Franklin and Marshall College - Oriflamme Yearbook (Lancaster, PA)

Page 31 text:

:S The time draws near when we shall leave these noble halls for the sterner duties of life. Disciplined in mind and cheered and uplifted in spirit, we face the future with supreme confidence and unbounded optimism. But as our eyes pass lovingly over the old familiar sights,-the ancient chapel steeple, topping all the city in its tur- retted grandeur, the widespread campus in the full glory of june foliage, the football field, where we have cheered our teams to vic- tory,--we feel keenly the pangs of parting. Our eyes grow dim with emotion and our thoughts wander back over the years of our college activities. - In the fall of 1916, we enrolled as the largest freshman class in the history of the college. We immediately began our glorious career by overwhelmingly defeatingthe Sophs in the annual tie-up and by plastering College Hill with our posters. As the year wore on, I920 became represented everywhere in college activities. Foot ball, basket ball, soccer, the Green Room Club, glee club, and literary societies, all had their quota of 1920 men working with the courage and grit that has become characteristic of the class. Our basket ball team, organized in our freshman year, has not been defeated throughout our whole course. ' Returning as Sophomores, we did not fail in the duty of disciplin- ing the incoming freshmen. We initiated them into the mysteries of College life and started them in the way that they should go. -.28-.

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, H I 2 THE SENIOR POEIVI Life gave to each of us a talisman, An inner self. It was a mystic charm, Containing many unsuspected powers, An embryo of strong and gifted Man. Then as our task Life bade us to inscrihe, In letters of a quaint and rare design, Upon our amulet our chosen Mission. The latent talents, dormant in the mind, Should be set forth in characters, aliame With earnest purpose, and desire to serve In truest helpfulness our fellow-men. The arduous toiling in the life of school Enhanced our talisman's intrinsic worth, Embossed it with our own interpretation Of what life held for us among her stores. As when one reads imprinted on the fossil In fairy-penciled lines a tracery Of ages and their meaning, so we can Our own Life-given selves, and they become Our guide-book at this moment when we stand Upon the longed-for summit of our dreams. We turn to look behind us and we see Youth's prospects like to crimson-tinted clouds Rolling together as a glorious scroll. We scan the winding pathway of the Past, A roadway of bright gold with its desires: And now we look before us where there lies Crest after crest of sloping mountain height, O'er all the purple haze of days unborn. A delicately gleaming ray of light Shines through the mazy mist to lead us on To new attainments in our widening sphere. Once more we read the message of our Selves, That we may walk aright the opening way, And, mounting slowly upward hour by hour Explore the radiant secrets of the years.- ....27....1

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A in E f with limi From the start we felt the effect of the great confiict into which our nation had been plunged. Gaiety and frivolity were set aside for the grim business of war, and we earnestly undertook the task of fitting ourselves for service to our country. One by one our class mates departed for the various fields of military duty, leaving but a few behind to carry on the affairs of the class. While we feel acutely the loss of those of our class mates who did not return, yet we are justly proud of the records they have made. ' The armistice signed, we entered our junior year confronted by the problem of re-establishing normal activities at the college. Under the stress of war' many of the customs and traditions of the college had been laid aside. On our class fell the responsibility of restoring these practices, and of re-organizing the various clubs and societies. In performing this duty we believe we have rendered the college our highest services. A In our senior year we have completed the task so well begun. By untiring effort we have restored the college to its pre-war status. Athletics have been revived, literary societies re-organized, and the glee and mandolin clubs re-established. 'During the past two years the great gaps in our ranks have been gradually filled by men of previous classes whose studies were interrupted by military service. These men have entered heartily into all of our undertakingsg and we have gladly welcomed them into our fellowship. A little while and our class will be scattered over the earth in the manifold activities of professional life. Confident that we have given of our best to the college and to our country, we face the fu- ture undaunted and with the firm belief that we shall win new laurels for our illustrious class. As we take a last, lingering look at the old haunts, and bid farewell to our professors and class mates, our hearts are stirred by a more profound appreciation of the glori- ous history and traditions of our Alma Materg and we highly re- sove to live ever true to the ideals of service and loyalty which we have gained here. 1 B. A. BRAND. .. 29 -