Vanderbilt University - Commodore Yearbook (Nashville, TN)

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 1%§ - OFFICERS. ( W. Soarkitt...........................................President. II. I). Ruiim, , ... ,, . . ................................I 'ice President . 1. II. M krone, .Ik , ' A. II. ii.son.........................................Secretary. K. II. ( ROCKETT.........................................Treasurer. Jeff McCarx..............................................Poet. i:o. Mimms,..............................................Historian. SOPHOMORE CLASS HISTORY. f I was inv pleasure, a few weeks ago, to find in a neglected alcove of the 'J Library. the histories of all the classes that have existed since the establish- ment of the I niversitv. They are all of the same spirit, written under the inspiration of the same sorrowful muse; thev tell of the disciple of learning crouching beneath the strokes of his master, or of the great biennial battles be- tween students and the Faculty. It is with no slight degree of pleasure that I can write the history of a class whose career has been far otherwise—a class that has broken awav from the superstition and slavery of the past, and entered into the sunlight of intellectual freedom and development. The members of the present Sophomore class are very precocious, the average age being about fifteen. (It was a few years ago when I investigated the matter.) They have all the mental alertness common to youthful minds, with the addition that they have a great deal more than is usually allotted to human beings. An evidence of this fact is the brilliant record that they have made. The hardest lessons have been dismissed with a casual glance, and examinations have been

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 To wanderer’s eye Him next appear The sccih'S of nation's rise and tall; Vnd dol'rous accents greet his ear, Next forty pages, that is all.’’ He leaves behind that classic soil. Laments no more o’er man's decay. Nor yet may find surcease of toil. O’er tangled Oreek roots lies his way. Thence winds his course mid lonely glades. And chilling fears come o'er him: To haunt his road appear the shades Of Latin authors, dark and grim. At length a vale mini s into view. With horrors tilled and darkness dire, K’en phantoms here dare not pursue. And in their fear forgot their ire There lahyrinthian mazes wind. Of tangents, curves and ellipses; Instructing cure pervades the mind. And light of other joy eclipses. Kmerging slow, lie sees his goal. The end of all his trials sore : Its sunshine warms his very soul. That longed-for height of Sophomore.

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 - .•) :i source of aimisemcnt rather than depression of spirits. The Faculty, recog- nizing the fact early in the session, began to give much longer lessons, and, as thev thought, much harder examinations, and still they couldn’t “bust us, for “P5 was the lowest mark made on Intermediate. They then came to the con- clusion that they were dealing with a supernatural set of human beings, and decided that something had to he done. One day the professor in Greek, chuckling in his sleeve, announced that in a few days e would take up the Seventh Hook of Thucydides—“the nr tins ultra of human art. The professor of English Literature, seeing that Joining's Rhet- oric couldn't even amuse us, went up into his 1 Diversity Department and brought down numerous philological volumes for us to study. 1 he professor of Mathe- matics, usuallv very reticent in his laudations of individuals or classes, declared that he had never seen anything equal to it in all his eventful life, that the poorest fellow in our class was better than his old friend Downer, and that we should consider ourselves promoted to Junior Math., which would only he a station on the road to Math.-heaven. The other professors did likewise, hut all to no avail. On April l’ . at a call-meeting of the Faculty, the class was dismissed from further duties in the University till they should get some new course of study from Leipsic. W e were allowed, however, to remain on the Campus , to have free access to the Library, were often invited to dinners and teas given by the professors in honor of the “geniuses, and five of us were elected to seats at “The Round 'fable. a select few of Nashville's most accomplished scholars. All this time the relations between professors and students have been the most pleasant. As a token of the love which we have for them, not a one of all our large number appeared before them in the last eonrour to speak on the perils that threaten the perpetuity of American institutions or the destiny of the human race. On the other hand, they have talked of us. written of us. and challenged the world to produce our equals, and every time they meet us they pull off their hats. As a matter of course, the great amount of leisure time that we have had has enabled us to pursue any study or amusement that we should like. We have gotten out a Greek play, and, although we have acted it in only a few cities, in-