Hiram College - Spider Web Yearbook (Hiram, OH)

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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

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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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authority. The mind was trained, the body was developed, but the heart was left uncultivated. Another demand was made on our colleges. There was no complaint of the culture so far as it went, but it stopped short of the proper goal. The call was for men of brain, and muscle, and kcarf. The College Y. M. C. A., with all its splendid influence for good, came to meet the want and make such men possible. It tool: the student and developed his spiritual nature as the class room did his mental, and the gymnasium his physical. From that day it has been no disgrace for a college man to be a Christian. From that day the best institutions of the land have given the world men who have been morally, mentally, and physically trained. The class room and lecture hall, the gymnasium and athletic grounds, tl1e Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A.,-these are the agencies that have united to produce both men and women of the highest type. Keeping pace with all plans for strengthening the curriculum of Hiram College are found projects for increased facilities for physical and spiritual education. We see with pride the ever growing interest in college athletics among us. We behold with joy the healthful, active, Christian spirit that reigns in our institution. Our professors and students alike rejoice in pro- claiming Hiram's ideal to be nothing less than the thorough cultivation of mind, and body, and spirit. He who had riches and has lost them is poorer than he who never pos- sessed wealth. It is by contrasting our present with our former condition that we are made to rejoice or are saddened. If you would learn to curse, 13