humanity blend the blood-lust of the beast and nobilities truly sacrificial. Then out of the whirlwind, with the passing of the storm, those whom death had reprieved returned, with haunted eyes and a gift of silence, to the quiet of books, or to the duties that survive all human catastrophe unshaken.

"But these, our friends and comrades, went, and did their work, - and came not back. For us, Sir, who knew them, there is no need of visible memorial by which to recall past association. Memory knows well how to build her dwelling within the secret places of the heart. But it is fitting that we should rejoice to rear before the eyes of all who shall frequent these halls in the generations to come a lasting token of our veneration for men who knew how to live, and how to die, well. For to know the issues of life that are of more import than life, is to live nobly; and to die in devotion to these issues is to die well. So living, and so dying, they passed to where beyond these voices there is peace.

"I have the honor, Mr. President, in behalf of the members of the Graduate College Union, to present to Princeton University this memorial window in dedication to these our friends and fellow scholars, whose life and death have added glory to the name of Princeton."

The Memorial Window

By Alfred M. Friend, Jr., '15, Instructor in Art and Archaeology

The window presented on Decoration Day by the Graduate College Union to the University in memory of the students of the Graduate College who lost their lives in the World War is intended to symbolize America's part in the great conflict. The four lights of the window are filled with figures of the four military saints of the chief European countries on whose soil American soldiers died. Below the figures are the arms of these nations, while in the cinquefoil above, equally allied to each, is the shield of the United States. The scheme of the glass is due to the late Master, Howard Crosby Butler, to whom the window and its symbolism were of great concern and pleasure.

For England, St. George was naturally chosen. For Italy was taken St. Maurice, the martyred soldier of the Theban Legion who preferred death to the worship of the gods of heathen power. Although his shrine is in the valley of the upper Rhone in Switzerland, he is the patron of the House of Savoy, symbolizing united Italy. France is represented by her new Saint, Joan of Arc, rather than by the soldier saint, Martin of Tours, since the story of St. Joan's heroic career is the common possession of all the American soldiers who served in France, and her birthplace in Lorraine was visited by many during the time of the war. The inspiration of St. Joan of Arc as she stood under the tree at Domremy, and which sent her forth upon her perilous mission, was St. Michael, the glorious archangel, chosen here to symbolize the constancy and heroic defense of Belgium since the patron saint of the capital city, Brussels, is the Leader of the Celestial Hosts.

The brilliant colors of these figures flash out from a background of silvery quarry glass, which illuminates fully the vestibule in Pyne Tower and, if the great doors of Procter Hall are open, contrasts its cool and direct light with the glowing warmth and complication of the western window, - the directness and coolness of the soldier with the richness and fullness of the learning of the scholar.

The style of the glass recalls the 14th century windows in St. Ouen in Rouen, with their backgrounds of richly variegated quarries of grisaille, a feature so typically Norman that to this day the best quarry glass is made there and has been used in this window. In the design and in the asymmetric arrangement of color the artist, Charles J. Connick of Boston, has been singularly happy. The tracery of the window is allowed to control the design, enhancing greatly its architectural character. The two central figures are upright and frontal, to give strength and verticality. The outer figures are faced toward the center and curved inward, to unify and contain the figure design and to suggest the arching of the window above. A narrow edging of brilliant blues, reds, and greens around each of the lights completes the direct and simple scheme. In the upper part of the window nothing detracts from the glowing arms of the Nation, held on the points of the cinquefoil like a gem in its setting. The six golden stars recall the names, graven in the stone reveals, of the men for whom the window is a memorial and for whom the inscription, burnt in the glass at the base of the window, was composed by Dean West: "Hos pro patria grate morientes commemoramus condiscipuli."

St. George and St. Michael, who flank the tense and vertical figures of St. Joan of Arc and St. Maurice, slay their hideous dragons, brilliant in scaly red and purple, the symbols of the forces of evil, the nations of iniquity. St. George, still struggling, seeks to ram home his lance, but Michael, serene with his flaming sword held across his breast, rises without effort, leaving the evil beast collapsed and finished, the work accomplished.

The window should be not only a memorial to those who died in the struggle, but also an inspiration to those who follow, to finish the work begun, so that these men may not have died in vain; to struggle as should St. George against the crafty serpent, until, putting bestiality and self-interest under foot, mankind can become as Michael, Quis ut Deus.