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

Page 28 text:

l if Azllzz izll A ,fp .1 ,A,fA,,A1..A , A, AA., . ..AA.- ,N ,X ' 3HP2222ir:?i:1::z,f:f 1 fffff 1 111111 fff' ' is. f , AA, cccccc 'Me X' -,..5 'i 3 wiv f ggi? . ,A .1 , V,,,, Je wings of his oratory. Many Hampden-Sidney men feel that the training gotten in these societies was as valuable as any other training received at the college. In addition to the work done in the literary societies, the faculty required the lower classmen to give declama- tions and the upper classmen to deliver orations before the student body in the chapel. Five fraternities had chapters in the College, namely: Beta Theta Pi, Phi Kappa Psi, Chi Phi, Phi Gamma Delta and Sigma Chi. The fraternity rooms were on the fourth floor of the first and fourth passages. There were no athletic organizations, no athletic held, no gymnasium, no football team, no regular baseball team. We did sometimes select sides and play football accord- ing to home-made rules in the space between the east end of the college and the road. We occasionally played baseball. The only match game we had was with the Farmville team. The game was played in Farmville and we lost. But the trip was a great event in our lives. To kick a football over the College from South to North and to throw a baseball over it from East to West were feats that were sometimes attempted. The seminary students, Seminites were considered lawful prey for pranks. Mid- night raids were sometimes made into the Seminary, and bath tubs, water buckets, wood boxes, anything portable, were carried away. I recall that on one occasion the plunder was concealed in a briar patch, in the field just west of the President's residence, now the Alumni Building. In a day or two the concealed articles were found and carried back to the Seminary by a hired man. After hearing a lecture on the matter in Chapel, the boys paid for returning the stolen articles and for repairing the damage done to them and thus the incident was closed. A fall of snow was the occasion of a good-natured Fight with the Seminites. The college boys would go to the Seminary grounds and issue a challenge which would be promptly accepted. We were more numerous and so were usually victorious. I have a lively recollection of a burly West Virginia Seminite, who grappled with me and rolled me mercilessly in the snow. ln my memory he resembles a dismounted Cossack. On the ground that the boarding houses would not serve supper one night because of a Church festival and that some of the students could not attend the festival for lack of money, a sophomore asked the dignified Professor Blair to shorten the Latin lesson for the next day. Professor Blair replied: lf any of you gentlemen are in that unfortunate predicament, I shall be glad to have you take supper with me. About a dozen boys without further notice accepted the invitation. Among them was to be seen the towering form of Thomas Cary johnson, now a Doctor of Divinity and the distinguished Professor of Theology in Union Seminary. The boys were delightfully entertained as a neighbor had notified Professor Blair of their coming. One day a particularly bashful student sat alone in the parlor of his boarding house. The swish of skirts told of approaching ladies. He had his line of retreat care- fully planned through a window that opened to the floor. As he reached the window in precipitate flight, the shutters were closed from the outside. Meanwhile, the ladies entered the parlor and John Diell Blanton, A. B., LL. D., dived under the piano, crawled to the ' 18

Page 27 text:

were not conscious of hardships. At that time few things had been introduced into homes or schools, Quae ad efeminandos animos pertinent. The President of the College was Rev. M. P. Atkinson, D. D., who taught Logic and Mental and Moral Philosophy, a suggestive and stimulating teacher, who encouraged his pupils to think for themselves. The Sciences, Chemistry, Physiology and Astronomy, were taught by Prof. L. L. l-lolladay, a man with sunshine in his soul,', whose wide knowledge of his subjects atoned in a measure for the meagerness of the equipment at his command. Latin was taught by Prof. Walter Blair, the rather frigid courtliness of whose dignity was equaled only by the refinement of his scholarship. Creek was taught by Prof. Addison Hogue, the best drill master in Greek in America, an indefatigable student who expected us to manifest a similar energy. Mathematics was taught by Col. Delaware Kemper, a genial veteran of the Civil War, who could easily and often be beguiled into telling us war stories when we did not know our lessons. There were usually about seventy students in attendance. There were no instructors, no tutors, no sub-freshmen. No courses were offered in French, German, History or English. Monthly compositions, however, in English were required. Lessons missed on account of absence had to be made up by private appoint- ment with the professor. Occasionally a not over-scrupulous student would use the same lesson more than once to make up missedrecitations. Col. Kemper once remarked: Somehow I get certain propositions in Geometry indissolubly associated with certain members of my classf, ln his senior year a student was expected to have a fairly com- prehensive knowledge of the subject pursued in the previous years. To make sure of this Senior Reviews were required. We would privately work up such subjects of the previous years as we were not pursuing in the Senior year. Then an entire evening would be spent by one or two students with a professor discussing Chemistry, or Logic, or Mathematics. There were no electives. The menu was short, substantial, unvarying. We each took all of it. Just here the student of today may with reason bestow some pity on us. Certain subjects of the utmost importance that have since been introduced, were not offered to us. We have felt the need of them in later life, but there is at least some compensation in our having to learn some subjects that were not to our taste. That lesson has been valuable in our lives. The two literary societies deserve more than passing notice. Every student, without a single exception during my three years at Hampden-Sidney, joined one or the other of the societies. The campaign for new members was strenuous and exciting. Practically every member took part in the exercises of his Society. It seems strange to me, and it is disappointing, to see references to the non-literary society menu in college publications. Medalists were chosen by election with no soliciting of votes. On certain occasions, the members of the two societies met in a debate or an oratorical contest. After each speech, a marshal arrayed in a gorgeous colored sash would go through the audience. collecting in a hat notes of congratulation from the speaker's partisans and other friends. A hat full of these notes would be taken to the platform and poured into the lap of the much relieved speaker. Considering the age of the students, the work done in the literary societies was most excellent. ln them many a man famous for his eloquence first tried the 17

Page 29 text:

W 7 door and thus saved himself for an honored and useful career. He is now President of Ward-Belmont College, Nashville, Tennessee, with a faculty of sixty ladies and a student body of six hundred girls. It would be difficult to imagine a purer religious atmosphere than that of Hampden- Sidney in the late Seventies. It was a peculiar community, made up almost entirely of the faculty and student bodies of the College and Union Seminary, with a small number of families intimately, but not officially connected with these institutions. There was an entire lack of the degrading element so often found in small country communities. The Seminary students exerted a salutary influence over the college boys. They were honorary members of the literary societies and sometimes attended the meetings. Many of them belonged to the College fraternities. In these and other ways they touched the lives of the boys. The faculties of both College and Seminary took a genuine interest in the religious welfare of the students. The social life was simple and elevating. To the young men of today our social activities doubtless seem tame, but to us they were quite satisfying. There was no danc- ing on The Hill. Afternoon walks, with the Via Sacra as a favorite route, were much in vogue. In the case of close friends, a young man would make an engagement, running through the entire session, to walk with a young lady on a certain afternoon each week. So numerous were their engagements that the ladies had to enter them in what they called their ul-lim Books. The young ladies had so many callers in the evenings that for their protection, the unique custom was devised of having the head of the house tap on the parlor door at ten o'clock as a delicate hint that it was time for the young men to go. This custom was almost universal on The Hill and was called knocking outf, After the speaking at the joint public meetings of the literary societies, all would ascend to the halls of the society on the upper floor of the central part of the College building. There the young people could promenade by the hour around the tables in the spacious and elegant rooms. The boys would break in on a promenade just as they now ubreak in on a dance. The local ladies had many friends and received much attention. Some- times for a visiting lady with a limited acquaintance a relief committee would be secretly formed. This committee was composed of boys who signed a written agreement to promenade with the lady in question. Thus she became a belle in short order. From the viewpoint of the student, theoutstanding feature of the social life at Hampden-Sidney was the hospitable welcome given to the college boys by the residents of The Hill. Homes of culture and refinement were opened to us with a gracious and generous hospitality. Few communities of its size have ever equaled this in the charm of its social and intellectual life. We would be ingrates, if we did not keep fresh in our minds the affectionate recollection of those that admitted us inexperienced youths, so freely to their homes and their hearts. No young man ever threw himself sympathetically into his work at Hampden- Sidney and took deep breaths of its inspiring atmosphere without having his life profoundly affected for the better. That was true in the late Seventies. It is doubtless true today. 19