University of Rhode Island - Renaissance / Grist Yearbook (Kingston, RI)

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Junior Colors Brown and White J. Gilman S. E. Champlin N. A. Harrall Officers . President Vice-President Secretary and Treasurer Honorary Member Elizabeth Watson Kenyon Members Brett, Clarence E. Champlin, S. Elizabeth Dow, Victor W. Gilman, Jean Harrall, Nellie A. 17

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History, ’04 After a career of four years filled with divers vicissitudes, our class, or, more correctly, the survivors, find themselves almost prepared to leave these halls, which have done so much to mould both mind and character. Only a few short weeks and we shall have to step out into the busy world to fight for ourselves. As we look back to our entrance here, we have a mental picture of a small but determined body of students eagerly setting out on their College course. From time to time we have lost first one member, then another, until now but two of the original group are left. As a recompense we have had our number increased by our first lady member, who joined our ranks at the beginning of this year. Yet our lack of numbers is not surprising. We have been studying here during a time of great instablity and unrest and are proud to realize that we have been able to help uphold the college during one of the most trying periods of its history. We enjoy the unusual distinction of being the smallest class ever graduated here, and sincerely hope that we may never part with that honor. We were so unfortunate as to lose our honorary member, Miss Sanderson, but we shall always remember with gratitude her kindly help and cordial interest in us and wish her all possible success in her new field of work. No doubt many of our friends were much surprised when they failed to receive their 1904 Grist, and we are glad to say that the fault was not ours. After carefully preparing a volume which we deemed worthy of regard, we were bitterly disappointed at the unsatisfactory treatment accorded us by our publishers, and rather than present an annual totally inferior to our anticipations and standards, we deemed it best to refuse the edition with the sincere hope that future editors might have a more rosy path to tread. Naturally with so small a class there has been little of interest enacted outside our routine of college work. This latter, we may add, has been strenuous to a marked degree and it is with a feeling partly of regret, partly of pleasurable expectation, that we bid farewell to friends and co-workers at the R. I. C. Our most cher- ished wish is for the future success of the college and of all who may call it Alma Mater. 16

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1905 Our Junior year, with its trials and pleasures, its course of studies and its congenial, although responsible task of editing The Grist, has come — and is gone. We have tried to bear our trials patiently, to enjoy our pleas- ures moderately, to do justice to our course of studies, and to make The Grist a credit to our Alma Mater. The memory of our trials and pleasures will remain with us as long as life lasts; our degree of success with our studies is on the college records; The Grist lies open before you. At the beginning of the year Mr. Brett of the Massachusetts Agricultural College joined our class, so that there are still five of us. Let us hope that from now on we may exemplify the theory that there is luck in odd numbers. Mr. Brett is also an oddity in his course, as he is our only agricultural member. The other two boys are students of highway engineering. They will be the first highway engineers graduated, a case of two being, if not odd, at least a little singular. After graduating, each of the latter, Messrs. Dow and Gilman, may do his diploma up in a red bandana, tie it and a second-hand lobster can to a stick and, at his leisure, inspect the walk- ing facilities of our highways; while Mr. Brett with his framed diploma hanging in the best room over the piano, may do “The man with the hoe” act, as they “Weary Willie” it past his estate. The girls are still enlisted under General Science’s banner. General Science is quite a lady-killer, by the way; sooner or later he seems certain to capture the affections of all our young lady students. Even our honorary member, we are sorry to say, has succumbed to his blandishments, and allows him to spend evening after evening, wholly unquestioned, at Wat- son House. We boys do not consider this a square deal and some would even like to see the General expelled, or at least put on pro bation, and denied the right to visit the girls’ dormitory. But enough of General Science; it is useless to rail against fate, no damage can be done to a stone wall by butting your head against it. We must perforce leave the General in full control by right of eminent domain, and beat as dignified a retreat as possible. We do not know what Miss Champlin and Miss Harrall will do after graduating. It is a toss-up whether they will wield a ruler over inquisitive Young America, wield a gavel at woman’s rights conventions, or wield the maternal slipper at their own firesides. Wield something, however, they surely will; Time, the great tattler, alone can tell what.