Hiram College - Spider Web Yearbook (Hiram, OH)

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worse than the ophthalmic fruit of other men. In that case the student will have an easy time in this World. Or, Pa may feel called upon to dis- charge his parental duty by correcting the evils brought to his notice. In the latter case the youth, while realizing that uno christening for the present seemeth pleasant, may find consolation in the thought that his path for the World to come is being made smooth for his feet. Speaking concerning the influence of National Chivalry, Burke asserted that through it vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossnessf' What chivalry did for the world of gallant knights and fair ladiesin the olden time the Annual does for the world of college lads and lasses to-day. The atmosphere it throws around their pranks and foibles makes adverse criticism difficult or impossible. Robbing student vices of all evil intent, it also robs them of their hein- ousness in the eyes of the public. Thereafter, when the daily papers give to a horrified public the blood-curdling accounts of students' midnight orgies and depredations, the habitual reader of the Annual will simply smile while others talk wildly of making ageneral mixture of tar and students and feathers, or sternly calculate how many yards of clothes line it will take to elevate a given number of wicked students to the top of some tall tree. In view of the above mentioned advantages of the precious book, and many more that might be named, we cry mostlustily, Long live the college Annual! The finished product of our best American colleges of to-day is a sym- metrically developed man. In times past the college neither accomplished II

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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

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nor aimed to accomplish all that it does at present. The high ideal that is now recognized is the result of an evolution or gradual growth. In early times the ideal student developed his intellect to the utter dis- regard of his physical and spiritual nature. He gave himself wholly to the study of books. In his small, dingy room, with its scholarly odor of musty volumes, he sought knowledge and pursued it. Night after night he burned out his midnight oil, and his vigor and vitality together. VVhen he left the college halls and began the duties of active life, it was with a countenance sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, and a body uniitted for the stern business of life. He was in intellectual strength a giant 3 in physical power a pygmy. The parents whose children were thus returned to them began to re- quire that the evil be remedied. Give us not only sturdy minds, but also robust bodies, seemed to be the demand of the youths who sought admis- sion to our schools. The demand was metg the need was supplied. The gynmasium and athletic grounds soon had a recognized place in our insti- tutions of learning. Henceforth it was no longer considered out of place for a man of brains to be a man of brawn as well. Increased activity and exercise did not lessen but augmented intellectual power. His college course completed, the student returned to his friends, physically and men- tally vigorous. Overilowing with healthy animal life he was ready to face the world and conquer his way in it. Still he was not a well rounded man. Too often he left the place of education with vicious habits which, backed up by his superabundant vitality, made him the terror of the communityn Fond parents beheld their docile and gentle child transformed into a regular H rip-roarer of a fellow who could turn them out of doors and defy their I2