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Page 13 text:
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9 Social Life in the Earlier Iowa College. HE passing hour seems prosaic: a generation .,. QQ. , goes by, that hour has become poetic. But 43, 'gli-i may not the poetry in our thoughts of life often 'll 'i '1 . . . . be the truer history? Life, every life indeed, H Ii is a poem. In every one there is something of TA F 'H J tragedy, something of comedy. In every one l 'I that has a tinge of manliness there is much of sublimity. There are times, too, when the common lite is so seri- ous that even the lighter hours of social intercourse take on its pre- vailing type either largely or wholly. A review of the social life of such a period without a notice of its epoch, would appear rather like a chapter from More's Utopia than from Xenophon's Anabasis. Earliest Iowa College was at Davenport, the earlier college was in Grinnell from 1859 to I8-70. During that time the town was from five to sixteen years old. At the former date it was a hamlet of small- est houses, with an occasional hoard as a sidewalk, and one building serving for the complex uses of church, school house, opera house, court room, and universal reception hall. Few citizens who First met here had reached the prime of life. All were alike rich in muscle, in purpose and in hope, but rich in nothing else that was visible. They came west in sturdy self-reliance, and their environment made a worlcful self-reliance a prime necessity. The Gospel of Rest may be glad news to some people QI-lerbert Spencer thinks it ought to be good news to all Americansj, but the citizens of Grinnell then enjoyed the evangel of work most of all, and often only Napoleonic hours of sleep. They sung the stirring work song one day of the week with voice and with vim, and then went out to Fill up the six remaining days with its happiest illustration.
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Page 14 text:
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IO The students came to the college through the attractions of study more than from parental impulse. They were neither brought nor sent: they came. It is remembered that one young man Walked three' days to reach here, and swam three streams in coming. His pastor gave him a letter for a friend some twenty miles on his way, and strangely enough that friend invited him to dinner, and gave him a new letter for another gentleman farther on, who took him in for the night and gave him a third letter. That round of letter, en- tertainment and letter, continued until he reached Grinnell. Young ladies, too, exhibited similar push and purpose. Two, on their way home at the end of the term, reached Des Moines a little too late for the stage to Polk City. They had money enough left to pay stage fare, but not enough more for a day's entertainment in Des Moines. With characteristic resolution they walked to Polk City Qfording a streaml on that day. One was obliged to replenish an empty purse by teaching at Malcom during term time. VVhile there she continued one or more of her studies and came to Grinnell weekly to obtain suggestions and to pass examinations in the work done. ' Students then wrought their t'mark into gardens, roads, rising houses and all forms of domestic labor. Both sexes enjoyed a phase of social life while planting trees on the campus among whose branches birds sing to-day, and in whose shade we all love to linger. s Those who are informed that tuition was from four to seven dollars a term, and that board and books were similarly inexpensive, will not, at first, think it strange that many students paid their way. They will not wonder that during the entire earlier period the following sentence appeared in the annual catalogue, viz.: . By strict economy and vigorous effort students who enjoy good health can go through college without assistance and Without incurring debt. ' Special emphasis on can, in that historic sentence, will indicate the fact at that time, for it was no easy- matter. That achievement of self-support cost an economy that was very strict, an effort too vigorous, and a deficiency in the highest possibilities of technical scholarship. Expenses were low indeed, but students' wages were
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