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

Page 18 text:

T H E H I - O - H I 1 9 1 0 and the visitors could admire the building, while they listened to the music. Both th.e library and chapel were near completion by June nineteenth, and everybody displayed the liveliest interest in their architecture and practical usefulness. The Olney Art Collec- tion had been moved from Cleveland some little time before and was on exhibition in the library during the whole of Commencement week. -The chapel, rising in its exact symmetry and simple mag- nificence fulhlled in the hearts of the visitors Keats' wonderful syno- nym for a thing of beauty. These substantial evidences of the growth of Oberlin and the generosity of h.er donors, were very fittingly brought to a Hnished state when so many of Oberlin's sons were back to see them. Further comment upon them is useless: they stand witnesses themselves of their usefulness and beauty. 8'6 Of the most unusual feature of the entire week, the alumni dinner, it is difficult to write satisfactorily. It was such a mammoth undertaking that a brief comment is pitifully inadequate. The mere seating and feeding of three thousand people is a task to challenge our admiration. The great crowd was divided and subdivided according to numerals, and from all parts of the tent as the dinner progressed came the rival yells of the classes, from nineteen eightn away back to the fifties, and perhaps even farther. There could, of course, be no unified yelling, and as the event proved, no unified singing, but President King and Madame Johnston brought out a universal applause as they walked through the crowd from one end of the tent to the other. The mere bigness of the throng was intoxicating, as it always is, and everyone felt inclined to vell for Oberlin, for Prexy, or Madame J., or something, from pure joy at being present. Speeches under these conditions were of course impossible, and the frac- tion of the diners who were fortunate enough to have tickets, adjourned to the First Church. to enjoy the post-prandial feast of wit and cleverness. 83 The climax of the festivities and gayety 17

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V5-..r speak of The Oberlin Man. It is upon this complexity of citizen- ship, upon this composite of manhood, that Oberlin's hope for the future must be built. It is the Oberlin man, in the things he does and the things he stands for who controls our future reputation and strength. Every college has a typical man. We hear them spoken of often, the Harvard Manf' the Yale Man, the Cornell Man, each embodying th.e public judgment of the college he represents. Nor can we expect to escape being crystallized into a type. But we need not fear it. Every college has of course some men who are freaks and faddists, some who bring ridicule upon their Alma Mater. But we are blessedly free from many of the standard varieties. Oberlin Men are in the main a good lot, of whom we can well be proud. A fact which was made most strikingly apparent when we saw them all together at the love-feasts. 5' Of music, of religion, of culture, of the theory of education and of life, of all the things interesting to the one one-hundredth of one per cent there were talks and conferences without end. But in spite of the great number of these addresses and meetings all were well attended and interest in each seemed equally keen. 5' Oberlin without music would be like Oberlin without a rain, and this week of all weeks had its share. Concerts were given by the Musical Union, the Glee Club, the Combined Glee Club, and the Conservatory. All of the concerts were given in the new chapel 16 '

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came with the illumination and student pageant on Tuesday night. Under the skillful management of three faculty members the campus assumed aspectacle on that eventful Tuesday night, not surpassed for ligh.ts and enthusiasm by an election night on Broadway. Great festoons of lanterns hung from trees and buildings. From the new flag pole went out radiating lines of light to all parts of the campus. The Commencement attendance had reached its maximum. Every- body was at that high point of careless joy and abandon which char- acterizes all gatherings of old classmates and sch.oo1-fellows. As the time for the parade drew near and the streets bordering the campus became packed with people, one began to realize how many strangers were really among us. Around the reviewing stand in front of Peters Hall the throng was thickestg and all the fun and foolishness of a political night-pageant was rampant among the waiting crowd. in At last the parade appeared, gorgeous beyond words, spouting forth on every side the choking smoke and gas and blinding light of colored Hreworks. The applause was loud and long as the proces- sion moved down the street, and as band after band marched by, the enthusiasm knew no bounds. To detail the various stunts would be impossible. Words could not do them justice. Nothing approach- ing the pageant had ever been done in Oberling and never will be done again perhaps until twenty-four years hence when the college celebrates its hundredth anniversary and the loyal sons and daughters 18