University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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History of Class or 1905 BY MARK FOOTK RICHARD HUDSON, Dean oj the Department oj Literature, Science, and the Arts. OST all of us can remember the beginnings or ' ' birth ' ' of the Class of 1 903 . We were fully as green as the proverbial Freshmen are reputed to be, and bought our ' ' Campus Tickets, paid our tuition, and studied Fresh- man Math. with uniform equanimity. The class first assembled and organized in University Hall under the tutelage of Prof. Goddard. At this meeting there was a spirited contest for the class Presidency between Richard R. Kirk and Charles F. Smurthwaite, the former winning out by a small majority. It is interesting to note in this connection the fact that Mr. Kirk has the distinction of being the first man in years who has escaped the dangers with which the office of Freshman President is fraught, and stayed with his class to graduate. After organization things went along very smoothly and quietly. 1903, modest and retiring, showed up very well on the side lines, waiting to get into the game when more sophisticated. In the annual Fresh. -Soph. Rush, one of the Michigan traditions which is unfortunately becoming a thing of the past, we quite vanquished the Sophomores. It was a pretty sight to see hundreds of bare-headed fellows in old clothes and sweaters form into two compact wedges upon opposite sides of the field and gradually move down towards each other until they came together with an impact of hard heads that was terrific. Then to see one side gradually waver, give way, turn and run, and the other with a yell of victory sweep the field. Of course some heads were bumped, there were a few bruises and scars, but upon the whole the affair was far from brutal; it was invigorating, healthy, and calculated to inspire physical and moral courage. On the Hallow ' een on which the students took possession of, and operated the Ann Arbor Rapid Transit Street Railway System Naughty -Three was in evidence ringing up fares, as also at the Ringling Bros. ' circus. This, by the way, was the last circus which had the intrepidity to venture into Ann Arbor during the college year. In the Spring of 1900 we had the good fortune to get into the finals in the Inter- Class Baseball contest, but we went down to defeat before the Laws. Naughty-Three ushered in its second year by relegating Oracle, the old publication of the Sophomore class, to innocuous desuetude. This book had been