Williams College - Gulielmensian Yearbook (Williamstown, MA)

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WILLIAMS COLLEGE CLASS HOOK 25 SENIOR YEAR President .- Tom. Secrez'a1jf.' VANDECARR Vim 15'esidemf : SXVAIN Y5'ea.mrcr.- Kr,rN1a, ENG1f:r,H,i1m NSTEAD of a mere combination of numbers which sounded queer, and meant nothing but a rallying cry in those early days when we would have cheered frenziedly for any old kennia kai delta that the uppeijclassmen told us to, nineteen nine has now come to mean the end of all things for some of us, the menacing' guillotine of a happy college course. Every member of the class shrinks just a little from that jumping-off place only a short way ahead, for the let-down from the self-arrogated aristocracy of the senior to the humdrum of the breadwinner's life will be the severest kind of a jolt, even to the favored few of us who, upon graduation, slide into the fattest of jobs. But the memory of a successful senior year will go far to break the fall we are all soon to take. lt is not given to every class to make its final year the logical climax of a college course. Often there are hitches in the programme which serve to dull the roseate idealism of the last few months. But though the history of this last year may record some disappointgnents of one sort or another, those disappointments, instead of becoming embittering regrets, have merely served to teach us how to avoid the same blunders next time, and their importance fades away into insignilicance beside the successes which were actually ours. The few months just closing mark a period of decided transi- tion in the history of the college, of which the class of nineteen nine in particular has been keenly aware. Just as the memories of the first three years of our course are inseparably bound up with the warm affection we held for the late Dr. Hopkins, so our last year has been dominated by the personality of the new presi- dent, whose progressive ideals and energy are made manifest in changes which have already taken place in the college. We seniors, who go out from here within a very short time, realize that in the years soon to come all sorts of improvements will

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24 XVILLIAMS COLLEGE CLASS BOOK 1'n'literary lines, the class added one more volume to the list of GIILY, which, representing the class that it does, is certainly the best we have seen. The Record could not have been what it was had it not been for the services of those members of our class who were preparing to conduct its precarious course in the following year, and of the Lit. and the Cow let us quote a would-be wit, who said, There are not two better monthlies published in VVilliams. The class series in basketball and baseball ended very fortu- nately-for the other three classes. But let us hasten over such trivial matters Cfor most of us will not soon forget those two glorious seasonsj to the serious discussion of what was accom- plished during our junior year. The jolly evenings spent at the four smokers will always! be rememberedg nor will it be forgotten that we were the first junior class to hear about QI will not say see,'j the canes being captured under the new limitsg that memorable reproduction of Doctor Faustus is another pro- gressive step indelibly fixed in our mindsg and the interclass singing contest which nineteen nine won so melodiously will certainly be remembered for ,having brought into existence one of the best songs of which Williams ever boasted. In short, much was accomplished which promoted the interests and ideals of the college, and in view of this fact we are prepared to take up the arduous duties which will be thrust upon us next year, when we cease being jolly and become grave. Then the college will obtain what it has been looking forward to for one hundred and fourteen years-the class of nineteen nine as seniors. G1Lu'13R'r L. Monsis JUNIOR SUPPER i Hotel IdIr'wiIdQ South Wi'lIiamsto'zw1, Jima 16, 1908. - COMMITTIQE : RICHARDS fChaii-many, I-IALL, JOHNSTON. Toasts. Evizm-:'rT Luci: I-IAZELTON, Toastmaster. President's Address .......................... Gilbert I-Iorrax Our Prom. Friends. . . . . .Clarence Fayette Brown Aero-Waero ..... . . .john Frederick Bargfrede Next Year.. . ......... George Engelhard

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26 NVILLIAMS COLLEGE CLASS BOOK take place in Wlilliams, and it is our very real regret that we cannot as undergraduates take more of a part in them all. But we have had a very fundamental share in the beginnings at least. WVhatever else we may have done, and these accomplishments are recorded elsewhere in this book, one thing stands out above them all-the establishment of a conference system between under- graduates and administrative officers, for the purpose of consul- tation on such questions as may need settlement. As leaders in college activities the members of nineteen nine have tried to do their best, and their success averages up with that of most other senior classes-here an improvement has been instituted, there the former standard has not been quite.reached. Such matters will be forgotten very shortly, but this establishment of more intimate relations with the administration we shall always remem- ber as the most lasting thing we did, even if it was accomplished below the surface, unnoticed by many. We may confidently say that by it we have set an example worth the handing down to the classes who are soon to take our place. This is the legacy we leave as we go away. Not very long ago, there was published a cartoon of a college senior, like any one of us, in academic robes, perched on- the top of a lofty column built of text-books, printed lectures, trots, athletic paraphernalia, playing-cards and many other odds and ends, umnentionable here, but all the same quite essential to the equipment of an up-to-date undergraduate. He sat there, this senior, receiving with proper dignity the plaudits of the Com- mencement crowd gathered at the -base of the column to acclaim him. But, in the midst of all his glory, the whole flimsy structure under him tottered and swayed far out over the edge of a steep precipice oh whose sunnnit it was built. Far below could be distinguished the figures of men engaged in the turmoil and struggle of real life, an ocean so stormy as to swallow up all but the skillful navigator. And the man in cap and gown, with his college education his pilot, and his sheepskin his passport, where in all that troubled sea will he find safe harbor? ERNEST H. Wooo