Butler University - Carillon / Drift Yearbook (Indianapolis, IN)

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Meredith Nicholson Butler By Meredith Nicholson. It is a pleasure to be permitted to salute the men and women of Butler, young and old, far and near, at an hour when the Col- lege prepares to meet a new opportunity to serve the world. These are times of great perplexity in the affairs of mankind, and we of America have increasingly a duty to cling fast to all that makes for security and enlightenment. It has been my good fortune to enjoy the acguaintance and profit by the friendship of many of the sons and daughters of Butler College. We have had, in Indiana, no finer body of citizens. Butler stands for some- thing; Butler College is an inalienable part of the history of Indiana. The spirit of Butler has always been that of things noble and elevated that make toward perfection. It is not the size or the age of a college that counts; it is the aspiration and the vision of those who are taught to think straight and keep their eyes on the stars that distinguish the service rendered by an institution that undertakes to open the book of life to youth. The movement for a New Butler can not obscure for those of us who have passed the middle distance what the old meant to Indianapolis and Indiana. Written into the first charter of the institution were the ideals of Christianity, broadly and inspiringly interpreted. Nor may these be lost in the transfer to a new site, for they are of the things that are imperishable. And love of American ideals is not less an element of the Butler spirit. The Butler men who died in the greatest of wars are a pledge to the future of a continuity of endeavor in the New Butler of cdl that made the glory of the old. To make sweetness and light, mercy, justice and peace prevail is the great business before America. And nothing is more reassuring in a survey of the future than the fine determination of Butler to renew her strength and broaden the scope of her labors to the end that this pretty good old world may become a better place for the children of men.

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Several years later we see a different picture. The pasture has been converted into a full-fledged college campus, with four brick buildings, and an athletic field; for Butler established herself quickly in her new home. With improved conditions, modern buildings and equipment, the College found room to grow and take on more activities. Regret at leaving the old home was forgotten in the benefits and opportunities of the new. A community interest grew up around the school; the life of Irvington became centered in that of Butler. For the spirit of Butler College still lived, and seemed to grow with the campus. Gradually the picture changes with the progress of the College until it presents to us the one we know best — the living scene of today. Additional buildings have been erected, but they cannot accommodate the one thousand students enrolled for the present year. The year 1922-23 seems marked for an important one in Butler ' s aestiny. Not only has it brought with it well-earned athletic prestige, but growth in numbers and spirit as well. The culmination of years of this spirit has heralded for Butler the dawn of a new day. For history repeats itself, and Butler finds herself now in the same position she was back in 1873. The College has outgrown its quarters. Expansion is imperative; conditions demand a move to a community where there is room to grow. Students, alumni and faculty have become greatly at- tached to the old campus. It is hard to break the ties which bind their college life to that of the community. But the men at the helm are men of wisdom and foresight; they see beyond the narrow bounds of the present campus, into the wider horizon of the new; they have the faith end courage of vision. So after careful deliberation they have chosen Fairview Park as Butler ' s future home. And now comes the final picture. A campus extending over 246 o.cres of land; a campus of wondrous natural beauty, with well-equipped modern buildings; a magnificent stadium; bordering on a lake, con- structed in the river bottoms; approached by a boulevard built through from Meridian Street; surrounded by a community whose life is knit up with that of Butler; a place where Butler may live and grow and make the most of every opportunity; a campus truly fitted to be the permanent home of a great institution. This is the vision of those men who, like Ovid Butler, have the real welfare of Butler College at heart; the dream of an ampler home of learning at Indianapolis, soon to be realized: and the reality will last as long as ' time and the spirit of Butler College shall endure.

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Old College Days By Abe Martin Ole College Days, sighed Tell Binkley th ' oilier day when he heard Butler College wuz goin V he loeated at Fairview Park, eventually. It must be great t ' look bach- on a happy college career, I ' recall ole chums, an ' ole football games, an ' ole bas- ketball victories , an ' early romances, an ' things. It certainly beats lookin ' back on eight or nine years o ' idleness, or maybe drivin a delivery wagon, or clerkin ' fer -$8.00 a week, or wastin ' time an ' energy on some commonplace employment thai would ferev- er keep one in th ' obscure walks of life, even if he became an expert at it. I didn go V no college, but ther hain ' t been a day in th ' last three decades that I couldn have used a college education f good advantage if I ' d had one. I wuz a good paper-hanger when I wuz a boy, an ' might o ' gone t ' college easily on my earmn ' s, but 1 preferred clothes, an ' th ' wild night life o ' Bloom Center. O ' course 1 look pretty good, an ' have a little money laid aside, but I didn ' realize il ' till I had sidewhiskers an ' wuz established in th ' tornado insurance business. Ther used f be a chap named Chester Berry that run in our crowd. He wuz a fine lookin ' athletic non-producer, an ' played th ' picolo in th ' band an ' had t ' chew t ' backer V keep his lips moist. One day his rich uncle from Calif orny dropped in on him an ' wanted t ' take him off his mother ' s hands an ' put him in a Californy College. But, no sir-ree— not fer Chester! He preferred t ' stay wher he wuz, an ' play in th band. That ' s a quarter of a century ago. th ' other day 1 picked up th ' Bloom Center Argus an read, Mr. Chester Berry, o th ' Elite Bowhn Alleys, wuz presented with a genuine onyx scarf pin fer loyal service as checker, coverin ' a period o ' twenty years.