University of Virginia - Corks and Curls Yearbook (Charlottesville, VA)

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Besides thus treating of the things that the Aeatlenis have not in common, it will he notieetl that most of the ehronielers have dwelt upon one single, thing which all members of the Class share, namely. a mad desire for a 13. A..ileg'i'te They tell of how the Aeadems subordinate all other things to the attainment of this one end, and sit day and night in their rooms mapping out mysterious hyperbolic curves; thinking in Spanish, and chanting Latin meters, while the lazy Law and the morbid Med are enjoying the sweets of College life. Nor is this entirely an exaggeration; for, while we are willing to concede to our profes- sional brothers that theirs is not altogether an easy lot, yet we maintain that to some extent throughout the session, and, at all events. for the month preceding each examination period, the poor Aeailem is the most miserably overworlx'eil creature in existence. His trouhles--the exaniinations-eoine not singly, nor even in pairs, hut in hunches; and only the man who has tried to keep three or four tickets all paramount in his mind at once knows the meaning of true hard work. . And yet we have our pleasures. Vie, find time, most of us. to enjoy to the full the football and baseball seasons, and that time of all times, Easter week. we go to the tt show l occasionally; and at athletie mass-ineetings, and similar gatherings, no class in College, is ever better or more enthusiasticall'x' repree sented than is ours. There is one thing in connection with the Academic Class that is to he greatly regretted, and that is that by reason of the loose organization of this department we can not have more of Class feeling, or Class it spirit. ; hut weighing the social 1:1 xasnre which would ensue from changing to an organized Class system against the advantages of the elective system, as it stands, it must he admitted that the present way is better in the end. The Aeadems of the present session have never been called together as a class. XVe have thus far been particularly fortunate in that there has occurred no death of student or 1'n'ofesso12 nor any other matter of sufficient importance to merit the attention of the Class. xye will be assembled once before iinals for the purpose of electing oHieers for next session, and if our past good fortune continues with us for the few remaining weeks of the y at. this will have been our 01in Class meeting. It will eertainlxr' not he out of place. to mention here the fact that at the close of this session, there will go out from amongr us one who, with but a single excep- tion, has been longer lthlltlFlCtl with the i-Xeaileniie Class and with the University than any living man. It is hardly neeessary to name Colonel William 12. Peters, whose resignation takes effect at the end. of the present etoillege year. .liew professors have been so loved and honored by their pupils as has Colonel l teters, and it is with the profimnclest regret that his present classes, as well as those who have satinntler him in years past, see him give up the chair which he has so long and so ably filled. 16 . wxyh-L v-foa' 1.. i 0 1 , ,A.

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Academic History. tiinN the periml ml a year has passed. and it heemnes HCCCSS'dIZV tn thiHll tn the expectant wnrhl the history of that august body, the :XCZUlClUlC Class of Virginia. Again tlUCS the historian turn his mind upon that heterogeneous throng, the ghCEUlClllS. and hard does he strive to tliseern in them enlleetivel'x' sonie eharaeteristiewstnnething to distinguish them from the same hody in past years. And again. linally in' despair, does he come to the eon elnsion with the fact that-e tt' It is the same old comedy that is played Upon the same old stage from year to yearf7 Yes, history eertainly repeats itself. A glanee over the chronicles of sneees- sive elasses in any College Annual will eonvinee the most skeptical of the truth of the adage. 'llrne, one eanse of this sameness may lie in the fact that elass his-- at the work of their '9 torians are prone to take too many uf these glances predecessors. and, prompted either hy a feeling of admiration or hy one of despera- tion, are lCtl t0 horrow too freely of their thoughts antl lines of thought. lint he this as it may, there is eertainly no great held for originality in the reeonnting for the fifteenth time of the history of a never-ehanging htxly. And sneh a hody is this Class. I Of course, frnni year to year the Academic Class, like all others. changes its personnel to a greater or less extent, Ulil tignres vanish and new ones take their places, hnt the prneess is much like that of pouring new 1 ?atl into old molds, and. emiseqneinly, the Class is 0f essentially the same nature as when its first history was written. ,llenee. any attempt to portray the ehataeter 0f the Class must, he 1110TC or less of a plagiarism 0f forine' aeennnts: hut a few words, at least, must he written on this snhjeetw-else this were no history. llerhaps the hest adjective to use in tleseriptinn 0f the character of the Q! ACZIthIHlC Class is loose : hut a word 0f explanation must accompany it, or nntrne inferences will he tll'ZlWIl. The adjeetive is meant to he applied to the char- aeter 0f the ixCElthIIlS. eolhfetively. not individually: aml to their manner of organization, not their intrals. lior further information as to this' looseness of organization, eonsnlt any volume of CURKS :xNh Ct'itlis hitherto puhlishetl. The subject is ahly discussed in them all. 15

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a i L - ' tk And there are many others who in a few short weeks will leave the Uni- versity not to return. Their term of college life, with its pleasures and its difficulties, is almost over, and they are about to enter upon that more serious struggle in the great wide world for which we are all preparing. And though for some of these the prospect may seem dark and the way obscure, yet if they are true sons of their alma mater, we have boundless faith in their ultimate success, and we feel sure that they will all be better and greater men for having once been Aeadems at Old Virginia. I7 20