University of Massachusetts Amherst - Index Yearbook (Amherst, MA)

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16 THE INDEX Our numbers have somewhat diminished, some having en- tered higher classes, while others have left their college home to cope with the sterner realities of life. We wish them suc- cess, and only hope that as they mingle amid the busy scenes of the world, and are loaded down with its responsibilities, they will occasionally find time to cast a simple thought for ' 82 and their Alma Mater. The work of the year has commenced in good earnest, and our success depends, as heretofore, upon hard work and close application. Classmates, let us not tarnish our hard-earned fame by unfaithfulness to duty, but rather strive more dili- gently to reach a higher degree of perfection. w.

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RESHMAN year has passed, and with it many happy scenes have vanished. The mantle, which we as Freshmen wore, is an honor to Aggie and a glory to ' 82, but we have laid it aside, and may it be looked upon by those who follow us as an emblem of success. Our first year at college was by no means one of ease ; our pathway was not wholly strown with roses, for, now and then, our tender feet discovered a thistle or thorn in the way, dropped unintentionally, perhaps, by some careless hand. But now our wounds are healed, and the dark clouds of dis- appointment, which obscured for a season the youthful hopes of some, fled away when the Faculty exclaimed : Members of ' 82, come up a little higher, that you may view from your yet humble sphere the glorious realities of our intellectual superiority. The Freshman class is smaller than was expected, and one would think that they came from a land flowing with milk and honey, judging from the appetite which they have for the former. They generally indulge in a cup of their favor- ite beverage just before retiring. It is also evident that tliey must have been acquainted with the fact that body and mind need rest, for at the first they endeavored to habituate themselves to early retiring. It is hardly worth while to speak of the rush, for it would only bring to mind the unhappy feelings experienced by poor Freshie on that fatal night, When trembling with fright From the campus he came, To seek for seclusion and rest.

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(O J ' ItqHIS is our first contribution to the Index, and we hope 0) that it may compare favorably with those of our prede- cessors. We have not been here long enough, as yet, to get into the ways of the college, although we have got into the way of those charitable (?) fellows, the Sophomores, who ' s barber-ous manners show that in one short year they have been enabled fully to understand and appreciate the meaning of the word Hero. It is also exceedingly hard for us to understand how that out of a class of three-score and ten Sophomores, enough could be found to rush a dozen Freshmen. It was certainly nothing short of a miracle. But enough ; we were fairly beaten and as fairly own it. Our thanks are due to our friends, the Juniors, for our settings up exercises, and also to the Sophomores for their motherly care of us, hoping that at a time not far distant we may have the honor (?) to be ranked as Sophomores our- selves, and then we will see that the class of ' 84 has its rights respected. Their slumbers shall be like unto those of a log, neither shall their rest be broken by those enchanting solos, which are produced by the reed instrument commonly known as the fish-horn, on which some of our students are exceed- ingly proficient. Classmates, we have now fairly entered into our college life with all its pleasures and sorrows, the work and recrea- tions, with all the modern facilities for helping us, and the