Baltimore City College - Green Bag Yearbook (Baltimore, MD)

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THE GREEN BAG a college student seem later to him to be crude and hopelessly fanciful and impossible. It may be that witl1 maturity of judgment, seriousness of purpose has taken the place of vague and indefinite dreams. It may be that upon tl1e passing of his dreams nothing took their place, and that he has lost confidence in himself and in his own success. Whatever the situa- tion may be, the spirit of his college days contains n1uch of what is really essential to him. His crudity of thought and indefiniteness of purpose and plan are soon found to be impractical and insufficient. These are natural to youth and are among those elements of a college man's make-up which should be left behind. He needs, however, to hold tenaciously to what col' lege spirit has stood for-optimism, enthusiasm, freshness and wholesomeness of spirit, self- confidence and his college ideals. - It is surprising how much of the past may be brought back to us by little things which we may chance upon ! A toy may recall to us vividly not only certain events of our childhood, but also the general trend of our thoughts and ideas at that time. By the exciting of a tiny nerve spot our entire mental machinery is put in motion. So may the toy carry us back to and permit us to live again in fancy the days of our childhood. The ancient Grecians found in the images of their household gods the glories of the past ever suggested and typified. XVe also should guard zealously the Lares and Penates of our college days. In concrete shape we would have them in the baseball bats, the footballs, the lacrosse sticks which we had used, the books we had studied, the medals and trophies we had won. The ancient Grecian sought, from time to time, his Lares and Penates, and found inspiration from the past in them. So would we do well to keep and to cherish the relics of our college days. A medal might often often remind us of a half-mile run won by sheer grit after all strength and endurance seem to have been exhausted. A football recalls a bleak November day when our tegun had been slowly pushed down the field and defeat was staring us in the face. We had put forward every effort of which we seemed capable, just as in our business we may now find ourselves apparently hedged in completely by adverse circumstances. When in our fancy the events of that day are brought before our eyes we hear again the voices on the side lines urging us on. We remember how renewed strength, witl1 a feeling of confidence, came to us, of a plunge through the line, and the game won. And that same spirit of confidence returns to us, and we break through another line, different in nature from the one on the football field, but just as formidable in appearances. The self-confidence which will return to us will not be that exactly of the past. The crudity, extravagance and impracticability of the latter we will have by experience learned to realize. The spirit, however, is the same, and it is one of the most valuable, yet least prized, of the possessions of our student days. Doubtless every member of your class, tl1is class of 1905 of the Baltimore City College, fully intends-to keep alive in him the spirit of the days which from you are just passing- However, you will find, as others who have gone before you have found, that this is not easily done. 'Fares will grow up more quickly than you realize, and they will try to choke out the earlier and more delicate plants. Of course, you do not want this to beg you desire to keep 17

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THE GREEN BAG enthusiastic devotion of the students to the college, makes constantly for advancement in the mental and physical conditions of tl1e students, and in a steadily widening scope of usefulness for the college. Not only is the college bettered, but people at large know that it is making progress. Is it not strange how much we are influenced in forming opinions as to the value of what someone else has by what that person thinks of it? Our opinions as to the standing of a college are very much the result of what we believe the students think of it. Hearty enthusiasm and strong devotion on their part are sure to create a favorable impression of the college in the outside world. The students of a college are by all odds its best advertisers. A college spirit presupposes a college man, and it should be that being a college man presupposes the possession of a college spirit. The fallacy of this conclusion is unfortunately only too true. Many a man goes through college winning honor and distinction not only along academic lines, but also in other phases of 'college activity, even in athletics, without ever having felt tl1e impulses which a college spirit would have prompted. Not only has the college failed to get from l1i1n the best of what he was capable, but he also has missed from his life a force which he really neededg though it is possible, of course, that the void was filled in other ways, College'spirit shows itself in a high sense of honor. For instance, the ostracism and practical expulsion by the student body of any one of its members who has been detected cheating in examinations, illustrates oneof its highest phases. A proper col- lege spirit requires in many things that a man shall not be selfish. He must sink l1is self- interest in the common interest of all, and especially must he subserve his own wishes and desires to the good of the college. A form of patriotism results, all the more effective because constant play for its activities is given. His tenacity of purpose is strengthened, especially if he is an athlete. His enthusiasm to his college makes him stick wl1en frequently he would give up. His desire to win is something more than the enthusiasm of the moment, the eager- ness for success wl1iel1 rivalry naturally prompts, or the seeking of self-glory calls for. It is the practical forgetfulness of self in the intensity of his desire for the good of the college which draws from him the last effort of which he is capable. Since the child is father to the man it follows that the college student is father to the college alumnus. It ought to follow also that the college spirit of a student should be a sort of progenitor to a healthy and lusty college spirit in the college alunmus. This is another conclusion which does not hold true in the majority of eases. The average alunmus gradually but surely loses much of his interest in his college. He looks back, it is true, with pleasure upon his college days, continues to feel attached to his Alma Mater, but it ceases to receive from him the whole-souled disinterested devotion of his college days. . Aside from the good which an alumnus, imbued with the spirit of l1is college days may do for his Alma Mater, the benefit which results to tl1e alumnus himself is after all the most important. I refer to tl1e development and the following out in his life of those ideals which college spirit l1ad done so much to foster in his student days. Of course, as the years go by, a man finds that his tastes and inclinations change very materially. His plans when he was 16

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THE GREEN BAG your college spirit ever green and flourishing, and that it shall bring forth fruit in abund- ance. Among the best of its.fruits will be the constant pleasure arising from the thoughts of your college days, the services which you will render your Alma Mater, optimism, self- coniidence, enthusiasm, freshness and wholesomeness of spirit, and the development to a full maturity of your college ideals. Perhaps you may fail to see l1ow these are dependent in any way upon the possession of a battered football or a college medal. You should consider not alone what these things are, but rather what they represent. We no longer believe, it is true, in magic, but we must not lose faith in the eliicacy of certain charms, and chief among these are the relics of our college days. By their presence they will ever keep fresh in our thoughts tl1e best of what our college life stood forg they will prove themselves to be in all things the Lares and Penates of our college days. - GEORGE L. RADCLIFFI9. 18 x