St Lawrence University - Gridiron Yearbook (Canton, NY)

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32 THE GRIDIRON. home the teams were held up by some of the inferior rank of Potsdam's citizens, but '01 had succeeded in having a banquet and keeping two towns up all night and was happy. All congratulated themselves that the affair had been managed with a great deal of finesse. 1901's artistic ability showed itself early in the painting line. Orig- inality of outline and bold color effects characterized their work on the bar- ber poles, while on the sidewalks the bold strokes of genius were in evi- dence. There ensued some trouble with the barbers-there are some people who hate to depart from the old customs, and green barber poles were a rather startling innovation-so '01, consulted a lawyer and paid the bills. ' THE GYMNASIUM. Once during that Freshman winter '01 felt that the college was in need of a little excitement, so they gave a dance. As usual the whole college was there, but also, as usual, all were on the outside, except '01 and their guests. For an account of the football game between 1900 and 1901 and of the Freshman-Sophomore debate, see History of 1900. The account will possibly be somewhat distorted and exaggerated, but will suffice, if accepted with a great deal of caution. The occasion for the Grand Scrap was .Tree Holiday, April 29, 1898. Most of the naughty-ones spent the night on the roof of the college or about the campus. By daylight the traces of their sojourn were visible. Green bunting Hoated from the roof 3 '01.'s tree stood unmolested, its trunk 4

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ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY. 31 Junior History. The history of '01 consists mainly of those events which are carefully excluded from the histories of 1900 and 1902. The history of the ordinary class can be written in four words: Freshman, do. Sophomore, doing. Junior, did. Senior, done. Such is not the case with S. L. U. 1901. They are still doing, and in- tend to do a great deal more. To enable one to understand better the narration of events about to follow, a few general facts will be of value. In talking '01 is expert, it can talk any other class in college way out of sightg it has talked more in its career than all the other classes of the University put together. In politics '01, cannot be rivaled. If it does not produce a goodly num- ber of statesmen, it will not be because its members lack practice in that line, but rather because they have had enough of political intrigue already. 1901 knows Roberts' Rules of Order a good deal better than how many class taxes it has paid. As for precedents, those are '01's specialties. The one imperfection in this class is that all were born leaders of men, and it is difficult to find any who were born to be led. Concerning enterprise, on matriculation day, almost before '01 was a class at all, one of the particularly brilliant naughty-ones presented to his class a formally drawn up document, setting forth an elaborate scheme for holding, on that very night, the Freshman banquet in the not very far dis- tant metropolis of Morley. The banquet was to consist chiefly of oyster stew. The aforementioned enterprising youth, author of the ambitious document, was promptly squelched, his menu not being sufficiently swell to satisfy the epicurean tastes of the naughty-ones. When the banquet did come off it was carried out in characteristic style. The plans were elaborate, and the whole college was there. 1901 drove to De Kalb, came back through Canton ina baggage car, and at length reached Potsdam, had a banquet and drove home. On the way

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ST. LAWRENCE UNIVERSITY. 33 wrapped in green. Dr. Atwood's bright Sophomore-red barn was dec- orated with 1901's usual artistic taste in green-and this marks prece- dent number one. The barn has never been without ornamentation since. On the gymnasium door was a beautiful green 1901. The chimneys of the college had each a similar decoration, while the whole roof was sur- mounted by the famous big green ball, which was resurrected from seem- ingly nowhere, in which place it had been since its mysterious disappear- ance caused by '99. In regard to all this there was some little talk-much of it done by '01, both among themselves and to authorities, and although, as has been said, the '01.'s are all good talkers, some quite outdid themselves, and their at- tainments on that occasion are marked by artistic emphasis and terseness. To be sure, Paddy ironed out his hair and came up to class meeting a day or two later and moved to eradicate the paint from the chimneys and obliterate it from the gymnasium door, which motion was dulv seconded and carried and '01 paid for the paint. As for the green ball, thi-s marks mysterious disappearance number two, but does not account for subsequent rumors. 1901 celebrated its return to college by attending the Freshman ban- quet. Somehow the cane seems a proper adjunct of the Sophomoreg '01 is nothing if not proper, therefore they won the cane rush. They followed this up by tying '02 at football. Then later they gave a dance in the gym- nasium and of course the whole college attended on the outside, according to precedent of '01. One daring 1900 succeeded in getting into the gymna- sium, but after the '01 boys had attended to their unwelcome but persist- ent guests below stairs, they seized that valiant Junior by the hair and gave him a more intimate acquaintance with the single-sticks than the ordinary youth possesses who gets 60 in gym. work. The visitors on the outside were forcibly convinced that their presence was not desired and departed, that is, what was left of them did, for the most part hatless, having left their headgear as souvenirs for the '01's. In basketball '01 won the championship of the University. The Fresh- man-Sophomore debate was a great and illustrious victory for 1901. The baseball record for that year can be found in the History of 1902. When Tree Holiday came-behold. precedent number three-1901 at the Haven House where every- deserted the campus and held a banquet 5 .