Haverford College - Record Yearbook (Haverford, PA)

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Bearded, and Jim the Indignant; Fweddy, the Witty; Lewis, the-man-with-a-club, and Esrey — the — well, words can ' t describe him. The growing freshness of ' 89 first attracted our attention, and it was decided that something must be done to counteract the undesirable effect of the prohibition of tossing. Accordingly, a committee was appointed, and having exacted a pledge from Sharp that he would not laugh, sent the sergeant-at-arms to bring in the offenders ; Charles, putting on his most savage look, did the talking, and it was a sight for gods and men to see those Fresh- men wilt and tremble under his rhetorical thunders. The cane-rush was somewhat of a surprise to us, as the Freshmen had intimated that they would not make the attempt. However, we pitched into them immediately, and twenty minutes ' agony ensued. Orbison especially fought very well, not being at all embarrassed by the removal of his clothing, and Ed. Binns showed up as a dark horse, being on the cane all the time, though dressed in ordinary clothes, and wearing a plug hat, which he kept on till the end. At the end we had five men on the cane, and so the victory was awarded to us. The struggle was a severe one, and Sharp was pretty well exhausted, but a little Grenet cleaning solution braced him up. Mr. Dawson, how- ever, was more seriously injured, having suffered a severe contu- sion of the chest, occasioned, we believe, by squeezing Geary ' s head. Our foot-ball team this year was an excellent one, and we defeated the University and Swarthmore Sophomores in great style, the latter game being particularly brilliant. The class match with ' 87 was never finished, as in the early part of the game Sharp had his nose broken in some mysterious way. His discourse that night, while under the influence of liquor (Ether Sulphuric), will never be forgotten by those who were with him. Besides im- 18

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One thin which we had a good deal of trouble in over- coming was the military-academy side of Dawson ' s character, which was only finally eradicated after repeated efforts. His room (in which one recalls the peace pipe that some of us once tried to smoke, and the Zulu weapon with a long name that had killed a man) was frequently put in most admir ' d disorder, or was made the arena in which our rival wrestlers held their con- tests. And now a multitude of minor thoughts crowd into my mind and clamor for expression. Fire crackers reverberating through the halls, or exploding in dangerous proximity to a sainted head; lamp chimneys falling with a crash upon the floor; midnight horrors of many kinds ; warm afternoons spent in lazi- ness at the Bummers ' Retreat; weary pilgrimages for meteoro- logical purposes to the Observatory or Tower; victorious coasts on our unrivaled sled, and clandes tine trips to the little tavern blue. And thus, with much fun and little study, we passed on to the end of our Freshman year, and great was our happiness when we received the spoon and became Sophomores. Sophomore Ye.vr. It is not often that a college student feels so perfectly satisfied with himself and the world as he does when entering upon his second year. The recollection of the loneliness and humility of his former appearance only serve to make his second advent more enjoyable, and coupled with this is the great pleasure of meeting his friends again. When our honored class came to college the second time, it was found to have changed somewhat in the interval. Howell the Sleepy, Mary the Rapid, Johnson the Gaily, Binns the Loafer, and Brooks the Violinist, had all left for other and more congenial spheres ; and in their place we received — Morris the Rosy, and Morris ' Guardian, Gummere the 2 17

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o agining himself to be John Sullivan, he announced his intention f writing for the Burlington Haivkcyc, and, indeed, had the editor of that paper I)ccn present to hear his side-splitting remarks, he would have engaged him at once. We also practiced baseball when out surveying, but did not get up a class team. The generous farewell gift of Rd. liinns, namely, our first class supper, and the first one ever held at Haverford, came off in December of this year, and was a great success. The custom then inaugurated at Haverford has been kept up ever since. Though this was our second year at college, we had not yet be- come very studious, but were still somewhat inclined to youthful pranks. Some of us no doubt have some very vivid recollections of an affair of canned pears, etc., while others remember with amusement the night that nine of us went into Collection dressed up in improvised dress suits, well corked, and otherwise festively decorated, and also the picture we had taken afterwards. In physics, Collins was a very acceptable member, furnishing numer- ous occasions of merriment in that generally not very humorous subject. In the French class Hartshorne got himself disliked by not surrendering his paper, while in Paley he caused the Pro- fessor to make a most derogatory remark. It was also about this time that George Whithead, of Toledo, donated his valuable collection of mound-builder relics and Sahara sand to the Museum, through the agency of Hilles, England and Dawson. As Charles had given a great deal of trouble in our Fresh- man year, so Esrey kept us busy a great part of this ) ear ; and, as usual, Tommy took the lead in the acclimating process. Night after night in his room, Esrey would perform various wonderful gymnastic feats in the presence of an admiring audience. His astronomical observations through a coat sleeve were also remark- able, though sometimes interfered with by damp weather. This vigorous treatment, prolonged e en into the Junior year, gradually 19