Roanoke College - Rawenoch Yearbook (Salem, VA)

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FRONT VIEW OF COLLEGE BUILDING

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OENTGEN RAYS, as its name implies, is a literary instrument by which the world at large gains an insight into Roanoke College life. Timid bays are seen to enter the institution as glireshmen, verdant rats. Friends at home, especially the fair ones, see them at each vacation, and, now and then, receive letters from them. Finally these boys leave college as dignified Sezziaz' gwzffezzzefz. They are admired, but their admirers have no intimation of all the love occurrences, comical incidents, and attempts at greatness con- nected with these polished graduates during their course. lf this publication sheds any light on Roanoke students, whom you know, it has served its purpose. Putting into print the ridiculous events herein recorded has been attended by difficulties-difficulties insurmountable by any others but the board of editors-and if this issue is found wanting in any respect we attribute it to opposing influences rather than to our inability. NVe have been compelled sometimes to lay down our pens to carry trunks, we have been asked for our judgment on paintings and poetry executed by the rats against the sophs, or zfzkz' wzfszz. The Annual Staff had hardly organized and gone to work before it was announced to them that Pro- fessor Ambler had resigned the chair of Mathematics and joke-ologyf' Of course, this very naturally put us out for quite a while. VVe knew not where to find jokes to put in The Annual, and before we could get ourselves together sufficiently to request Professor Ambler to give us a volume or two of his most original jokes, he had gone to the country of the Tarheels carrying with him every volume he had. lNe were left sorrowing, however, only a veryishort while. As soon as Professor Greenwood had got- ten himself well together in his new position. we were agreeably surprised to find that he would some day make as good a joke-teller as Professor Ambler ever dared be. This, however, is not all that Professor Greenwood can do. l-lis coolness and judgment in the midst of battle is equal to that of Hannibal or Caesar. On the morning of the Rat-Soph. battle in front of chapel, his coolness did more to calm the excited warriors than a dozen cops with billies could have done. This is not all that has interrupted us in our work this year. Wfhen we came back to college last fall, we found that Doctor Painter had resigned the chair of Modern languages, and Doctor Roderfer had been elected to fill the vacancy. For some time the pen had to be laid aside in order that we might become acquainted with this new professor. And now, the difficulties being overcome, we must make imperative the fact that skepticism absolutely can not be tolerated, doubt concerning the events herein recorded is IiOt pardonable. lfVe wish to thank those outside the editorial board for their cheerful assistance. EDITO'

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A Sketch of Roanoke College EVERAL years ago the distinguished political economist, Edward Atkinson, coifiparing the economic potentiality of the different sections of our country, said, after mature reflection, that the Blue Ridge and Alleghany section extending from Pennsylvania to Georgia and Alabama was destined to produce the thriftiest and most progressive population of any part of the United States. These words, written in the spirit of prophecy, are now being fulfilled. According to a recent bulletin of the United States Department of Commerce and Labor, North Carolina, as a manufacturing state, ranks second in the Uniong and it is well known that Southwest Virginia is witnessing the greatest industrial development of any part of the Old Dominion. 1 Rev. C. C. Baughman and Dr. David F. Bittle, both natives of Maryland and graduates of Pensyl- vania College at Gettysburg, were therefore building more wisely than they knew when in 1847 they deter- mined to remove to Salem, Virginia, the Virginia Institute, which had been opened by them five years before in two log buildings near lVIt. Tabor Church, about eight miles southwest of Staunton. The location at Salem was doubly fortunate, because it was accessable to both the Lutheran Synods in Virginia which gave this Institute their support, and because, while enjoying the advantages of close contact with the outer world of scholarship and culture, it was free from those evils which beset colleges situated in large cities. Never since the removal to .Salem has Roanoke College seriously considered the question which now confronts some of her sister institutions in Virginia-that of removal to a center of population and wealth. From the beginning the Rev. C. C, Baughman was the principal of this school, which, in 1845, had been incorporated by the legislature as The Virginia Collegiate Institute. The movement to secure a col- lege charter, the initial steps toward which wereltaken by the students themselvefs in a petition to the Board of Trustees, adopted 'by the students, December 3, 1852. Professor liaughman at first considered inadvis- able, but he afterward withdrew his opposition. The wisdom of this step of such doubtful expediency at the time, has since been abundantly justified. 1-The act of incorporation was passed, March 14, 1853, the institution fortunatelyfadopting the name Roanoke College. Although one of the younger colleges in Vir-