University of Vermont - Ariel Yearbook (Burlington, VT)

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72: TT SZZT ' shadows, and then hears a shout from a running company of huskies just off the farm. There is a rumble of feet, a heavy shock as frosh meets lurking soph, ' periodical splashes, and flashing lights as men in green hats bear away brokers heads from the fountain ' s brink. ' Damp and sick, frosh and soph alike crawl sheepishly home to bed, and Ira oAllen resumes his eternal vigil. ' But there are other scenes which the fountain could tell of if speaking, were one of its virtues. One moonlight morning in une, 1899, the seniors having finished gowning Lafayette ' s statue, decided to clean up Converse Hall. cAbout 2 a. m. they gave the freshmen and sophomores a ride to its brink and tossed them in. Only one captive is reported to have escaped in slippers and gown to a safe hiding place. It is also an unwritten rule that the most popular senior shall pay for this distinction with a bath at Qo ' T ' T sncement time in ohn Howard ' s tub. i ortt) ibe of College Street ' TITHE north side of College Street still seems like hallowed ground to us, even though we be upperclassmen. It is said that the very sidewalk trembles with rage when a green cap dares to tread upon its immortal surface unaccom- panied by his betters. cA shudder of revulsion runs through every true Ver- mont man when a freshman desecrates this promenade with his lowly steps. Swift punishment befalls him who violates the long-standing rule forbidding this unsacred procedure. Why such a custom should have originated we are allowed to guess. Our forebears may have feared that the absent-minded frosh Twenty-two ' ' ' ' ' '

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T . T zz.. . . T T T T t educational offices was tfien made a drill room. T je space ovet f ?e cfiapel lyas used by tfie engineering department as it is today. The administration offices were on either side of the central projection off the main hall, probably about where the Dean ' s office and Y. V. Q- t - rooms are now located. The chemical laboratory occupied the space now taken by I SK orth, and the rooms over it were dormitories. The rest of the present iJ orth College and the correspond- ing parts of South, that is, the portions occupied by rooms 3, 23, and 33 at either end, contained lecture rooms and storerooms. The portion correspond- ing to rooms I and 4 and those above in South College as well as the entire fourth story with the exception of the engineering department over the chapel were also dormitories. The cornerstone of the reconstructed building was re- laid with iMasonic ceremonies conducted by T r. L. C- ' Butler of £,ssex, as part of the commencement program on June 26. 1883. In the early part of the summer of 1918 the south wing was badly dam- aged by fire, and extensive repairs were made on the building. The dormer, windows which used to light the fourth story were removed. cAt this time also the stoves were discarded and replaced with a steam heating system. In order that visitors to the city might take advantage of the view from the tower the stairs leading to it were repaired, enclosed and wired for electric lights. Hardwood floors, new plaster, and interior finish of oak, gave us our present South Coll 9 ' with the exception of room 4 which was then the Tro- phy %oom. In the summer of 1919 when a general cleaning up took place following the occupation of University property by various military units, the north end was renovated. TiN looking over the written records of the University of Vermont, we are hard put to find any mention of some traditions to which we cling with monotonous regularity. If it offend your sense of taste to have such well- known matters put in print, just think what a Qodsend it will be to some member of the ARIEL board in the year 3035 cA. T). hunting frantically for a feature in the precious archives hidden deep in the crumbling remains of ' killings Library. f}t ?3apti£(mar ' Jfount ( VER beyond the Ira nAllen statue is a fountain which under the dark foliage of surrounding shrubs, has been for most of the masculine element of this class a grim and forbidding place. It is here that the grimy frosh is purified, before beginning his four-year race through these mad sanctums, and not always do the dutiful frosh who conduct the ceremonies come off with matches dry enough to light their cigarettes. In former years it was not uncommon to see the frosh firmly bound, marched down C ?urc 3 Street and into the C ' y Hall fountain or sometimes into the deeper horse trough by the jail. cAt other times the newborn college man has fearfully listened to the waters of Lake C am- plain and struggled frantically on the uery edge of liattery T ' ark. S ow the Key and Serpents have become fight promoters and their ancient enemies of the year before find it increasingly difficult to rope the greenlings in by ones and twos for they are organized in larger groups by said society. On the first or second evening of the college year Ira sees suspicious figures lurking about in the Twenty-one ■ ' - - ' It 4 A A I

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would stray into the High School, ivhich used to be on Coll 9 Street, forget- ting that he had graduated. In more recent times it may be that the regulation was to keep him from distracting the attention of the operators in the telephone exchange until he should know better. Perhaps it was to make him remember his early training as he passes under the gloomy shadows of the (Jollege Streef Church tower. mt € lb mil pell Wl P in the Old iMill tower we have a bell to the tune of which many genera- tions of IJermonters have sprung out of their warm beds and gone to say their prayers. There was a time when attendance at morning and evening prayers was compulsory. Finally attendance was required only once a day N and now we attend military five mornings a week in place of that. The records show that a man, often a student, was paid to ring the bell during the first and second quarters of the last century. In 1817 a year ' s wage for this was four dollars. In 1825 fifty dollars was paid out. In 1835 a man received fifty-nine dollars for blowing the horn. The bell seems to have been out of commis- sion quite often as this term appears several times, but no explanation is given. , Today we never hear it ring except when its triumphant notes broadcast to the world the more important victories of our teams. oAll orders are reversible. This bell whose stern mandates we once obeyed now obeys our more lenient wills. (Cije Pron e ugt of Jofjn . otnarb 7JN a niche in the wall of the central portion of the Old iill is placed a bronze bust of ohn T. Howard. This man was one of the University ' s most generous benefactors, yet it is but the irony of fate that if you should ask any undergraduate about this memorial, there is not one in a hundred who would give you the slightest satisfaction, so unaware are they of its presence. y. Yet they pass it a score of times each week. cMr. Howard made possible the present Old Jill. He presented the Uni- versity with the statue of Lafayette, which stood so long at the head of College Street, and is now located opposite the Medical building. In 1884 he bought and remodeled the Levi Underwood homestead at the north end of the campus and presented it for the use of the iMedical department, which had outgrown the building then occupied at the south end of the campus. The fountain on ' the front campus, whose waters have baptized for the second time many under- graduates, was also his gift. In recognition of his many services the citizens of ' Burlington contributed the money for this memorial. i)e l ount Poulber ' nrHERE is another object in front of the Old ill, of which we are more conscious for two reasons: One, because we cast our eyes down instead of up, and two, because gathered around the ' Moulder in military formation once a year, we see installed the new Scabbard and ' ■Blade, and ' Boulder socie- ties, which are its living counterparts. In 1846, in the village of West Hartford, near White liiver function, this sphere, ground smooth and symmetrical by centuries of swiftly-falling water, Twenty-three ' ' ' ' ' ' . .- . ' ' J ' ' '