SUNY at Fredonia - Fredonian Yearbook (Fredonia, NY)

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LOOKING BACKWARD. In june, 19oo, Hdux fe1ninafttcti,!' there will go forth from the classic halls of the Fredonia Normal halt ahundred young people. Inscribed upon their banner will be the device, From school life into life school. It remains to the historian of the future to chronicle the rank of each, Whether A+, A, B, C, or alas! C-. For the present may be written only what has been. In one respect, the organization of this class was like the building of King Solomon's temple-there Was none of the customary strife and din. Oihcers were chosen as by clock work, but sad to relate, th-e in- spired poet, Mr. Runkel, left school and the nine muses went with him! The fragrant flower of unseliishness blossomed in every heart. No one would rob his neighbor of the honor of being class poet. Nearly every member was duly elected to the oficice and as duly resigned. Driven to desperation, the class tried to make a poet out of a Taylor. But alas! no matter how good the material, poets are born not made. Then when vis- ions of class night with no poet were thronging thick and fast, lo! the good Shepard of the flock, magnani- mously laid aside her robes of office as historian and assumed Apollo's golden lyre. May Latona's son shower eternal blessings on her head and the nine muses so inspire her that of her it may be Written as of Orpheus of old, Wherever she sat down and sung She left a small plantation. The class of rgoo has never had a quarrel, but it contains some strong characters and it, did take two hours and a half to select a class pin. Pins of all sorts were considered, from a dainty little wreath to a glittering breastplate emblazoned with the name of the school, year, month and day, motto, class colors, and the president's picture, which she generously offered to donate. Finally, when the sun had sunk to rest and the room was illuminated only by a ruddy Bfrjunson flame, an order was obtained from the surviving member of the committee and the agent, who had missed his train, told his thoughts to the night alone. The class iiovver selected was the White daisy, emblematic, in its great tenacity of life. of the persever- ance that has brought the members unscathtd through permutations and combinations, location of the ecliptic and kindred ills more Urniserabile visu than ever the pins Aeneas endured. l 2 .

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The class colors chosen were the colors of the daisy-green, yellow and white. But let not any one in- fer that any member of this class has ever turned green with envy, except of those fortunate beings who have peacefully slept during rhetoricals, yellow with age, except temporarily in a valorous effort to remember the rules for pronouncing Latin proper names, or white with fear, unless while sentence hung suspended over the purloiners of state gas in the chemical laboratory. Speaking of that affair of the gas, it may be well to say that fudge isn't the only kind of confection that the 'oo girls have dispensed. The fame of the class bard, one of the experts in the concoction of fudge-and other sweets, has gone all the way from Center street to Perry and back again. There are two ways of treating almost any kind of work-to talk about it and to do it. Take cooking, for instance. You can write volumes on it in a cool shady nook under the branches of a wide spreading maple, but just try doing it in a close kitchen with the mercury sunning itself in the nineties! The class of rgoo has two members who have studied cooking. Mr. Leworthy has written an inspiring oration upon it, Mr. Edmunds has tried it. The former has not yet made public the results of his investigations, but the lat- ter, after burning all his fingers and thumbs, has solemnly avowed his purpose never to enter a kitchen again. MV Vocation, he says, whatever else it may be, is not frying pancakes. Before closing this brief retrospect in which of necessity many interesting facts have been unwritten, one class honor must be noted. That is the system of self government used in the study room, whereby the youths and maidens best calculated to set a shining example before their fellow students, have been placed in authority. Like the Athenians, the class has yielded up its youth by sevens, but to how different a fate! Not to become the prey of a dreadful monster, but to be hailed as the preservers of the peace, the eagle eyed detectors of missile throwers, and the avengers of all seditious acts. They have been faithful over many, may they be made rulers over more. Yesterday, for the class of I900qiS gone forever. Today, tomorrow is their own. It lies with them alone to make it even more worthy than the past has been of the Hin de siecle class of their Alma Mater. PEARLE MCMILLEN Pack. 13,