Hobart College - Echo of the Seneca Yearbook (Geneva, NY)

Page 8 text:

Echo of the Seneca. uppiT classmen, else perhaps not so noticeable, and to show that College life has now developed for them into something more'than the hum-drum plod and grind, useful as a foundation of the pre- vious years, and wears more the face of intelligent preparation for active life. It is strange that the semi-centennial of the existence of our Col- lege should have been destined to prove so nearL fatal and final. l$ut it has only served to show the wonderful vitality of the old in- stitution. Vs e can the more admire because the result has savored more of resurrection than of resuscitation. The life, with which the old trunk stirs and which we might take to be but galvanic, discovers itsell on closer inspection to be the normal movements of a healthy body, it is pleasant to find it corpus sanum, wo caput mortuunu I he present College year opened as it seemed inauspiciously in the departure of a President who, we had every reason to think, would again place the College upon a sound footing. The loss however, has been supplied, and the place is filled by one in every way competent and worthy to succeed him. I he Latin chair, too, has had its vicissitudes. Poorly upholstered tt must be, so many changes have there been. We must record with regret the resignation and departure of Prof. SlEGMUND, but can safely say that his successor is a gentleman well qualified lor the duties of the position. Our Commencement this year was truly enjoyable. There was a gratifying attendance of Alumni and friends of the College. The exercises at the Hall were interesting. The Alumni dinner, which was given on the Campus, was to the surprise ol some who pre- ferred the “village inn,” a success. It was then that we parted with Seventy-Six. We have not yet forgotten that class, nor can we while we remember our College course. How nobly did it stand by us in our Freshman year, how well did it advise and foster our first projects, which would other- wise have been like the walking of a feeble infant. And then when we were Sophomores, and were for defending our traditional rights, sacred things to which Freshmen should bow down and worship.

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-I Kr m rtf III' Sr)II'fir EDITORIAL. -’appy, indeed. would we he. when the revolving moons had brought round • the great, the auspicious day, on which this ECHO comes again into being, if it could spring forth like Pallas, completely accoutred ; or like Longleilow's Indian, at a bound with all his weapons about him. But Adam’s doom compels to the difficult turning upon the anvil, anti labors of the file so dear to the heart ol Horace, and forbids the surprise and pleasure of such a birth. It is indeed no trivial task, no labor we delight in far more like is it to the Cyclopean labor of those who, under Etna, forged thunderbolts for the red right hand of Jove. No hyperbola is this, we deal not in exaggeration, and well is it for our toil-worn brains that we can unbend them over the pages of Tacitus and Demosthenes. Suspect not that we are like that an- cient “ man of Lawe, who “seemed busier than he was.” With what reverence did we, as Freshman, regard the grave ed- itorial chair, then filled by Seventy Six ; with what a weight of re- sponsibility did the office seem freighted, and how did we Iook for- ward with a mixture of hope and fear to the time when, as Juniors, it should be our lot to prepare this Echo. In no light hu nor should we approach the tide ; the pen should not frisk upon the p= per, but should rather move decorously “ with measured step and slow.” It should catch a classic inspiration, and a certain flavor of time-honored learning should pervade its productions. This Echo is not the mere chronicle of College events, not alone the medium through which we record the triumphs of the ball-field and the whist-table ; it is a mark set up by each class at the turn- ing point of their course, to indicate the transition- from under to

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 v7 o nf fltr SfiiCCft. it stood by and saw fair play, that we might not be taken in the rear by the hordes of Seventy-Seven, as were those other valiant ones at Thermopylae by the Persian host. Q grandis ct fntlcher- rima classis! Though as yet we have heard of no renowned man from among you. we know not what demagogue may arise to shake the air with blatant clamor, or philosopher to surpass the absurd- ities of Darwin. We can only wait, hoping. As we speak of our struggles with rebellious Freshmen, a mourn- ful feeling c:mes upon us, and we arc tempted to exclaim with Cicero, and would if it we e not so hackneyed. ikOton tom. Omores!” to cry out with Spartacus, “ Is the old Grecian spirit frozen in your veins? Too truly the modern Sophomore is degenerate, the pre- sent race not as the ancient, And thou, Delta Sigma, shall we omit mention of thee, foundling of our class? As yet weak, but soon • at each step thou shah feel thy advanced head knock out a star in heaven. May the chaste sentiment of thy motto be with us in the dead watches of the night, Secret and deadly as the Ivu Klux Klan art thou, though not like that body, composed of the outcasts and scum of society. We may not omit mention of the improvements now being made in the College buildings. Trinity Hall is being remodelled, gas and steam intrdouced, and evident pains taken to render it a comfortable home for students. Hobart begins this year with a Freshman class of goodly num- bers, and all things seem to promise prosperity in the future. Truly it is difficult to see how she can fail to succeed if she sustains her high reputation as an Institution of solid learning, not of superficial attainments. It is not the custom here “ to magnify a weak head for some Latin abilities, and so long as this is the spirit of her ed- ucation, so long will she continue. The class of Seventy-Eight tender her their best wishes.