Temple University - Templar Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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Mile. Robique made many futile efforts to cause her class to study. The chief feature of the French class was the pronunciation of Miss Miller, the equal of which was never heard here or anywhere. It was unique, so much so that neither class nor teacher had the faintest idea of what she was saying when she read. But her ideas of sight reading were as strange as her pronunciation, as illustrated by the fact that she vehemently declared that 4 1 Tout bicn, ou rien,’ ’ was a Latin motto. Miss Doby excelled the rest of the class by the plentiful supplies of headaches and prayer meetings by which she was prevented from doing her work. We can truthfully say of this class that, next to algebra, it was the easiest thing in college. A history of 1900 would be incomplete without an account of a class meeting and a trip. The trips were ordinary, hut the meetings were extraordinary. No class in any school or college had such enthusiastic, noisy debates or masterful diplomatic talent displayed in electioneering, such oratory and. not least, such muscular force displayed in applause. Imagine sixteen or eighteen persons, with ten or a dozen ideas on one subject between them, called upon to deal with an important subject, which must be immediately disposed of. The result of the voting would be wild confusion, noisy altercations, cutting sarcasms on the part of the chairman, and the result of business postponed. 'The business was varied by little extempore entertainments given bv the elocutionary members of the class, or, rather, by those who imagined themselves gifted in that line, chief among whom was Wolf, who ventured one day 27

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flirt, or, if their minds were so directed, could study algebra. Unfortunately the latter was seldom done except by some hard-working students, as Heritage, who were apt to do anything. Here Miss Walters worked unnecessarily. Here the bluffer was in his element, because Professor McGee was too straightforward a person to doubt the sincerity of another’s intentions or the authenticity of one's problems. Pierce and Cheesman played chess to their hearts’ content without the interruptions (which came in Professor Foster’s class. Later in the year Cheesman indulged in a mild flirtation with Miss Nyce under the slim pretext of studying algebra, a guise easily seen through, but as Miss Nyce was chaperoned by Miss Doby there could be no harmful results. Here Miss Laws, of Mississippi, whose departure caused her many friends sadness, studied German under the fatherly guidance of Mr. Erb, who drew pictures of policemen to assist his thoughts for German. Altogether it was an elysium for all, loved by every one. and sincerely regretted, for we can truthfully say that there was no class where the marking was so high or professor so learned as that where sat our literary, mathematical and musical Professor McGee. French and German were the two modern languages that our class gave attention to. German, if studied at all, was studied in the algebra class, and French was never studied, except by Miss Miller. She had to keep up appearances. Professor Miller, who taught German, had other things on his mind and did not attempt to overwork his class, but 26

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to give us a reading, but the reading was sadly marred by the unstinted and hearty applause, which, unfortunately for him, took the material form of chalk, books and erasers. The eloquence of Wolf so moved our treasurer, Mr. Stone, that he was compelled to leave the room under a plea of illness. Few classes are gifted with such speakers as Wolf. Up to the close of the year the same violence of expression and long-windedness of speech prevailed, particularly the latter, and though the meetings were enjoyed at the time, we regret now the useless expenditure of energy at them. A trip may be briefly described as a collection of students, one long-suffering professor and one four-horse team, bound for a common point with a common purpose. We visited the gas works, the “Times” building, historic Germantown and old Philadelphia. An incident of Germantown worthy of preservation, was Professor McKinley’s little joke about a bullet-scarred fence there. “Students,” he said, pointing to the numerous holes in it, “some of those holes are knot holes.” We hope that the custodians of the various buildings we visited had a due sense of the honor conferred on them, though their faces seemed sometimes to wear a slightly bored expression, which made us doubt their appreciation. Such is the history of the wonderfully-gifted class of 1900. As I have said, there has been none equal to us, nor can we see the possibility of an equal, so, with thoughts of pride and satisfaction, we lcok back with a feeling of pleasurable regret upon the scene of our trials and our triumphs, Temple College. 28