Hampden Sydney College - Kaleidoscope Yearbook (Hampden Sydney, VA)

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History of 'g6. In the writing of any article it is always a neat introduction, and one which does much to enhance the opinion of the author's abilities, to mention some of the peculiar difficulties of its composition. So I may as well start my literary shuttle through its loom. Firstly, our class somewhat resembles one of De Musset's heroines, who declared herself too old for dolls and not old enough to look back sentimentally on her youth. I take it that those for whom these lines are written have outgrown their fondness for lecture-room squibs, ducking, gloryings over the relative merits of our class teams and banquets. Even Robeson and his hilarious room-mate are mellowing into becoming gravity, like a belated crop of green peas. Reciprocally, I am quite sure that we have not progressed far enough into our dotage as yet to chatter together in fond retrospect over our joyous college days. Probably we will all have a slight twinge of this malady as we are jolted down to Farmville on the last trip. Similarly some of us have already winced slightly at presages of the rheumatism or indigestion which, it is pleasant to ruminate, will latterly wrack us along with the sentiment. A second obstacle that the writer encounters is a conscientious regard for the claims of the valedictorian-thatjiamen mazimus of Horid insincerity. It is his and his alone to divulge the analogous nature of our graduation to the launching of frail barks on life's billowy sea, to delineate the real battles we will have to engage in after a rose-strewn undergraduate course, and then to stimulate us to rush into the front ranks of the fray-and get besmirched for our folly. Thirdly, in this issue we suffer from the not unusual hindrance of having a commonplace class that has run its round very much after the manner of other classes. We have a fair proportion of grinds who have studied unobtrusively and will doubtless soon get their meed. Nor are we without the lackadaisical element, mingling with a fair proportion of the athletic and with a sprinkling of the sportive. Still, we all of us move in orbits that are not conspicuous for eccentricity, and little influenced by any marked perturbations from the great world. We think normal thoughts and do normal actions-except Sommerville the Solitary, for of course nobody knows what fantastic dances are going on in the cerebrum of that great lonely man. We have experienced the ordinary evolution of views and beards from the time when, with our Bellum Givile tucked under our arms, we regarded its author and the Seniors around for abovej us as individuals equally to be envied, until we attained our present faultless state. True, I might discuss the various jokes peculiar to our class-the untasted viands of our Junior year, or the canes. But I will not. It is said that we are not as abounding in class spirit as we might be. If this means 23

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ELBERT LEE TRINKLE, ill, ........ Wytheville, Va. Freshman Prize Scholarshipg Freshman Declaimer's Medal, Philanthropic Societyg Corresponding Secretary of Class, First Term, Freshman Yearg President of Class, Second Term, Freshman Yearg Representative of Freshman Class in Sophomore-Freshman Contest: Representative of Fresh- man Class at Class of '94 Banquetg Sophomore Debater's Medal, Philanthropic Societyg Representative of Class at Geneva Reception, 18935 Manager Sophomore Baseball Teamg Final Junior Oratorg President of General Athletic Association Junior Yearg Manager Junior Class Baseball Teamg '95 KALEIDOSCOPE Boardg Chairman Intermediate Invitation Committee, Junior Yearg Toast Class '96 Banquetg Senior Orator's Medal, Philanthropic Societyg Manager College Foot-ball Team 18955 Manager College Baseball Team 18965 Business Manager Magazine, Senior Yearg '96 KALEIDOSCOPE Board: Intersociety Oratorical Contest 1896. I CHARLES BASKERVILLE WATKINS, AW, 67.l'L', . . Buffalo Lithia Springs, Va. Class Baseball Team, 189-1-95-965 Class Foot-ball Team 1893-94-95. Q W l N1 P t 22

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that we are not organized into a political ring to aggrandize the pink and gray, it is doubtless true. But I am sure that we are not deficient in the essence that welds together genuine friendships. And now, having dilated on my difficulties, I find myself grateful to them for having furnished me with so much material. This brings out a beautiful point in morals, one which a certain poet, read and admired by all of us Qin Junior Englishj, has expressed in the following familiar lines: Sweet are the uses of adversity Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Holds yet a precious jewel in its head. Our class has had heavy losses every year, among them none more felt than the member Washington and Lee robbed us of. Nor can we refrain from lamenting over the departed Fowler, or the fresher bereavement experienced in Doc's cessation of collegiate toils. On the other hand, we have been burdened by the ponderous intellects of two extra A. M's. I must here confess myself a very imperfect historian, for I can think of no other events to be chronicled. Wait, let us try some vaticination-a hazardous experiment, 'tis true, but none the less agreeable. It is 19-, and at the invitation of my old friend to accompany him to Hampden-Sidney in his sumptuous private car and visit our sons, I am just alighting. Yes, the car is side-tracked back of Hugh Hart 's store, and is an object of much interest to the local population. We walk together down Main street, he wobbling along with his arm over my shoulder, tagging at my ear in a familiar way. The stores all have a lively air-probably due to increased advertis- ing-otherwise we see no changes till reaching the campus. Here there are some new buildings and numerous groups of boys. Young Lee is pointing out various ones in a patronizing sort of tone. That one is named Ficklen. He has just been sent over from Africa and, chimes in my own pride sententiously, finds undergraduate macaronis more to his taste than Zulus, preferring likewise certain questionable pastimes among the civilized to mosquitoes and tracts for the aboriginals. A hand- some little fellow is trying to inveigle him into attending on a Y. M. C. A. service in the new quarters equipped with all modern appliances, as the latest catalogue has it. We regret that little Price ffor it is none otherj doesn't succeed. At this juncture, we are introduced by our youthful escorts to two rather pedantic Seniors, who are said to be prominent on the Magazine staff and very assiduous students of Belles-Lettres. Their names, by the way, are Bull and Mauzy. A jauntily attired young fellow, whom we guess to be a leading voice in college politics, is decrying in a noisy manner Jones, the football manager, for not wiring the score of a recent 24