University of Minnesota - Gopher Yearbook (Minneapolis, MN)

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(Dur Uniuersity window ledge and other available place occupied b.vTdeeply interested students, and if you query as to what particular study is so deliRhtful as to be so universally elected, would learn that here our well-beloved professor of Political Science is lecturing. His lucid style, ever abounding wit and genial manner making the study of that science not only profit- able but accounted among leading pleasures of life at the U. These rows of little closets or lockers on either side of the hall are so many separate cloak rooms for the students. Here is one left open. You notice the mirror on the door inside? That locker is a Gent ' s. Here in the rear are the apartments of Prof Yattaw, a dignitary who is master in a superlative degree— say 90° Fahr.— of his specialty. Steam Heating. But I hear the hum of voices and tramp of feet above. Let us hurry and watch the throng coming back from chapel. Such a merry crowd. The great hall extending the en- tire length of this floor is already full, and the Registrar ' s office (first door to the right in front) is overflowing. Again and again the patient Registrar informs the applicants that their cards will be found in the P.O. boxes. The postal department is worth our atten- tion. It is always an interesting corner in which to take notes on human nature. Note e. g. the look of irremediable woe that comes over the face of that poor little Freshy who left her country home in some distant part of the state a whole long, long week ago, as she stands before her box and peers into it for the hundredth time since her arrival, and still stands and stares into its vacancy with an expression of mingled wonderment and grief that an actress might covet if called upon to render Innocence Gazing at Death. Contrast her face with that of the world-worn, cyncical Senior, who takes a load of documents and letters from his number, and, with an air of business indifference stuffs them into his pocket without even stopping to notice the superscription. Or mark the fltishing cheek and quick susjiicious glance around (to see if all the IT is not marking) of that lovely Sophomore maiden as she snatches from her number a thick letter, whose mas- culine superscription no one gets to see before it is hurried into her pocket. With what more than Delsartean elasticity of step she hies away to the Ladies ' Parlor, a large airy room on the same floor, furnished for repose, and barred (Lex Universitatis) most rigidly ' gainst male intrusion. She douJ)tless hopes to find a quiet corner there, where sunk i-p. a deep easy chair or preempting a whole couch she may read the missive. Alas for that hope! burst of Latin, logic, Greek and gossip greets her as she enters and her own voice soon joins the medley. The gentlemen have also an exclusive parlor — it is the last door down the hall there — but it offers no greater advantages for quiet meditation, albeit no giggling, gossipj ' girls are ever found there. It was formerly as nicely fitted up as this, but gymnastics proved so disastrous to aesthetic furniture that the authorities were obliged to leave it as now — a little plain! These doors labelled respectively Gopher and Ariel we may not enter. The former is a special museum of Fossil Jokes, petrified quotations and etchings illustrative of po- etic embryology. The latter the sanctum sanctorum of our one literary journal, pub- lished weekly during the college year by the Students of the U. of M., terms $1.50 per year (always in advance), single copies 10 cents. Come now across the hall into the old library. It extends from end to end of the build- ing on this floor. Put on the soft pedal now. Silence in this room is the writing on the wall here. Like all warnings this is sometimes lightly heeded, if not quite disregarded— now by some absent minded I ?) student, talking in his sleep as it were and now, through exercise, if not abuse of official privilege— by one of the several librarians, whose constant service the 27,000 voulmes demand. Who shall silence the silencers? may be whispered

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iBur Uniuersity with a smile across one of the many tables where the hnngrT minded are regaling: them selves, biit the rule is, as a i ule, obeyed and we feel like lingering: in the hush to read the whole day away, but we must glance at the stories above. The next or third T -e need not examine in detail as it is devoted entirely ' to recitation rooms for literature and the classics. Climb still another lofty flight of stairs and you appreciate the wisdom of the fathers in not restoring the Chapel hall to this fourth story which it occupied until the fatal night last spring. Some enterprising students were giving a little farce for the benefit of the Lawrt Tennis Association. A leak in the gas pipe under the stage, a cry of fire and the Box of Monkeys and our dear old chapel were volatalized together. Fortunately uo (human 1 body was cremated in the blaze, but it was too obvioiis what might have been ' — with anything less than the miraculous coolness of actors and audience at that play — to leave any question as to the keeping of the grand rendezvous of the IT. so far aloft. The young dramatists, at first terrified and disheartened over the brilliant finale of their play, now consider themselves under Providence public benefactors, for plans are already drawn for an elegant new Chapel and Library building, spacious, accessible and with all modern conveniences — Dei (et leP ' is) gratia. The three large rooms 3 ' ou now see occupy the burned district on this floor and are de- voted to Physical Culture and the two Literary Societies. The latter, Hermean and Delta Sigma, each hold weekly meeting and afford excellent and much-prized opportunity for practice in debate extemporaneous speaking and parliamentry procedure. Now let us leave the gray old mother building, for many younger and fairer, if not more dear, are waiting for our attention. The handsome structure of red brick and brown sandstone, seen through the trees to the left yonder as we pass out, is the Law School, where legal lore is imparted through lectures by the ablest jurists of the state. The pretty little brown stone Lodge close by, and complementing the other as de- voted to the higher law, was erected by the Students Christian Association, which holds here its weekly prayer meetings and offers a course of lectures on religious topics not in- cluded in the University Curriculum, The enormous pile, highest of all in its proportions but built of wood alone, looming above the great oaks across the gorge yonder, is the Coliseum. It is closed and has a some vhat dreary, bam-like appearance today and we will forego a nearer view. All win- ter it serves an admirable purpose, as drill hall for the military exercises in which all first year students must and others may participate. Come next June, however, and you may go inside and see the real glory of this architectural elephant, as it was sometimes slightingly nicknamed in the earlier years of its erection. Now that the U. of M. numbers over 1,600 regular matriculates, and its annual com- mencement exercises and their attendant festivities are brilliant enoiigh to attract an au- dience from all over the state. No lesser auditoriiim would at all answer our purpose. And when the electric lamps of its great interior pour down their light upon all the fair women and brave men of a Senior Promenade as they glide over its broad acre of floor space, looking down from the gallery 3 ' ou would pronounce it a bower of beauty rather than a barn. Let us turn in the opposite direction and follow the broad stone walk leading to the right. This first building of red pressed b ick, with a great tower-like chimneyin the rear, belching smoke like a factory all day long is Mechanics Hall. Entering the basement you imagine we are in some factory or great machine shop indeed. Here the modern ideas of Industrial Education are carried out, and in its forge .shop, foundry, machine and till shop, wood-working shop, mechanical labratory. etc., etc., all filled and furnished with tools and machinery as varied and complete as could be found in practical establishments