University of Wisconsin Madison - Badger Yearbook (Madison, WI)

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Berlon Braley is a poet of human nalzzre. He is an aplimisl whose lane- ful message is a helping hand. He gives color andpulse lo the common- place, but oflen he rises lo nobilily of lhoughl and 1 expression.-Aaron M. Braylon. I I e rim HAT has NVisconsin Spirit meant to me? Speaking in general, I do not know. But there are one or two particulars in which that spirit has had, I think, a lasting effect on my life. I gained a belief in democracy, at Wisconsin, and I learned not to take myself too seriously-an attitude which is a concomitant of democracy. For if you don't take yourself too seriously you can't successfully be a snob. These things are not in the curriculum, at least they were not when I Went to college, but they were in the very atmosphere about me for four years. And I've found that most of the real values in life itself are 'coutside the curriculum. By which I mean that though a man's Work or a Woman's Work is highly important in the scheme of things, the thing of greatest importance is to be a broadminded and liberal-souled human being. To the undergraduate, I think Wisconsin Spirit should mean democracy, because democracy seems to me even more poignantly the hope of the World. Wisconsin Spirit should mean service, because service turns hope into realities. Wisconsin Spirit should mean sportsmanship, because true sportsmanship asks and gives a fair chance to every man's endeavor, and goes about its work and its play with a clean heart, a trained body and mind, and an indomitable soul. Wisconsin Spirit should mean idealism, because ultimately the only lasting things are done by those incorrigible idealists who look reality in the face and are no Whit daunted or denied. We Page Twenty Seven

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Page Twenty-Su: During all of the sixty- three years since Bishop Fallows graduated from N Wisconsin he has carried N on his workfor the world ' in the spirit of service founded on faith in God ' and in man thee res- I I lr , ver p ent readiness to sr1crUice and lo fight for the over- throw of evil and the ad- ' - , c me tof ' ht van e n rig . -Edward A. Birge ' N TI-IE Sixtieth Anniversary of my graduation, as the sole surviving member' of my class of 1859, I gave as my class toast: Fifty-nine, fifty-nine, All my years since then are thine. I can truly say that all the years of my life are years of increasing obligation to the University. Why? What is this Spirit of Wisconsin Which grips the heart of you and me? Some of it is man made. Some of it is God made. All of it is good. The Wisconsin Spirit in the University has been the spirit embodied in the' great seal of the State, ForWard .' The noble men who Watched over its earliest years saw the vision of a University which was to meet all the unfolding practical needs of the oncoming years. It Was to hold fast a high standard of purely conventional academic training, and yet Welcome every advance in scientific, agricultural and industrial require- ments. It Was to develop the highest standards of manhood and Womanhood in body, mind and soul in its students and thus prepare them for all the varied duties of Ameri- can citizenship. As the oldest living alumnus, I have had the privilege of seeing this wonderful Spirit of Wisconsin displaying itself through many college generations. The graduates and students, with Whom today I am renewing my youth, are marching under the same banner as those earliest classes - athletic, clear-eyed, straight-thinking, loyal - Forward is their watchword. i a zfggiwfzlfafai, a' a

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llfiscorzsilr is proud rd' her cilizen and rzulfmr, Miss Zona Gale, and rr'- joices in the facl that her lalenls and shvmprllhy have been erzlisledfol' lhe common good. Governor John J. Bla im: ELL adjusted social relations, taste, and even the general virtues are more or less crude unless they are practised with a certain Other Look, a Seeing-through them. A recognition that there is in these a literal loveliness and meaning which may be divined and usually is not divined. That the Hve senses have, so to say, extensions which may be used here and now. This extension of faculty has always been a power of the artistg and the fact that nearly everyone is now a poet, open or secret. merely means that the perception of the race is being heightened to discern that which we used to call hidden. . Usually in youth this awareness is ready to be invited and is'either deepened or thwarted by school and university. These may train this divination or make it ashamed to be heard. To many, a university is a place where they have dreamed new things rather than a place where they have learned old things. I believe this to be the highest praise, and I am one of those who is chiefly grateful to the University of Wisconsin for incalculably multiplying the sense of the wonder and beauty of the inner aspect of living. If I were to try to dehne that for which I am specifically most grateful to the Uni- versity it would be those rare days on which the teacher turned from everything in hand and gave to the class an hour of talk compact of the richness of experience and conclusions which were his. . stef.. Page T enly-Eighl