Drury University - Souwester Yearbook (Springfield, MO)

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ever matriculated there. On this point, however, it is best not to be too specific, because those students are mostly still alive and the law of libel is still in force. Chapel exercises were held in No. 5 of the Academy Building and likewise there met the AH Rhetorical Class every Friday afternoon. The A Rhetor- ical Class Was then, relatively, a much more important and serious-' fpropositionw .' , 1115.1 ,, I, j' J ' I-14' ', 1 -V951-'K' H,-1. , NVHERE DRURY WAS S'rAR'rED. is the only Word Which iits the case-than it is now. in the College proper, and they were not so numerous come on for a part every three Weeks. The parts Were no dramatic presentations, no story Writing. Orations, with each other. The students were kept most of the It comprised all students but that each one could all original and serious, essays. debates alternated time thinking about their coming parts. These made food for discussion whenever they came together. Political, religious, scientihc and sociological questions Were fought out on the 14

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The Early Days of Drury. BY MR. J. T. WHITE.de Wliether the change in the external aspect of Drury from that of former days has its counterpart in the inner life of the institution, it is difficult to say for one who now only sees the surface. That it is diferent it is easy to guess. though the diiference must be of detail, of texture, of minute lines, rather than of broad contrasts, as the surface is. Twenty-Eve years ago the only buildings on the campus were Fairbanks Hall and the old Academy building. The Museum building was occupied by the colored school, between whose pupils and Drury students there were at times hostilities expressed in more strenuous fashion than snow balls would permit. The stately oak trees of the campus were pliant saplings, for the bending over and riding of which many a reprimand was delivered in chapel by Dri Morrison. The space in front of Fairbanks Hall was a bleak bare prairie, the base ball ground, in fact, and about that time the elm trees which now adorn it were planted by the students on a holiday set apart for that purpose. A ride-pit, relic of the civil war, Zig-zagged across the campus just south of the present Science Hall site. This was likewise demolished by the students in some happy play time presented to them in lieu of recitations. Benton Avenue looking north was a road through the woods, blazed but not traveled, and all the territory north and east, including the region where McCullagh now stands, was an unex- plored forest, purchased awhile before by Chas. Harwood for sixteen dollars an acre. One lone house stood directly across Benton Avenue from Fairbanks Hall. This house was known far and wide as the HWhite Housew because there was evidence upon close inspection that at some previous time-so remote, how- ever, that the memory of man had not taken note of it-it had been painted white. Students had rooms there and boarded there, thus making it a part of the institution. The Faculty was three or four in number, but in quality it is doubtful if since that day they have been matched. The students were likewise few in number, but in variety, in the possession and manifestation of the contrasting and varying qualities which make human nature a problem of perennial and perplexing interest, they were probably as rich as any group of students that +Mr. White was the first student enrolled in Drury. 13

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floor of No. 5 on A Rhetorical days, with a Warmth, a finish, a completeness, that Parliaments, Congresses, Conventions and Synods never equal and seldom approach. Likewise, the Literary societies were smaller, affording more opportunity for each member. There was a time, soon after the great rebellion of '77-in which the Nestorians revolted from the old D. K. A.-When every member of the Nestorian Society came on for a part every week, and at no time in its history were those parts so excellent. Rhetoricals in those days occupied about the same relative place in the af- fections of the students and teachers that Athletics hold now. True, they played baseball then, but it was a sort of pastime. It was not a serious business as it is now, and doubtless a game played as they played then would now appear a very crude and uninteresting aiair. 7 5 to 56 or thereabouts Was not an unusual score for a game between Drury and Marshfield or Ozark. 15