Page:Famous Living Americans, with Portraits.djvu/350

JOHN B. MOTT Bt William Wabbbn Swebt THE scene is the main floor of the great gymnasium of the University of Pennsylvania on a certain winter's night some years ago. Gathered in that great room are perhaps two thousand men, students of the University. On the platform is seated the Provost, and by his side a tall, well- builty smooth-faced, square-jawed man who glances quietly over that assembled multitude; and immediately one is im- pressed with the fact that he is in the presence of a master of men, one who can deal with and control difficult situations. And this impression grows when this man gets up to speak. There is no attempted oratory, no flowers of speech, hardly a gesture, and yet for over an hour those young men sit in abso- lute quietness, every eye directed toward the speaker's face, every mind intent upon the straightforward words that fall from his lips. And what is he talking about f Surely it must be something of unusual interest to young men to draw so many of them away from their books on a winter's night I As one listens he soon finds that this is a religious leader, and that he is talking on a religious subject. For five nights in succes- sion that same square-jawed, square-headed, keen-eyed man addresses increasing numbers of students, in that same room, and if he should come back again to that same University he would get the same close attention, and be greeted with even larger crowds of students. Such is the power of the subject of this sketch. A little more than a month after the surrender of Lee at Ap- pomattox there was bom in the little town of Livingston Manor, New York, to a young couple by the name of Mott, a son, whom they called John. What a combination of names I Livingstone, the hero of modern missions; John, called the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, and John, the disciple I It is fitting that these names be connected with this man Mott, for they all describe him. Has he not followed up the work