Florida Agricultural College - Pinakidia Yearbook (Lake City, FL)

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drunkard's death. They quoted copiously from strong statistics, and Layne, j. E., applied the doctrine of limits to clinch the argument. But all availed nothing. The judges had fixed their minds and decided that the bar- rooms must not be slandered. And the nrst debate ended in defeat for the Bema. But this did not break her spirit. It was announced Hom the platform there would be a business meeting of the Bema Society the next morning at 9 o'clock. After the transaction of sundry matters of no importance, the President suddenly called for denunciation of the judges. The whole society rose wz massf. Every man did his duty. One man even spoke twice. After this the society felt better, but the effect was not salutary on future judges. The second debate occurred in March, ,93, and the question was: Resolved, That the Government should not own the railroads and telegraph lines. The Bema, represented by Coogeer and Graham, had the affirmative. The Forum, represented by Lake and George Washiiigtoii, had the negative. The arguments of the negative were good. In fact, a few Bemas felt apprehensive of the result, until Coogeer called attention that the arguments were populistic. This moved the audience, who could not repress their sympathy, and when Strick pulled his two dollars and asked the audience to think of ten billions of those dollars being spent to buy the railroads, and of the awful responsibilities of fastening such a giant debt on the generations yet unborn, the judges wept. The battle was won. - It was on this occasion that the ladies of Lake City showed their appreciation of the efforts of the Benia by presenting a beautiful white and gold banner, upon which was emblazoned in gold letters the motto and emblem of the society. The eight succeeding contests during the period up to the Spring of l96 were Bema victories. Since that time, with one exception, sl1e has suffered defeat. We cannot speak of her future. That remains to be worked out by the genius and industry of her present organization. If the past may be considered an index we need not feel apprehensive. 58

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if Rllll XTX w 5 X F there is an educational institution in the United States to'day, which has attained sufficient import- Q, ni' ance to be called a college, and has not established among its students some form of literary societies, we can assure you that that same institution is not doing its full duty, or working to the W best advantage in educating its students. ' ' VVhile our college is not as strong in numbers as Harvard, Yale, Princeton or Cornell, and has not as much money to back it up as the University of Chicago, or Leland Stanford, yet our fighting committee will take great pleasure in attending to any person who says that our institution does not rank among the great colleges of the country. 60