Carroll College - Hilltopper Yearbook (Helena, MT)

Page 17 text:

The cornerstone of Mount St. Charles College was laid on Monday afternoon. September 27. 1909, by William Howard Taft. President of the United States. Bishop Carroll’s address on the occasion was descriptive both of the site of the College and of the purpose of its establishment. This President's response was a compliment to the Hierarchy and an endorsement of the religious educational policy of the Church. To the Bishop, President Taft said: “It gives me great pleasure to participate in the laying of cornerstones of institutions of learning, whether of church or state. We are liberal enough in this country to be willing to help along educational work of all denominations. The college you are building here will be a blessing to Helena and to the whole state of Montana. The only trouble is we have not institutions enough of this kind in the United States. “Though not of your faith, I cannot but appreciate the good work your church is doing in this country. 1 am intimately acquainted with many members of the hierarchy and I must say that our relations have always been most pleasant. I feel at home among them. I assure you, Bishop. I regard it as an honor and a pleasure both to have your acquaintance and to have been asked to take part in the laying of the cornerstone of your college. I wish you Godspeed in the completion of the institution.” Pa ye vine teen

Page 19 text:

THE. eOLLBeB INSIGNIA There is in the world of today a tendency to look with disfavor on anything that reminds us of the past. Horace’s “laudatores temporis acti” arc regarded as old-fashioned and ultra-conservative individuals, and their ideas considered of little value usually receive scant attention. So pronounced is this tendency that many of those studies and arts which exert a broadening influence are fast being dropped from the curricula of our colleges, and he who would revive them is regarded as hopelessly behind the march of human progress. Among these obsolescent arts, one which possesses a world of interest for the archaeologist, the philologist, and the modern historian, is that of armory or heraldry. Its history is most interesting as it shows the first efforts of man toward effecting a distinction for himself and his tribe by a peculiar mark or token. It renders clear oftentimes not only the history of old families, races, and peoples, but reveals to the modern student many of the institutions with which the modern historian must deal. It is closely allied to philology in forging the missing links of that, language and sign chain which binds us to pre-historic times. Heraldry as a living art declined with the advent of the Tudors in England, and of the Reformation there and elsewhere. But few families outside the aristocracy retained any heraldic reminder of past times, and the use of heraldic devices was confined almost exclusively to institutions of learning, many of which had to search far and long to lay claim appropriately to any armorial bearing. Mount St. Charles was most fortunate in its heraldic possibilities. The insignia of the institution is, in technical terms: “Or, a chevron vert; on a chief gules a cross throughout argent, the inferior half of each canton per less vert.” In common parlance, the shield or insignia of the institution might be described as a green chevron on a field of gold. On the chief, or upper third, is a silver cross superimposed, the alternate red and green stripes of the Borromeo arms appearing in the cantons on either side. Obviously, the Borromeo arms must receive a special honor in position on the shield. Hence, they are placed in the chief. The alternate stripes of red and green, four in number, are taken from the arms of the Borromeo family of Milan and are placed in the spaces called cantons at the four angles of a silver cross that represents the religious character and significance of the chief of the insignia. The Borromeo arms, however, contain six alternate stripes of red and green. Six were not used in the College shield, first, because of the impossibility of seeing Pnac twenty-one