Latin School of Chicago - Sigillum Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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SIGILLUM school, by Forrest Adams of the University of Pennsylvania. Marie Arnold taught German through all the years until she resigned a year before her tragic death. Katherine DelVleritt, beloved teacher of French, College Board examiner, and later of the College Board Committee on French, did a great work for us until her death in IQ23. Thomas J. Bosworth, from Harvard, reigned in the English room all the way. E. A. Bates of Yale held forth in Greek and Latin. He attracted to his room squads of small boys by his drawings and cartoons. One admirer, a rising young poet, expressed his approval thus: E is E. A., a cartoonist I see, He's very much nicer than mean old R. P. E. A. designed the covers for the Sigillum and Folio. When he resigned, to follow the pencil, he was succeeded by that ever-popular linguist P. L. Whiting of Harvard. R. P. had first groups in Caesar-Nepos, Cicero, and Virgil. He also started off the Greek beginners with his memonics, P.P.C. and G.D.V.P.C., whatever those cabalistic letters meant. Miss Vickery not only superintended the lower school, but taught high school history classes as well. All the old boys always maintained that they never had instruc- tion anywhere superior to that received from these teachers, of whom Messrs. Adams, Bosworth, and Whiting, still carry on. The high school, being thus devoted to intensive college prepar- tion, had little time for extra-curricular activities, outside the publications and athletics. Under Dr. P. Sprague, now for many years proprietor of Camp Minoqua in Wisconsin, and afterward under Lawrence Eugle, we had more than our share of athletic victories, and developed some good athletes. Did not Yale football get from us Owsley, Gallauer, Stevenson, Spalding, and Veeder? We did a good job and had a good time doing it. It was so in the beginning and is so now.

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SIGILLUM It is interesting to note that the school in the beginning was a parent-owned institution, limited to a membership of ten or twelve pupils of about ten years of age, all living in the same neighborhood. In 1894 it became, under the management of two of its teachers, Miss Mabel S.Vickery and Mr.Robert Peck Bates, a privately-owned college preparatory school, open to boys of all ages. More than thirty years later on the retirement of its principals it became once more a parent-owned institution, this time with a permanent endow- ment and every prospect of usefulness and permanency. Consule Plancn ROBERT PECK BATES The school began its independent career in 1894, in a little brick house on Division Street. Here I2IO Astor has stood for many years, previously for some years it had been composed of several small groups in private residences. At this time the oldest boys were fourteen and had had one year of Latin under R. P. in the McClurg residence, now the Polish Consulate on Lake Shore Drive. The second year we moved to a larger house across the street and later added a second and a third. The primary and grammar grades were already a distinct success. Could it become a complete school, from kindergarten to college, in competition with the successful and well-equipped University School, a block away? The name, Chicago Latin School, and its motto, Fidelitas, were adopted, a new school building was erected in 1899 at 561-563 Division, later known as I8-2o East Division Street. The high school had a distinguished reputation for college prepara- tion, particularly for the examinations of Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, and later for those of the College Entrance Board when it was formed. This success was due to hard Work and the good fortune of the school in obtaining and retaining a small group of gifted instructors, to whom this article is a tribute. The Latin School boys received their instruction in basic subjects from superior teachers. In mathematics they had William McLeod, a taciturn Scot from Toronto University, who was reputed to have invented mathematics. When he retired after many years, liked and respected by all, he was succeeded, most fortunately for the

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llnce Upon A Time GEORGE N. NORTHROP HEN I hurried back from Europe in the autumn of IQ26 to take charge of The Chicago Latin School I found the fine new schoolhouse on North Dearborn Parkway still in the hands of the carpenters, plasterers, and painters. The first meeting of the Trustees was held in the open air on the pavement in the shadow of the Georgian facade. We decided to convoke the school on the day set, and then send the boys home for a week or two until the building was all habitable. All that autumn and early winter lessons were recited to the nerve-wracking accompaniment of the hammer and the saw, a sort of preliminary training for the per- nicious radio accompaniment to study so prevalent among the more neurotic striplings of our day. VVe inhaled quantities of turpentine and hardened ourselves in draughts and an atmosphere redolent of damp plaster. Incidentally I had arrived just in time to prevent what is now the library from being used as the physics laboratory. The present headmaster's ofiice was the sanctum of the athletic director. There was practically no 'flocal habitation provided for the executive. The memory of two strong personalities persists. The President of the Board, Frank Porter, and the Vice-President, Kersey Reed, were among the finest men I have known, foursquare, rnagnanimous, subscribers to the highest ideals of conduct and eager to co-operate in every way toward the best educational standards for the reorgan- ized school. The untimely loss of these men so soon afterward was an irreparable blow to those of us who had been associated with them. With them died something very precious for the wel- fare of the school, and for those of us who treasured their friendship. Nor shall I ever forget the kind hospitality of Mr. and Mrs. E. I. Cudahy or the optimistic eHiciency of the latter and her solicitude for the comfort and well being of the school. She it was who lent us Miss Lynch. Those days of reorganization were not without their confiicts. With something of a Beowulf's complacency do I recall an en- counter with a pedagogical Grendel, the haughty inspector of the North Central Association, who had come to exact his undeserved tribute. When asked if a standard for graduation based on the College Entrance Examination Board would be sufficiently high to cover certification elsewhere, even at a State University, he said