A Great Event

Good friend for Jesus sake forbeare, To digg the dust encloased heare.

Over the tomb of James Edward Oglethorpe, British general and philanthropist, died 1785, runs no such ultimate appeal. Therefore there was nothing to dissuade Dr. Thornwell Jacobs, founder and President of Oglethorpe University (Atlanta, Ga.), from seizing last week the fruits of a search to which he has devoted two years of his time.

When the tomb was finally found under the floor of the parish church in Cranham, in the hills of Essex, England, Dr. Jacobs sent for sharper tools, sped the burrowing, stepped triumphantly into a vault where lay the coffins of General and Lady Oglethorpe. The coffins were of elmwood, lead-lined, in a vault of heavy red bricks.

The local rector: " You have made history."

Dr. Jacobs: " When we have disinterred the body, I shall leave in the vault for the enlightenment of future generations a written story, on parchment, of the circumstances of the transfer of his remains to America. . . . Over the tomb I shall place . . . an appropriate marble slab commemorating today's great event."

General Oglethorpe founded the Colony of Georgia in 1732 by releasing several hundred oppressed Englishmen from London jails and taking them to an asylum in the wilds of America. President Jacobs believed that "the wish of 10,000,000 in the Southland" would be gratified could " their father and founder " be " located," brought to Atlanta, ensconced in a gorgeous mausoleum on Oglethorpe University's campus, " in the bosom of Georgia."

Georgia officials of the Society of Colonial Wars protested the act of removal to the State Department.

Many American newspapers ridiculed Dr. Jacobs.

The Daily Express (London) : " Before we organize a Fascismo to defend our dead, Shakespeare may be whisked off to Salt Lake City, Milton may be planted in Schenectady, Shelley in Bitter Creek, Dickens in Denver, Tennyson in Tallahassee, and William Penn in Penobscot."

Another attitude is: "If anybody wants the ashes of General Oglethorpe, let him have them. If the General's ashes can make happy the heart of President Thornwell Jacobs, and if they can successfully advertise the merits of Oglethorpe University, it can be truthfully said that the General's usefulness outlived his generation."

The incident is supremely illustrative of the new period in the history of education. Once students, thirsty, sought teachers. Now teachers advertise for students.

Officialdom permitting, the bodies were to be removed from the vault on Oct. 18, during the course of a solemn religious ceremony, Ambassador Harvey being present.

However, in deference to English opinion, Dr. Jacobs withdrew his request for the body, and abandoned his quest.