University of Western Ontario - Occidentalia Yearbook (London, Ontario Canada)

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WESTERN U GAZETTE Editorial Staff 1920-21 EcUtor in Chief B. Taneock, Arts 22. Sports Editors. Consulting Editor F. Landon, M.A. G. Wainwright, ' 22. M. Campbell, ' 23. Business Manager. ..S. G. Chalk, Meds ' 22 Circulation Managers. . . „ ,., C. McCallum, ' 23. T. Welford, ' 23. Associate Editors. , ' . r, tt , ., Exchange Editor C. Houghtby, 24 T. „f „ • -p Jj ,oo Huron College R. Parson, ' 22 Sf Z ' o, n f ' r n o - Brescia Hall E. Trizisky ' 23 W. Ferguson, 24 O. Smith, 22. • H. Patterson, ' 24. M. Campbell, ' 23. Advertiisng Managers W. Beamer, ' 24. C. Kennedy, ' 24. H. James, ' 24. J. Humphries, ' 24 EDITORIAL With this special issue The Western University Gazette completes the first year it has appeared in the form of a weekly. The change from the former monthly issue was made with some trepidation. The question of cost was one to make for cau- tion. Would the students give equal sup- port to a publication that was rather news- paper than magazine ; would the adver- tisers be ready to co-operate as in the past. The results have exceeded anticipations. The Gazette has never had as many sub- scribers, never given nearly as much for the money and has never had better sup- port from advertisers. Wednesday, throughout the whole year, has been a special day of the week because regularly at ten o ' clock in the morning students looked for the delivery of the Gazette. Those who have been charge.d with the work of issuing the paper weekly will con- fess that it has been a considerable task. There was no time to reSt between issues. Matter had to be in hand for next week ' s issue almost before this week ' s issue was out. But on all hands there was good team work. Those who were assigned as sub-editors from week to week were on the job and the character of the issue be- came a matter of distinct pride to those who got it out. It can be safely said to- day that The Gazette is now established and that its place in the building up of Western spirit may be very great in the years to come. The change in the form of The Gazette came in what will in future be regarded as the turning point in Western University affairs. The year 1921 has seen the defin- ite recognition by the Ontario Govern- ment of the place of Western in the educa- tional system of the province. By making adequate provision for maintenance and by the promise of special appropriations for new buildings Western University may be said to have been placed upon a solid foundation. Those who have labor- ed hard in the past, so often in the face of apparent defeat, deserve the tribute of praise from the present for the way in which they held on, never admitting de- feat, however near it might seem. The next few years will be marked, we predict by advance such as Western has never known before. In the period of marked expansion there will be a special place for The Gazette as one of the media by which the various faculties and student bodies may be able to maintain the closest union. The present closing of The Gazette for 1920-21 is of a special character since it serves both as a record of the university student activities of the year and also pays due honor to those students in all faculties who, having completed their reg- ular course of study are leaving the uni- versity to enter upon their chosen place in the larger field. Among those going out this year are some who by reason of their special gifts will leave places not easy to fill. In wishing them good luck in the days ahead the lines of Longfellow ad- dressed long ago to students of Bowdoin College, come to mind : Let him not boast who puts his armor on As he who puts it off, the battle done. Study yourselves ; and most of all note well Wherin kind Nature meant you to excel. Write on your doors the saying wise and old, Be bold, be bold, and everywhtre be bold ; Be not too bold. Yet better the excess Than the defect ; better the more than less ; Better like Hector in the field to die. Than like a perfumed Paris turn and fly.

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WESTERN U GAZETTE PAST AND PRESENT Even so young- a creature as Western has a past. We are all of us mostly past, for the present is and is not, the poet sings. But then, as he had just observed, the past is clean forgot. Its tears turn gems, its wrongs repent to diadems, another might go on ; its real values and thrills vanish, while its follies are a rous- ing jest and even its boredom wins a glory from being far. Everything gets turned topsy turvy by, memory, that most per- verse of sinners. When in the former age I came to Wes- tern, the university was under the direc- tion of the principal of Huron College, who had the title of Provost of the university. Only, that year there was no kaiserlich-koeniglich provost principal ; they had got off with the old before they were on with the new. And there was no Dean stopping the dyke like the hero of Haarlem. Consequently there was an un- imaginable touch of good times from the undergraduate viewpoint. A light that never was on sea or land lit up the ship of Western-Huron or Huron- Western that year. The passage was stormy in spots and yet port was made ; there were gradu- ates graduating just the same as usual, however they did it. Of course the medical school of those days was like a star and dwelt apart. Their convocations were a dream to re- member, but I refer you to such author- ities as Dr. James or Dr. Moorhouse for the painfial details. I may note in passing that, functioning on the platform in some capacity once, I felt a flick on my ear from a liquifying lemon that just missed me and hit some one else. There were medi- cal students in those days who hadn ' t passed High School entrance, some of them since, however, highly successful for themselves in the red, capacious Occident. Most of the men, nevertheless, were good stuff, the very best. The annual tug- ' Of-war between the budding parsons of Huron and the pros- pective medicine-men commonly showed anything but a soul affinity between these studies. Hostilities sometimes did not end with the field of action, but went on in various un-Christian endeavors until things gradually smoothed down to norm- al. His studie was but litel on the Bible, said Chaucer of the doctor of physik. And the theologs of last gener- ation were powerful with fist as well as voice. There was once a story about the halls of a big green-coated freshman from the forest primeval up in Bruce. When he got his first try-out on a country congre- gation, he undertook to preach on the Bible. I am often asked the question, he declared pompously in one passage, whether Adam and Eve had a Bible. Of course they had a Bible, just the same as ours (inlay thought: 1001 pages, printed at Amen Corner, dedicated to King James, highly Authorized). It was given them in Eden (and told all about their expul- sion and future destinies). Only it has long since mouldered away in the dust of ages. The thing sounds almosts myth- ological. But you know every respectable history has to have mythological or legen- dary beginnings; let Western have hers. It is the gospel truth that Charlie Ryan never learnt a Greek word except kai ; ask Canon Carlisle, his tutor. With the arrival of Principal Waller, old Huron- Western ' s age of Fable merges into a time of distincter outlines. Wes- ' tern was separated somewhat from its early nurse and got a provost of its own in Dr. James. A regular renaissance set in. It was an epoch of Africa and gold- en joys. The attendance was growing or had growing pains, but somehow Wes- tern did not feel that it wanted to grow up. It was in the nineteen noughts a Peter Pan. Ask any of the old-timers whether thy would have had Western any different from v hat it was. Ask Herbert Hopkins Moorhouse, the novelist, what it was like. He has publishsed a charming story of Western as he knew it when a student here, with some slight disguise of names. The century was still in the cradle, why hurry forward ? But scholars and characters were moulded in those halcyon years. When will Western have the match of Landon and Baker, Gras, Grant (the greatest actor before Hannah), and the colossal