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

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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-

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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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al cloud of pipe smoke, and said iiThatis a good Nature story, but I have one my- self, only the authenticity of this one can be verified indubitablyf, Everyone ex- cept Gotts cringed. iiIf you,ve ever watched iLassiei youire probably familiar with canines' uncanny ability to find their way home when lost. The Betas had a dog once, as sort of a mascot, who would have put Lassie to shame. It seems that the football team was playing the University of Georgia at Athens one weekend. The players al- ways took Beta, Which was the dogs name, along with them on athletic trips for good luck. The Georgia trip was no exception, and Beta was a real inspiration to the players in the hostile stadium. Well, after the game the team was invited to a party, where they commenced to out-drink all comers. It wasn,t until after the train had gotten halfway back to Charlottesville that anyone woke up, and Beta,s absence was soon noticed. The whole University was saddened, and the tragedy put an end to partying on football trips, for a while anyway. liTwo weeks later, while eating dinner, the Betas heard a slight scratching at their door and a high-pitched whine. There on the steps sat a skinny, dishevelled mutt, collarless, with a bent tail. No one knows how Beta got back, but from all appearances he must have walked all the way from Georgia? F ootball once again brought Fletcher back into the conversation. iiYou know how a dog will run onto the field every once in a while during a foot- ball game. Well, iSealf who was at the University after World War II, used to make it a regular practice. His half-time capers were renowned and devastating, and they aroused the emotions of many a student and alumnus alike. His favorite trick, the one that won the hearts of all true Virginia rooters, was to relieve him- self on the goalposts of the opposing team. at Seal; a legend in his own time, had an unbroken string of such triumphs ex- tending over several seasons When he joined the team on the infamous Penn trip. That was the one, if you will recall, on which the Wahoo F aithful nearly demol- ished the hotel where they were staying. The trusty little black and white dog of undetermined ancestry, not to be outdone, headed for the Penn goal posts before the half-time gun had sounded. The opponenfs cheerleaders were prepared, however, and they formed a line, blocking the poor dogis path to his destination. Always a dog With another trick up his sleeve, tSeali made a beeline for the abandoned enemy outpost and proceeded to moisturize his adversaries, mega- phones. Lacking their former cheering support, the Penn team fell behind. ltWhen TSeali finally passed away, he was given the full funeral rights usually ac- corded only to University presidents and football heros. The drums rolled, profes- sors muttered meaningless messages over the. mutt, and all the politicos turned out for the occasion. The greatest tribute of all, however, was paid to him by the dogs of Albermarle County who have refrained from lifting their legs on his grave from that mournful day to the present? Cleghorne who regarded Fletchefs story as both gross and simpleminded, held up his hands for silence. ttActuallyf, Cleghorne began, tithe most embarassing thing that ever happened here that I know about was Emerson,s Visit in 1876. Emerson came by train to Charlottesville and gave his last public address in the country before the Jefferson Society. tiWhen the students learned that Emerson,s youngest daughter was to accompany her father on the trip from Boston to Virginia, everyone tried to get a date with her through her host, Professor Holmes. Holmes, who had never met the Emer- sons before, was delighted to arrange for Miss Emersonis escorts to the parties