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

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1 low they livicl in the cightio it was rumored that the police received a fixed fee for each arrest and the students had simply contributed to a prosperous evening for the Madison police. The relations between students and police, never cordial btlore that time, ripened during the next years, into such a state of undeclared warfare that a student remarked that no member of the Madison pf)lice force dared show himself in unitorm at a large student rally. President Chamberlin resigned in 1892 to become head of the department of geology at the University of Chicago, and was succeeded by Charles Kendall Adams. President Adams was formerly a history professor at Ann Arbor and president of Cornell University. During his period of administration the growth of the University, which had been seen in Cham- berlin ' s time, continued. In the last year of President Chamberlin ' s administration, the boathouse had been built (largely by student subscriptions) and crew racing commenced. Competitive football had begun in 1890 and track and field sport developed shortly after. In order to take care of the increasing amount of sports, Camp Randall was secured as an athletic field. The armory and gymnasium was first occupied in the fall of 1894. It was one of the most magnificent buildings of the time. Much emphasis was given to the equipment in the gym- nasium due to growing interest in physical education and ath- letic recreation. It was also used for musical, intellectual, and social entertainments. Mighty Bascom and lowly residents. n informal chat with Babcock and Hcnrv. Not only did the University grow physically but its curricula also grew. It was to endow the University with facilities for appropriate musical culture that the organization of the School of Music was undertaken in 1894. The establishment in 1897 of the School of Education followed by the appointment in 1899 of a special insjiector of high schools were appropriate steps in creating a more congenial atmosphere between the University and the high schools of the state. The historical department was reorganized in 1900 in- to the School of History under the supervision of Professor Fredrick Jackson Turner. At the close of Adams ' administration there ap- peared an expanded growth in the College of Engineer- ing. This was due to the application of science to in- dustry which had been gradually developing. At the turn of the century it was already noticeable in the work of such men as Professor S. M. Babcock who invented the butter- fat tester. On the business side, the School of Commerce was founded in 1900 under the direction of W. A. Scott. Adams was dearly loved by his students. Almost six feet tall and well proportioned, wearing a red necktie in token of his allegiance to the University he came to cherish so deeply, he became one of the most impressive sights on the campus. He rejoiced over the victories of crew, track teams, and baseball teams; but his greatest enthusiasm was reserved for football. He helped get Camp Randall for a playing field. In fact, one Charles K. Adams, the beginning of a modern University. 21

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The second era of building came at the close of President Bascom ' s administration when the legislature appropriated about $400,000 for erection and equipment of a new Science Hall, the chemical laboratory, the machine shops, and a power and heating plant for the group of buildings. The importance of this period was in the quality of the moral and intellectual service given to the student body and to the state at large. Student activities were not too numerous at that time. Except for the literary societies and a joint debate team, no extra-curricular activity in the intellectual sphere was so im- portant in undergraduate life as collegiate journalism, the University Press, though it was not the first student organ at Wisconsin, was the first to survive for any length of time. Its The new Science Hall. most notable editor and publisher was one of Bascom ' s greatest students, Robert M. LaFollette. He took over the paper in 1876 and operated it for four years. It was a free newspaper which did not hesitate to criticize president, faculty, students, or the Board of Regents. It was thus an admirable stimulus to inde- pendent thought. The paper was written by the faculty to a certain extent, but most of the contributions came from the students. Up until 1882 the University Press had no competition. In that year the first issue of the Badger came out. It did not fare too well, and in 1885 the two papers effected a union under the joint title, the Wisconsin Press and the Badger. In 1886 the Aegis came out and proved to be too much competi- tion for the Wisconsin Press and the Badger. By autumn it had bought its competitors for |650. Until the appearance of the Cardinal in 1892, the Aegis enjoyed a monopoly on Wisconsin journalism. The publication of the yearbook was begun by the junior class in 1884. This book, called the Trochos 1885, was finally published, after great bickering over the arrangements of organ- izations, etc. In 1888 the annual appeared under the title of the now defunct newspaper, the Badger, and it has borne that name ever since. Slowly the musical organizations, Junior Prom, etc., all received pages in the Badger. A sidelight on student interests at this time was the house built by Professor Owen in the 600 block on State Street. On the Langdon Street side of the property he erected a long red brick wall. He had no idea that the years would enshrine the wall in the hearts of generations of students as one of their favorite campus landmarks. From the beginning, the presence of that long, blank surface was an irresistible temptation in the heart of the Greek quarter. It was a bulletin board such as had never been used before. Professor Owen, however, did not approve of the use of his wall as a bulletin board. He posted The forerunner of the BADGER. guards to watch it on the nights before big campus events. Paint-splashed students were hauled to the local jail as a warn- ing, but the wall bore its messages regularly. Following Bascom ' s resignation, Thomas C. Chamberlin assumed the presidency in 1887. He was a graduate of Beloit College and an eminent geologist. Although he was only here for five years, much progress was made in scientific and techni- cal instruction, in agricultural research and extension, and in inducements and facilities for graduate work. During his ad- ministration the first University fellowships were established a nd the University was now prepared to confer the degree of doctor of philosophy (the first degree going to Charles R. Van Hise, later to be president). In 1892 the School of Economics, Political Science, and History was established under the direc- torship of Richard T. Ely. Some of the most impor- tant scientific discoveries in the College of Agriculture developed in this time. Dur- ing this five year period the number of students in the University had doubled and diversification of their pursuits had set in, not only through a wider range of studies but through the introduction of inter-colle- giate rivalry in oratory and athletic games. The devel- opment of college journal- ism and other student ac- tivities also stimulated the student body. In the social life of the student as well as in the character and or- ganization of the academic work of this period there was a marked transition from the college of the former times to the modern University. Students were as fun loving and wild then as now; how- ever, the prank that Chamberlin disapproved of most was hazing. The faculty up to this time had tried to ignore it, but in 1887 a case came up that could not be ignored. A boy by the name of Rosenstengel, a graduate of the University, had returned to do some post-graduate work. He had made himself obnoxious to some students by pretending that he was a fresh- man. He wore freshman colors and attended freshman meet- ings. Accordingly, some students decided to accept him as a freshman and to haze him. Unable to apprehend him in the open, a group of the boys went to his father ' s house, and there sought to capture him. The attempt was not successful, partly because someone had called the police. The police ar- rived, seized several of the crowd, and bore the cul- prits ofl to the police sta- tion, followed by the rest of the student crowd. Once inside the police station, all the students were arrested and their naines taken. The police offered not to press the serious charges of re- sisting arrest against the original violators if 20 of the students would plead guilty to disorderly con- duct. The offer was accept- ed, but later the students grew openly resentful when Thomas C. Chamberlin, eminent geologist. 20

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time he changed the date of an extension lecture so as to permit the lecturer, who was a member of the football team, to play in an all-important game. If the parents of a promising athlete objected to his playing, Adams was always irresistible in his letters, and the parents had to give in. Under his administration, in 1893, a faculty committee was created to arrange with the fraternities to limit the number of their affairs. A few years later the faculty moved to require all student houses, social organizations, sororities, fraternities, and residents of Ladies ' Hall to adopt social regulations. The regulations of the faculty required the student organizations to assume some control of student affairs. This plus the work of the first dean of women. Miss Annie C. Emery (Ph.D., Bryn Mavvr), led to the establishment of the Women ' s Self-Govern- ment Association. I Drafting Room in Science Hall — 1893. The year 1897 saw the birth of this new force on the Wis- consin campus, the Self Government Association (SGA) fore- runner of the present WSGA. It was the year before men from the University would be among those who helped the United States win the Spanish-American War and annex the Philippine Islands, the year in which men were pushing northward and the year of the Alaskan gold rush. Annie Crosby Emery began to investigate the possibilities of a self-governing agency for the 327 women at the University that year, two months after the regents had appointed her the first Dean of Women at Wisconsin. Members of the Women ' s League, an organization with optional membership whose primary purpose was to bring University women together on grounds of social equalitv and understanding, called a mass meeting, at Dean Emery ' s insti- gation, on October 26, 1897, to discuss the feasibility of pur- suing her ideal of self-government for the University ' s women. No faculty members were present at this meeting or at the one held a few days later to draft the constitution of one of the first women ' s governing bodies in an American university. Tlie initial purpose of SGA was to improve social relations between men and women on the campus and to handle matters of -Student life which were outside faculty jurisdiction. Through- out its 50-year history, this purpose has remained fundamentally the same. The regents smiled with favor upon the new organization, for they thought it would be beneficial for University women. Testing cows for T.B. — 1899. Eor almost half a century X ' arsity has held a warm place in the hearts of generations of Wisconsin graduates. Wherever they are, they never hear Salvuum Fac (the old Latin hymn composed by Gounod from which the University hymn has lieen adapted) without a deep sense of nostalgia for their lost youth: for icy winter mornings tramping up the hill to 8 o ' clock classes, for warm spring noons loafing on the grassy knolls, and for starlit evenings drifting over moonlit Lake Mendota. It was in 1898 that a voung instructor at the University, Henry Dyke Sleeper, who taught music and voice in the fledgling music school, arranged the music, composed suitable words, and .irranged for publication that year in a new song book that hymn of praise, that invocation and battle slogan, known then as Varsity Toast, now simply as Varsity. In February, 1899, a cold wave hit Wisconsin. The tempera- ture dropped below zero and stayed there. Before the cold Fuller Opera House — on the Square. 22