Williams College - Gulielmensian Yearbook (Williamstown, MA)

Page 28 text:

S011 fmomore Editorial. Hizmn-krxr-oc-Do-A-KON-TA, EIGHTY-SEVEN! Whoop la! Here we are again! Since the present Gul Board has deigned to recognize our peculiar fitness for figuring, individually and collectively, as the clowns of their pages, we enter the ring in the regulation manner. Before proceeding farther, we wish to express to these gentlemen our heartfelt thanks for this, the very first recognition of our peculiar talents. But we knew it would come. Murder will out, and we only wonder that the abnormal cheek, phenomenal verdancy, and uniformly sorry appearance, that have been our constant and peculiar characteristics, have remained so long unrewarded. Eighty-six has striven long and nobly to deprive us of each of these ele- ments of our class nature, but to no purpose. She has thoroughly hazed every man of us 3 she has taken cane after cane from us 3 she has wiped clean the campus with the prostrate forms of our foot-ball team, she has literally walked away with the rope to which dangled the wriggling, groaning representatives of our brawn. Yet with what result? Despite it all, we have swept up the fragments, and re-appear, as you now see us, in all the pristine glory of our verdancy. We aspire not to fame on the campus, we care naught for V. His , let not a single Phi Beta Kappa key hang against our class vest: but only let us leave, emblazoned upon the walls of our Alma flhzier in letters of living green, the watchword of our brotherhood, FRESH- izsrf' You who would fain dispute it, answer us in candor. Does not our Record bear us out in this? Have you not heard sufficient Noyes in our ranks to convince the dullest ears? Can you name even a single Miner point of freshness that is not beyond approach or precedent? Our very class colors are cardinal and old gold, - blood and brass. 'l'o the two upper classes we would offer a word of apology for thus striving to demonstrate what is, to them, a self-evident fact. We merely wish to em- brace this opportunity to challenge those who are at present striving to dispute . 2 5

Page 27 text:

4m4K6Wx 40 '21 J n :Wi il? Mitt f ill! I X uw W1 V1 5 J '- 'wx 'S H ' ,, Y Wg' , I , 1' , d t. . Y R- , A 'fix . f1l:1MiJ,.,, by' VV,A xi ' , gig, .er :Vik 'I f Z I I W! D325 555,,5' V I ul 711 ,Lg ' 4 ,,---2 5 'I -V' 13 HU, 51-Eu ,-, 1. W 1 5 .xl I .

Page 29 text:

with us the title of Freshmen, to do their worst. The victory is already ours. We repudiate the name of Sophomores. Freshmen we are, and Freshmen we shall remain 3 and at Commencement, in the year 188 7, the term Freshman, in its true significance, will forever vanish from old Williams. The F reshmanic plant has, like the night-blooming cereus, been slowly perfecting its growth for years without a blossom. With our entrance into these classic shades, it began to bud, and now the blossom is half unfolded. For two more years it will continue its perfection, and with our departure will wither and die, leaving to coming generations but the barren stalk and faded remains of what has been. However, we have not been allowed, much as we have wished it, to pose under a glass case, a marvel to men, and an appetizer to all passing herbivorous animals. In conformity to long established and, to us, irksome customs, we have been compelled to show ourselves in the class-room and on the campus. And what has been the showing? Before sketching our course in either sphere of action, let us recall to the minds of all readers the fact that we are an anomaly. We were made to be looked at and studied because of our unique characteristics, and not for any ordinary or practical use. Therefore, be not surprised at any disclosures we may make, and look with due allowance upon the many things in us, that, in ordinary classes, might appear as disfiguring defects. In the class-room, the secretary of the Faculty pronounces us scarcely an average class, and his clemency in rendering so light a verdict will be ever gratefully remembered. Fizzles and flunks may be found in delightful pro- fusion upon his books without much Hunt -ing. They have even accumu- lated to such a degree as to weigh down some of the more feeble Vine s. Yet we have struggled along for a year and a half, and are beginning to enter- tain a tremulous hope that possibly a very few of our number may become allzmni. Though we crave no such distinction, yet, if we can conform to the time-honored custom of enrolling a few names from each class upon the alznzmz' list, without injuring too severely our serene and :esthetic sensibilities it shall be our endeavor so to do. Time alone will tell. On the campus we have, at least, made a great deal of fuss. That is always consistent with our policy. We have been Peck -ing away, rather fruitlessly it is true, at the athletic games, and hope some day to win a. race. As for our contests with Eighty-six, -here our recording angel drops a tear of silent anguish upon the page of our history. Tread softly, and hug to your bosom the remembrance of our one base-ball victory. Though we can- not tell by what streak of luck, we did really beat her in one game of ball 3 and then the sounds of our rejoicing were echoed back from the grizzly sides of Graylock like the ambitious crow of a last spring's rooster. The rope-pull, the foot-ball game, the numerous cane-rushes, and those speeches and songs 3 26