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

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ff 99 M r. V. By Rev. T. W. Hooper, D. D. HIS is not his whole name, but the abbreviated form, and was applied by his wife, who was a cousin with the same name, and who intended to avoid the Yankee custom of a wife calling her husband George, or XVilliam, or Sam. And thus it came about that everybody called him Mr. Y., and he responded as naturally as if it had exhausted the whole alphabet. XVhen I first knew him, it had been long enough since he was a Freshman for his eldest son to be a member of that verdant class, to which I also was added in 1850: and strung along from this eldest son, there was the patriarchal number of children, about equally divided, male and female. Ah, me! nearly half a century gone since those Freshman days, and how quickly the mind, like a huge flash-light, sends its rays along the intervening years! And how the boys and girls, who made things lively in those bright days of new life to the college, have been scattered far and wide! and how many, alas! are gone! Rev. L. XY. Green, D. D., had just entered upon his brilliant career as president, and the newly introduced scholarship system had brought new students from far and near. The region round about was in a high state of cultivation under the old slave system, where master and servant were on the best of terms. The crops of tobacco got most of the fertilizers, and the old hard knobs were left to wash in gullies from year to year: but peace and plenty reigned supreme, and old-time hospitality made an earthly paradise. Mr. Y. had a farm near Farmville, but so many olive plants adorned his dwelling, that for the sake of economy, he moved his family to the Hill, where Mrs. Y. lived in the house now occupied by Professor Thornton. The boys were entered in College with NYilliam as my classmate: the younger ones being Preps, then taught by a tutor in the Stewards Hall. And as the years glided by, the older boys, one by one, entered college, and later on, the girls fell into my hands, as a kind of private tutor. After the fashion of those days, Mr. Y. came home only on Saturday night, nigger like, to his wife's house. The rest of the week he spent at the old home on the farm, keeping bachelor's hall, and surrounded by hospitable neigh- bors, most of them relations. Here he exercised a general oversight of the farm while the crops were growing, but when these were gathered and housed, he moved his quarters to his wife's house, and kept the table supplied with wild turkeys. The only wild turkey I ever killed was while I was sitting in a blind with him yelping: and it was so sudden, that he yelled at me for Hring my gun, as he thought, by accident. The turkey came up my side, and I killed it so quickly. that I am not sure he ever invited me to take another hunt. 24

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V. The most potent, and, perhaps, the most important influence, however, at work on College Hill is the indehnable spirit that pervades everything, a spirit that is contagious and unmistakable. Hampden-Sidney has illustrated to the world the fact that it is not bricks and mortar, not titles or robes that make an institution, but men,-men of high aims and genuine culture. Nor has this spirit been less pleasing than helpful to the young men who imbibe it. The memories of my college days at Hampden-Sidney are among the very happiest of my life: and every day l learn with fuller pleasure the significance of those words, written over the entrance to the Second Passage, Ham' 011.111 111v11zi111'sx1' j11t'11I11'f. YI. Finally, Hampden-Sidney has always stood, and still stands, for Chris- tian cdncation, a mingling of piety with learning. This result has come most largely from the character of the men who have served at its head. XYhat a noble line of presidents the College has had! May one who loves him be per- mitted to say that he who now stands at the helm is second to none in the posses- sion of those high qualities of head and heart that have rendered his predecessors illustrious? Hampden-Sidney has a past that is hlled with traditions so sacred and inspiring that its future can not be otherwise than great and honorable. 25

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But he enjoyed the society of the professors, both of the College and Semi- nary: and among the students of the latter was an Irishman, who was a perpetual source of amusement to him. He loved to hear his rich Irish brogue, and used to get him to read Hebrew to him, and insisted that Hebrew with the Irish brogue to it, was the richest language ever spoken. One day VVilliam and I walked over to the farm, and from some cause, we did not eat lunch and grapes enough to satisfy us. That night XVilliam ate eighteen biscuits for supper. He wore large boots, rulzicli fitted lzim, and one of the boys said if Billy Y. got one square meal, and a pair of boots out of a beef. there would not be much left. Poor YYill! He moved to Texas, enlisted in the army, was captured at Arkan- sas Post, and died from starvation at Camp Chase. By request of his broken- hearted mother, I wrote an obituary of him during the war. In my seminary course, I began in New York, but was tolled away, by various unconscious and cooperating causes. Among these, I was invited to live a few miles in the country, to teach a young girl Latin, and a horse was furnished for me to ride over to recitations. But one of those unforeseen circum- stances that will change the current of our lives, led to 1ny return to the Hill. Mrs. Y. concocted a scheme for me to hear her oldest daughter recite Latin. XVhen she went off to the boarding-school, Mrs. Y. hadme hear the younger girls recite after dinner. Then, when these required the services of a gov- erness, I asked her in triumph. Now, will I not be allowed to pay board? Wiith the gentleness of a mother, and the firmness of a Roman matron, she said, I have told you over and over again, you should never pay me a cent of board. You ask a blessing at the table, and you help to keep the boys straight, and you shall never pay me a cent. That ended it as far as she was concerned: but I never see one of those children, or hear of them, that I do not recall the kindness of that dear, generous woman. One married a native missionary of Brazil. Another married a judge in Florida. But strange to say, when I was pastor in Selma, a Mr. S. D. Holt moved there, and became an elder in my church, and one of these little pupils of mine was his wife. But for years I could not get her fixed in my memory, until some one said, Catty is one of your flock, now. Then as the unknown Kate van- ished, I recognized my little Cattyf' and went back to the old parlor recitation- room at Mr. Y's. Ah, mel YVhen I Float back in memory to those golden college days, how young I feel, and how the boys and girls come fairy-like, to welcome me from that dim mist of the days that are gone! But I have seen Catty's grandchildren, and she knows mine, and when I meet one of the old residents of the Hill who sprang from that family, I am back again, sitting on the grassy yard, cracking jokes with Mr. Y., or listening to him and Professor I-Iolladay spinning yarns, or busily engaged in fixing their accoutrements for a turkey hunt. 25