Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

Page 29 text:

V. The most potent, and, perhaps, the most important influence, however, at work on College Hill is the indehnable spirit that pervades everything, a spirit that is contagious and unmistakable. Hampden-Sidney has illustrated to the world the fact that it is not bricks and mortar, not titles or robes that make an institution, but men,-men of high aims and genuine culture. Nor has this spirit been less pleasing than helpful to the young men who imbibe it. The memories of my college days at Hampden-Sidney are among the very happiest of my life: and every day l learn with fuller pleasure the significance of those words, written over the entrance to the Second Passage, Ham' 011.111 111v11zi111'sx1' j11t'11I11'f. YI. Finally, Hampden-Sidney has always stood, and still stands, for Chris- tian cdncation, a mingling of piety with learning. This result has come most largely from the character of the men who have served at its head. XYhat a noble line of presidents the College has had! May one who loves him be per- mitted to say that he who now stands at the helm is second to none in the posses- sion of those high qualities of head and heart that have rendered his predecessors illustrious? Hampden-Sidney has a past that is hlled with traditions so sacred and inspiring that its future can not be otherwise than great and honorable. 25

Page 28 text:

Among the distinctive features of Hampden-Sidney College the following are, in my judgment, the most prominent and important: I. Its tenacious clinging to a well attested curriculum course. This does not mean that the student may not make a limited and judicious election of certain studies at certain stages of his college career: but it does mean that Hampden- Sidney will not subordinate its own judgment of what a liberal education is or ought to be, to the passing fancy of the untrained student, who may or may not, know what is the best course for him to pursue. Thus, the college has put itself squarely on record as an advocate of culture and liberal training as the basis of all really successful post-graduate and professional work: it insists upon rigid schol- arship, and, especially, upon a solid basis for all scholarship: it resists super- ficiality and all artificial, top-heavy systems, which parade themselves under the captions titles invented by modern society. I attribute the very unusually high rank attained by the graduates of Hampden-Sidney in the various pro- fessions to the wise and dignified position of the College in dealing with this matter. Il. Another distinctive feature that deserves a prominent place in this review is the unusually high standard of scholarship maintained by the College. This has won for Hampden-Sidney the respect not only of its alumni, but also, in a large measure, of the intelligent masses throughout the South and East, and indeed, this entire country. After an experience of four years as student, and three years of service as professor, in the College, I can bear testimony to the fact that a feeling of genuine respect and enthusiasm for Hampden-Sidney can be resisted by no one, who, day after day, witnesses the honest, thorough, conscientious, conduct of every department of the School, and the matter-of-course genuine- ness that pervades its work and shapes its policies. III. A third distinctive feature of the College to which attention has often been called, and upon which too much emphasis can not be laid, is the existence of its unexcelled literary societies, A distinguished educator remarked to me the other day that in his honest opinion they are the best in the South. He might have added, I think, that they are unsurpassed in this country. The training of these societies furnishes one of the most important and essential elements in the equipment of the graduates of I-Iampden-Sidney. IY. A fourth element in the strength of the College and the distinctive feature consists in the unusually high social and moral character of its student- body. The vsfvrit dc corps among the students is exceptionally fine, and their gentlemanly conduct, as a body, unsurpassed in my experience. Is it not a high tribute to the institution that it attracts young men of such high tastes and aspi- rations? Again, is it not quite as high a tribute that the College engages and maintains their respect and attachment? In these particulars we heartily suggest this motto for the future: l'vstz'giu nnllu rvfrursimif' 22

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ff 99 M r. V. By Rev. T. W. Hooper, D. D. HIS is not his whole name, but the abbreviated form, and was applied by his wife, who was a cousin with the same name, and who intended to avoid the Yankee custom of a wife calling her husband George, or XVilliam, or Sam. And thus it came about that everybody called him Mr. Y., and he responded as naturally as if it had exhausted the whole alphabet. XVhen I first knew him, it had been long enough since he was a Freshman for his eldest son to be a member of that verdant class, to which I also was added in 1850: and strung along from this eldest son, there was the patriarchal number of children, about equally divided, male and female. Ah, me! nearly half a century gone since those Freshman days, and how quickly the mind, like a huge flash-light, sends its rays along the intervening years! And how the boys and girls, who made things lively in those bright days of new life to the college, have been scattered far and wide! and how many, alas! are gone! Rev. L. XY. Green, D. D., had just entered upon his brilliant career as president, and the newly introduced scholarship system had brought new students from far and near. The region round about was in a high state of cultivation under the old slave system, where master and servant were on the best of terms. The crops of tobacco got most of the fertilizers, and the old hard knobs were left to wash in gullies from year to year: but peace and plenty reigned supreme, and old-time hospitality made an earthly paradise. Mr. Y. had a farm near Farmville, but so many olive plants adorned his dwelling, that for the sake of economy, he moved his family to the Hill, where Mrs. Y. lived in the house now occupied by Professor Thornton. The boys were entered in College with NYilliam as my classmate: the younger ones being Preps, then taught by a tutor in the Stewards Hall. And as the years glided by, the older boys, one by one, entered college, and later on, the girls fell into my hands, as a kind of private tutor. After the fashion of those days, Mr. Y. came home only on Saturday night, nigger like, to his wife's house. The rest of the week he spent at the old home on the farm, keeping bachelor's hall, and surrounded by hospitable neigh- bors, most of them relations. Here he exercised a general oversight of the farm while the crops were growing, but when these were gathered and housed, he moved his quarters to his wife's house, and kept the table supplied with wild turkeys. The only wild turkey I ever killed was while I was sitting in a blind with him yelping: and it was so sudden, that he yelled at me for Hring my gun, as he thought, by accident. The turkey came up my side, and I killed it so quickly. that I am not sure he ever invited me to take another hunt. 24