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Page 27 text:
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“CAP AND GOWN BN' B. r. STACCY. A. .n. ’03- TN writing fora college annual I believe it is customary for each article to begin by saying that that particular year will go down in the history of the institution as a year of innovations. That it will mark the beginning of a new life, a broader outlook and a larger hope. Taking it for granted that the custom will be followed in this instance, I will say that one of the greatest innovations of the year, and a fitting climax to them all. is the introduction of the Cap and Gown the Society Dress. the “Gala-day attire of colleges and universities. I believe it will not be out of place to say at this point, also, that the wearing of the cap and gown has long since ceased to be a fad. It is just as much a time-honored custom as commencement, itself, and is just as much the “proper thing on that occasion—the day of all days in the student's life—as is the dress suit or full dress at certain other social functions. There are a number of reasons why the friends of the university, and especially those intimately connected with it. should favor the custom of wearing the cap and gown: I. In the first place, besides being very inexpensive. especially since one may hire instead of buy. the graduating costume does away with the difference in dress arising from different tastes, fashions, and de- grees of wealth, and lends picturesqueness and dignity to the scene. We arc invariably moved when we witness soldiers or fraternal orders parading the streets or performing their ceremonies, because uniformity and continuity always strike the mind and awaken enthusiasm. It is hard to imagine anything more impressive than a large body of men. all in regular uniform, performing such evolutions as are required of soldiers and sailors: and it would be equally difficult to imagine anything more ludicrous than the same body of men going through the same evolutions in the various styles of clothing worn as citizens—ranging from overalls and cotton scull cap. to dress suit and high hat and without any attention given to uniformity of arrangement. One can get a fair idea of the contrast by comparing in his mind a regiment of soldiers with Coxy's Army. If we apply this same principle to our graduating exercises we can readily sec. without a very great stretch of imagination, the value of the cap and gown. 2. In the next place, the cap and gown firmly symbolize an clement in the educational life of today that should be encouraged. Some one has truly remarked that we are quite given to cutting loose from the past our social, religious and intellectual life. The tendency in every department is to adopt
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Page 28 text:
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modern ideas and methods. The word “new.' is continually recurring in connection with organizations, movements and institutions. We have the new charity. the new patriotism. the new theology. the new learning and even the new woman. Everywhere abounds what Dr. Bellows called the philosophy of newness. We have no complaint to make against this tendancy. however, for it is rapidly changing and improving the conditions of mankind— it is one of the necessary factors of development in all our social, industrial and political institutions: and nowhere has this tendency been more noticed than in our college curricula, and in the character of the subjects treated by. and in the degrees conferred upon, the graduating classes. Instead of finding fault with the tendency, howevef. we are glad to know that our educational institutions are not only keeping up with the progressive movements of the time, but are actually taking the lead, as they should. On the other hand, as some one has remarked, it cannot be denied that the natural effect is to disturb a sense of the continuity and gradual evolution of our knowledge. The learning of mediaeval times is the parent of our modern education. Step by step it has advanced, here a little and there a little, eliminating crude errors, changing astrology into astronomy, alchemy into chemistry, one theory of air and heat and electricity into another, until the knowledge of material things run to and fro throughout the earth. But our present learning has its roots, nevertheless, in the past. and it seems to the writer that instead of breaking away wholly from the customs and ideas that gave birth to and made possible our present educational life, we should show a sort of recapitulation. as the biologist would say. by adding and retaining the useful characters which have been developed during our educational history, and which have proved their utility by their persistancy and adaptability. One of our eastern educators has said: The graduates' costume at commencement seems to join together all the centuries of progress, to associate all scholars the world over, and to give emphasis to the universal fellowship of intellectual development It is suggestive of the source from which the large and varied results of the present have sprung. The cap and gown of the scholar at commencement is a pleasing reminder of the vast brotherhood of intellectual and moral training and the fellowship of colleges for all time. This idea of the cap and gown is found to be in harmony with the law of expression noticed in other organizations and institutions which trace their histories back to a remote past. Such organizations and institutions manifest in signs, symbols and regalia, the principles and processes that have decended from antiquity: and the benefit derived from calling attention to. and placing emphasis upon, their long course of development and successful career, can hardly be over estimated. As the old castle and cathedral awaken our interest in and call our attention to the gradual develop-
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