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

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T H E H I - O - H I 1 9 1 0 of Oberlin again return to worship at her shrine and send off fire- works in her honor. But gradually the red-ligh.t gave out and the little fizzers sputtered desperately into darknessg the last division passed Prexy's stand and broke ranksg and the crowd began to move away through the town. Friends and class-mates bade each other good-night and hied them to their beds. The streets were soon deserted and only an occasional fugitive couple who had mis- calculated the length of the parade could be seen hurrying nervously across the campus trying to reach their house before lights were out. The few remaining lanterns burned up and smoked slowly outg and before long the stillness of the night was broken only by the coughing of some enthusiastic parader or the distant strains of an ancient serenade. 8? Reflections upon the usefulness and raison d'etre of all this unusual effort are almost out of place. The thing justifies itself. Oberlin had progressed through seventy-five years of noble and earnest effort for the good of men. It was right that we should hold our little jubilee in remembrance of what we had done, and talk over among ourselves the ach.ievements of our past and the hopes for our future. But if we must have a further reason for so large an undertaking it is ready at hand. Oberlin was in duty bound to tell the outside world what she had ' been doing during all these seventy-five years. Much of the work had been quiet and unseen. The progressive development from a struggling infant institution in the west to one of the foremost educational centers of the country was for the most part unosten- B tatious. At times, to be sure, our - reputation spread abroad, during the war even more perhaps than we deserved. But these occasional flashes only served to dimly light to the public gaze the great stretches of intervening years between. Even our sister col- leges were scarcely aware of our strength and resources. That the world in general, and those who 19

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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

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believe th.at college education is not yet a farce and a disgrace to America, might know of the wonderful progress of a college which has consistently adhered to the sound principles upon which college education and our national welfare stand, this celebration was held last June. This was the reason for the conferences and addresses, the dedication of new buildings, the inviting of college representa- tives, the pageant, and the rest-we wanted them to know. But deeper than all this lay the good which it contained for Oberlin herself. , if This was a time when all lovers of old Oberlin could come back and see their college. It was a time when the things wh.ich bind Oberlin students together were more fully felt than ever before. It was a time when those of the past could see the things which we are doing in the present. It was in short, the time when Oberlin, past and present, could survey herselfslnd take account of her future. Probably of the most significance to the oldest alumni among the things which impressed them were the many evidences of change. On every hand they saw a new life and newsurroundings. Even the physical ch.anges were strikingly apparent. Magnificent build- ings of stone where formerly there were but homely structures of wood, motor cars flying along where of yore slow wagons ke-pt their wayg streets aforetime fathoms deep in sticky clay now neatly paved and solid to walk upon, changes all for the better perhaps, but 20