Hiram College - Spider Web Yearbook (Hiram, OH)

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mathematics is that they are too difficult, which, on the contrary, is the best reason for taking them. A student only gets out of a study what he puts into it; hence, the more thought a study requires, the more value is he going to receive from it. No student can find the half-dozen roots from an equation of the sixth degree, find the resultant of eight or ten forces acting at as many different angles, compute the last term of a decreasing geometrical series, or find the integral of the ever interesting unknown X, without learning to concentrate his mind on one thing, and at the same time to reason logically from one step to another with the utmost accuracy and nicety. It enables a student to present an argument in such a way that its truthfulness is clearly and firmly established. While everyone realizes the value of the sciences and the lan¬ guages, still neither of these can in any way fill the place of mathe¬ matics. There is no vocation in life where a student will not need and use the training received by them. The time is coming when it will be necessary not only in producing the best thoughts, but even in understanding them, to have one’s mind deepened and trained by the systematic and logical work done in this branch of our edu¬ cation. The thorough, thoughtful student will find nothing more pleas¬ ing and interesting than to follow out the intricacies and niceties of the problems in the higher mathematics. The term “inter-collegiate 1 ’ is a vital one when used as descrip¬ tive of our American colleges. No one college is strong enough within herself to give to her students the highest polish, without the help and touch of students outside her own walls. That our colleges realize this is shown by the many different departments to which the term “ inter-colicgiate ” is applied. Among them are the “Inter¬ collegiate Christian Association, ' 1 “Inter-collegiate Oratorical Asso¬ ciation,” “Inter-colegiate Student Volunteer Movement,” and “In¬ ter-collegiate Athletics,” and the list might be extended, but enough have been mentioned to show what a factor of college life these really are. 11

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Class spirit, and what is true class spirit? Does it consist in binding ourselves together and making the class organization sim¬ ilar to the fraternity? An organization in which the individual mem¬ bers are so closely united, and their interests so nearly the same, that for a non-classman or a member of another class to be even a common friend is an impossible thing? Different attempts to organ¬ ize fraternities here, and the failure of every attempt, have certainly expressed very emphatically the feeling of the students in regard to such a spirit. Yet if we do not guard carefully our class organi¬ zations and our class spirit, there is danger of their partaking of the nature of the fraternity. Such a spirit will not be tolerated in Hiram, and any class which allows itself to be tainted even with the spirit of seclusiveness will not only lessen its influence and narrow its circle of friends as a class, but it will hurt the individual members and create a prejudice against those who hold the places which our differ¬ ent classmen should occupy. If we even want to use our influence for good we must learn to be interested in and see good in all. The college spirit must precede that of any other organization. Class spirit, in the broadest sense, is that spirit which unites the class organization with the other college organizations, and helps to form the unity of our college. ' fc There is a tendency among a large class of students today to neglect the training and benefits that can be received by a thorough course in mathematics. T nless the student is going to take up some piofession which requires a knowledge of the higher mathematics, he will pursue his mathematical studies perhaps through Trigonom¬ etry and oftentimes not further than through Geometry. That this Las become a noticeable defect in the average college graduate, is eiy evident to every observant person. A thorough education is supposed primarily to consist of a knowledge of the sciences, the languages, and mathematics, and not the least among these is the last. Indeed, the old Grecians thought it so important that the root of their word for it, nardavoo, meant “to learn.” One of the chief reasons given by students for not taking more 10

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The department that is too often neglected by die better class of students, and which again too often sadly shows this neglect, is the athletic department. Be it right or wrong, the fact still remains that a college is judged to a great extent among other colleges by the athletic team she sends out from among her students. Very often the best men of the college will stand off and criticize their team because they have not won a victory, have not played fairly, or in some way have disgraced themselves in the eyes of these holy men. But do you know that you are just as much to blame as any man on the team because you have not given your presence and influence to strengthen and purify their work? A man that is not willing to give his assistance to the athletics of ' his college has no light to criticize them. And, furthermore, he is losing a good and valuable part of his college life. A strong body, a quick perception and correspondingly quick decision, strong nerves and a controlled temper, are all results of enthusiastic athletics. A position on an athletic team is an honor to anyone obtaining it. There is no one in a college who deserves more honor than he who has success¬ fully captained a team through a season of hard-fought battles. Not only the captain, but every man on the team is deserving of special honor. He has sacrificed his time, his class-room work to a certain extent, and frequently most of his social enjoyments, for what he con¬ siders the best interest of his college. So let us have more charity for our teams. Let us honor them more highly, and cheer them on with our personal help and influ¬ ence. Success to our college athletics! Nowhere and among no class of people is the art or vice of criticism so highly developed as among students. In our Literary Societies the offices of first and second critic are filled by members of the societies who are elected to those positions. Those offices are not desirable because the critics are not self-ap pointed. But Society is not the only place where you meet the first and second ciitic; in fact, every hall you enter has not only two such officers, but it has many self-appointed ones. Ton first enter the college and 12