Williams College - Gulielmensian Yearbook (Williamstown, MA)

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Senior Editorial. To the class of Eighty-five the future is becoming a very serious question, and yet inclination and pleasure lead us into memories of the past. Way on before us we see the glorious air-castles that we have built. There, too, is the realization of our long-cherished hopes. We know that our ideals can never be- come realities until we press forward into the future, and yet - we linger. As some soldier, eager to fight his country's battle, longing to reach the soldier's glorious renown, seeing his duty, and ready to do it, as he still lingers by the cottage-door, and thinks, in those last moments, of all the past joys and pleas- ures of his simple home, - so we, eager to leave our college home, yet linger, and, with one hand fast hold of the future, we with the other still grasp the past joys and pleasures of ourcollege life. Therefore it is, that we rejoice with a grevious mourning that we write for the last time. As our college course, for three years, comes before us, we regard it with entire satisfaction. We do not claim to be infallible, but we do claim manli- ness and common sense. We did not and do not believe in that specimen of scholar called a Grub. We believed in athletics, we believed in a recognition of physical exercise as a legitimate part of a man's development 3 we believed in having a mind of our own, and we believed in asserting our own opinions, and supporting them: and so we have sometimes fought. In many points we have differed from the respected authorities of the college, and, as we look back, we are not prepared to say that we are sorry for it. Eighty-five's position has been a very peculiar one in many respects: we are the largest and strongest class that ever entered this institution, we came in under a new rJgime,- we were the class with which that new regime had to experiment, we were obliged to be the pioneers in many new regions of policy, and we proved very unwilling and self-willed subjects, especially when we felt that things were tending back to the mother-apron-string idea. We have been, on the whole, victorious, although our wounds are many. We have carried out our belief in regard to athletics, and, in our many victories, we have '3

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. a right to glory3 we have carried out our intention to speak our minds, and fear no one, and to-day we are proud of it. But yet, to-day we have the magnaminity of conscious strehgth 3 and we would forget the disagreeable things which that manliness and common sense have brought upon us, and would look only at the progress and the pleasures which these years have With us came into the college foreign elements which gave new life to the I Kgiven us. We rejoice that we have been able to mark an era of new things. C. 31 Faculty. There has been infused into her a modern spirit which yet takes what is good in the old, Eighty-five is intensely modern. We never did believe in cranks and fossils 3 and so we rejoice to see these modern ideas, which are consistent with our practical needs, coming into the consideration of the authorities, and being carried out by them. It was largely our success in athletics that forced them to be more distinctly recognized. It was largely our stubbornness that brought many an old question to the issue, and had it settled in the line of progress. To Eighty-five these memories are some of the pleasures of the past. We see our own success working for the good of the college, and we are doubly satisfied. We have never neglected the social life 3 as we write, all the pleasant times crowd in upon us by the hundreds : we recall our class-suppers, the rushes and gallant battles of our earlier days, the victories on the campus, the rope-pulls and athletic sports, our class-sings, the many jokes and grinds on each other, the class-room nonsense, the jolly times in thousands of ways 3 and we would not have missed one of them, for they will last way into life 3 and, when we have long forgotten all about Greek roots, we will come back to old Whliams, and talk together about these good times in the days then gone by. But we have not forgotten the literary accomplish- ments of our class 3 and we are true prophets when we say that Eighty-five will make her mark in the world somewhere, in noble action and in literary power. At any rate, we are willing to take our chances in life against any class that ever graduated from any college. And has old Williams done nothing for Eighty-five? Never will we forget that she has done very much for us. She has given us her very best: she has broadened and cultivated our minds, she has strengthened and rebuilt our bodies, she has made us largely what we are. We have climbed mountains, and tramped through valleys: we have been moulded by influences, and trained under such a scholar as no other college in this broad land can offer. For all this, we ot Eighty-five will be faithful, earnest sons of Williams 3 we will fight for what we deem her best good 3 we will watch every onward movement with joy, every improvement with congratulation. We are consciousthat there is much for us to do for her, and we will do our best to accomplish it. T he class of Eighty-tive, in reviewing these past events, cannot forget those of our number, who, for various causes, have been obliged to leave us before graduation. In many of our battles in earlier years, they helped us to victory. From the famous Nihilist, who was an anchor sure and steadfast, to those 14