Albion College - Albionian Yearbook (Albion, MI)

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charm and hold us spell-boundg if Mr. Dunbar can make 'us see so plainly the struggles, temptations and virtues of his colored brothers so that his black men of the North and South become more to us than mere interesting typesg if Mrs. Catherwood can re-people the forests and prairies of the Illinois and Lake Country with the priests, warriors, voyageurs and red men of the seven- teenth century, all very human to us at the dawn of the twentiethg and if by their works these authors grow strong and stronger in creative faculties, may not the students and Alumni of Albion develop imagination by setting forth in verse and essay and story, short or long, the life and character and work of Albion College? The way to imagine is to imagine. Only food and exercise are needed to insure growth., And here the material is inexhaustible, the field is attractive and alluring and effort certain of a rich reward to the persevering. My plan then, is for the students past and present to describe the life they have lived and are living. Motive is surely not lacking for our best effortsg the l'111LtQl'iQLl is bgundlegg and as vet 'Albion students have done almost nothing in the field of distinctively college literature. The history of Old Albion is yet unwritteng it ought to be written, it can best be written by her sons and daughters. As to material, we have much the same earth and sky, spring showers, summer days, autumn tints and winter snows, streams, forests and meadows, that the poet and prose artists have worked over since the dawn of literature. Then we have distinctively our own Newburg and Bath Mills, the Swimming Hole and Brockway's Woods, Dutchtown and Dickie Hill, the Fair Ground and the Cemetery, Willow Walk and the Pond, Up the River and Crystal Lake, Duck Lake and Montcalm, the Camp Ground and Marengo, not to mention Homer, Springport, Parma and Concord with their volumes of romance bound up in picnic and sleighride. Still farther out and in another way, Hillsdale and Olivet, Kazoo and Lansing, could each their separate tales of Albion exploits unfold. To shift the scene-a volume could not tell the tales of Middle Building. John Wesley and the Father of His Country have seen enough in twenty years inside the Chapel, by day and by unight, to keep some future Irving from mischief during his college course. Historic truth, stranger than fiction, could furnish many a readable chapter when our Kipling discovers him- self to us. Swarthout could furnish material for a novelette on High Licensed Cider, an Effective Temperance Methodf' Smith could give outlines for a bright skit on The Light that Failedg Lou Welch could tell of One hundred Yards in Record Time as the Clock was Striking the Hourg Hagle might furnish the plot for a tale entitled, Chapel on the Diamondg Ben. Bennett could give material for a poem- Woodman, Spare that Treeg Springer would be a sure source on The Passing of the Sidewalkf' Mr. Harvey'could tell the elements of How I Secured the Clappersf' Hagle knows about Coats and Goats. A hundred and one stories could be written of the days that have gone by. But the present is no less fruitful. Fraternity people and Independents-typical and otherwise, the literary societies, the co-operative store, the various organizations, all yield themselves to treatment. Class room grind, quiz, discussions and reports, laboratorv, observatorv, gymnasium and library will surely prove fruitful with the coming of our Gilbert Parker. Then there is the Freshman. He is in a class by himself. So is the Sophomore. The same of Juniors and Seniors. The Faculty will not be missing and how human, from President to Tutor! Nor will Father Corliss or Mr. 'Barry be forgotten. Mary's Club will yet prove a bonanza to some student literateur and some one of a hundred admirers will try to do justice to Mary herself-and will fail. Athletics yield themselves easily to literary treatment. . Yale Yarns, Harvard Stories and Princeton Stories would have been sadly mutilated with baseball, football and rowing torn out. Then, lastly, there are the deeper things of student life, temptations overcoming and overcome, sorrows and joys, new purposes, struggles and victoriesg the evolution from youth to manhood and womanhood. Character is made hereg and there is a World of faith and hope and love compressed into the life history of a college class. Shall not some Eliot or Ward or Tolstoi or Hugo delve in this mine of mines? Why shall not all the students of Old Albion in seeking well rounded development give the Imagination, that Kind Bee of the Intellect, an opportunity for development by carefully studying and interpreting the life they live? ..25-

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'R 'I R J I7 ASHLEY, By Fuoivms MARTIN. Dr Ashley was born in P1862 in Stokoe-on-Trent, England. At the age of Sixteen he Came to this countly and located in Brooklyn. Later he removed to Zanesville. Ohio, and afterwards became a student in Ohio Wesleyan University. During his college days, he was known as a diligent seeker after truth. He was honored with the Presidency of the Y. M. C. A., and that of the Euteyrean Musical Society. He knows Ohio Wesleyan as the place where he formed many friendships of a lasting character. 1+ rom O W. U. he went in 1890 to Boston University and there as valedictorian took the degree of S. T. B With this came an appointment to a traveling scholarship. Then from the classic halls of the New Woild he went to seek the treasured lore of the old. Dr Ashley studied at Jena, Leipsig, Berlin- and Oxford. His instructors at the first institution were at Oxford Laird, Fairbairn, Wallace and Sanday. i - In 180-L he returned to Boston to receive the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. In lSSl5 he became president of the Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, Limll, N- Y. There he spent three years of successful admin- istration V ' In January, 1898 he came to Albion College. He brought the breath of the Atlantic with him. He has the power both to administer and to inspire. He comes with the newest methods in teaching and with a sound system of philosophy. His classes are full of interest. His talks are replete with forceful anecdotes and powerful iifrures As a preacher and lecturer he is widely known. He is now lecturing on an average of four times a week. His themes, 'Savonarola, ' 'l he Saint of the Middle Ages, 'Boomerangs and Mirrors, University Life at Home, ' University Life Abroad ' The Making of a Man, and Axiom No. 10 are treated in his own masterly Way. Here it might be added that Dr. Ashley is a member of the Political Science Section, also of the 4 v 0 O 0 LR ' , . in . - , V 1 ' 7 1 . . K' ' , . Eucken, Liebmann and Reing at Leipsig, Wundt, Hiense and Wulker, at Berlin, Pfleiderer, Paulsen and Weis, Q . Q T , D ' QU K i 4 as 4 N 7' G it , , U as cc vs D Psychological Association and is president of the College Department of the State Teachers Association. Since coming to Albion he has wrought great changes. The arrangement of the buildings has been changed from basement to roof and all for the better. And while these improvements have been progressing, funds have been pouring into 'the college coffersg endowments for new chairs have been received and a valuable library has been bequeathed to the institution. Surely Dr. Ashley is the man for the place. He is a ripe scholar, a forceful orator, a wise administrator and withal a congenial christian gentleman? For him and for the college there remains a bright career. His maxim is, Live out your best. Hear, Old Albion, heed the word! -,7- X