University of California Berkeley - Blue and Gold Yearbook (Berkeley, CA)

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THE BLUE AND GOLD INTBODCGTION. I AIL, once again ! Another year has rolled around, and once more the BLUE D GOLD appears. ' 83 follows the good old custom handed down from our ancestors in the University, and issues the ninth volume of the BLUE AND GOLD. It is substantially the same as its predecessors. The only things that have been changed are the cover and the inside pages. The new features that have been introduced are very few ; but the best ideas of former volumes have been combined. We have made some innovations in the way of omissions. No organization is represented that is not actually in exist- ence. In consequence, the melancholy fact is apparent that a number of University organizations have died an untimely death. We console our- selves with the reflection that we are not responsible for their decease. Most of them died long ago, but their epitaph was never written, and their names have descended as an inheritance from one BLUE AND GOLD to another. It is hoped that the absence of these venerable rel- ics will not be felt ; or, if felt, will be forgiven. We make no apology for this BLUE AND GOLD. The readers will find the weak spots soon enough without the assistance of the editors, and it is not necessary to go into a long disquisition to prove that we would do better if we could. Neither will we enter into a discussion on the ab- stract merits and mission of a BLUE AND GOLD. This has bsen done before in such an able manner that we feel ourselves relieved of a dis- agreeable duty. With these preliminary remarks, we proceed to discuss a few matters of interest about the University. Since the last issue of the BLUE AND GOLD, our college world has

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DEL. [Once on a time an Arabian fisherman, on hauling in his nets, found entangled within the folds a vessel sealed with the seal of Solomon. Kashly breaking the seal, he opened the vessel, when ] EARLE A. WALCOTT, CHIEF. B. A. HAYNE. E. C. SANFORD. W. W. B. STEVENS. A. THORNE. FRANK J. WALTON. E. C. FRICK, CHIEF. W. W. DEAMER. L. B. JOHNSON. E. LOUISSON. H. F. F. MERRILL.

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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA received a remarkably lively shaking up. Shortly after the close of the term last June, nothing less than an earthquake astonished the dwellers within and without our little world. Suddenly, without the least warn- ing to those on the outside, at least, the Board of Regents summarily dis- missed several officers of the University. Chief among these was John LeConte, President of the University, and Professor of Physics. It is out of our province to discuss the wisdom of this step. The condition of the University demanded that something should be done, and this was ap- parently the only thing that presented itself to the Board of Regents. President John LeConte, eminent equally for his goodness and his learn- ing, was unfitted both by his studious habits and his age for the arduous administrative duties of his office. But of his fitness for the chair of Physics there could be no question, and the deep injustice done him by his removal from the department he had conducted with so much honor to himself and to the University was righted a few days later, when he was honorably reinstated in his position. Professor LeConte showed his true nobility by accepting again the office from which he had been so cruelly thrust, and gained the respect of the students more by this act than by airy other of his official life. The other positions declared vacant were the chair of Mathematics, tilled by Professor W. T. Welcker ; and the instructorships of Physics, Hebrew, and Spanish, filled by Messrs. Parker, Phillips, and Gompertz, respectively. The causes of complaint against these gentlemen were not clearly stated. Professor Welcker ' s methods were somewhat vaguely referred to as old fogy. The causes for the retirement of Mr. Parker and Mr. Phillips were well understood by all in the University, and no further reference to them is necessary. They departed ' ' unwept and unmourned. Mr. Gompertz was referred to in very high terms by the Board of Regents, and it was hinted that a want of money made it necessary to entirely abol- ish the Spanish department. In the stead of President LeConte, the Regents, after several very stormy sessions, placed Mr. W. T. Reid, a gentleman well known on the Pacific coast as the Principal of the San Francisco Boys ' High School. A strong fight was made against him by the press of the State. Only two of the San Francisco papers espoused his cause with any warmth, while the oth- ers were bitterly hostile, or balanced themselves not very gracefully on the