Hanover College - Revonah Yearbook (Hanover, IN)

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Picturesque Hanover To him who in the love of nature Holds communion with her visible forms She speaks a various language. For his gayer hours she has a voice of gladness And a smile and eloquence of beauty. To such a one Hanover extends a cordial invitation. Nature spreads for him here, a veritable feast. The variety she affords, and the harmonious adjust- ment of hill-slope and waterfall, of rugged ravine and sunlit valley, of forest expanse and river reach must satisfy the most aesthetic taste. The visitor, as a rule, little suspects the delights he is to experience. If he arrives by way of the climbing, circuitous highway from ] Iadison, he is apt to feel that the beauty of the region centers in that approach. If his com- ing be by the river, he decides that the Ohio is responsible for what he has heard of picturesque southern Indiana. The hills, rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun, opening or receding now and then to disclose a sheltered, fertile bit of lowland, have satisfied his ideas of pleasing river scenery. Distance, however, adds much to the effects of lights and shadows, and we would have him gain the College Point, for an enhanced view. From this five hundred feet of elevation and its river frontage, the Ohio takes on new beauties. A long stretch, then a sweeping bend, and still, and ere the stream disappears toward the south. To the northward, a shorter, sharper curve reveals historic IMadisoxi nestling snugly against the Indiana slope ; and to the eastward, rugged eleva- tions reach back toward the blue-grass of Kentucky. All this one sees from the College point, but more awaits discovery when he explores by way of the inviting forest paths. Native beech and oak and elm, tangles of vine and shrub, bird song from every tree top, the trickle of running water — all these attend his way as he follows an enthusiastic guide toward the various falls. Classic Crowe, pouring its modest volume some sixty feet between sheer perpendicular walls, invites him to dream upon a restful ledge overlooking a long stretch of ravine which discloses at its farther limit an enchanting little vista of the river. Butler and Chainmill are to be visited next, and he must climb to greater heights if he approach Butler from above. Its great rock ledges, over which the stream bre aks into spray, afford him a scene of rare beauty if he arrive when morning sunlight adds rainbow color to the mist. Chainmill must be approached from below. The way is precarious for here massive boulders testify that Jove operated his engines of war from the brink of the precipice above. When the beholder has gained his position at the foot of the fall, he looks with awe at the structure it rears ; the huge elevation invites, and he has a taste of real mountain climbing ere he -gains the level above. On to Heart ' s and Deadman ' s our journej lies, each of these with its, own story, its own suggestiveness, its own special features to challenge the observer ' s attention and admiration. At Clifty, the pride of all our nature ■enthusiasts, he finds in one splendid combination, novel forest, rugged ravine, bold rock ledges, magnificent waterfall. If the season be springtime, nature has added here a crown of rare and various flower creations, and a most won- derful variety of bird-life and song. The scene produces a spell one can scarcely break. The visitor would linger, but he has not yet seen all Hanover lias to offer. The long excursion through the circuit of the waterfalls may 15

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NATURAL SCENERY 14

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have left him weary, but in her splendid variety nature has provided the balm for his restoration. We direct him to Happy Valley. Dear, old Happy! I wonder what the facts of your christening are? For your name, just to hear it, is a balm to the spirit who knows you. Your trees, your tangles, your carpet of flowers, your streams that trickle with sooth- ing murmur, your birds that nest and sing in freedom and security — whence are all these, and how have they all been gathered here to furnish the fairy world you offer? Are you that Elysium, that fabled land of beauty? Wanderer, stranger, visitor — whoever you are, these scenes invite you again and again. As the seasons pass, new interests, new features, new faces appear in all of them. Winter delights in showing the might of his grasp in colossal ice shafts, that rise beneath the falls, and in the great icicles that cluster along the precipices. In the full blush of summer a complete transformation occurs, when the dense shade of heavy forest foliage modifies the noonday heat, and the purple mist of twilight adds its most artistic touch to river and hill and sunset view. Spring and Autumn furnish a wealth of color, the one of myriad flowers and early verdure, the other of changing leaf. Soft white vapory mists hover over the river, filling every nook and cranny of the valley during the foremost hours of the day, and the early riser may view therein her majestic splendor, the goddess of morning with all her attendant train. Picturesque? Stranger, should you be unconvinced, come and see. Prominent Hanoverians rTj ARVEY WASHINGTON WILEY is possibly the most distinguished I jn I graduate of Hanover College. He was born at Kent near Hanover nnnnH in 1844, graduating from the college in the classical course in 1867 ( I IqJ and receiving his master ' s degree in 1870. He graduated from the Indiana Medical College in 1871 and from the Science course in Har- vard University in 1873. His Alma Mater conferred upon him the degree of Ph. D. in 1876 and LL. D. in 1898. His life has been exceedingly varied and of great intensity. He is known to the world as the Chief Chemist of the United States Department of Agriculture, which position he has held contin- uously from 1883 to the present time. After graduation from college. Dr. Wiley served as professor of Latin and Greek in Biitler College, Indianapolis, for two years ; as teacher of science in the Indianapolis high school, returning again to Butler as. professor of Chemistry for a year and then entering the faculty of Purdue University as professor of Chemistry from 1874 to 1883. His invaluable service to his country as Chief Chemist is known to every school- boy. He has been professor of Agricultural Chemistry in the George Wash- ington University since 1899 and consulting professor in the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute since 1905. He was a member of the Jury of Awards of the Paris Exposition and has been delegate to the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh International Congresses of Applied Chemistry. He is an active member and officer in twenty of the most prominent scientific societies of this country and Europe. He has been recognized by the leading countries of Europe, the most conspicuous among them France, which conferred upon him the blue ribbon of the Legion of Honor in 1909. Dr. Wiley is the author of a number of well known books, the most important of which are Principles and Practices of Agricultural Chemistry (three volumes) ; Foods and Their Adulterations, and sixty Bulletins published l)y tlie United States Govern- ment. Dr. Wiley is a trustee of tlie College and will deliver the commencement address of tlie class of 1912. 16