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

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the next morning, when servants unlocked the cellar door. Later that morning, while inspecting the work being done on the construction of the University, he noticed that the laborers were having a hard time laying out the walls. Taking the matter into his own hands, Mr. Jefferson directed the workers to lay the walls on the straight line he was walking. The workers, puzzled, followed his directions exactly, and thus were built the serpentine walls? Everybody but H. T. Liner groaned. H. T. laughed. Summoning all his courage, he asked for a beer. iiThink you can handle it, H. T? Martin Vanderslice quipped. Chuckling at the remark, Lambert handed H. T. a beer. Suddenly revitalized after two sips, H. T. said, TI heard that the University owned two slaves.n F letcher remarked that he had heard the same story. iiThat cant be right? Gotts said. iiFor your information? Cleghorne shouted, iithe University never really owned any slaves. I spent three weeks last semester working on a research paper on slav- ery in Virginia, and if anyone ought to know, I should? Having restored order, he resumed. iiAlthough the University cemetery was used to bury slaves in, they were almost entirely those owned by the faculty or the townspeople. In fact, in the period before The War, there were never really many actual bodies buried in the slave graves. It was the practice for the medical students here to dig up at night the bodies of freshly buried slaves and to use them as cadavers in the Medi- cal Hall - which stood where Alderman Library is now. The Negro families got wise to this and usually buried their relatives in the woods. The coilin was loaded with either logs or rocks and an actual ceremony was held in the University cemetery, complete with slave hymns. Still holding everyone,s attention, Cleghorne began on a second story. iiJust the other day I heard some other interesting facts about the cemetery which exists here. The first persons to be buried on the Grounds were a student and a professor who couldn,t quite handle the typhus epidemic of 1828. In the next few years such notorieties as a certain Mr. Glover, who met his untimely end when a drunk elephant trainer in a Charlottesville circus suddenly became whip-happy, found their resting places in the newly-created cemetery. I guess the most famous per- son ever to be buried there was a Prof. Davis, who was shot by a student in 1840. iiThe headstones in the cemetery were small and poorly-marked. Many were sim- ply round, unpolished slabs of granite. When the records of all burials were de- stroyed in the Rotunda fire, the administration was deeply concernedf, Reacting in his cynical manner, Vanderslice commented to Sayers that he had a story even Cleghorne had not heard. iiYou guys are familiar with the big tent used at alumni reunions every year. Well, therels an interesting little tale about how the tent first came to be used. It seems that back in 191.3, the first Alumni Association Secretary, Lewis Crenshaw, was busy planning for the fifth reunion of the Class of 1908. The response from the old grads of that class had been tremendous, and there had arisen the pros- pect that no facility on the Grounds could accommodate such an overflowing congregation. Crenshaw and another alumnus were pondering the imminent crisis over at Pavilion IV, after having inspected all the University structures. Just as desperation was beginning to assume frantic proportions, this alumnus was seized with an ingenious brainstorm. Half jokingly, he said, iIt seems to me you will have to-get a circus tent to accommodate the crowd, Delighted, Crenshaw, now in eager anticipation, commented, Excellent! I will try to rent a big tent gxlv l l l ,I il iii. Ilm ' $1th Hl' .

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,tmmmhw s; 2 W L km 5 fwamwmmwmk ggtj are now status symbols of the Grounds, the situation was not always thus. In the early quarter of our present century, the Cavalier, to be considered a true tweed, had to live at one of the several large boarding houses which then housed the University. These houses were renowned for their Hnely furnished isitting rooms and their sumptuous fried Chicken, and, although a room on the Lawn was nice, a room at Miss Betty Bookefs or Miss Pageis was said to be paradise. Students were required to live in the boarding-houses so that the landlords would have a steady income. Freedom from competition caused the living standards to fall, and the students complained bitterly. They reasoned that if a keeper failed in his re- sponsibility, the boarder should be permitted to seek a new residence. In this manner reasonable standards could be maintained. We can certainly sympathize with our predecessors even though these monopolistic practices no longer exist? Sayers made good use of this attentiveness 0f the group and launched into anoth- er story, iiThroughout the history of the University, the Cavaliers have shown great ingenuity in devising ways to trouble those who were either uncooperative or ornery. One of the most ornery and uncooperative of this motley group was Mr. William Pratt, who was gatekeeper of the University during the 1850s Mr. Pratt, who had to arise at night to open the gate for late visitors to the Uni- versity, was quick to condemn any student who remained out past the idecent, hour of nine oiclock. Yet the University men, unheedful of his preaching, still caroused in the Vinegar Hill bars, especially on weekend nights, and tapped on the gate to get Mr. Pratt to let them in. iiSour from his loss of sleep, Mr. Pratt abandoned his; evangelism and decided to leave the gate open on weekends. The students, however, soon devised ways to deprive Mr. Pratt of his sleep. Upon returning from a sortie into Vinegar Hill the students would file by Pratt,s house and reach out with their riding or buggy whips to tap once on the window of Mr. Prattls bedroom and once on his front door. iiThe University soon lost Mr. Prattls services. He reportedly moved to Washington and Lee, which, as he declared, was a quieter place? Seemingly pleased with himself, Grant again drew from his vast storehouse of knowledge and recounted one more story he had heard. iiBack in the days when the University was under construction, Mr. Jefferson commissioned an Italian named Raggi to come over and carve some columns. Raggi came over, made some preliminary drawings, and then returned to Italy. Shortly thereafter the Universityls founder received an enormous bill for the drawings. Despite his rage, Mr. Jefferson allowed the Italian to return and commence carving the actual capitals for the columns. Raggi, confirming his nationis propensity for large families, arrived on the Grounds with his wife, children, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Mr. Jeflerson set him to work carving Corinthian capitals out of Albemarle stone tan impossible tasky, and Raggi spent his remaining days hacking away with hammer and chisel 0n the steps of the Rotunda? Lambert opened another beer and with a faraway gleam in his eye began to re- count his favorite story. iiI bet you haveift heard the real reason why the serpen- tine walls are serpentine rather than straight like most walls. The Student Guides may have told you that Mr. Jefferson designed them that way in order to conserve brick, as only one thickness is needed. Or, perhaps they told you that the undulating pattern directs more heat and light towards the rare and exotic plants in the gardens Well, these explanations are only clever contrivances - the real story is much less ingenious. It seems that for some reason or another, Mr. Jefferson was one afternoon locked in his wine cellar at Monticello. Having at hand no other nourishment, he was obliged to indulge himself with wine until

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and see if I can paint it orange and blue, And like so much else around here, it became a tradition? TI have to congratulate you, Martin, Yd often wondered where the alumni got the idea for using that colorful tent. Speaking of color and the alumni, I doubt very much if you realize that John Mosby attended the University. Of course you know that he led the Confederate guerilla group called Mosby,s Raiders, and he was as praised by the Union forces as he was exalted by the Confederates. Mosby, as the story goes, was a fighter even while he was at the University, and in one incident he really gave Charlottesville some excitement. There had been some trouble at a party, between Mosby and a medical student, and the med student wanted to continue the hostilities. Mosby knew this, so he borrowed a pepper- box pistol and went to his room in a boarding house near the University. There were no Unicops around to stop trouble before it started, so everything was moving towards a showdown. Mosbyls enemy soon advanced towards the back porch of the boarding house, and Mosby was ready. The med student didnit ad- vance far before becoming a med case, for Mosby put his weapon into action. iiThe shooting really caused some excitement at the University. The Charlottes- Ville Constable was soon on the scene, and Mosby wound up in the town jail. A month or so later he was tried and found guilty of lunlawful shOotingf The sen- tence was a year in jail and a $500 fine, but Mosby didnt have to serve the whole term. Mosby did make good use of his time in jail by studying law on his own from books loaned to him by the judge. He learned so rapidly and thoroughly that he had a successful law practice both before and after the war, but it was his band of raiders in the war that really made him famous? Phelps, wishing to end the match between the eternally competitive story tellers decided to break in with a story of his own. ltSpeaking 0f Mosby, I heard an amusing tale about one of his men, a certain Sergeant Peter IV. Sergeant Peter IV, somewhere along the way, came across a young rattlesnake that he adopted as a pet. This snake either crawled or traveled in the knapsack 0f Sergeant Peter IV everywhere the sergeant went. Sergeant Peter IV trained Rudolph a that was the snakes name - to crawl into enemy territory at night and bite the Yankees. Thus is Mosby,s success, in no insignificant measure, explained. Rudolph was quite apt at catching on to certain routines in military life. One of his accom- plishments was to shake his rattler in consonance with the various bugle calls. By and by however, came the end of the war and Sergeant Peter IV decided he would have to dispose of Rudolph; so he took him to a rock pile, bid him a sad farewell and returned to his home in the Clinch Valley of Virginia. Several years passed and Rudolph had Virtually been forgotten until one morning When enroute from his back porch to the pigpen with a bucket of slop he met a big rattlesnake lying in his path. Sergeant Peter IV was somewhat startled at first, but when the snake raised his tail and rattled liChow Call he knew this was none other than Rudolph, so he turned to go back into the house to get something for Rudolph to eat. Rudolph had a dinerent idea and started crawling toward the garden. Ser- geant Peter IV followed him and upon reaching the garden found another rattle- snake nearly, but not quite, as large as Rudolph. This he took to be iMrs. Rudolph, Then looking down the bean row Sergeant Peter IV counted six rattle- snakes of a graduated size, and all with rattles raised upright and quivering slightly. So, Rudolph gave one grand flourish and a down-beat with his tail, whereupon the rest of the octet chimed in and they played iiDixiefl None of the group could restrain their laughter after Phelp,s anecdote. Hoping to match his plump friend,s humor Richard Gotts spoke up from behind his perenni-