Ursinus College - Ruby Yearbook (Collegeville, PA)

Page 13 text:

The onward sweep of this school-boy impulse is seen in the unparalleled effort which is being put forth today on the part of all classes of youth to secure some form of higher education. Best of all. contrary to any system of caste, we see great numbers of boys from the artisan class devoting themselves to liberal instead of technical or vocational studies. From many unqualified critics protests have come up frequently against so-called book-learning. 1 have no quarrel with those who would make education practical, and freely recognize the fact too long delayed in its discovery, that there is abundant educative material that is not to Ik- found in liook'. But it must be admitted that lx oks are the greatest conservators of the thought of the world lx th | ast and present. We must not permit the pursuit of knowledge through other means to obscure the fact that the best expression f man's ex[ erience is cast in literary form and that the most direct approach to the lore of the ages is through liooks. One must be carefully selective in his choice of lxx ks, for there is much writing that is not literature. If he should mistrust his own judgment in this he would do well to accept Charles V. Kliot's five-foot shelf or Theodore Roosevelt's “pig-skin library. or some similar collection. In view of the great wealth of literature in our day it i- imjxirtant to acquire the ability to read rapidly. This i- to some extent a matter of habit involving the training of the eye to compass a group of words at once, yielding phrase or sentence reading instead of word reading; and also the training of the mind to grasp and assimilate ideas quickly. While the reverberations of that school-boy shout conic down to me only as a pleasant memory, the call to books has lost none of its charm, and I need not apologize for passing it on to my sclwol-boy friends of today. Let the good old sliout Bo-o-o-o-ks! continue to ring in glad response to the school-master's call. Let book-learning continue to dignify and give worth to the work of our schools. Let all the children of all the people. whatever may lie their vocation, lte-comc lovers of Ixioks, and merit all their days the honorable stigma of being “book worms. II

Page 12 text:

(The (Call 5n Snnks Br George Leslie Omwake ' a quiet |x t. sheltered by a wooded lull on one side and skirted by a country road on the other, stood the old stone school-house in which I began the “pursuit of learning. The school ground consisting of a level space immediately surrounding the building, had no limits as far as the pupils were concerned, but stretched off indefinitely in three directions over public roads and extended into the woodland and over the hill in the other direction. During the noon hour and at recess we wandered up and down the roads and through the woods without restraint, and when the time, which passed all too quickly, had expired, groups of pupils were sometimes far from the school. It was the custom of the teacher to call the school to session bv jxmtiding on the window, which “jingled in its crumbled frame with such reverberation that a call-hell would have been a | X r substitute. )nc of the distinct impressions of my first year at scltool was this calling of the school at the end of an intermission. The teacher pounded vigorously on the rattling sash with his list, and there immediately rose from a chorus of youthful voices nearby the call. “Bo-o-o-o-ks! Bo-o-o-o-ks! whereupon their fellows came running from far and near, and threescore young disciples of learning, with sjient breath and heated bodies, promptly slmfllcd into their seats and l»ent over their lessons. What impressed me of course was the excitement of the whole thing rather than the vigorous invitation of the master to take up my primer and sit at Pierian springs. But that tuneful shout by which the lads seconded the teacher's call rings in my ears to this day. Primarily it was merely a solicitous call of the nearby boys to those of their fellows who had wandered olY in their play to regions lieyond the sound of the teacher's summons. But in a larger way it was young America shouting welcome to the call of education and warning to those who might miss the call. It was an instance of the universal outburst of enthusiastic interest in knowledge which has l een the glory of pioneer America. It has been to the everlasting benefit of our nation that the avenues of culture have not liecn closed to the common | eople—that the son of the tradesman or the artisan has hailed the call to books in the same chorus and with the same lusty cheer as the son of the professional man or the litcratcur—that the distinction which made one generation part learned and part ignorant should not appear in the next. The call to liooks has Ixren a great leveler, the most absolutely democratic thing in our boasted democratic America, and. best of all. it has leveled upward and not downward. 10

Page 14 text:

(CiHlrur l-R-S-l-X-U-S! !!oom! Wow! ‘Sinus! 'Sinus! ‘Sinus! Ooni-Cha-IIa! Oom-Cha-Ha! Oom-Cha-Ha! ‘Sinus! 'Sinus! ‘Sinus! (Campus dung When the shades of evening gather. L'rsinus students hie To the soft, green-swarded campus. h'or a time our books laid by; And the parting rift' of sunlight. As they linger soft and long. Shed a hallowed gleam of gladness ( n our merriment anil song. Now the glees of old L’rsinus Peal across the downy green; From Memorial to )lcvian Span the distance tar l etween. And the walls of dear old l’rc|Klom The reverberations fling. From the l{ast Wing to the Dog-house As our voices loudly ring. 12 Arils K-Yo! E-Yo! E-Yo! Yo! Yo! Yo! Yo! 'Sinus! 'Sinus! 'Sinus! Eah-Ra-Rah! Rah-Ra-Rah! Rah-Ra-Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah! Rah' 'Sinus! 'Sinus! ’Sinus! Then across the 1’erkionicn The chimings wing their flight: Till beyond the far-flung hilltop . They kiss heaven's dome of light Then, a if they rued their Ixddness. Conic in trembling echoes back: And thus end the winged praises )f the Red. fld-gold and I Slack.