Davidson College - Quips and Cranks Yearbook (Davidson, NC)

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cold showers at any time of the day; and the renovated church, with its handsome new pipe organ, offers quite a pleasing contrast to the old building from the point of view of additional comfort and increased seating capacity. These improvements, which only a few years ago were hardly more than dreams, are now among the most useful realities of the College equipment. A mere mention of the other recent improvements will be sufficient. Within the last few years the faculty has been enlarged to the extent of one Professor, an Associate Professor, a Gymnasium Director, and several assistants in various depart- ments. The library is steadily increasing in size and value by the additions which are being made from time to time. The efficiency of the work done by the students in the Chemical and Physical laboratories has been greatly augmented by the contin- uous-additions to their plants in the way of materials, apparatus, etc. Under these conditions, life is going forward at Davidson today. With a larger student body and a larger faculty than ever before in her history ; with better equip- ment in the way of buildings, libraries, laboratories, etc., it may be said that she is now doing more effective work and rendering more efficient service to the country than she has done in all the years that are gone, however glorious her past history may be. Life on the Davidson campus at the present day is far different from what it was when the fathers and grandfathers of the present students conned their text- books in Latin, Greek and Mathematics beneath these classic shades. The advan- tages of a more flexible curriculum have increased the number of electives, thus giving greater play of selection to the individual student. Although the part David- son has taken in intercollegiate athletics within late years has caused some of the older and, for aught we know, wiser alumni to shake their heads in disapproval, it can be said to the honor of Davidson College that her record on the gridiron, on the diamond, and in every other form of manly sport, has been as clean and irreproach- able as her standards of intellectual discipline have been high and unimpeachable. Standing as she does for the development of the whole man, Davidson has seen fit to endeavor to give her students every advantage available for the cultivation of bodily strength and activity. It is now becoming clear that in order for her sons to win in the battle of life, they must be equipped with bodies which can withstand the attacks of disease and sustain the fatigues of active life as well as with well-trained minds and clean moral characters with which to gain the love and respect of their fellowmen. It is a characteristic fact that one of the most note-worthy improvements to be made at Davidson in the near future is in pursuance of this very idea. A generous

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various buildings; and only those who have spent four years under the dear old trees, have worked and dreamed in the rich atmosphere of the old College, can have learn- ed to love its campus as one of the dearest spots on earth for them. But though nature, under man ' s directing hand, has done so much to make our college home a pleasant one, it has been reserved for recent years to bring about such changes and additions in our buildings as to make them worthy of their beautiful situation. With a view to a better housing for students and equipments, by the beneficence of ex-President J. B. Shearer, the Old Chapel was remodeled in 1901 ; and from a primitive sort of structure was converted into a thoroughly convenient, modern college building, with larger and more comfortable auditorium for chapel exercises and better equipped recitation rooms. In this building is now located the new read- ing room, which is so far superior to the old one as hardly to bear comparison with it. The new room has been fitted out with the best upholstered chairs, and in other ways made much more comfortable than before. The latest magazines and papers are always to be found on the racks, and these are accessible to the students at all hours of the day. At the same time that the Old Chapel was remodeled, a time- honored eye-sore in the shape of a little dormitory building, known as Tammany, was removed from the campus, and now Elm Row and Oak Row and the two Lit- erary Society halls are the only remains of the College as it stood in 1837. Probably one of the most useful of the improvements made within recent years on our campus is the Martin Chemical Laboratory. It is a thoroughly modern structure in every d-etail, and is one of the finest laboratories of its kind in the South. It has done a great deal towards popularizing the study of Chemistry, and, by its complete equipment of materials, apparatus, etc., it has been able to give to the students a course unexcelled by any college curriculum. In an issue of the College Bulletin, issued since the Class of 1904 entered as Freshmen, it was stated that, in consequence of the growing size of the student- body, a number of improvements were in the highest degree desirable, if not abso- lutely necessary. Among other things were mentioned: larger rooms for the Phys- ical and Mineralogical laboratories, a remodeled commencement hall, an enlargement of the church, and an additional dormitory building. Before this year ' s Senior Class graduates, some of them will have profited by the increased facilities offered by the new Physical laboratories; quite a number will have enjoyed the comforts of the new dormitory building, and all of them will have shared in the advantages offered by the enlarged church. The new dormitory is thoroughly up-to-date in every detail; it is well ventilated, heated by steam, and provided with bath rooms, furnishing hot and 20

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friend of the College has furnished the means for the construction of a new athletic field and out-of-door gymnasium ; a need which has been felt for a long time, and the satisfaction of which will be of untold benefit to the students. This was one of the wants mentioned in the last College Bulletin, issued only a few months ago. Another among the number was the need of an electric lighting plant. This, too, is now an assured reality, and the new plant will be set up during the coming sum- mer. Quite a number of other improvements are being planned, and, from the success obtained thus far, we may be confident that they will materialize before many more classes leave the College walls. Looking forward to the years to come, the future seems bright with promise. Like a goodly vessel that has weathered many a storm and still right proudly holds on her course, the old College, though she has passed through some rough weather at times, is yet right seaworthy withal, and, with the promise of fair weather ahead, will, we doubt not, yet help many a voyager on life ' s broad ocean to his desired haven. Let those, then, whom she has helped in the past show their loyalty to the mother who nourished them so tenderly by clinging to her yet more affectionately in the future.