Barnard School for Boys - Bric Yearbook (Fieldston, NY)

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son. Gn great occasions when the military forces of New York and vicinity would turn out for public parade, there would usually be a division of military schools. On such occasions, the Barnard boys marched down Fiftl1 Avenue or up Riverside Drive in their natty grey uniforms amid the plaudits of their friends. Our school has a United States flag which was presentedto its militaryhorganiza- tion for the fine appearance it made in the Columbian Parade of 1892. Military drill seems to have gone out of school life now in this busy city of ours, and the last drill given by the school took place shortly after the return of Captains Hazen and Lyon., our headmasters, from the Spanish Wfar. It was held in the Eighth Regiment Armory, and it represented a complete day in camp. To make the scene more realistic, the various companies pitched their tents upon the armory floor, and camp nres were built in opposite ends of the armory around which the boys sang their camp songs. The drill, as was always the case on such occasions, ended with a sham battle, amid the deafening roar of musketry and Gat- tling guns, followed, of course, by the removal of the wounded by the school hos- pital corps. VVe also note in this first number of the Brie that the school had athletic teams in the various branches of sport. They were not champions. To be champions was not the primary idea of Barnardians. They played for the amount of sport they could get out of the play. At the same time they played their hardest, and opposing teams found a foe worthy of their steel. Imbued thus with the true spirit of sportsmen, it was not many years before tl1e school teams rounded into cham- pionship form. In the interim they won a banner now and then in various sports. The first banner ever given to the school was won by our junior tug of war team in the I. S. A. A. meet of 1888. From 1890 to 1897 many triumphs in athletics came to the Barnard boys, and in 1892 two cl1ampionships in track and base ball. When one recalls the line school boy athletes that attended the preparatory schools of New York in those days, he will realize what those championships meant in the way of prowess and strength. In looking over the names of the teams, we find those of the boys who had attended Barnard from the tirst year. It is also inter- esting to know what the members of these teams have accomplished in their differ- ent walks of life. ' Syd. Syme is now a judge in Westcliestei' County, New Yorkg Ad. Kelley, who afterwards became tl1e famous half-back at Princeton, has become prominent in politics and business interests in West Virginia, Gif. Beals is now an artist of note, Percy Simpson and Gene. Gilroy are practicing law with great success, Billy Rogers, Chris. Feigenspan, Bobby Moore, Edgar Simpson, Henry Blair, Bob. Monks, Harry Fellows, Horace Burns, Wfill. Stickney and Allen Black are pros- perous business men, Hans Vom Baur and Arthur Smith are successful engineers, while 'VValton Wfilson is a dentist with a lucrative practice. Out of,this large number only one is missing. Carl Mayne, who died a short time after leaving the school. He was one of the noblest little juniors that ever wore a Barnard suit.

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was appropriated by the boys as the home of their student activities. As we look back upon them now, the boys during the first year of the school, numbering some forty odd. seem to have been a pretty husky lot. They were deeply interested in the school, and, in consultation with their masters. made beginnings which have since grown to be traditions with us. They published the first number of the Bric Cfrom Bric a Bracl, at the end of the first year of the school, and, in refer- ring to it, we find that they must have used their improvised club house to its fullest capacity. The following is a list of their organizations as they are men- tioned in the first Bric: The Barnard School Corps is a military company, consisting of the students of the school. The drill days are Tuesdays and Thursdays of each week.- Its object is to furnish a knowledge of military tactics, and to teach prompt obedience to commands. 'fThe Literary Society is composed of juniors and Sophomores. Its meetings, held on the first and third Mondays of each month, are short business meetings, followed by literary exercises. The latter consist of debates, declamations, and essays, given by members appointed by the Chair. , The Secret Society, Alpha Omega Chi, is a mysterious organization, formed for the purpose of investigation into matters of darkness, gloom and bloodf' The T. A. B. S. is a secret society for' the younger students: it is a corrup- tion of T.-U.-B.-S. The principal object is amusement for the children. The Cat Club, otherwise Feline Society, is an organization, consisting of wealthy and infiuential members of Barnard, to prevent nocturnal backyard con- certsf' The Glee Club is for the purpose of cultivating vocal harmony in the school and discontent among the neighbors. 'lThe Athletic Association is an active, well developed body that can run, jump, pull tug of war, and play base ball and foot ball with the leading associa- tions, etc., of the city. The VValking Club is a body of athletic young gentlemen whose chief object is to promcte pedestrianism in the school, making it a point to take a long stroll through the suburbs on pleasant Saturdays. VVe see by this list of student organizations that the beginnings of the school were evolved from fertile minds. The boys of '86 builded well. Their military organization grew in course of time to be a small regiment, ofhcered entirely by themselves. Qn occasions, the Field and Staff were mounted, and the school had its own drum and hte corps, led by its own dandy drum major. There were also a signal corps and a Gattling gun battery. In the eighties and nineties, it seemed to be the proper thing for the New York schools to include in their curriculum a military drill, and, at the end of the drill season, usually at Easter time, they would give their various exhibition drills on different nights in the armories of the city. f Barnard never suffered by compari-

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Many banners and cups now grace the nooks and corners of our scl1ool build- ing. Many of them were won by the boys mentioned above, but not all. Since their time many others have been won. The same earnest sportsn1anlike spirit evinced by the old boys still pervades everything truly Barnardian, and we look forward to future triumphs. For seventeen years the school remained at its criginal site. One by one the barn, the carriage house, and the old residence were torn down to make way for improvements. In 1887 and again in 1893 new buildings were erected to accom- modate the increased number of pupils. Here within the next ten years many things were done going to make up the life of the school, fond memories of which still linger with old Barnardians, both students and teachers. Mr. Lyon, who had been a valuable co-worker in the school almost from the founding, became associated with the management of the school as Associate Headmaster in 1892. In 1896 the Barnard School for Girls was established on Washington Heights, and the management of the schools was further increased by the valuable addition of Miss Katherine H. Davis, as Resident Principal of this new department. After a period of seventeen years, the growth of New York to the northward and the consequent encroachment of business, rendered the original site of the school undesirable for school purposes, In April, 1903, the Upper School and the Middle School Departments were transferred to 721 St. Nicholas Avenue, south- west corner of 146th Street, New York, where the necessary alterations were made to receive them. At the same time the Lower School and the Kindergarten, were transferred to 239 Lenox Avenue, southwest corner of 122d Street, New York. In these new locations things go along at the school just about the same as they did in the olden times. True, it is not quite the same. The original forty students have now become almost four hundred. The two head masters now have thirty-four assistants, and there are still other changes which indicate as well the steady growth of the school. But in some things the years have brought no change. The same old school spirit encourages our teams on the field to-day. The same old loyalty keeps the boys true to Barnard ideals. The same honest ambition, to make scholars and men, spurs on the instructors in the class rooms. These things, the things that count, have never changed, and will not change in the years to come. The Barnard School of to-day and of the future is a bigger and a better school than it was twenty years ago, but it is and always will be the same old school.