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

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If from among the number of people well known to the students in the early days of the University, one was to be selected whose comradeship was and is most appre- ciated, it would be Joseph Le Conte, the seeker after truth. My class came under his instruction for three years. The subjects were Botany. Zoology and Geology. V(j sat about a twelve-foot kitchen table that was covered with green oil-cloth, and took notes while Professor Joe with clasped hands walked up and down the room and talked on the subject that he had prepared for the day. It was his custom to spend at least two hours in the preparation of each lecture to be delivered before the class, no matter how familiar the subject was to him. Every now and again when desiring to emphasize a particular thought he would come to one corner of the table, rest one or both hands upon it. and look around into the faces of the members of the class, as in his inimitable way he would drive the thought home. It was just at this period that he was having his great wrestle with science and religion. He emerged from the contest with profound conviction, and reverence for each as a form of truth. Professor Joe with parties of students made horseback camping trips to the - -ra. where he rested, worshipped, studied, loved and grew. During the last year that my class was under his instruction there were twelve of the original twenty-five. He frequently referred to the class as the twelve apostles, but sometimes as the twelve s pokes of a wheel. If you had known the class, you would appreciate the latter comparison. I remember that in the course of Botany. Professor Joe was describing the great power in cell growth, and illustrated by telling of an experiment that had been conducted by some one. with a pumpkin, on which a platform some three feet square had been placed and then loaded with weights. A carefully constructed scale was used to indicate the rise of the platform from day to day. As it rose, more weight was added, until finally the power of growth was overcome and the pumpkin was crushed. One of the members of the class wanted to know of Professor Joe if that was the origin of the squash. Graduation time came : the competitive examination for the University medal was over (I didn ' t get it) ; the class dinner, at seventy-five cents per plate, had been partaken of at Barnum ' s Restaurant, corner of Seventh and Broadway, the Bacca- laureate sermon had been preached by Dr. McLean, and the Pacific Coast Alumni A ociation had had their dinner in the Grand Central Hotel. Nobody connected with the University lived in Berkeley. Berkeley was an area of farm land that lay some five miles to the north of Oakland. However, in anticipation of the removal of the University from Oakland to Berkeley a horse-car line had been built and was in operation semi-occasionally. Commencement Day we bundled onto a lot of flat cars that had wooden benches on them, and went out to the future home of the University. At Berkeley the class of ' 73 took formal possession of the grounds and buildings (two of them.) The exercises were held in the assembly room of the College of Letters, now North Hall. Governor Booth and President Gilman deliv- ered the principal addresses.

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very dignified and kindly mannered gentleman, but the temptation that he prese nted to us at times was too great to be resisted. If we were prepared, the recitations went on ; but if we needed a little time to prepare for the next exercise, two of the members of the class would rig a see-saw on him, and in five minutes he would complacently close his eyes, slide back in his chair, lean back, and with his hands clasped across his stomach, lecture till the bell rang. In the meantime the members of the class in perfect quiet were digging like good fellows to get ready for the calculus or for the English that was to come at the next hour. The department of modern languages was presided over by Professor Paul Pioda, a Franco-Italian Swiss of some accomplishment in language, but the easy prey of young America. He had classes in French, German. Spanish, and Italian. Life held no allurements for him so long as he remained in the University. In the class in French, what Charlie Stone didn ' t think of, Reinstein did. and what Reinstein forgot Otis passed up. I was in the section that took Spanish. The book prescribed was de Torros. We used it for a year, handed in the exercises, which were returned to us after being corrected, and got along so so. The second year an assistant was engaged for the department, in the person of a young Spaniard named Gorilla, a young man of really fine quality. At the first meeting with the class we persuaded him that de Torros was the best book he could use. So, without a peep from any one we spent the second year in Spanish, going over the same book that we had used the first year, copying our corrected exercises and handing them in. The grades were away up. The next year, because of some changes in the work, this remarkably fine class in Spanish went back to the head of the department. At the first meeting of class and instructor the latter was persuaded that de Torros was the best book we could use. So, armed with the original exercises that had been corrected, and the corrected ones that had been corrected, we went through with the third year of de Torros, and made a record that has stood from that day to this. I still think that when an instructor extends to a lot of young people an invitation to make merry. it is their business to accept the invitation. It was a privilege to come in close contact with the majority of the members of the faculty and with the students of the small institution : John Le Gonte, Joseph Le Conte, W. T. Welcker, Martin Kellogg and Daniel C. Oilman, of the faculty; and among the students, in addition to those of my own class, Win. R. Davis. John M. Stillman, John E. Budd, J. C. Rowell, Frank P. Deering, Josiah Roycc. Fred V. Holman, Wm. Carey Jones, Harry Vebb, and many others, of course. Mentioning the name of Harry Webb brings to mind an incident to which he called my attention when he was here a year and a half ago : Webb was a member of the committee that selected the blue and gold as the colors for California. But the suggestion came from Miss Rebekah Bragg of ' 76, who was not a member of the committee. The suggestion was so appropriate that it was immediately adopted by the committee, and we were given the most beautiful colors of any college in the country. 24

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Thence forward all college exercises were conducted at Berkeley, instructors and students coming daily by horse-car from Oakland. The buildings in Oakland were sold and removed. Webster Street and Thirteenth Street were cut through the old campus. College Hall was removed to the corner of Twelfth and Harrison Streets, and converted into a livery stable. It was said that they had turned out the asses and had taken in horses. The old Brayton Hall was moved to the corner of Twelfth and Webster Streets and now is the home of a drinking saloon and the headquarters of a socialist organization. The small building, of three rooms, that had been erected for an administration building, was moved to the corner of Fourteenth and Webster Streets and for a time was occupied by The Home of Truth ; which raises a question as to what it was before. As I run on with these reminiscences, incidents grave and gay come trooping along, but I think it likely that I have already exceeded the limits set for me. I have had more than a little pleasure in recalling the four years spent in Oakland and in contemplating the changes that have taken place within the memory of many of us. Last May (1910) eight of the twelve graduates of 1873 had dinner together at the home of Frank Otis in Alameda. From an institution of ten instructors and thirty- five students, I have seen it grow to an institution of three hundred instructors and four thousand students, not including the summer session, attended this past year by one thousand. It is gratifying to see such growth. It is a pleasure to have been a part of it. GEORGE C. EDWARDS. 20