Park University - Narva Yearbook (Parkville, MO)

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small for the demands made upon its members, and in the early days it was painfully small. The accumulation of laboratory and other material equip¬ ment for classroom work dates in the main from ’93 when Mackay Building became available, and each department of instruction felt that it had gained permanent quarters. The various branches of the science work have had their real development since that date. The building and equipment of the Scott Observatory marked a distinct epoch in the development of the depart¬ ment of astronomy, and that came later. The departmental lines were about then coming to be more closely drawn though long before the outlines of the department of mathematics, of Latin and of Greek were clear enough. But we shall have an earthquake to stand against instigated by the old fogies of the ’70 ' s and ’8o’s unless we hasten to protest that with all the scant equip¬ ment there was good work done during the early days. They will even say that the work was better considering the facilities, but such extravagant talk only comes of their old foginess in which they must be humored. Professor Mattoon, who with his eight-inch equatorial turns Saturn into a whirligig and makes a kaleidoscope of the Pleiades, has the better of Professor Foster who laid aside his text books on Metaphysics and Ethics and his sermon for the next Sunday and took out his home-made pasteboard telescope to entertain the few wondering astronomers for a portion of an evening. Professors Find¬ lay and Dean with their roomfuls of compound microscopes can make more wiggle-tails wiggle than Prof. Meriweather or even Dr. Tibbals ever imagined were provided with wigglers. But the old fogies are egging me on to say that there was a fine lot of agitation of the gray matter in those days. Those were the days when laboratories were carried about in hats. Men thought in those days, though their facilities gave them little opportunity to do else. And they learned what life means and what grit it takes to live it. They made high ideals. The stars were not so big to them but they saw them all. Though ihey seemed farther away, they manfully girded themselves for the climb. Those were the days of brave and hardy men. They learned to set God before their eyes, and trained their ears for “well done,” and though the way led on rough and steep they knew to grip the staff vise-like for the journey. And —12—

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HISTORY OF PARK COLLEGE. lege. H LASSROOM work began in Park College May 12th, 1875. Accordingly we call that Founders’ Day. There were seventeen students to begin with—who has not heard of the “Original Seventeen?’’ They all came from Highland, Kansas, where they were “prep” students in the university. In Hugord Home at Highland, which was the prototype of Park College Family, there were, in 1875, thirty-five students of Highland University. Eighteen were members of the college classes. These Dr. McAfee left to shift for them¬ selves, which they proceeded to do with good grace, and the other seventeen will enjoy the honor throughout the countless cycles of the ages of being the “Original Seventeen” of Park Col- One need only attend a Commencement in these latter days to learn from the effusions of the older Alumni how things went in those early days. If you will only sit patiently through Dr. Hindman’s annual recital of the tale of the Irishman and goat and red shirt and railroad train, he will tell you all manner of interesting stories of the hard work and scant fare and rigorous rules and of going to prayers before breakfast and of how large a factor in the college life were the chapel services, and of how hard he studied things that he has forgotten all about, and on and on. From the extravagant stories that they all tell, you must inevitably get the impression that those were the days of plain living and high thinking, and if you are an undergraduate of the present generation your heart will swell within you as you recognize in the worthies of those days your lineal ancestors. It was in ’79 that the institution was incorporated and really became Park College. It was incorporated because the work was developed into some¬ thing beyond an experiment and because there were four students ready to be graduated. About the first thing the Board of Trustees did was to pass out diplomas and it has been kept active in the same business ever since. The class of 1901 will bring the Alumni roll up to 425, quick and dead. Now a goodly number are in the heavens above and the rest are scattered to the four corners of the earth. Their levers are set secure under those same corners and before you are dead they and their successors will turn the world upside down. Here is where you may find them: In Uncle Sam’s dominions every¬ where—God bless him and them—in China, India, Japan, Siam, Laos, Egypt, West Africa, Oceanica, Bulgaria, Canada, Korea, Mexico, South America— keep an eye open for them wherever you may wander over the face of the earth. There are none in Mars yet: they have not found a way to get across. Besides, Professor Mattoon says it is chilly over there. The faculty have not always been so handsome as they are now, but hard work has always been done in Park College. The facultv has alwavs been

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while they succeeded they have been succeeded. There is a Park College idea and the years have maintained it. There is ever the same high thinking. Park College—some one rub the knuckles of that crusty old timer who has his grip on my sleeve. It must out—Park College is turning out finer and bigger and full as true men and women every year. Her finer equipment is showing itself in men. She has grown in favor with God and man, and may she ever grow ! How now? Expected to learn facts bearing on the history of Park Col¬ lege? Don’t be preposterous. Facts in the compass of a thousand words? That is what this whole book is for. Look at the pictures. It takes all of them-to give a vague idea of what Park College is now. And what it is it has come to be from nothing or next to it in ’75. The Founders? Oh, they are too big men to mention in this brief note. There are whole cyclopaedia articles and books being written about them these days. They were sturdy men who lived sturdy lives and did a sturdy work. Park College must stand sturdily for the Park College idea if she stands true to them and her heritage. J. E. M’AFEE, ’89. Mackay Building. The corner stone of Mackay was laid Commencement Day, 1887. March 13tli. 1893. the building was first used for class work. It contains sixteen recitation rooms, three society halls, the offices of Lowell M. McAfee and several furnace rooms. The great clock in the tower keeps our campus time. A more picturesque hall is seldom found in the west. —13—