Reed College - Griffin Yearbook (Portland, OR)

Page 164 text:

l1501 R E E D 0, life has run fast thru the veins of the inhabitants of House H. Many a jolly leeedii and grapejuice floing-bowl has gone down in its history, commemorated by a lyric, a satire or a farce from the hand of its poet laureate. House G has been from the nrst the home of the freshmen and the abode of noise. Its alarums, however, like the diversions of H, hav come only in the intervals between work. It has had two great distinctions during its history; it housed last year the only graduate that has gone forth from the dormitory, and produced this year the winning team in interehouse basket- ball. House F has ever had a unique place as the chief patron of those wonted muses of dormitory life, Venus and Terpsich- ore. In its walls the social graces hav fiourisht, and twice its Adonises hav sallied forth to dances of their own giving. During this last year Apollo, too, has come to stay in the person of the orchestra in Room 14. and here has been the rallying point for the musical activities of the meifs section of the dormitory. They hav had no monopoly on that commodity which hath such charms to sooth the savage beast, however, for the two houses in the middle section hav harbord this last year six pianos, which hav lent them rather more tltonel, than is found elsewhere within the walls. Of these melodius six, live ar in the one house, D, where the women also liV. Their life would seem, so far as ecoes hav reacht to mere outsiders, to be markt by two dominating passions: a love for law and COLLEGE ANNUAL 5- 1915 order, for there is found the only code of rules in the dormi- tory, and,-a keen tooth for spreds. Feminist-anarchists hav gaind no foothold in this sanctum apparently, tho there hav been now and again rumors of occasional midnight attic festivities, in contravention to all orders and precedent and mid-Victorian feminin limoreslll But an impartial analyst would be frankly willing to admit that there is about D little of the girls, boarding-scool flavor, and as for men they get there no consideration whatever, except as human beings; ar relegated, in fact, to the extreme background. Acros the sally-port in E the lone piano of the six is housed. During this year the three bachelors of the faculty hav hung out their shingles here, and in this house the literary and artistic spirit heretofore latent in the dormitory has found Maecenas in triplicate; especially hav the two Bowdoin men of the trio cherisht the divine spark, nourishing it with tea and delectable cakes at many a Sunday-evening salon, causing it to burn with a brighter glo in the highly esthetic atmosfere of their ltapartmentsf for this is the only part of the dormi- tory with which that name comports! So much, then, for the caracter of the varius houses. In addition to the life in each house, however, there has been a community social life as wel, which has centerd around the dining-room and men's common-room, at the east end of the bilding. In the one of these lo-ceilingd paneld rooms the collectiv inner man of the dormitory has found its daily ma-

Page 163 text:

REED COLLEGE ANNUAL 4- 1915 DORMITORY LIFE GRE AT long, red brick bilding with two abutments T at either end and a sally-port in the center, the whole ringd about by an oval gravel roadia high, x green 11oofob11oken at intervals by jutting balconies, 31:02 J06 tloors openlng 111t0 the varlus houses along the s1de, r 111 f1ont of them blg 1ron lanterns hanglngaa slight Havor of incongruity between the structure's newness and its attempt to assume an old-world, Collegiate-Gothic aire- there you hav the Reed College dormitory. It is split into houses 011 the Oxford plan, and these ar numberd beginning at the west end, by the letters of the alfabet from A to H. 111 spite Of the i111pe11sonalsound of their names, however, the houses hav taken, each to itself, a caracter as definit as can be expected to linger about a mere material structure. The dormitory has assumed, indeed, a sort of multiple personality, with a separate compartment for each of its fases. In-dwellers in one such pigeon-hole who find themselvs out of harmony with its spirit always gravitate elsewhere; tho of course a few incongruus souls ever remain to cherish rebel feelings within the walls. The three houses at the west end hav been occupied chiefly by the faculty during the whole three years of the dorn1itory,s existence, and so naturally hav been grave and sedate. Now and then, however, at Mr. Fosters 011 Miss Rowland's a party of students has broken the wonted silence and quiet; at other times, too, the joy of life has been evident ennf,abnt these three hav had, even in their outward sem- blance, a sort of propriety and dignity, and from them never has come any of that uproarins din which occasionally sounds from another three at the opposit end. Here liv the 111en,f0rty of them all with lusty lungs a taste for music of a sort, a liking for all kinds of sport and an ability, latent in a few perhaps, to work ten hours 1a day. Divided, as they ar, into three groups by house lines, they hav had a tendency to 5110 a certain spirit of rivalry in play and work and hobbies. This emulation has exhibited itselfiat times in the contests in sportabaseball, basketball and hand- ball; at times, too, in the real conflict, when men of F hav assaulted the battlements of H, and all hands and the hose hav gatherd to repel boarders. But these tumults hav come seldom and departed quickly, leaving no i1 feeling in thei1 wake. The thing which has remaind with each of the houses, however is a special hobby, an avocation in life. In H this has been the spirit of cammadmze From the time of the forming of the uHard Egl Club the first year under the regime of Fritz Anderson, right down to the present the wine

Page 165 text:

REED COLLEGE ANNUAL 1 9 1 5 usu terial sustenances; in the other after the meals ar over the men hav congregated to talk over the gossip and news of the day; sometimes too, after dinner, the women hav come in for MENTS SOCIAL ROOM an hour of informal dancing; again, impromptu drainatics and musicals hav taken place here at frequent intervals. One might wel imagin from this account that the dormi- tory life is all play and no work. But work is not only an integral part of the life, but the most important by far. A very real difficulty confronts him who would describe it, however, for the dominant note in scolarly activities of both men and women has been that of individualism. A wide diversity of interests,-1iterary, musical, scientific, sociologic, historioemarks this tendency. It makes undoutedly for versatility in an intellectual direction, and frequently interest- ing discussions at heard on the relativ merits of these practical and cultural fields as instruments for real education of the constructiv sort. The balance between the influence of the men in the different fields is so close, however, that a more than tolerant, more than grudging recognition is given to solid achievement in any line, whether it be in debating, newspaper work, biological investigation, fysical research, or literary expression. Often in different students, rooms men and women interested in varius problems of departmental or gen- eral interest hav met, sometimes on the spur of the moment, again by appointment, and hav thresht out to their great satisfaction questions of ethical and religius, filosofical and scientific bearing; or hav discust current topics such as, The Present Status of Psycic Research, The Attitude of the Dif- ferent Powers in, the Great War, The How and PVhy 0f anim'sm, Literary Form and Literary Spirit. How insuffer- ably pedantic, I can hear you say! What a sublime manifesta- tion of unconscins humor. VVel, perhaps so, but these thresh- 41? A;F-,;?fi::.'?'fl..';.. 3: NIL: ' e L;;.s-:n4E-'Siu'-;a-HSA$ mm mm... w E u U. IA 5' 393333: .15 , -. . A, p'