Kansas City School of Law - Pandex Yearbook (Kansas City, MO)

Page 18 text:

2 aj CMJ gwwvuiyv Q Qi: Iij ffflwf ff W 'MMP fm! all-fc,' ' f ,db 49' ,R -H X -ddlix -lvl' 4 f K 112 - ' V f W W5 ' W fffv ITM, xx. Q fx W H lyxlrk I ff: I X W 17 W ' JJ aff as M , 'UO ' i X51 N X W f 15- 9 X f f X' X X I A . lllllllllll X - K., Q f 'f -ta xc 9 V mf? ' W I4 MQ L

Page 17 text:

Graduate W ks af NC 5 L Ofaaaccc of --wr ,L Lg-W of-free. f TT' a 'C'7IrhE, .5 l L' Y X - X . X . . N s X X s C XX x X .Dww':'iw X s , X - S ss ln li,fe's sfrenous slruggfc he always wins, lVl.o duly prepares himsev befure lie beginn ' SCHOOL HISTORY If a complete history of the Kansas City School of Law were written it would fill a volume, for the history oi' a school as the history of a country is best told by recounting the lives of those who control and influence it. During the twelve years of our existence many of the leadings members of the Kan- sas City bar have instructed in the class room and given their time and energy to our institution. Judge Black, one ol' our founders and our first president, has passed away, but his memory is still fresh with us, and we are still reaping the benefit of his infiuence. lt is just ten years since the first graduating' class, fresh with the energy of youth, entered upon their careers as members of the bar. Many of them are already taking a leading rank, not only at the bar, but also in other fields of work. Their names are found among the judiciary, as members of state legislatures, and as administrative of- Iicers of states, counties and cities. The Kansas City School of Law was organized in 1895. For some years prior thereto there were many young men in our city who were anx- ious to join the ranks of the legal profession, but who had neither the time nor the money to go to a distant law school. Therefore, it seemed propitious at that time to start in our midst a regular law school for the study of the law. Therefore, in pursuance of such a call the following members of the Kansas City har: Judge Francis M. Black, Mr. Oliver H. Dean, Mr. Sanford B. Ladd, Judge Edward L. Scarritt, Judge Edward H. Stiles. Mr. R. J. lngraham, Mr. James H. Harkless, Mr. John W. Snyder, Mr. William P. Borland, Mr. Elmer N. Powell and Mr. Edward D. Elli- son met and organized the Kansas City School of Law. The demand for such a school and the tireless energy of its founders and their suc- cessors is what has made the school a success. The enrollment for the first year was Iifty-seven, and the first graduating class of the school, which was in the second year of the schoolls existence, numbered twenty-sev- en. The school in every way has improved in every respect since that time. The course of instruction has been lengthened from two to three years. The membership of the faculty has been increased from tive to twenty-two. Last year there were fifty-six grad- uates, and there are at p1'esent one hundred and seventy-six students in attendance. The school has not only maintained a high standard, but furthermore has strictly lived up to such standard, and with good men and hard work it is the purpose of the school to he the leading law school in the West. . 13,

Page 19 text:

I SENIOR CLASS HISTORY , As the evening of our school day deepens into the lengthening shadows of the twi- light, it is with many pleasing recollections that we dwell in retrospection upon the well nigh finished task. It is with a feeling, mingled with regret and pleasure, that we view the close, regret in that it ends a pleasant intercourse with men whose honesty of pur- pose, whose vigor of determination, and whose ever ready cordiality has left a place within the sanctuary of memory that will long be green with pleasing recollections. There is, however, pleasure in the contemplation in that we feel that something has been accomplished. Whatever of the great principles of the law we may have been able to make a part of ourselves, whatever of legal acumen may be ours as a result of our three years of professional training, it can be of no greater value to us than the wholesome association that has been ours, with such men as have constituted the class of 1907. Who is there among us who could forget the idea of perspicuity instilled by the dauntless Skinner in his prolonged endeavor to make a lucid demonstration of the pre- liminary and final arrangements for the inter-collegiate debateg or who in the years to come, when the sharp tongue of sarcasm will have made him wince with a consciousness of a too well directed bolt, will not, while the laugh goes round, imagine that down through the years he hears the fog-horn cadence of the illustrious Staggers breathing in his ear, I'll bet that cut 'im, or imagine the look of supreme satisfaction trans- formed to one of unspeakable surprise as it raises or lowers upon the hideous physiog- nomy of the pugnacious agitator. The record of our past is indeed secure. No other class has ever broken half so many window lights, no other class in its sonorous debates has been able to substitute so much of concussion for discussion, or hide in the mantle of sincerity so much of uncom- promising, bald-faced and monumental grand-standing, neither have they been able to pile the chairs half so high, in those private gatherings known in law school parlance as A rough house. Nor are these the only claims to distinctiong for there is another count in the petition that we believe establishes a substantial claim of title. In our ability to rough the Freshmen we have been without a pier in the history of the school. In the selection of fragrant perfumes and smelling salts with which to anoint the altar of the Freshman sanctuary, we have transcended all known smells heretofore known to chemistry, and have left for the soothing of their olfactory equipment such fragrance as Florida's blooming shores ne'er wafted to the ravished nostrils of Ponce De Leon, and to be compared with which the pungency of a striped polecat would seem like the frag- rance of a violet bed. ,151