Malvern Collegiate Institute - Muse Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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,gc mc - s.iH.E:lfUc5E..-. heels..-U DANGER AHEAD Hascl Hummonrl T some time in the more thoughtful interlude of a live-year so- journ. a large percentage of high school students turn their vagrant thoughts to the immediate hereafter, and begin to thumb the calendar of the University of Toronto. So misleading is that hieroglyphic publication to the uninitiated, and so sparse is the advice obtainable on any of the more important considerations of Uni- versity life-such as whoopee, freshman behaviour, and the essential evasions-that I submit a few observations based on a personal exper- ience full of error. The first inevitable question is-which college ?-and the answer varies with the individual. If you have a dominant ego and prefer to do what you like when you like and how, go to University College. I did: it was one of my few inspired decisions. There are so many people at U.C. that during the first term a friendless freshman has a haunting suspicion that he could die quietly in an alcove and that a week later the janitor would sweep up the corpse. That is the nice part about it, if you like that sort of thing: you can do more things without being noticed than in any other part of the University. You can make friends or remain a recluse, pant after activities or stag- nate with indolence, be evangelical or communistic, just as you wish. If you have an urge to become a humiliated freshman, the opportunity is yours: if you don't like red ties and respect your own dignity, remain quiet and no one will know the diiference. Even attendance at lectures is largely optionalg if you prefer the mid-night oil to the cold light of a nine o'c1ock lecture. few there are who will object. All is different at Victoria. There an informal, friendly atmos- phere will breeze out towards you and you will be quickly led into College Life in the Victorian style. If a stranger to the city wanted to become acquainted with Toronto in half an hour, he could see it all at Victoria College, its most typical production. Prudence. piety and patriotism manifest themselves in a ceaseless flow of wholesome activ- ity. Best of all, O ye timid ones, you can go from high school to Victoria and hardly notice the difference! As for Trinity, the distinctions are different. You need to be born to Trinity. and if there is any doubt about your title, it is danger- ous to take chances. The Trinity man or woman Wears a tattered gown with nonchalance all about the campus, acquires an Oxford accent, and studies Religious Knowledge. Trinity is a law unto itself and remains. for the most part, sublimely aloof from the rest of the University, and if you are born to it, it is the right and only place for vou. - The choice of St. Michael's depends almost entirely on religious creed, although those of the Catholic faith can choose between it and University College. College spirit is rampant, and the loyal under- grad of St. Mike's finds life just a continuous whirl of excitement. livery hour he can spare from his studies, and even more, is spent in cheering on the basketball team, boosting the French society, address- ing the chairman and otherwise making life real and earnest. ifil

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THE MUSE NSTARTLING DISCOVERY BY CO-ED attracts the eye but is too long in the first line, and too short in the second, A beginner must plot many times to get even such a solution as CO-ED'S DISCOVERY STARTLES CAMPUS The hours crept into three and four as my now benumbed brain worked steadily upon the elusive lines. I read over every article so often to get information for sparkling captions that their phrases were with me for weeks afterwards. My body was stiff and my eyes heavy as I watched the Womens Editor and Dick set up the paper in type. Dawn was beginning to break outside the window, but I was scarcely conscious of it. On a wide table was laid a metal form the size of the newspaper's four pages. Guided by the dummy copy the Women's Editor showed Dick where she wanted each article. He with his practised eye and a quick hand would go to the long rows of type, pick out the desired article and its headlines and set it in place in the form. Bit by bit the paper took shape under our eyes, the old dummy copy assuming definite form. Occasionally an article would be too long to fit in and we would frantically re-read the original copy for possible lines to cut. Finally. the paper was complete. and one copy was made for a final test as to its accuracy. I smiled wanly as my superior ofiicer declared, And now we can go home. Not till then did I raise my head to discover that night had gone and morning come. With a jerk I realized that for the last ten hours the night-editing world had been all-absorbing, all-sufiicient. Nothing had mattered but the production of that one issue. For that space of time it ranked in importance with the greatest dailies of the land, its editors had been kings to command me. its production as vital as if the whole world was awaiting our morning news. I night-edited many times after that, but no issue was as memor- able to me as that first oneg no feeling of achievement and of well- earned rest as keen as the feeling within me that morning when, the press building doors closing behind us, we stepped out into the fresh cool air to make our way up past the grey, silent university towards a strong cup of coffee and a long sleep. E211

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THE MUSE The college chosen, comes the diliiculty of the course. Most people either abandon thought and say brightly: I used to add awfully well -I think I'll go into Maths, twhereupon their names are among the missing in Julie lists! or in the awful chaos of the calendar they feverishly grasp the first likely thing at hand twhereupon anything may happenl. There is no infallible method of procedure, but it is advisable to consult first several of the faculty about the curriculum. and then graduates and students about the faculty. Only the professor lcnows his course, and only the student knows his professor! A few practical details. and then the sophisticated Malvernite may happily cross U. of T. portals. Don't imagine this institution to be either Rah-Rah American or academic English: it is a cross be- tween the two. and in it the twain have met. Don't eat at the cafe- teria if you like good food and prefer to end your meals in a mood of joy and peace. And don't, however strong the temptation, cross the campus on a muddy morning! These things are major errors. On the other hand-avoid mass meetings like the plague, unless you are already addicted to activity for its own sake. Break minor regulations with sangfroid. And if you would be happy though free. remember that the University academic year lasts only seven months. and has a way of ending abruptly while you are unprepared! FAREWELI. T0 ARMS Teddy Recre RULE has been passed to the effect that the football teams of the Toronto collegiates are not to be handled by outside coaches. This is probably only a minor detail to almost every- one else. but it is a very sad blow to one Edward H. Reeve. After eight years with the Malvern boys I had somehow come to think that I was not an outside coach at all. Mingling through those stirring seasons with husky, headlong youngsters answering to strange names like Yip and Ham and Albie and Quarts and Nurts: watching them pound through practice after practice till they reached precision: getting the jitters with them in the dressing room before the big gamesg mourning or cheering with them after the tide of vic- tory went with us or turned into backwash, has been a proud privilege that has brightened up every year for me since I first strolled up to the old gravel school yard in 1924. The great spirit that exists between the boys and the masters of Malvern and the interest and enthusiasm shown towards the foot- ball fortunes by the parents of the pupils has all combined to make this outside coach feel. or at least hope, that he was part of the institution. Well, all good things must end but this good thing did not end until I enjoyed eight wonderful autumns for which I am truly grateful. And from those days there are many matters that I will always remember. I23l