University of Maryland College Park - Terrapin / Reveille Yearbook (College Park, MD)

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and consider it a factor in our education of no inconsiderable importance that we should have come in touch with such a man as he, who has so ably lived up to the true functions of a professor, which consists, we believe, not so much in mere technical teaching as in the strength and force of character which is brought to bear upon the pupils. The details of inorganic chemistry, its salts, its bases and its acids, have long since faded from our lax memories, but we doubt if ever our lively recollections of Doctor Mac, his methodical ways, his quiet criticisms and generous treatment of our, we fear, too oft offending class will ever be effaced. Around him, too, cluster some of the happiest experiences of our college course. Well do I remember how as Sophomores, fifty strong, we used to march down from the barracks to the old chemical lab. on our weekly jubilee parade, garbed like beggars of the nursery jingle, Some in rags, some in tags and some in velvet gowns. Surely we were a fearful and wonderful sight! And then up the stairs we would rush in a wild stampede that I often wonder it did not bring the building down. But it never appeared to phase Doctor Mac ; he had seen Sophomores come up those stairs before! Having arrived on the scene, we would proceed with all expedition to throw order back into chaos, and this we confess is one of the Doctor ' s tender points, since he is, we believe, a sincere believer in the commandment that Order is Heaven ' s First Law. Especiallv do I remember a balmy day in the late fall, when we had been manufacturing chlorine. From fifty generators the noxious gas was leaking out in copious quantities. The room was full of it, we were full of it, and everything in sight and hearing as well. At length we were driven out, and while the patient Doctor cleared the atmosphere we rolled among the rustling leaves and breathed in the rich autumn air. Those, too, were the days of weekly matinees, at which some of us (if I remember rightly) held box seats reserved for the entire season, and few were thev who so far disgraced themselves as to let a whole month go by without their patronage. If we were remiss in our studying, with what fear and trembling did we listen to Doctor Mac ' s cool, decisive That ' s sufhcient, when he had pumped the desired knowledge out of some reluctant individual and came on down the line to us. What joy if we answered correctly! What desperation if we tried to bluff! It was at the end of this same Sophomore year that we planted our row of star-leafed gums along what is to be some day the Avenue, and we can con- clude this simple appreciation in no more fitting manner then by joining, as we did then, in a hearty, Three Cheers for ' Doctor Mac ' and the whole McDonnell Family.

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DR. H. B. McDonnell

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College Days Four years are passed, and we stand on the threshold of our Hfe ' s work. It is not for us to penetrate the dim avenues of time and see what the hands of fate are going to scatter along our pathway, but the joys and the sorrows of the past are always ours. We can never store them in the dark corners of our memories, these years that have been so much to us. How many of us can forget our first arrival here? Our hearts and minds were filled with anticipation of what was to be our home for such a long period in a boy ' s life. We could hardly restrain ourselves as the car stopped, so eager were we to be the first to see her celebrated halls. At last the train rolled into the station, and we were able to drink our fill of the beautiful scenery. How proud we are of our State for establishing such an institution ! Our college spirit had already passed the embryonic stage, and as we walked up the broad, grace- fully-curved avenue, shaded by wide-spreading silver maples, it seemed to fill our whole being. The scenery which greeted us on every side could not be more delightful. From our feet the lawn spread out in a velvety green carpet, stretching over the hill and into the valley beyond. A field of clover on our left was nearing the cutting stage, and the butterflies and the bees, realizing the great need of haste, were sipping continually the nectar from the ripened blossoms. How earnestly this picture of rural plenty appealed to us, and as we went on, and our point of view enabled us to see over the ridge into the rose garden, with its background of vineyard and orchard loaded with their luscious fruits, which one of us was then ashamed to acknowledge himself a country lad, even if it did bring disdain- ful smiles to the lips of the city-born among us ? From the rose garden we are not able to see the building ; instead we find towering up before us an army of foreigners. We are not dismayed at their appearance, however, for they are from the friendly shores of Norway, and they wave to us their long branches of evergreen, the uni- versal sign of peace. The inquisitiveness of youth cannot long be restrained, so we hurry thru the grove of spruce until we come in view of the main buildings. And this is the place — this old gray building, our home. The place of our struggles and joys.