Bethany College - Bethanian Yearbook (Bethany, WV)

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Top — A class tug-of-war staged across the Buffalo. Mi Idle — The old equipment of the fire depart- ment. It iras used here until last year. Bottom — The jail, abode of the fugitives from the campus. late at night, or to place some bovine beauty at the top of the Tower. Incidentally though there are many reports of this last feat, we could find actual proof of only one time when it was really occurred, and then the wags who put her there were forced to remove Bossy when they found she didn ' t appreciate her environment. Then too, there were the Literary Societies. These institutions had as much dignity as the Colege itself, some having even gone so far as to secure charters from the state, and all of them holding their own Commencement ceremonies. In those days, bids to join one of these organiza- tions were more sought after than similar invita- tions by fraternities, and the rushing by these societies were even tougher. As soon as the new student arrived, the members started to work on him, never resting until he wore their colors pinned to his coat. It is from this that Bethany derives its custom of wearing ribbons with soro- rity pins after pledging or initiation. After the wane of the Literary Societies, fra- ternities took an important place on the campus. These groups rushed with a vengeance at the be- ginning of the year. The usual method was to meet the poor young neophyte as soon as he came to town. He was then relieved of his bags and these were taken to the house of the would-be-ab- ductors. The natural thing to do was follow the bags. This was a fatal mistake. As soon as the prospective pledge was far enough into the house so that he could not run out, the door was locked and friends gathered around to ask the usual ques- tion as to his fraternity preference. He was told that he was at liberty to choose whichever group he wanted, but in order to get out he would have to leave bearing the colors of the house. It was not until a few years ago that the streets were paved. A fraternity man was marked in those days by the color of the mud on his shoes and the height to which his pants were rolled. The tradition of the smoke-out is something very few of the present freshmen know anything about. It seems that the old-time way of de- monstrating one ' s affection for a group was to foul the air with the aroma of burning pitch or sulfur or some other pungent agent. The girls always appreciated it in a martyr-like fashion. At least they knew that someone was thinking about them. The favorite way of starting the operation was to find a way into the cellar of the house and start the fire there. The culprits then retired to some spot from which they could com- mand a good view of the place and waited for re- sults. They were not disappointed. The women fled from the house clad in what they could gather on the spur of the moment, and many a heart was thrilled when an ankle or two was un- covered in the rush. Up until last year these P.-v S •::

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to attend the Orations which everyone had to give before graduation. These lectures were given on some weighty subject and delivered be- fore the entire student body in the old chapel, the present faculty ofiice. In order to inject a little life into the affair, somebody usually turned out the lights and, in the words of one of the alumnae, That ' s when we had our social life. Dr. Woolery was giving his oration when the silence was broken bv the pealing of about fifteen alarm clocks. Perhaps the last of the old traditions to disap- pear from the campus was the purely local go- ing on ' biz, the approximate equivalent of go- ing steady with a member of the opposite sex. Biz had its origin in the strict rules which haunted the biological urges of every student. It was, as has alreadv been pointed out, an extremely difficult feat in olden times to get anything which would faintly resemble a healthy date in these days. Perhaps the simplest method of cir- cumventing such barriers to true love was to meet the girl of your choice on the corridor after chapel, (which occurred at eight o ' clock everv morning, come rain, shine, or calamity) , and to stroll calmly up and down with her, while turn- ing on the old personality for all it was worth. Should the same boy and girl make a habit of these little jaunts, there would come a day when practically the whole school would swing in be- hind the unsuspecting couple and start chanting, On biz, On biz, On biz! ad infinitum to some old-time jive tune, usually to the embarrassment of the recipients. We don ' t quite know what this little ceremony signified, but from what we can gather, it was a well-liked and frequent oc- currence. Even today we can hear the old grads at Homecoming recall the first time they went on biz with a little sad sigh of sweet remem- brance. As can be seen, the measures of discipline in those days were much stronger than those of to- day. Due to the fact that college was probably the Four Year Loaf we have always heard about, the men of the day seemed to be out for the best time they could have, and so it is not un- common to be talking to one of the alumni and find that he was thrown out in ' 03 or ' 09. Grad- uation exercises must have been rather sparse affairs. To those not in the know it might seem that the students of those days were more isolated than we because the supply of cars was rather limited. If you look in the middle of our Main Street, in some spots you will see the remains of one of the greatest institutions of the college — the old streetcar. It was rather a rattletrap af- fair with little power or speed, that wended its way from here to Wellsburg and back loaded The Toner — Serene, yet tie fire in all of Beth- any legend. with joyriding students. Due to the lack of power, a large load made it necessary for the pas- sengers to dismount and push the car up Bueh- annon ' s Hill, and of course the sharp turns threw it off the track at every opportunitv. The old car was the butt of many student pranks. It was derailed often, pushed off the end of the tracks in Bethany and down to the K.D. bridge, where it would rest until someone would feel like push- ing it back up. If you will look at the bricks in front of the post office you will find much evi- dence of the deed. Rumor has it that this anti- quated wreck was the inspiration for Fontane Fox ' s famous cartoon, The Toonerville Trolley . Among the other folklore which has disappear- ed were the habits of strewing the campus and buildings with animal life. The old bovs seemed to think it was quite funny to load the dining room at Phillips with hawgs, or to place a jack- ass in Prof. So-and-So ' s classroom in hopes that he might take the hint, to ride Revere-like on some nag up and down the hallowed Corridor Page Five

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things were still carried on, but the passage of time and the national emergency has relegated this quaint custom to the limbo of the past. We hope that the generations after the war know enough about the history of the college to hold the torch high once more. Men will be needed like the former student who was so overwhelmed with the beauty of this affair that he smoked-out his own mother and father after they had came to see him. In the olden days Bethany had a powerful football team. Even today you may read in the history of the team of some larger institution such as Army, Navy, or Lafayette, a mention of going back into the hills to play Bethany. This was before Bethany had adopted the idea of an institution for learning . Mustachioed brusiers from the hills would enroll every Saturday to bolster the team. There is the tale of one man who lived in town with a wife and several chil- dren who would knock off work every Saturday to play ball. Some of these muscle-bound crea- tures were dripping with the milk of human kindness. Not having to study, they had much time for good deeds. One had the habit of ris- ing early any snowy morning, going to the vill- age and shoveling all the sidewalks. But they were hard, bitter men who took losses like hem- lock. In the midst of one epic of brutality, the star of the game was taken out, or rather, asked to retire in place of another man. He objected to this somewhat strenuously, but just before he came off the field he went over to the water bucket and filled his mouth with water. The opposing team was lined up on the defense, and as he went off the field be bent low and ran along the line of scrimmage, venting his spleen on their bearded faces. This year ' s crop of freshmen have not been treated to the sight of a rather diminuitive Dean of Students standing before them and tell.ng them that Bethany is primarily an educational institution, or been subjected to biting remarks concerning their dress, study habits, mode of dress, and other such things, but those who have easily gain the impression that when he was a Bethany student he was a model boy, a stainless youth who was destined to carry the torch of wisdom farther into the wilderness of the average college student ' s mind. Perhaps he was, but lie had his moments. F.H.K. for a while lived in the present office of the head of Physical Educa- tion, and which was known then as the Crow ' s Nest. This was indeed a vantage point as far as keeping up on events on and about the campus was concerned, and the good Dean was not one to let such an advantage slip. Every night wh.-n the opportunity afforded, he would grasp a meg- aphone in one hand and broadcast in his mellow, rasping voice all the gossip and scandal he had managed to collect during the day. But that was nothing. It seemed that the Dean was only human and had the same trouble as you do when it came to getting to an eight o ' clock on time. Conditions finally reached a head. Mrs. Bourne reported that he had missed a great deal of his work through this lack of will-power, and he was told that if he was late or cut one more class, the college would find it necessary to sus- pend him for a while. Things went well, but soon he began to fall back into his old ways until one morning he awakened so late that he knew it would be impossible for him to get to class and dress too, so he went in his bathrobe. He was told to go back to his room and attire himsdf like a gentleman. Seething with righteous indig- A picture of the student body taken after mock chapel . The math department, surveying ' a portion of the campus. v Page S.-tn