Washington and Jefferson College - Pandora Yearbook (Washington, PA)

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, fQf Q W ' 'M' 'A wig- 8' I aiivi . May 22, 1885, he died suddenly and without lingering disease. He is buried in Homewood Cemetery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: a spot which l1e himself had chosen. . George B. Vose was elected Professor of Mathematics and Me- chanics at Washington, August 1, 1865, and served the college until 1873. Vose was, I believe, by birth a German. He was a profound 1natl1e- matician, and could lvacli a student who was a mathematical sharkg but he could 11ot enter into the ditticulties of any one who was not. Unable to master his subject myself, I used to recall for my comfort Tranio's advice to Lucentio: 5 The mathematics- Fall to them as your stomach serves youg No profit grows where is no pleasure ta'en. In brief, sir, study what you most affect. I would not, of course, give that advice to a student now. The college class rooms never witness to-day such scenes as were common in Vose's room, when everything that would make a noise. Jew's-harps, torpedoes, parlor match heads, and even firecrackers, was called into service to enliven study and relieve the tedium of the hour. The old Berseker rage of his Teutonic ancestors would sometimes flame up in the soul of the victimized professor, and he would jump from his platform and pounce upon one of his tormentors, or perhaps seize upon some entirely unotfending man and order him from the I'0Olll. But he never let the sun go down on his wrathg and even when he had cited a 111an before the faculty, he would, as I can testify from my own ex- perience, so soften his charge that the culprit would almost appear to be the one who had been abused. I wonder if absentmindedness is a trait of great mathematicians? We hear of Sir Isaac Newton shaving at his usual place at the wall of his room, unaware that the mirror he used had been removedg taking his Wifeis fingeriinstead of his own to press down the tobacco in his pipe, and cutting a hole in the bottom of the kitchen door to let a kitten pass in and out after he had already cut one big enough for the house- hold cat. I do not vouch for these storiesg nor do I for similar ones that used to he told of our old professor. It was said that once, when 31 '

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V .., I l 4. ..,, .,..,,.,.,.,...,.. fx f fl 7385 'A I ..,. , - . W -I 3. 1 if I V, . .ew 'A A ,. furnace and the finest of tools, he made many scientific instruments and machines for use in the college. His knowledge of the Greek and Latin classics is by tradition re- ported as having been phenomenal. It is said that he knew by heart the chief parts of Homer and Virgil and Horace, and was equally familiar with the old English authors. But no mere enumeration ol' particulars can describe Sammy Jones as his students knew him. In speech and character he was racy of the soil of old Ireland, and had more than an ordinary share of the proverbial Irish wit: He was a bachelor, and, for a time at least, boarded at the old Fulton House. One of the faculty, himself at the time a bachelor, sat at the same table with Jones, and I recall a story I had from the younger man many years ago. They had for some tilne been annoyed by the food being overseasoned. Coming in one day, and finding Jones already at dinner, his colleague said: Well, Pro- fessor Jones, what kind ot' soup do we have to-day? They eall it mock turtle, replied Jones, but you'll find it's rule freall salt ! One of his older colleagues has written of him these words: His knowledge of science was extensive and varied and exact, and was coni- bined with such rich classical and literary stores, and withal wielded with so much originality, that his pupils were often at a loss to k11ow what was most admirable in the lesson--the science, the literary illus- trations, or the exuberant wit which was wreathed and blended with the whole. As I remeniher, Jones had just two marks or grades for recitation, whole, and halt ' or partial.,, When a man had recited, Jones would at once announce the credit to be given, thus: Now, Mr. Smith, Itwill give you a whole, or as the ease might be, I will give you a partial for that recitation. , W As a bachelor the good man was able to lead the simple life. He was frugal but liberal, too, in his expenditures, and before his death he generously endowed four prizes in Physics and the Classics as a memorial in the college. They bear his name, and the names of the recipients of their proceeds are annually announced at commencement. Professor Jones resigned March 19, 1878, and on the morning ol' ' :io

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. . V 3,9 M !t! .. 3 had A K P A as mf A IVIVIIVIII 'grim-ku 4 B 4 1 . atl f 11, 1 t .vIf1'5lQ1QlQff.. his wife, upon approaching an interesting domestic event, had sent him for the doctor, he 111et a C1'O1ly and, engaging with hi111 in a game of chess, wholly forgot his errandg and that, told by her to go to the grocery for solne ham, he ordered sent home a barrel of hams. Like Kant, rain or shine, Vose always carried under his arln a big baggy green umbrella, but unlike Kant, who is said to have taken his constitutionals every afternoon at so regular a time that tl1c German housewives set their clocks when they saw him passing, Vose was apt to be always before or behind time. - On leaving his position here, Professor Vose was for a while e11- gaged in work on the United States Coast Survey. His further move- ments are not known. For a time it was rumored that he had been burned to death in a hotel fire, some said in Toledo, others in Milwau- kee, still others in Chicago, but the rumor was soon discredited. The rest is silencef' On DCCCIIIIJCP 23, 1873, Colonel NV. H. G. Adney was elected LeMoy11e Professor of Agriculture and Correlative Branches. He resigned this position in June, 1880. Professor Adney came to VVashington, I believe, from New Athens, Ohio. In the Civil War he had bee11 Lieutenant-Colonel in the regi- ment of which Rutherford B. Hayes, afterwards President of the United States, was colonel. He was very tall, long-limbed, and angular, with rugged features, and a stern cast of countenance. He carried into the class room something of the manner he had acquired in the army, but I think he sometimes found it harder to manage a class than a regi- ment. Occasionally he resorted to heroic measures. One feat that he performed was almost Homeric. Some students had locked from the outside the door of his class room, and were playing high jinks in the corridor. How he did it was a marvel, but Adney sprang through the transom and came down plump into the midst of the boys, who scattered right and left. He caught one of tl1e1n, but, naturally, it was one who had had nothing to do with the disturbance. Mrs. Adney, the professor's wil'e, is remembered as a woman some- what active in good worksg at the time of the grasshopper pest in Kansas, she arranged a concert for the benefit ot' the sufferers. His son, 32