Oberlin College - Hi-O-Hi Yearbook (Oberlin, OH)

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HE young men who have this publication in hand X N ' M have asked meito speak a word or two for Oberlin from the standpoint of an outsider. I don't know whether I can very easily put myself ff 1 into that attitude. I ,am reminded of an exper- I M ience at the old Exeter- I-Iall, in the Strand, on washington Qlahhen the occasion of my first visit to London. It was the Wor1d's Mis- sionary Convention, and delegates were there from all the world,- Parthians and Medes and Elamitesu and so forth,-and they were trying to: take care of us in the room of the entertainment committee, when one of the young men of that committee plumply asked me the question, Are you a foreigner ? I thought he ought to know bet- ter, and I said, rather hotly, No g I am an American. I confess' I didn't want anybody who used the English language to call me a foreigner. I have a little of the same kind of feeling when anybody rep- resenting Oberlin wishes me to appear anywhere on her premises as an outsider. I don't know whether I can very well masquerade under that role. I haven't been accustomed to take that line when I have been in Oberlin 5 I have never felt like a proselyte of the gate, and they have never kept me cooling my heels in the Court of the Gentiles. How an Ohio Congregationalist is going to hang about Oberlin in the character of an 'outsider I don't quite understand. For it belongs to us, and we to it, and if we should attempt to deny it our speech would bewray us. And if anybody undertakes to palm off what I have to say here as the testimony of a wholly unbiased and disinterested witness, it will be a case of false pretensesg for I am not at all unbiased, and I a1n very much interested. Of course it is true that I am not a graduate of Oberlin, and that I have never had any official connection with the University. But I am not to blame for that, at least for not being an alumnus, for I think that in the far-off antiquity of 1855, when I was pre- Pafing f0F College, I had never heard of Oberlin. And I suppose I o c u . . .. Q , t it is this misfortune of mine which is alluded to when I am re- ues - . q ted to regard myself as an outsider. There are quite a number l-L

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present students, you will discover that the spirit of youth does not greatly change, and that the same ideals and aspirations are to be found in the student body now as in days of yoreg and therefore, I believe, you will conclude that in spite of new faces and new build- ings, the Oberlin that was is in essence the sanie as the Oberlin that is, and you will have confidence t-o look forward with joyous expec- tation to the Uberlin that is to be. llfhether or not the old and the new thus seem to you to blend, I hope that the work which you find here will seem to you worth doing, and the leadership wise and progressive. To an extent not paralleled anywhere else, Qberlin draws its students from a world constituency. And it is able to do this because its Alumni and former students are so loyal. In this loyalty, based not on mere sentiment, but in a genuine confidence in the College, the Faculty and the President, is our strength and our hope for the future. i 2. - ut yta a .v 2 48 4,, V , . .. i. ,. V . Qin the Qlumni iiaume uf resihent Earrnms

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of College men in Ohio who are not graduates at Oberlin. And it may be supposed that our judgment of its character and work would be a little less partial than that of its own sons. If that is the sup- position, then I have to say that the testimony of these representa- tives of other Colleges, so far as I have heard it expressed, is sin- gularly cordial as regards Oberlin. I believe that Oberlin enjoys in a very high degree the good opinion of the educators, and the educated men of Ohio. All institutions, except the Deacon's One Hoss Shay have their weakest spots, and doubtless Oberlin, like every other College, is subject to criticism, but I am sure that there is no institution in the State for which one hears more hearty words spoken than for Oberlin College. The undergraduate constituency of Oberlin is of high quality. Most -of the students, of course, come from families of the middle class. Many of them are farmers' sons and daughters, and these are apt to, be earnest and hard-working students. But boys and girls who are brought up in homes where there are no books are at a great disadvantage when they are pursuing their studies g people who are reared in homes where there is some intellectual background are able to make a great deal more -of a College course. And a pretty large proportion of the Oberlin students are the children of minis- ters and other professional men, who have been accustomed, all their lives, to some degree of culture, and who are ready to make a large use of their opportunities. Educators from Eastern Colleges who have visited Oberlin have remarked to me upon the excellent material, from an intellectual point of view, which the University finds to work upon. I The morale of the College has always been high. The pater- nalism of former days, has, no doubt, been gradually and almost ,unconsciously relaxed, and some things are now allowed which would have scandalized the community iifty years ago. And it is altogether probable that in the large number of students now gath- ered about the Campus, cases of misconduct must frequently occur. Nevertheless I doubt if it would be .possible to find grouped any- where on this planet eighteen hundred young men and women living 15 Qbherlin tram the QBut5iiJe