Dickinson College - Microcosm Yearbook (Carlisle, PA)

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has the spirit of the times changed, reverence for my old walls would scarce save me from demolition, did I broach it to one of them. It comes hard for me to smile-my face is so hard and stiff, but I am fairly persuaded to, when I see the boys reluctantly tiling along the paths to Chapel at 8:10, and then recall the regular 6 o'clock service every morning in my own Chapel, where the classes met below, and the organ with the choir occupied the galleries. Thus a class was held before breakfast, and the work of the day early underway. The afternoons were nearly always vacant then, and at the close of day they met again for evening prayers. In the warm weather, they would gather on my old, foot-worn steps and sing over the songs they loved the best, and when the red sun had vanished from their sight and even I could barely see his rim above the wooded hills, they still sang on, though their tones were hushed from the stillness of the place. All was peaceful and countrylike ffor you must realize that in those other days, it was mostly open country around the campusj , and their tuneful voices blended so with Nature's, as she sank to rest, that it soothed me, too, to sleep. Alas! those voices have ceased forever, yet in the quiet of the evening hour, I still can hear them, and they seem to whisper, 'Old West, we love thee, though so far removed. Forget us not.' And I never shall. Young Denny, when as old as I, you, too, will have sweet memories to treasure up, and it will bring you comfort. I heard no more, though I waited long in expectancy., Very, very softly I sneaked up to my room in East, and if I can rightly recall, so overslept myself, as to miss the classes of the whole forenoon. But I had been well repaid. When you, my dear young student, awaken in the night and listen to the rattling of the panes and the shaking of the walls, close your eyes again and imagine, as I have done, that the old buildings are holding converse with each other and living over the years that their infancy knew. 22

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Peck, dignity and all into a foolish house down in Virginia, Years later came Herman Johnson, stoop-shouldered, tall and spare. The boys all called him 'shad-belly,' and said he was so tight that he made his family live on salt herring. To the older generations, hazing was unknown, but they used to ' facultize ' unduly obstreperous Freshmen over in North College. They tore him down, poor old chap, to make way for the gymnasium. fPerhaps I ought to state that the buildings all seemed to hold a grudge against the gymnasium, and I believe it was because of his taciturnity. I rather imagine that he keeps himself busy supplying hot air to the others, with none to spare in unnecessary speech.j The punishment that they indicted was mental rather than physical. I remember hearing told of the lengthy ceremonies of the ' Thousand and One,' while the exhausted initiate held out the heaviest book in the library for the oath-taking, of the welcoming speech delivered in Choctaw by the ' head geezer,' and lastly the in1pressive debate on 'When a house burns, does it burn up or burn down ?' or 'Does a Prep have a soul ?' But nothing was quite so amusing as to see a delegation waiting on some unsuspecting soul with a message from the faculty to appear at once. Over he would hasten and when the door was opened at his knock would wave his hands in peculiar circles around his head in imitation of the couutersign they had given him. They used to have all their athletics right out in front of me, and I always considered it a mark of respect on their part. The trees, my child CDeuny, as I mentioned before, was the one addressedl, I would have you to understand, were much fewer than now, and down the long sward to the railroad track they played every pleasant afternoon. But whether it was shinny or rugby, everybody was given a chance to play. This matter of the few in tl1e game, while the many have naught to do but howl and cheer, seems a shabby one. I regarded every one of the boys as my special care, and only once did any try to rob me of my dignity. A certain bold youth actually succeeded in kicking his football over my head, which always seemed to me an act of the direst impudence. I blush to speak it, but I learned with no misgivings that something inside of him had become unhitched by his violence, and he had died. In later years, an attempt was made to defame me by fastening an unmentionable object to the mermaid on my hat, but a good professor bid the culprit come down, and I was saved. Denny didn't seem to appreciate the last but several of the others giggled considerably, and I remember I did, for the affair was well known at the time. I never thought the faculty were wise in making chapel hour so much later in the day, though I would have you to know, young friend, that, so greatly 2l I,over's Lan: - Campus.

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'- '-' Y-r V i 'l THE FACULTY.