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

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were the blur ders made over the finger bowls. One man actually drank the water in which sliced lemon Hoated, and then privately complained that the lemonade was very weak. Col. Delaware Kemper dispensed Math in its various phases. Unfortunately, he was a mathematical genius, who, by the way, always make poor teachers, and conse- quently we all graduated with a minimum amount of knowledge. In Conic Sections we were hopelessly at sea, and none of us could exactly understand what a Locus was, and when we asked for an explanation, his reply was, A Locus is a lucid phantasusf' Since I have learned more of a Locus, l can see some appropriateness in his answer. ln C-reek we had Prof. Addison Hoge, as he then spelled it, though it has been changed since to l-logue. With the lazy student he was not popular, for he had no mercy on a shirker. On one occasion some disgruntled one wrote on the board, Hog by name, hog by nature, Hoge by an act of the Legislaturef' While he was unpopular with a certain set, with the real students he was regarded as one of the best men in the Faculty. I have studied Greek under others, and I have taught Greek at different times, but to my mind Buck Addie, as we called him, was by far the best teacher I have ever known. At one time I had some reputation myself teaching Csreek, but whatever success l had was due to his training. and especially to the fact that l followed his methods. ln those days we had only five professors and a limited curriculum, but the founda- tions laid were far better than the superficial smattering of the present day. III. THE SOCIAL LIFE I am not familiar with the social life of the College at this time, but l am sure that it is not equal to what it was in the Seventies, for though the quality may be the same now, the quantity will make the difference. At that time, besides the families of the College Faculty, as at present, there were the Professors of the Seminary with their charming family life, which combination formed a social life that in culture and refinement stood far above any l have met, after an experience of many years. These homes were always open to the students of both institutions, and now when I recall how green and uninteresting we were, l wonder at their spirit of self-sacrifice. It was a wisely devised school of refinement that polished up the embryo preacher, and prepared him for the social life of his future calling. Nearly every home had its quota of pretty daughters, and each one was a reigning belle, owing to the law that governs supply and demand. ' How vividly comes up the memory of those calico days, when the Seminites and the College boys met on the social arena, each antagonistic to the other, and all trying to win the favor of the fair one. I8

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Mcllwaine. Years after at a meeting of the Virginia Synod in Petersburg, Mcllwaine gathered at his home all of the old boys he could find, and gave us a Hampden-Sidney dinner. There were scores of others, but time fails me to speak of all. Each one has won his place in life, and each one would to-day attribute his success to the training of those old days. It seems only yesterday when we sat around the old belfry, and dreamed of the future. Then we were young and hopeful, eyes bright and cheeks rosy. To-day if we could gather there again, what a contrast there would be-a group of old men with scanty locks covered with the snow of age, sunken cheeks and bleared eyes. Yet the hearts would be as young, and the jokes I am sure would be brighter and more pointed. ll. THE FACULTY As compared with the Faculty of the College of this day, they were few in number. Yet each one was a past-master in his department. The President was Dr. M. P. Atkinson, one of the best and purest men I have ever known. I can see him now, as he comes waddling across from his home-a heavy. ungainly man with a face in which you saw moral courage of the highest order, and a heart as tender as a woman, and as true as steel. No man, occupying such a position, ever left a better or more lasting impression upon the boys under him. Years after, a lawyer in Baltimore whose college days were wild ones, said to me, that if he had ever amounted to anything in life it was due to the impress made upon him by Dr. Atkinson. Then there was L. L. Holladay, the most rounded character I have ever known. For nearly six years I sat by him at his table, and enjoyed the most intimate friendship with him, and now as I compare him with other men I have known, I cannot recall his equal. He had a keen sense of humor, eyes that twinkled when a joke was coming: a true sense of justice, that gave him unbounded influence over boys, and knit them to him with bands of steel. I can see him now, as, at a fixed hour every afternoon, he sauntered along the Via Sacra with his cane under his arm and his two pointer dogs running ahead. Prof. Walter Blair at that time boarded with Prof. Holladay. He was a thorough Latin Scholar, but with a frozen kind of dignity with which difhdent men protect themselves. In after years I found that he had laid a fine foundation of Latin which stood me in good stead on more than one occasion. He married before the close of my stay in College and opened a home of his own. I-lis wife was a Baltimore lady, who brought with her some finger bowls, the first that many had ever seen, and when they were invited to a meal there, many and ludicrous I7 .

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Such a luxury as a quiet talk was never dreamed of, but on the contrary it was a case of I6 to l. It was a part of each man's duty to fall in love before leaving, but at that game the Seminite had the advantage, because he meant business, owing to the closeness of the time when he could set up his own household gods-while the College boy merely played the game as an amateur. At that time there was a Brazilian among the students who played the devoted to every pretty girl. After he had been to church with a certain young lady, Asa Dupuy, afterwards Judge in Roanoke, took him aside, and with perfect gravity said, Now, Rod, I am going to act toward you as I would expect you to act toward me, if I were in Brazil, I am going to advise you about the social customs of this land. When a young man goes twice to church with a young lady he is expected to propose to her, else her father or brothers will call him out. Rodrigues walked the floor and wrung his hands, and in a nervous way said, I cannot do it, I cannot do it, for she will kick at me. Of my own exploits in this particular line of action, the least said the better, for they have become portions and parcels of the dreadful past. I took the calico ticket, and gat me death frae twa sweet een, twa lovely een of bonnie blue. I have, however. risen from that death, and have for years been a very lively corpse. At first I thought that the light of my life had gone out, but I finally succeeded in striking another match. and have been happy ever since. It was my good fortune during my College and Seminary days to board with Professor Holladay. I am an old man now, but I can never forget his kindness and that of his charming wife, whose interest in her boys never fagged, and whose patience with their whims was beyond belief. I cannot close without a word or two about the servants of the 'iHill. There was old Polydore, a superannuated relic of past generations, whose greatest enjoyment was high-sounding words, and you could confer no greater favor upon him than to teach him some polysyllabic word, which he could afterwards use. When some pious soul endeavored to solace his declining years by reading the Scriptures, old Poly- dore always called for Genesis l4. Then there was John Deane, the College janitor, a faithful old man with a grave face. He was the butt of many a joke, yet he gravely bore it all, hoping that while he bore their light raillery, by the law of compensation he would be paid in heavy coin. In his watch he had unbounded confidence, though sometimes he had to strike it against the wall before it would run. I can see him now coming into the room early on a winter morning, a basket of chips on one arm, three sticks of wood on the other, and in his hands a bundle of rich pine in a blaze. With a dexterity acquired by long practice, he laid the wood and applied the flame, and before his footsteps had ceased to sound, the fire was burning furiously. Then there was Walker Crawley, whose stammering tongue by no means kept him silent. iI9