Lehigh University - Epitome Yearbook (Bethlehem, PA)

Page 14 text:

Kind reader, we greet you, trusting that you will not thrust hastily aside our first attempt with the pen, but that you will peruse it carefully, and if you do, you may discern what will afford you a little pleasure. You may, now, he inclined to slight our work, but we believe that the time will come when it will be sought for as much, and considered as great a curiosity, as the first complete edition of Shakspeare, or as the United States cent of 1815. During the past year much has happened to the University for its good, but we must record one event which has caused heartfelt sorrow to all. Suddenly we were called to mourn the death of our kind friend and benefactor, Judge Asa Packer. A sadness, such as will probably never again be experienced, prevailed in and around our walls. All felt the loss of one so kind, genial, beneficient and Christian-like. His generous and pleasing nature exhibited itself to every one. No more would those needing assistance have him for counselor and steadfast friend. What he did for our in stitution and many neighboring oiks, is well known, but no estimate can be made of his numer- ous kindly, personal aids. We miss him for much, but mostly because there is wanting from our midst that upright, true man and Christian. Judge Packer ' s gift of two millions of dollars to Lehigh University and her Library, secures, as far as wealth can, their future prosperity. With the income of five hundred thousand dollars, the alcoves of our magnificent Library Building will soon be over-crowded. A large number of volumes have been placed on the shelves within the past six months, making about twenty thousand now ready for use. In the place of the old tower of Packer Hall stands a much finer one, which we believe will not need such a tearing down as its predecessor received. Since last Spring a porter ' s lodge has been erected at the entrance to the grounds and much else done to advance the beauty and grandeur of University Place. We are much pleased to note the appointment of our kind instructor, S. Ringer, Esq., to the position of adjunct-professor

Page 13 text:

SALUTATORY. S those who have preceded us have done, so do we, in venturing upon the editing of this little work, which will register another leaf among the annals of our Alma Mater. To you, our worthy professors, who have always given us kindly aid and careful attention in forming us for an honorable struggle in our life-battle, we present our greeting, feeling con- fident that you, who best know our capabilities, will judge leniently of what is contained in this, our first literary under- taking. We greet you, friendly alumni, whom we hope at some future day to take by the hand and be ranked among. May you find in this things which will recall your, perhaps, truant memory to the time when you were laboring in these same walls and strove to wield the pen to produce such a work as this. You, fellow students, with whom we have been for the past year co-workers, united by one of the strongest of bonds — that of friendship — we greet, hoping that the Epitome will depict to you scenes with which you are, at present, familiar, but which, after you enter upon your several life duties, will grow dim in your remembrance; then, if you shall have preserved these pages, they will need but a passing glance to re-portray to you a few of the pleasing incidents of one year of your college life.

Page 15 text:

of History. In our opinion, a more desirable choice could not have been made. The number of students this year is largely in excess of last. In the freshman class we are pleased to see a good repre- sentation of foreign students, which shows that Lehigh University is highly esteemed abroad. The Athletic Association is to be congratulated on the acquirement of its long desired object — the completion of the Eastern portion of the University grounds into a course, on which to hold, hereafter, the semi-annual athletic meetings. The interest taken in the sports is on the increase, and the suc- cessful competition of one of our students,at the Inter-Collegiate meeting of last Spring, has brought our physical vigor into more than passing notice. We regret that R. H. Lee, Jr., who was appointed as one of the editors of our Epitome, on account of his leaving the University, has been obliged to tender his resignation from act- ing on the editorial staff. As poets, journalists and the like are born, not made, we pass these pages into your hands, kind reader, awaiting from you a mild judgment concerning them, as they are but the crude results of mistaken genius.