Antioch College - Towers Yearbook (Yellow Springs, OH)

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THE MEN'S DORMITORY 42

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f fl- v? THE NIGHT ROAD At that corner, where the smooth road ends, Where the traveller turns from the valley of cities Man drops over the edge of the world. All things loud and gaudy Are tinsel phantoms, gone where time goes. The rutted way is rich with dust. The hr trees link black arms, Walling in a great peace. Stars burn cool and clear among them. The vault of silence, from earth to heaven, Brims with the breathing of the fields. 41

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are doubtless many ivies that have been trans- planted into America from Great Britain with a history attached to them, but it is possible that ' none of them have a history quite as remarkable as the ivy which mantles the walls of Antioch. The donor of the ivy was Miss Alton Halstein Iohnson, a sister-in-law to Mr. Frank Grinnell of Spring Lea. One sum- mer while visiting the estate of Washington Irving Miss Iohn- son so fervently admired the ivy luxuriously ernbowering Sunnyside that upon leaving, Mr. Irving said, Let me give you some ivy to take back to your home in Ohio. Initially, the ivy had been planted on Irving's delightful home by a Mrs. Renwick, of New York City. It was she whom Burns immortalized in his poem, The Blue Eyed Lassief' On one of her visits to Scotland she went to Melrose Abbey. Sir Walter Scott gave her a piece of ivy to plant at Irving's home and she did so with her own hands. It soon attained a growth as luxuriant at Sunnyside as it had at Melrose. . Miss Iohnson, herself a remarkable, cultured woman with a long line of literary ancestors, finally gave the ivy to Antioch through Doctor Thomas Hill who was then president of the institution. Some years ago the Antioch ivy was confounded with bignonia, and thinking it might injure the roof was torn in part from the walls, but, Whole ages have Hed, and their works decayed, And nations scattered beeng But the stout old ivy shall never fade From its hale and hearty green. The brave old plant in its lonely days Shall fatten upon the past, For the stateliest building men can raise Is the ivy's food at last. Creeping where no life is seen A rare old plant is the ivy green. FROM omg OF ANTIocH's FIRST PRINTED ANNUALS, 1918. 43