Southwestern University - Souwester Yearbook (Georgetown, TX)

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Pageantry in Southwestern University And pomp, and feast, and revelry With mask and antique pageantry, Such sights as youthful poets dream, On summer eves by haunted stream. — Milton. In Spirit of Southwestern, given in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the college, Southwestern University presents its ninth pageant. The initial pageant in the form of a May Fete was produced in 1915 under the able management of Miss Laura Kuykendall, Dean of Women, and Miss Etelka Evans, Dean of the Department of Music, and formed the occasion for the homecoming of many former students. Each succeeding pageant has been produced on an increasingly elaborate scale by the directors of the first pageant who have also been the moving spirits of all the succeeding ones. The number of returning students has increased each year, until, in 1923, the Golden Jubilee pageant marks the climax of the greatest homecoming in the history of Southwestern. Former pageants have taken place in May and have been celebrated with festivities lasting for two days. The chief features have been the Queen ' s banquet on the first evening, the hanging of May baskets in the early morning, a ball game, and the pageant itself in the late afternoon. Each year the pageant has been appropriate to the spirit of the time, as the World War pageant, the Victory pageant, and the Homecoming pageant in 1923. Southwestern University was the first school in Texas to take up pageantry from an educational standpoint. The public schools of the State have been in- vited from year to year to send representatives, and large numbers have re- sponded. Thus the pageantry of Southwestern has become so widely known that graduates and former students of Southwestern have been called upon to direct pageants in many public schools of the state. In this manner a closer contact has been established between the college and the public schools of Texas and the sphere of the influence of Southwestern is steadily increasing. Nine years of systematic training culminate in Spirit of Southwestern the Golden Jubilee pageant of 1923, which Southwestern University presents in honor of its semi-centennial celebration. Page 21

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upon the Chairman of the Faculty, Rev. John R. Allen, A. B., D. D., the following year. Dr. Allen had come to the University as Professor of Mental and Moral Philosophy in 1892 and had filled several positions with great acceptability. Most of the time he had charge of the Woman ' s Building and he added the East wing to that Building besides making other improvements. At the commencement of 1908, Robert S. Hyer, LL. D., was elected Regent. The period of his administration was one of great prosperity in material things in Texas and the University kept pace with the times. The Main Administration Building and Mood Hall were begun and completed. In 1906 the original charter trat had been granted February 6, 1875, was revised so as to merge the tw f o Boards of Control into one Board, the Board of Trustees, and to chang e the title Regent to President. Bishop Ward inspired the Summer School of Theology, which grew to prominence and did much good for Texas Methodism. Dr. John R. Nelson inaugurated the Medical College at Dallas, he also did much towards projecting and completing Mood Hall. Professor R. B. McSwain did much in standardizing the courses of study. An effort was begun in 1910 by Dr. Hyer and others to move Southwestern University from Georgetown, first to Forth Worth and then to Dallas, having failed completely Dr. Hyer resigned at the commence- ment of 1911, and was soon afterwards elected to the Presidency of Southern Methodist University, an institution that grew out of the aggitation to move Southwestern University to Dallas. The Trustees accepted Dr. Heyer ' s resignation in 1911 and at the same meeting elected Dr. C. M. Bishop President. He was a man of rare scholarship, who had filled many places of prominence in the ch urch. He was formally inaugurated December 11, 1911. He soon restored confidence in the permanency of Southwestern University and brought back its old time prosperity. The Science Building was projected and completed under Dr. Bishop and the Endowment Fund was materially added to. Dr. Bishop resigned in 1922 to re-enter the pastorate and the Trustees elected Dr. P. W. Horn President. Dr. Horn will be inaugurated at the coming Jubilee. In this brief history the limits of the paper made it necessary to omit many names of students, faculty and Trustees or Curators who played important parts in the development of the institu- tion. It is hoped that some day a complete history of the University will be written. Page 20

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