Denison University - Adytum Yearbook (Granville, OH)

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We are among those who love art because it ennobles life, who read poetry not to kill time, but to fill it with beautiful thoughts, and who still believe in God and Duty and immortal Love. We love Denison because from her we may learn to make a true success of life, because she gives us more power to be useful, because she puts within our hands the means of an honest livelihood, because of a host of friends whose kindnesses sunm rt the university, because from her we may learn to appreciate the good things of life, and because we remember the many happy days we have spent in her buildings, and upon her campus. This and much more is our Alma Matriotism. 14

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Alma Matriotism This is a new word made especially for the Adytum in an effort to express a certain valuable thought in a single word. It is a queer-sound- ing word at first, but we all know what it means, and it brings a flood of tender feeling after we have become familiar with its sound. Why do we love old Denison? Each of us would answer the ques- tion in our own way, yet we would find much in common awakening the same feeling. A few years ago we breathed its pure September air for the first time ; we walked under its maple trees, bright with their autumn foliage and the leaves rustled about our feet as we came and went from class to class. Perhaps we sat upon the grass with a fellow student and looking across the valley through the blue autumnal haze, saw the corn fields with their regular rows of shocks, saw the bunches of glorious woods, saw the winding row of sycamores that marks the course of Raccoon creek, and saw the little village half hid in the bright foliage. The first seeds of a sacred love were then dropped into our hearts where they have found rich soil. Those seeds have grown. Social experiences, athletic enthusiasm, and class-room life, have all contributed to the germination of those seeds. In many a case it is now a sturdy plant. It is all the sturdier because of some of the severities through which it has passed. He who has met defeat for old Denison, either in in- tellectual or athletic contest, usually loves her more than one who has not had that experience. The wild enthusiasm and determination are not forgotten in a day and men are prone to love most those for whom they have sufifered most. Yet victory is ours at times and not a little of our love comes with the memorv of our success. Some people who have not had our experience wonder that we should have such a love for our Alma Mater, when there are so many greater universities — schools whose students number thousands to our hundreds, whose faculties, buildings and equipment cost manv times those of ours. Yet our elders tell us that it is a question whether such universities fit their students better for the real struggles of life, and for true living. The science which we study may not make us all specialists, but it teaches us to stand in awe of Him whose hand guides the planets in their stately, steady courses, and at the same time fashions the pale, tender structure of a petal at which we gaze through a microscope. We learn enough of literature to know where to find some of the good writings. We learn to enjoy them. We may not all be critics of metre and tone color, but if we have studied well, we have good taste. 13

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Almost three hundred years ago, John Alden, disconsolate wooer of the Puritan maiden, Priscilla, resolved forever to turn his back on the trackless forest which had promised him such fair fortunes. Was it his good angel who turned his face again toward the untried paths, and whispered in his ear, Let not him who has put his hand to the plough look backward ? More than seventy years ago, another band of pio- neers, with hearts as brave and lives as true, put their hands to another plough, whose ploughshares broke the ground on which we stand today. VVith struggles and disappointments almost rivaling those of the early pilgrims, surely their good angels must have guided their feet, that they did not turn backwards. Can we not join in our Heike with gladder hearts, when we remember the men to whom we owe Denison — our Denison? And we are proud to remember that the past year has been one of the best our college has ever known. For one thing, we are learning to say, all together, our Denison, as we never could say it when co- education was a dream, and not a reality. Therefore the history of the past few months has been different from that of by-gone years, when the students from the foot of the hill stood as humble suppliants on the threshold of the halls of learning, where they n ow walk as equals. This year of 1901-2 has seen many changes. There have been losses, of course — vacant places and sad leave-takings, but the clouds have shown more than a glimpse of the silver lining — if there have been losses, so have there been gains, glorious gains, which we are proud to remember. First, of course, there is our president. First? — yes, always; in our thoughts, our work, our hearts. While West Virginia lias taken away the friend whom everyone found in Dr. Purinton, we are glad to know that our new president is one whom we had learned to love even before he belonged to us. Our Dr. Hunt we claim him, not in word alone, but in deed. Last year made other vacancies in Denison, when O. S. U. took away Professor Cole, and when Dr. Tight left us to become president of the University of New Mexico. There could be only pleasure in the thought that their powers had found appreciation in wider fields than they could know here in Granville ; so we bade them God-speed, and in September extended a happy greeting to the new workers who have come in their stead. Still, in welcoming Professor Clark W. 15