Hiram College - Spider Web Yearbook (Hiram, OH)

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Perhaps no volume of its size co11tai11s so great a varietyglof literature as does the college Annual. lfVithin the compass of a few brief pages may be found history, biography, and poetryg literature religious, literature non- religious, and literature irreligious. The Annual of a11y college is as varied year after year as is the band of students that makes up the college. The Annual of each school differs from that of every other as widely as institutions of learning differ among themselves. Nevertheless there are certain general features that are common to tl1e yearly publication of all colleges. It must be as full of information as a great daily paperg as full of jokes as a patent medicine almanacg as full of caricature as a whole volume of 'L Puck. And all this must have a vital connection with the college in which the book is published, and the events of the year in which it is issued. Wisdom and folly, fact and fiction, satire and eulogy, love and hate may be mingled together with sublime contempt for order, if only they be woven into the very warp and woof of college life. The advantages that arise from the publication of the volume are as manifold as its contents are varied. Looking at it from one point of view we may pronounce it the noxious fruit of three years ofjeers and gibes. It is the work of a class that has ex- perienced three years of college life with all its vicissitudes. Those years have been years of patient endurance. XVhen the Annual comes forth from the press the enemies of its publishers reap what they have sowed. How- ever much honey it may contain for others, it aims to have nothing but deadly poison for its foes. The obnoxious Soph., the haughty Senior, the objectionable Prof., all come in for a clue share of wrath. Dickens has some- where remarked that many a school teacher has been made to regret his 9

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y eeeeelm I H-' gae:::el1l'f'I UW!!f1ll E IIlIlll lllllt I If N' num X 'lll ' HE SPIDER NVEB is published as an Annual of Hiram College. As such its primary interest must be with the students of this institution. VVe have endeavored to make this volume touch all points of college life. It has been our purpose as a board of Spiders to invite in- to our parlor just as many as we could possibly accommodate. Realizing the extreme diffidence of many, and knowing that their desire to give place to their fellow students might lead them to decline our kind invitation, we have gone out and compelled them to come in. If in the pages of this volume you find a reference to yourself, it is because the circumstances and exigencies of college life seemed to demand it. If, on tl1e other hand, you stand with that larger number who seek in vain some cherished mention, the only anchor of your hopes is beyond the vale of '94, in the sanctum of the board of '95. S

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jokes and jests at the expense of sonie unpromising pupil when in after years the scholar has becoine famous and held the teacher up to the ridicule of the public. Since the day when Annuals became a possibility in our colleges, the abused student no longer has to Wait for vengeance until Fame has placed her laurels upo11 his brow. The vials of wrath are emptied, and the heart of the unpopular professor is filled with vain regrets when the Junior Annual appears. Revenge is verily of a saccharine quality. There- fore every student looks eagerly forward to the time when he shall help publish an Annual. The Annual is prepared in the spring. Hence, not the least of its benefits to its publishers is the opportunity it affords them of giving to a grateful public the poetry that boils within their souls. Surely no critic would complain of the college student's poetry as Arnold did of the great Gernian poet's when he said, Goethe's poetry was not inevitable enonghf' In the language of one of the iinmortals the student may say, Early every spring I must Either poetize or bust. But to poetize without opportunity to give the product to the world is energy wasted. Hence the advantage of giving each class once in its course a chance to publish its poetic effusions. This the Annual does, and therefore it always contains much poetry. lYhen it falls into the hands of the fond, paternal ancestor, who has sent his dear progeny to the seat of higher learning, and he reads of the vices and follies of his offspring, he is sure to be affected in one of two Ways. As he becoines fainiliarized with the wickedness of college students in gener- al, he may conclude that the apple of his eye, though badly specked, is no IO