Stanford University - Quad Yearbook (Palo Alto, CA)

Page 27 text:

1904 Imniming- a lively tune adown the arcade. You seem to be happy? Stanford he ventured. Yes, was the reply; I can ' t think of anything to Quad worry about. Best of all we knozo him! sang and shouted the pioneers — and so sang and shouted not simply because of those in- scrutable confidences which he shared to all alike : they knew him, and in the knowing had come opportunity, expansion of soul, breadth of vision, days and days and days of glorious existence. It was the con- tagion of his personality communicated to and taken up with a will by faculty and students alike which enabled the Sequoia to exultantly record (jMarch 30, 1892) : The perfect sympathy of the faculty and students makes us a unit of strength in all our undertakings. In the long perspective of nearly three hundred years there doubt- less seems very little difference between one and another of Harvard ' s early decades. Possibly from the point of view of A. D. 2158 Stan- ford ' s first and second decades will blend in one indistinguishable period. Our vantage-ground is better. We know there will be a dif- ference, for the difference is already here. The fairest day can have but one sunrise. There can never be another Pioneer Class, or another pioneer period, in this or any university, like the pioneering that was at Stanford. There may be new quadrangles and new corridors with- out number, but never the same newness. Imagine a Sequoia of 1903 printing any Miss Evelyn Briggs ' s Entrance English paper with a special note from her major professor calling attention to the fact that such wit and brightness was written in less than an hour and absolutely without premeditation! Imagine any Stanford periodical of 191 1 print- ing an inane high-schoolicism like this (Sequoia, Dec. 9, 1891) : The many friends of J. F. Wilson were somewhat surprised lately at a sudden change in his physiognomy. Perhaps the barber can explain. Or this (Sequoia, Dec. 16, 1891) : It is suggested that Bancroft be asked how far it is to Redwood ! We shall never again be so self- conscious of our ability to give pointers to Harvard, or expand with such altruistic emotion at thought of the good we have done to poor old Berkeley ! When over-bubblous Encinaites let loose those historic freight cars on their journey toward layfield, or scurried about with midnight paint pots in pranks which can now be exaggeratingly and half-boast- ingly related, but which once it would have been embarrassing to dis- close, these were merely attempts to discover the length of tether. And though the tether was long, the last bit of slack of social privilege, of irresponsibility, of over-athletic, over-literary activity was finally taken 23

Page 26 text:

Stanford t M c)t Encina even, wcmld liave produced a single describable emotion. Quad ' ' 1 li ' relation to the et)inninnit life the student found no rules, no 1904 traditions, no apparent end to his tether. There were no guiding posts which gave the slightest clue to what might prove snap courses, to what instructors could be profitably worked, to any proper use of moonlight bathed arcades. iMrst of all then there was the universal and fascinating voyage of discovery, the engaging pursuit and discovery of one another ; of faculty by faculty, of student by student, of each by the other, of founders, of business ofifice, of Mayfield, of vineyard, of arboretum, of evenings on Alvarado Row, of Redwood, of Woodside, of Ham ' s and King ' s, ct al. The student had to study his major professor, to find his heaven-born poets, football heroes, funny end men, journalistic geniuses, statesmen, rulers — or, failing the search, to set to work to make some. An evening with the Barneses that first semester stirred emotions, exhilarations which the most elaborate social function of 1903 cannot even faintly suggest. These were true Bohemian days, and here only were the conditions and the atmosphere in which academic Bohemia could truly come to flower and fruitage. A trip to Woodside or La Honda had all the charm of scenery and pleasant company which it may exhibit in 1903, with that indefinably something more which belongs only to pioneer days. Here were no beaten paths ; it was as if no person had ever walked these ways before ; each expedition opened into fresh El Dorados and enchanted wonderlands. But there was another element far more important in creating the enchantment of morning time at Stanford. The real soil out of which grew and flourished so luxuriantly the Stanford and the Stanford spirit of pioneer days was the dominating personality of President Jordan. He was the Pied Piper of Stanford. In sunshine and cloud, whether plans prospered or came to naught, whatever betid, he piped on in that rollicking, generalizing, precedent-overturning, irresistiblv contagious, optimistic comradery which cast its inexpressible, ineradi- cable glamor over everything between foothills and bay. At that piping his faculty felt the spell, dropped their several pursuits, and hasted together from all quarters of the earth ; students followed him across deserts and mountains and flocked in from all the natural features of the Pacific Coast. At that piping the primitive conditions and inade- quate equipment of raw bcgimiings took on the transfigured hue of richness and unequaled opportunity. It was Professor Smith who found this ]n )ev in one of the da s we do not now hesitate to call dark

Page 28 text:

Stanford ' M ' - ' i - ' ' ' - ' ' pi ' occdcnis, of slaiulards, of rei ulations, of machinery, Quad witli all its cxliilaralini; ' , whistlini; ' winds of freedom, showed some un- 1904 expected results. Though entrance requirements were of irreproach- able character, few coidd he denied admission when there were twenty tlilYerent doors at which the special student mis ht knock. Thon, h one hundred and twenty hours were rigidly required by the august Council, what mattered this when almost any instructor could present the needv student — conn ' ade and fellow worker — with as much credit as the exigency or the importunity demanded ! What cause for commotion in the dro])ping of half a hundred students at the semester ' s end when five and fort} ' could count on being readmitted at the next semester ' s be- ginning ! Regulations, checks, even shortening of tethers were inevitable. The Stanford spirit and the Stanford activities of the second decade must be conditioned by these facts. There are already Stanford tra- ditions, Stanford grooves, Stanford shrines. Woe to the iconoclastic Freshman who sets out not to respect them ! These carry over into the new Stanford all that could be carried over of the best and stablest of the old. There is a larger Stanford already at our gates, with larger opportunities, better working conditions, greater steadiness, not less fine enthusiasms. When its ten years are up the second decade will be found to be not less fair or less noble than its immortal predecessor. O. L. Elliott. 24