Williams College - Gulielmensian Yearbook (Williamstown, MA)

Page 30 text:

with which we entertained, perforce, our evening callers,--these all come back to us as dreamy persecuting phantoms to a mind fevered by grief and suffering. With Eighty-eight it has been different. In contests among Freshmen, the fresher must inevitably win. Our victories have been many. The rope- pull, the base-ball game, the foot-ball game,-lhree! and won by Ezlghzjf- seven .f It is almost too much, and our feeble brain reels under the overwhelming truth. We tried to haze them in our feeble way, but, alas! in accordance with Nature's inexorable laws, the tables were turned, and the fresher class was hazed. In vain did we call piteously through oaken doors to the two unfortunates of our number. In vain were our frantic efforts to release them from the clutches of their tormentors. .They were making a ea!L and deehheri Io be dzrmrbed. Again, 'tis true that we could not find windows and doors enough to accommodate our exit from certain localities whose warmth threatened to wilt us, -but what of that? We had b11.vz'fze.v.v else- where. 'Tis true, that, while we slept, the audacious Freshmen covered the town with posters revealing more of our family history than we had cared to have known,-but what of that? Had we not previously vindicated our superior freshness by making night hideous with our liendish horns? Some unfeeling and vulgar-minded upper classmen persist in saying, that, in the last transaction, we out-freshec1 our own record 5 but they are incapable of understanding us. Could they but look at it from our standpoint, they would agree with us that it was the very cutest proceeding of the year. But words are wanting in number to enumerate our defeats, and in warmth to enumerate our victories. To those who know us, we would say, Study us. To those who have had the misfortune not to know us, we would say, Come and see us. It will pay you well. In closing, we are content to trust our welfare to the class itself, feeling sure that the future will but be a repetition of the glorious past we have so feebly endeavored to describe. Let others strive for victory, for learning, for culture. Let them pursue each his favorite device, bound clown by precedent and custom 5 but not we. As we kiss our hand to a wondering audience, we are the same as when we entered the ring,-Eighty-seven,-the verdant, cheeky, unapproachable EIGHTY-SEVEN.

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

Page 31 text:

' 4 fn--79, ' A .N - 5'-Tvfgm A ,uf .k-,- ,J -Ugg I-135: N x M 'I ew , , -Le uIli H . W - 6 QE . M 1. ' ' X 1 ' ,. k ,Q 'ini pa.- 'L' 'Simi-' P. I ' ' w 1 . ,1 , . xt ex g 4 'bi 1' 1 O 1 9 Q 4 Y- 255 W uenmfinmum wb X? if P V? FEA xA' -AN .,-Acj Q 625' 'W W S! lb, is i 9 4 b 7 ' , - , .L WAl ,4 YQ L ' ' . N 5 1