Emporia State University - Sunflower Yearbook (Emporia, KS)

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f ? ' NORMAL BUILDING, FRONT VIEXV

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devotionals or after recess, Professor Davis, the' direct- or, would take the platform, and calling alternate rows of students to their feet, would put all of them through a lively course of exercise that sent the blood agoing rapidly. It was a beautiful sight to see the whole assembly-room responding in graceful unison to his quick, sharp commands. One day, however, Regent Crichton called my attention to the serious swaying of the building under the tread of so great a company, and conhrmed my fears of its dangers. The plan now in vogue was then adopted, and students afterwards took their work in calisthenics in the Gym- nasium during their vacant hours. ' We have had many delightful visitors during the past twenty years, but I think non-e of them has given us greater pleasure than Herr Bille, the Danish Consul, who visited us some time in '83, He was a courtly gentleman and a man of generous learning and world- wide acquaintance. In introducing him, I mentioned several of his distinguished fellow-countrymen, among them Hans Christian Andersen. This proved a happy mention, for in his response, he spoke most charmingly of his intimate personal relationship with Andersen, and waxed eloquent over his many excellent qualities and brilliant gifts. He expressed his great joy that his friend is so highly esteemed away out in this center of the great American continent. Sidney Lanier was o-nce looking at a great field of red clover, when suddenly it all seemed to be in motion, and in po-etic vi-sion he saw the Course of Time coming toward him, the clover heads marching slowly along with here and there one towering above its fellows as the great souls of the race have risen above their contemporaries. In the increasing throng coming before me in this reminiscent mood to-night, I recognize not a few only, but many whose brilliant intellects and noble natures won them exalted places among us, and who left us fragrant memories of their unswerving devotion and sympathetic cooperation. To tell all about a single one of them would carry me far beyond my allotted space. One characteristic of them all, however, Whether in the ranks or in leadership, is just as marked now in this life-picture as in the days- when they were touching elbows with us as We passed up and down the halls-intense ear- nestness and lofty purpose. This retrospect calls back the faces of others who were in nearer and more confidential relationship dur- ing those selfsame years, my associates in the Faculty and in the Board of Regents. There were nine mem- bers of the Faculty in '82, and in adjoining ourselves to each other, we found much in common. Our differ- ences were honest differences, and consequently but helped us to 'rind the truth. The rapid increase in the enrollment and the larger mission opening to the School demanded much forethought and anxious plan- ning. Many things that have conspired to make the School strong and vigorous, and are now taken as a matter of course, were inaugurated by us with fear and trembling. One of the first problems we undertook to solve was the advancement of the standard for entrance and graduation: The two years' or common school course was abolished in '83. That course 'was supposed to be a drawing card. The Class of '82 contained forty-four members, the Class of '83 numbered thirty-six, and with the assurance that the Class of '85 would hardly be half as large if the common school course was abolished, it took a great deal of courage for a new administration to do it. The very nrst graduating class under the new rule dropped down to eighteen, but the next rose to thirty-three, and finally went away be- yond the hundred mark. All of those nine teachers except myself engaged in other work within a. dozen years, and some of sainted memory have entered into rest, but a true history of the growth of the State Normal School will not omit their important services. A. R. T.

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GYMNASEUINI. Y CLAY IVIODELING. woon CARVING. INTERIOR VIEWS.