Syracuse University - Onondagan Yearbook (Syracuse, NY)

Page 30 text:

THE 1906 ONONDAGAN IE history of 1O05, Syracuse University, calls to mind the kaleidoscopic picture of a wagon g ' oing down the street. The vehicle is large and gilded and has a jeautiful orange canopy over the top. . large individual in a silk tile and a dark suit is the man on the box. Those aboard are playing on sweet sounding instruments. The scene would be as serene as a day i n June if it were not for one thing. Clutched to the tail board of the carriage is a small boy, and another, a little larger, who is safelv inside, is striking him with a stave and making efforts to break his hold. The small specimen, however, is persistent and at last is re- warded with the extreme back seat in the band wagon. He is an aggressive youngster and soon has a horn of his own. lie keeps shoving toward the front, too, with the result that he is finallv right behind the driver. Since the class of 11)05 entered the university, history has been fresh in the making about the Saline City. The members of the present senior class first darkened the horizon about Syracuse University in the fall of 1901, That same fall it won its class football games, a thing almost unprecedented in athletics on the hill. That set the ball a rolling, but it was only a drop in

Page 29 text:

O I- S)-R.ICUSIl U N I - l-.RS I TV 23

Page 31 text:

O • ' .V 1 ■ A ' .1 C ( ' .y ;■ U X I r I- KSI T V 25 the bucket to the events whieli were to foll nv in stich rapid succession that tile record is Ijcwilderiii -. Tlie following- spriuL;; tlie class ag-aiii distint;uislied itself athletically. The i )03 crew, sent dnwu td Ithaca in the ahsence of a second varsity crew, finished a hot sec ind to C jrnell and beat out a Harvard ' varsity eig ' ht, which was a little something outside of the (ordinary for a freshman crew to do. Such confidence was vested in the freshmen by this event that most of the members of the crew, and a few others who were not, had to walk from this city to their homes after the race on the Hudson that spring-, in which Syracuse finished second. There was another epoeli making;- event that spring also. The arch- demons of the university, at that time, ])lanned a banquet to be held outside the city, away from the clutches of the police. Such things do not happen often and the splendid opportunity was not overlooked that time. Oh ! liut there was something doing. As a result, the place where the banquet was held looked like a fresh omelet at dawn the next day. It took three days to clean ofi: the stains on the outside of the Tavern on that occasion and three years to remove those from the honor of the rival class. It would be saying too mucli to narrate the way in wliich the first year students again cleaned up around the campus on that occasion of all occasions to the freshmen — Moving-Up day. The following year the class looked to something else than athletics and affairs of the Tavern order. It began to dabble in the social whirlpool on the hill. This was a step in advance. The only Sophomore cotillion on record was held during the fall, and it was a huge success. Following that event, the thoughts of the members turned toward the organization of class societies, with a social object in view. They sprang up like mushrooms and flourished, too, until the upper classmen issued an edict wdiich made them look like copper and steel stock during the early days of December. That same fall saw the decline and fall of the band hops. Thus the class has been pushing to the front for four years and it is now- approaching the pinnacle of its success. With diminishing numbers it has scaled line after line in the long series of defenses around the stronghold of knowledge. With dei)leted ranks it is now ])reparing for the final grand assault.