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

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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.

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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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How can we ever forget her beauty as we viewed it for the first time, in the halo of ideahzing youth ! Around us on every side we see beautiful flower gardens, but all of them fall into insignificance as we look directly ahead of us. Here is the centra figure of the grounds, a large circular mound, crowned with castor beans, elephant ears and scarlet sage, so artistically arranged that one seeing it can never forget its beauty. Our minds now have to turn from the beauties with which we are surrounded, for we have before us the trying ordeal of facing the professors with the r long lists of examination questions. For the next few days nothing but work in warm classrooms fell to our lot, and when the final results were published they filled us with as much pleasure for the time being as all the beauties of nature com- bined, for we had passed and were now a part of the school. The dread of failure no longer put a check to our buoyant spirits, and we busied ourselves making friends with those who had started on the same road to graduation with us. Some of these boys have kept with us thruout the entire four years, and if we could but write of all of our fun as well as our duties in this time many of those who are contemplating a college course would decide to take one as soon as possible. Can we ever forget our walks through the country abolit college? How they seemed to draw out from our souls all that was pure and noble The hills and dales are again before us, and we live over again the pleasure that was then ours. We can see the old back road as it winds its way among the pretty farmhouses down the hill, with the tall, dark pines on either side, and out again into the valley below. The old mill, with its moss-covered water wheel, again looms up before us, and the picture is so real that it brings back to us the roar of the water madly rushing on over the rocks long worn smooth by the angry lashings of the wrath- ful element. We can see again the falls and the large boulders on every side. The spray again wets our cheeks as we stand at the base of the cataract and watch with ever increasing fascination the maddened waters churned into foam by its downward rush. There seems to be some potent charm in the scenery that brings us in close communion with the wild life of our prehistoric ancestors. The rough battle of the elements harmonizes with our thoughts, and we long to walk con- tinuously in companionship with the matchless beauties of nature. Once away from the falls the scenery is even more picturesque. Rocks on either hand rise almost perpendicularly from the stream. Here and there moun- tain laurel covers the face of the rock with masses of white flower clusters. The wild pansies are not to be forgetton, for in every place where the sunbeams can penetrate we find their friendly little faces turned up to ours in pleasant greeting. Wild geraniums and dog-toothed violets are scattered thickly oyer the low ground, while fringe trees and magnolias hang over the banks and reflect their blossoms in the clear, still water below. ID