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

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SALUTATORY. • = = «y still as she had ever been—too much for her youthful adversary. The defeat of Hamilton on her own grounds and the refusal of challenges by three other colleges left Hobart facile princeps on the base-ball field among the colleges of western and central New York. But we do not confine our sports to base-ball. ' Foot-ball and boating, each have their,proper place. The semi-annual field-days are now an estab- lished institution and twice a year do college bone nnd muscle strive in friendly contest. Our records have in the main been good, some of them exceedingly so while others we hope to see bettered. In connection with our sports we must speak of him whose departure from us we regretfully chronicle, but who during his brief stay of one year instilled into the stu- dents an added enthusiasm in regard to all manly recreations. We refer to Dr. Lincoln, who occupied the Latin chair during the absence of Prof. Edmund Smith, and whose work in the class room did not allow the men- tal progress of the students to suffer while his advice and training broadened their chests and toughened their sinews. In leaving IIobact our hearty thanks and good wishes go with him. It is no pleasure to speed the parting friend and wc joyflluy turn to welcome back Prof. Edmund Smith, after a year perhaps not of recreation but of change, and we hope that he himself experiences on coming back to Hobart something of the pleasure that liis return gives to the students. The blank in the list of the Faculty intended for the Professor of His- tory has at last been filled up and Prof. C. J. Hose is doubly welcome in that he is a Hobart alumnus. The Echo looks with pleasure upon the improvements which have taken place in college property since its last appearance—the draining of the campus, the preparation of a building for a gymnasium, and also the near fulfillment of the long cherished hopes in regard to a new main building. But it looks with dissatisfaction on the flashy house of many colors which cuts off from a portion, of Geneva Hall, its former glorious view of lake and hills. Why has the hitherto unbroken stretch of green sward which leads down to the water’s edge been thus invaded to gratify one man’s whim? A marked change has taken place in the college curriculum during the past year. The sombre sadness which continuous Greek and Latin gave to the course of instruction is now relieved by the introduction of a course in History and Modem Languages. Greek and Latin are now made optional in the Senior year and far more attention than formerly is bestowed upon 4 $

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SALUTATORY. ft i -jSflliUWWQRY. —-------- SGA1N has The Echo, reverberating from the eastern hills, crossed the lake, and again, we trust, do the tidings of Hobart which it brings fall pleasantly upon the ears of student and graduate alike. This time it resounds the events of Hobart’s fifty-seventh year, and the earnest voices which give them utterance arc those of Eiglity-Three. For two years wo have watched the efforts of preceding classes and commented on their publications. Now it is we who attract the attention— our’s the production which must be submitted to the close scrutiny and unsparing criticism of the college world. We take one look before we leap and then we do it boldly, for we are confident in regard to our little book that while our fellow-students will “ Be to its virtues very kind.” they will carry out the other line of the couplet and Be to its faults a little blind.'' The current college year has been marked by two rather significant events. Eighty-One graduated the largest class in ten • years and Eighty- Five has entered the smullcst class in five years. The natural conclusion would seem to be thut the prosperity which the college has enjoyed for the past few years, and the increase in the number of her students, were merely temporary—the result of spasmodic struggles for life on tlio part of a dying institution. We hope that this conclusion is a mistaken one. Wc think it is ; but we have simply stated the facts. However it is not the mission of The Echo to find fault or indulge in idle regrets, so let us turn from this rather disheartening consideration of our numbers and look for n moment at that which has brought Hobart into greater promiuence during the past year than any other one thing. We know that our words but echo the general opinion of the college, when we mention the Base Ball, and the stripling university on Seneca’s sister lake whose chief pride is in its mushroom growth, was twice forced to ac- knowledge that old Hobart had not yet forgotten her cunning but was t ■sMs==s 8 m

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SA LUTATO KT. German. This modernizing, so to speak, of the course, is specially to be commended, for Hobart was getting sadly behind the times. The awakening interest in Hobart’s welfare on the part of her alumni is something on which we should congratulate ourselves. For although it is nothing more titan their duty, they have rarely, hitherto, manifested their love for their alma mater by anything more tangible than earnest wishes and hearty prayers for her prosperity—all well enough as far as they go, but scarcely suitable material for the construction of new buildings, etc. We offer no apology for the fact that The Echo did not make its ap- pearance during the past term, for, if it be urged that that is the proper time for it to be published, we reply that in our limited experience it never has been published during that term, and that we have no desire, by the splendor of our deeds, to cast into the shade those of our predecessors. And now we have finished our prefatory remarks and with a feeling of relief surrender this, our maiden effort, into your hands, We hope that it will entertain you, but if it does not we pray you do not break forth in. im- precations against the unfortunate editors, bat rather ascribe your want of interest to a certain dulness of comprehension which unfits you to cope with the gigantic intellects which inspired The Echo. s