University of Iowa - Hawkeye Yearbook (Iowa City, IA)

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guests, and of the people. Governor Cummins said, as he unlocked the door; In the name of all the humanities to which this building is now forever devoted. I declare it open and ready for the purposes for which it was intended. We now enter and take possession. Then all that afternoon the university kept open house until evening came and the guests were compelled to leave for their homes. The building is now a part of the university. Within its walls there will be a per- petual home for searchers of wisdom. It belongs not alone to our state but to America and to the world. With all due respect to Old Central, we must honor the new building built to harmonize with the old in color, in form, and in architecture, the magnificence of the new can not detract from the loved and storied memories of the old. The one marked the beginning, the other marks the progress of the university. In place of the cheap fire traps of the past, there will be modern structures of enduring steel and stone. Structures capable and fitting to be the home and the treasure house of the intel- lectual activities of the state of Iowa. Progress too often ruthlessly breaks the heart strings of nature; and to make room for this product of man ' s art, it was necessary to sacrifice a product of nature. The students of the past will remember that old oak styled The Pride of the Campus. ' ' Its sturdy trunk and its spreading branches will ever linger in their memories. It needed no botanist to admire it; the natural within man readily responded to its beauty. Those who loved it in the past will be content with the sacrifice, if the things that made it to be remembered are magnified in its successor. H. M. PRATT.

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THE HALL OF LIBERAL ARTS LITTLE over half a century ago the legislature of Iowa passed the act estab- lishing a state university. Ever since its founding the hopes and efforts of all connected with it have been directed to providing a suitable home for the collegiate department, the department which in reality is the cen- tral one of a university. At last the efforts of those pioneers of learning have been rewarded, and that too in a substantial way. Some of them died before their labors had borne fruit, but some are still laborers, faithful as ever. We younger ones can not know the feeling of pardonable pride within them, when on the llth day of June, 1898, they saw laid the corner stone of the hall for the College of Liberal Arts. They saw in it, as we did, but with a truer vision, the beginning of newer and better things for the university. On September Sth of the same year the first sod was turned. According to contract the building was to be finished in two years. But the work of construction dragged along until, in the minds of upper classmen, anxious to see the completion of their new home, it seemed as though it would never be finished. However, public building contracts are sometimes finished, and the building was finally used during the summer session of 1901. By the time the fall term opened in September it was practically completed, and the inrushing body of students dedicated it to the uses of learning. The formal official dedi- cation, however, did not take place until the 23d of January, 1902. Senator Dolliver, who had been present as chief speaker at the laying of the corner stone, was also one of the speakers on this occasion. The governor, legislature, and the state officers were the university ' s guests of honor. In the presence of the student body and faculty, of the

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THE BURNING OF OLD SOUTH HALL AND THE MEDICAL BUILDING |T last the five or six girls remaining in Irving Hall had finished piling up the dishes in the corner with the ice cream freezer all that was left of the annual spread given by the old Erodelphians to their freshmen mem- bers. They turned out the lights, and, banging the door, which locked hehind them, trooped down stairs, busily talking of the success of the spread and declaring it the best they had ever had. After a burst of applause, the door of Zet hall was thrown open, and the audience began to flock out, discussing the farce, and trying to decide whom they thought had done the best. The Hesperians and Zetagathians stayed in the hall, and, as soon as the last outsider was gone, they set about having a general good time, and making away with what was left of the Christmas dinner of the farce. Then there was a great rush among those who had taken part, hunting up their belongings. After some dispute as to whose duty it was, the lights were turned out by one of the tallest ones, who stood upon a chair with arm raised, and called, Are you ready? I ' m going to turn it out now. Then they groped down the stairs, uneven from long use, with their hands upon the balustrade, which bent and seemed about to break under the slight weight. Soon the last person had passed out of the long echoing hall. When all had become quiet, a short old man with a pipe in his mouth came out from among the shadows of Central Building, went over to South Hall, closed the door with a bang, and, pulling out a bunch of big rattling keys attached to a chain, locked it, as he grumbled, Phat the divil d ' yez be afther wantin t ' stay so late fer? Then he went slowly back to Central Building and sat on watch. Gradually the few stars, which had shone in the early part of the night, were hidden by the fast gathering clouds, making a murky blackness over all which seemed so thick as even to shut in the rays from the gas lights in the campus so as to make them only dim, struggling, yellow spots- A drizzling rain mixed with sleet began to fall, and froze as soon as it reached the ground, covering the streets and walks with a glassy sheet. The wind, which had sprung up, rattled the ice-coated branches of the trees together, often with such force that the ice upon them broke and fell with a clear crack upon the frozen ground beneath. Suddenly a flickering light shone through one of the windows of the Medical Build- ing. For an hour or more it gradually grew larger and larger, but the town wassleeping the rain fell and the wind blew. Then the light began to grow more rapidly until it