University of North Texas - Yucca Yearbook (Denton, TX)

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The staff was soon organized into committees to still-hunt this erstwhile seemingly plentiful genius. In feverish haste each member of the staff set to work studying other school annuals as models. The editor-in-chief and the art editors, working under the direction of the optimistic and ever-patient teacher of Drawing, literally spent their days and nights with Uncle Remus, searching for appropriate and artistic uses of the cotton-tail motif. Easter cards and designs afforded some hints as to the artistic possibilities of the cotton-tail. Every student who could draw a creature even remotely resembling a cotton-tail was encouraged — yea, begged — to expend his best efforts, with the assurance that whatever manner of quad- ruped he limned, his drawing would be sure of acceptance by the art editors. The drawing room soon took on the semblance of a veritable warren, so numerous were the cotton-tails in all stages of disguise, unlikeness, and contortion. Every member of every English class was assigned a class poem, class prophecy, class letter, or other literary representation. Classes were corralled and marched almost under guard to photographers to have their pictures made. Clubs and all other school organizations were begged, coaxed, and threatened in an attempt to get them to take space in the Annual and have their pic- tures made. Each member of the Faculty was besought for his photograph, and all cheerfully responded. Two members of the staff were detailed to cull out of Forty Thousand Sublime is

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WM-T«KNER. L.MIU.EIV venture was doomed from the very outset, and made an object of mirth at the mere mention of the name. What could be expected of a Cotton-Tail? The joke was not so readily apparent then, how- ever, to the student body. Having chosen a title for the Annual, the stu- dents next set about the election of an editor-in- chief and a staff. The men of the school — then as they are now, in the minority, yet hardly so unanimously in the mi- nority as at present — took the initiative or in some way outwitted the women and nomi- nated two candidates for editor-in-chief. The Reagan Literary Society nominated Mr. Louis L. Miller; the Kendall-Bruce, Mr. William M. Tanner. After a spirited campaign, in which both candidates remained good friends, and in which the women took an interested part, the latter candidate was elected by a small majority. Each of the ten classes then chose an associate editor. The business managers of The Journal, Mr. W. Z. Bates and Mr. N. N. Rosenquest, were made the business managers of The Cotton-Tail, also. Thus far the students had given their enthusiastic support. After the excitement of the christening and the election was over, however, the majority of the students seemed to regard their work done. The staff that they had elected enjoyed their entire confi- dence, and were left to pay for the honors bestowed upon them. Where was the genius that had seemed so abundant? Apparently it had vanished or had taken refuge in the thickets and the brambly haunts of the timid cotton-tail. 17

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and Beautiful Thoughts sixty-seven quotations that seemed suffi- ciently inappropriate and flattering to the members of the Senior class, write these quotation ' s on slips of paper, mix them well in a hat, draw one for each member of the class, and affix said quotation beneath the name and opposite the picture of each Senior. A glance at this section of The Cotton-Tail will give evidence suf- ficient of this effective means of characterization. The method had at least the virtue of being expeditious, and time was precious. Meanwhile, the business managers were seeking engravers and publishers who would at that late date take the contract to publish the annual. After much coaxing, contracts advantageous to the publishers were made. The material was hastily bundled together and sent to the engravers and the publishers. Later, the proofs were as hastily examined and approved and hurried back. The staff heaved a sigh of relief and waited, trusting that, by some miracle in the process of printing, the finished book would appear a work of art. The Cotton-Tail, the embodiment of all the hopes, fears, and mistakes of the staff, finally arrived for distribution during Com- mencement week. It was a slender volume of exactly one hundred pages, bound in a gray and green board cover. Truly, like man, it was fearfully and wonderfully made. And still the wonder grows as time separates the reviewer from this his first literary effort. Artistically considered, it is indeed a marvel of symbolism in what is not art and of nature faking. BuJ, reader, before you criticize too severely, consider the name by which the first Annual was handicapped and the limitations of the cotton-tail motif in artistic expression. Such minor considerations as perspective, light and shade, proportion, and color harmony were left to the ingenu- ity and whimsical imagination of the individual artist. Certainly the spice of variety is apparent throughout the volume. 19