Colby College - Oracle Yearbook (Waterville, ME)

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is oI,1CsY119f?5, QOQICDNACI ,RE I he Qbranle Anznriatiun Pressident, CHARLES EVERETT V IGUE, '20 Treasm-evr, JOEL ERASTUS TAYLOR, JR., '21, Secretary, STEPHEN HAGER AYER, '21 A1-t Edito-ess, MATTIE LUCILE KIDDER, '20 E112 fwrarle ihinavh Editor-191,-Clzief CHARLES EVERETT VIGUE, 20, A T Q Business M anageo' JOEL ERASTUS TAYLOR, JR., '21, Z Al' Assistant Business Managers RAYMOND HARRIS SPINNEY, '21, A T sz STEPHEN HAGER AYER, '21, fb A O MATTIE Art Editress ' LUCILE KIDDER, '20, E K , Associate Eclitors WILLIAM JOSEPH POLLOCK, A K li WILLIAM EMERY BURGESS, Z Al' PHIL THADDEUS SOMERVILLE, A T DONALD OSCAR SMITH, 'I' A 9 WALTER REID GUTI-IRIE, A T S2 JOSEPH EDWARD LITTLE, A X A XVILLIAM CIIENEY DUDLEY, ll A 'I' BERNICE BROWN BUTLER, E K IRENE SHIRLEY GUSHEI-1, X 12 ESTI-IER BLANCHARD, A A A MARION LOUISE CONANT, A A ll LINNA CAROLINE WEIDLICI-I, 111 M 8 Centennial Numbeo

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jZcroL,13YjA19g55Q0l1Q1QAc :I 41-aj 7 hituriala ERVANTES in his Don Quixote, though a novel of no literary me-rit, gives us a work which remains, after 300 years, unsurpassed as a picture of Spanish life, as a gallery of living portraits, as a masterpiece of droll humor. An illustration of the latter is the reply of Sancho to the Squire with the great nose: lt is with good reason that I pretend to have judgment in wine. This is a quality hereditary in our family. Two of my kinsmen were once called to give their opinion of a hogshead .... One of them tastes it, considers ity and, after mature reflection, pronounces the wine to be good were it not for a small taste of leather which he perceived in it. The other, after using the same precautions, gives also his verdict in favor of the wine, but with the reserve of a taste of iron which he could easily distinguish. Imagine how much they were both ridiculed for their judgment. But who laughed in the end? On emptying the hogshead, there was found an old key ring with a leathern thong tied to it. We, the Editors, do not presume to possess so splended a sense of dis- crimination as Sancho. What material goes to comprise our book will not permit of so fine a scrutiny for defects as did this famous wine. Even our merit, if we are thus favored, will be of a meagre sort for the reason that the ORACLE for 1920 is a meagre book. We have cut down on the various departments until they are actually threadbare, but through no inclination of our own. Material, in the present year book, comprises less than two-thirds of what we had under consideration last Fall. We have been obliged to reduce to almost endless reduction, simply because financial conditions at Colby prohibit the edition of a volume which could compare favorably with similar publications of other colleges in everything but the price. Printers' and engravers' rates on all ORACLE work have increased exactly 7091. since last year and our hopes for a banner book in this, our first centenary anniversary, are shattered. Do you wonder that we are almost helpless when it comes to delivering you a presentable book, now that you know with what we have to contend? All the same we shall consider ourselves generously rewarded, if our readers-no, not generous with their praise, nor relentless with their cen- sure-assume a neutral ground. Let them offer no consolation-the time for tears is past-but rather a constructive, sympathetic criticism. Criticism, in its ablest form, an art, demands a nicety and exactness of precision which only practice can give. It is this artistic criticism which We crave, one which will consider all points of the question and render a judgment uninfluenced by personal emotions. 10 Centennial Number