Villanova University - Belle Air Yearbook (Villanova, PA)

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'22 will never forget tlu lavs of tin ••flu.” Classes were xus| cndcd. and likewise all military formations, because all that were not ft dually .si« k were required for a thousand kinds of necessary detail work, (iuard Duty (at the gates with wooden jjiins). K. I , and hospital duty alternated so rapidly that we sometimes wished the ■flu might get us -just a little hit. Father Dean, Father Driscoll, and Lieutenant Scott were tireless in their attentions to the sick, and to all the mass of routine work connected with the establishment of a military post. The days they spent at the desk, and the nights they spent among the siek. (The very first ease of the epi dcmic here was discovered by Father Frank, who was the Prefect of Studies; in the dead of night In- carried in his own arms the stricken man from his room to the infirmary: tin- next morning he himself was vi.tim of tin- germ.) Mainly on aeount of their unceasing vigilance, the efficient work of the doctors and nurses, and the care that was taken to treat each ease on the np|x:nraiiee of the first symptom, there was only one death from more than a hundred eases. After tin Armistice, when there was no longer a probability of being summoned for active duty at the front, interest in military things gradually waned. As in other units, there were a great many who came, not to a col lego, but to a training camp. And with the prospect of an early discharge, their only thought was Discharge. Of course, the spirit was contagious, and even on the part of the officers, discipline grew 'ess exacting. On the last day. the only way the non-coms succeeded in getting the fellows out of bed was by sounding the fire-alarm. And the response was rather too slow for reality at that. Finally, on December I 1th, the Corps was officially disband ed, and everyone was allowed to go home until the after the Christmas lioli days. On the third of January we came back, this time to Villanovn College. It was then that the class was actually born into the collegiate world. Father Dean was now the Commandant; Father Driscoll and his staff of prefects new saw to it that we obeyed regulations. This new life seemed at first one of luxury indeed. There were no more reveilles, no more assignments to K. P. duty, no more making of beds, scrubbing of floors, room inspections for imaginary dirt,—the new order of things was almost unbelievable. 1 (trough the efforts of Father Dean and Lieutenant Seott, a unit of the Reserve Officers Training Corps ( R. (). T. C.) was instituted, and those who had found military life enjoyable were glad of continuing their educa tion in soldierly accomplishments. Lieutenant Seott remained with us as the (Xficcr-in-Charge. 20

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(Hlaafl ifiatnry f T F IT wouldn’t be for the fellows here, you’d never see me around this place again, take it from me.” I heard this rather startling declara- tion not so long ago from one of our engineers who had the blues, or a Hunk,” or some other trifling incident. Though it was just a meaning- less outburst of feeling, it contained the germ of one of the biggest things of our college life. However rosy our comedians, scenario writers, and journalists picture a four-year vacation” at college, there are a great many things that are gulped down only because the fellows are with us. A good “crowd” carries us smoothly over the rough spots just as (they say) a good wife is the very best of antidotes for Despair in the journey through life. The bunch-spirit” is not the same as school-spirit, the latter is chief- ly dependent on things outside of the individual, while the former arises spontaneously out of the hearts of the fellows themselves. Two fellows en- tirely antagonistic to each other may be united in school spirit, but they are never united in the same crowd.” A strongly knit together band can build cities and move mountains; a few men bound together with the great- est ties of loyalty built Villanova, and the same spirit still haunts the build- ings it erected . After four years of life in the midst of a gang of regular fellows, and guided by Father Frank Driscoll (who is the best one of them all), the graduating class is about to go, each one a regular, honest-to-goodness he- man. It was the crowd that made things a pleasure, and it was the crowd that helped to blot out quickly the inevitable sorrows that must come in a four years crowded with incidents. The faces of the crowd will never leave our memories, even though we may never see them again. In 11)18, when the only correct shade for gentlemen was khaki, '22, the War-Babies” was born. Villanova impressed us more as a barracks than as an institution of learning. Classes and professors were only of sec- ondary importance, a prefect was a thing quite beyond our conception. Lieutenant A. 11. Scott, and his staff of lieutenants. Love, l.owrie. Brown, Fair, Nacc, and Blanchfield introduced to us the new word discipline, and the introduction was not a gentle one. The days were full ones, from the shivering roll-call in front of the Hag-pole at Reveille, to solemn Taps that Bugler Lyons sounded front the Bridge at night. In retrospect, it all seems wonderful, but at that time it was quite different. 25

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The difference in administration was a marked one. The upper-class- men quickly took us in hand and put us through the various degrees of the Ancient ami Kternal Order of the Hobble Gobble. Any little bit of swell heudedness that might have survived army days was quickly discovered and taken out of us. Professors, classes, and religious exercises assumed a new importance in our life. Much had been missed during the months previous to Christmas, and it required busy .lecture hours and lots of preparation to make up before June what had been lost. The sections, of course, were not nearly as large as they had been, owing to the fact that comparatively few ol those who were here during the S. A. T. ('. had returned for the second term. Due to the earnestness of those who did come back, the judicious arrangement of schedules and the co-operation of fa uilty and student body, June found us exactly in that place where, we should have been after a normal year. 'Pile It. (). T. C. unit spent six weeks in training at Camp I.ee, Virginia, and those days will never be forgotten bv the ones who attended. The I 'nil brought them back to school sun browned, lean, and hard. Father Dean was still President, Father Harris, Prefect of Discipline, and Father Frank Driscoll, Vice-President and Prefect of Studies. During this year, Father Harris was transferred to North Trov, N. V., and Father Driscoll for the re- mainder of the year assumed his duties. 'Pile first event of importance in this, our Sophomore year was the visit of Cardinal Mercier. He was received here, with great ovations of welcome; the grounds were crowded with people from all the country around who came to see the great Cardinal: the two companies of the It. (). T. C, composed chiefly of the class of ’22, formed the Guard of Honor. 'Phe problem of introducing the Freshmen into college ranks properly and with fitting ceremony was as usual the particular task of the Sophomore C’lass, and it might he said that few' classes have ever had the privilege of managing in their infancy, a better class than ’23. (Even today, we look with pleasure on our work.) In the spring of our Sophomore Year was founded the Villanova Col- legi- Chapter of the American Association of Engineers. Phis organization was introduced into the school to provide a means of contact for our student engineers with the engineering world outside. And once more .June came, and vacation, and an a l too qui.-k September. 'Pile Finals of the Sophomore year had caused a high mortality; there were many vacant places at roM-call when we began our career as the Junior Class. It was just prior to our return that Father Driscoll had been chosen President of the College, Father O’Meara, Vice-President and Prefect of 27