University of Nebraska Lincoln - Cornhusker Yearbook (Lincoln, NE)

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• J THE CORNHU3KER- NINE.TE KN XTWE-NXY I at the head of the Mall. We ' ll be around where we can see it by and by. Brace Hall — it ' s had an addition since our day — blocks the view. I get you all right. The southwest corner, — nearest the police court, if I remember rightly, — is given over to the laws. But how big is the campus now, anj-way? None too big, I assure you. The city part of it, dormitories and all, takes everything from Ninth to Seventeenth between R street and the M. P. right of way. Besides that we have the Marathon extension to the Farm, which you ' ll see when we ' ve made the rounds. You talk as if you had taken in all out-doors! We certainly have taken in some of it, if you count our aviation camp. But that ' s some miles out. I think I ' m lined up on the directions and o.k. ' d to the general atmos- phere. But what is this hall where Administration and Pharmacy used to be? Ground-plan a carpenter ' s square, I should judge? Still called Administration Hall, though there ' s nothing left of the old one but a patch of cellar space. A big University is a big business and it takes an office building to house the business end, — that includes registration, of course, and all that. The north wing is taken up by the University Press. That surely you ' ve heard of? Better than that. I ' ve a dozen of its most famous books on my home shelves. Makes me proud of Nebraska whenever I take them down. You can be sure visitors see them, too ; and I swell up a little when I let them know that I and the books are the product of the same college. Which does that speak well for, John Henry? Tut, tut! Let a man borrow a bit of credit now and then from his Alma Mater, and give him at least a grad ' s share in his own right. Surely! We all know well enough that it is our men who make us. May your shadow never grow less, — and keep on buying our books! Keep me from it, if you can! But which way now? Down R to Twelfth. You ' ll notice how R is built up on the right. Straight out east to Antelope Boulevard it is the same thing — mostly apartments, frat houses, and private studios. Over on P and Q you ' ll recall, is the theatre and amusement center of Lincoln. You ' d be amazed to know what a feature the University ' s dramatic and artistic work has become. Every year half a dozen of our theatres give ' Universit ' Night ' in honor of some U. of N. trained actor or actress on their bills, and our own theatre has produced, all in all, a full score of Nebraska-made plays that have swept the countr ' . I always said all we needed was a little encouragement and local support. Nebraska genius is as good as any. We think better — naturally. At any rate there never was a more hope- less folly than the old fashion of driving out of the state every jjerson of artistic bent who happened to be born here. Talk about waste ! It was like deporting a gold mine, — I don ' t mean that the money was the main thing. But a big part of what makes life worth living is the beauty of art, and we practically said to every gifted boy and girl in the state — Dry up or get out! It is not so now. I should say not! And we have the good old U. of N. to thank for that, too. We showed folks that you don ' t have to be Italian to sing, Czech to fiddle, French to paint, nor Broadwayese to produce a good play. In one way Nebraska ' s like Missouri ; it can be shown things. Some states can ' t you know. bsH SKi 25

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THE, COnNHVSKER. N I N E,T E K N-Ck-TWE-NT Y and when he was rea ' dy — well, even if dad had wished it, you couldn ' t have steered him into another college. Why, his name ' s Cornhusker! We do take some pride, those of us who have stayed by the job, in what we have made out of our good old U. of N. Twenty years have seen a change worth seeing. That ' s part of what I ' m here for, too. Nebraska is known everywhere now as the college that knew how to grow. I ' ve read about it all times enough. But I was determined to see it, too. That alone would have brought me back. It ' s the first thing that ' s going to happen. It ' s the first that happens to every Lincoln visitor, grad or no, the University is the town ' s Exhibit ' A. ' I propose to make myself combined reception committee and guide for your first aid. Shall we to it? Gladly. I got some inkling of the change, I think, when the train rolled in this morning. All north Lincoln seemed to be a parked campus, down to the right of way. Makes some impression for the town. It certainly does. Lincoln never made a better investment than that dormitory lay-out. It has paid out in cash, in comfort, utility, beauty a hundred times over. And it has transformed student life. It was fine in the old days, with all the discomforts; but now — why the dormitory feature alone draws from every quarter. Yes, John Henry, Jr., has described it often. Now which way are we going, the town seems new? In a moment you ' ll see. I ' m taking you to the most familiar entrance. Do you recognize that? Old U Hall with its mansards and tower! Still on its own keel. By George, I didn ' t think any building, beautiful or not, could look so good to me! We all love it. It means something. It was the first, and every brick that went into those walls was wagon-hauled from the Missouri in the days before a rail was laid into Lincoln. The sentiment that built that old hall out here on the raw prairie is one Nebraskans thrill to. Its idealism has been our measure. Nothing has seemed too good, in comparison. Right you are. Its the idea that counts in making a college — from the first. Yes, the idea. An education as free and liberal as the winds that blow. Nebraska started with it, and now the old Uni has weathered seventy years. I wonder what those pioneer paters would think of her now! Jove! Now we ' re getting where we can see. I feel like one of them myself. The last twenty years have done far more than the first fifty. As they should. An idea like any other moving force gathers momentum as it goes — if the right boost is behind it. And we ' ve boosted. My boy, it ' s plainer than day that you have. I need a guide. Lay it out for me. I knew you ' d need me — though the pleasure ' s mine. Here we are at Eleventh and R, fronting U Hall. That ' s familiar. I fancy, too, you ' ll recog- nize the old library. It ' s been part of the Law School plant for years. Glance down beyond and you ' ll see that everything ' s parked on down to Ninth — facing the city park (on the old Hay Market), which leads to the big Union station you came in by. The R street viaduct begins at Ninth. Leads on out to Capital Beach where the Uni keeps a boating house now. You ' ve noticed some of our shell records? Who hasn ' t? I meant to say that the houses and greenery across Tenth from the Law are given over to the law students ' quads. They ' ve t d big Commons 24

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THE, CORNHUSKER. 5S NIN E-TE ieNWTWE.IsnrY m Now who would have thought they could ever have gotten such an effect! Just gaze down Twelfth. It ' s a classic. Classic is the word. After they had huilt the Social Sciences and Chem. Lab., with their pillared porticoes, the idea came home that Twelfth must carry the conception straight through. I think it was in Zenobia ' s Palmyra — one of the ancient cities, anyhow, — there was a street called ' The Street of a Thousand Columns. ' We ' ve carried out the image here, — a series of pillared porticoes, a vista of majestic columns. The effect is magnificent! We call it the Court of Columns. It is a court, you see, and ends, three blocks down, in the pillared portico of the first building put up after the Great War. Oh, I know that all right. Like every other ' 20 I ' ve a financial stake in the Soldiers ' Memorial Gymnasium. Helped to build it. Yes, we all went in for it, and glad we were to do it. It gave us the needed gymnasium, and besides that it is a beautiful memorial to Ne- braska ' s soldiers and sailors and nurses, and all who gave themselves for the state. For years after it was first built the great floor served as an assembly hall for the University, when indoor space was needed. It has seen many a high fete in the past years. No building on the campus is richer in associations for the younger alumni. The Athletic Field is beyond, of course, — where it used to be? Yes, in the same place. But it is really fine now. All solid concrete. The trophies won in the big stadium year by year take their places in the Trophy Room. But you know Nebraska ' s record in athletics. She had hardly begun in our day. I suppose the new intra-mural program (it was new, then) had some- thing to do with it? Everything! It made us thrice leader in no time. But we shall learn more of that when we get to the dormitory quads. From here, beyond the Gym., rising high, you see the smoke-stacks of the heat and light plant, which is on the track frontage. Evidently it is a big one. Yes, it is for the whole campus, dormitories and all. Do you know, the stacks really make impressive towers, don ' t you think so? Yes, I do. Folks often guy me for admiring these immense modern sqioke-stacks. But they are wrong and I am right. They are really tremendous, in their way; and when there is a plume of smoke from the top, beautiful. The high smoke-stack, the tubular elevator, the silo, and the water-tower — these are to the western American Landscape what castles and fighting towers were to Europe, in the way of picturesqueness. We ' ve come to see it, and, as you ' ll notice, the architects haven ' t disdained giving the right touch of ornament even to a smoke-stack. Are we going down Twelfth ? ' The Court of Columns is no longer Twelfth street. It is a part of the University Campus and is closed to all except Uni traflic. But we shall not enter there. I want to take you in first by the entrance which every stranger in Lincoln asks for, and into the building which is the monument of them all. Can you guess? That ' s easy. Why even in ' 20 the first question put was, ' Which way to the Museum ' ? It ' s world-famous now. Yes, the Museum. And with it the State Historical and Fine Arts and 26