University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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and lorgtt them when they have passed around a turn of the path. For they will choos 5 Steps as heir entrance into the world, and will climb their cracktd. moss-grown slabs wrapped in the half gloom and the m of the tangled vines about them, with the laurel trees shading their steps. ;ire they pitied by the comrades, for the tree ' s branches are just beyond their reach, and these com- rades can not guess that for the dreamer the laurel shade nore grateful than a crown of its branches, for ' tis his lot .ieditate. to muse, to dream. To live the life that ne ' er will be. The Stiles Hall Gate is always crowded, the little men pass here. There is no beaut} 1 to regret as one walks out between the two wooden

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For some there are, and they the majority, who choose the path leading to the North Gate. They pass half carelessly through the language and litera- ture rooms of North Hall, they sniff at the flowers in the Botanical Gardens, they cast a glance at science through the trees which surround the Observ- atory, they plunge for a moment into the intricacies of architecture and then life is before them, the life of the many. A settled, not un- happy life, a nice neigh- borhood, a delightful view, convenient car service quite uneventful respectability. But others will at the start take one of the wind- ing, thread-like paths, which wander between queer-flow- ered trees, and of these their comrades speak as dreamers. 16

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railings, there is no special branch of work which sets free its scholars here. This is the gate nearest the entrance, the men who leave here are but little changed, the campus has left a distorted stamp upon them, or oftener still, has left no stamp at all. The whizz of a street car. the hurried jump upon the already crowded step, and they are gone somewhere. It is without regret that the campus sees them go, it is pleasanter far for us to turn away. Far behind the Greek Theater, right under an enormous pine is a tiny stile which seldom bids farewell to one departing. Many come and gaze upon it, and many turn back and seek an easier way. For the path which starts at the other end of the stile leads straight and steep up a long weary slope. There are no dips into hollows to ease the ascent, there are no groves to hide tin- steepness of the hill, and one must listen long to the message of inspiration from the great stone Theater and the lofty eucalyptus about it to feel that he can undertake the task. The poet passes here, and the writer, and those that are to be teachers of men, for to them is given the strength to pass obscurity and reach the summit of the grassy hill. lUit happy are they to whom it will fall to leave the campus bv the new South Gates. For ' tis solid and firm under foot, the wide brick path which leads to them, and on each side the massive low walls of stone but enhance the glimpses of Nature in the tangle of the creek below. And the rushing of the water mingles with the welcoming- sounds of the outer world. The back- ward look holds nothing of the dim and the indefinite one sees three struc- tures in the three different stages of growth, the first scarcely begun, the second just fulfilling the promise of its vast frame, the third standing long completed. And the future is as definite, for there is self-confidence and self-reliance, and the satisfaction which comes from having found the jewel one comes to seek. And none who leave may loiter here nor wait, Each has his armor for the great world ' s strife; And as he passes through the senior gate He finds himself within the University of Life. 18