Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Peddler Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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V We also drew up a Constitution and By-Laws, which we have religiously violated ever since. Orange and black were chosen as class colors, and the yell, Hobble, gobble, razzle, dazzle, Hika, hika, heck; Ninety-Nine is right in line, Worcester Poly tech, was adopted. The class manifested much interest in various events, several men entering the cross-countries, which we won easily, and we even went so far as to talk of a class foot-ball team. As the term neared an end we began to look toward the exams, and shook in our shoes as the eventful days drew nearer and nearer. At last the ordeals arrived and then passed, and while a few of us missed connections, most of us bobbed up serenely for the second round,—we had finished the first lap of our course. But one sad event occurred to mar the term for us, that being the acci¬ dental death of our friend and class-mate, William D. Baker. Billy,” as he was familiarly known, was one of the prominent and popular men of the class, and his death throws the one dark shadow on the otherwise pleasant memories of our Tech life. After our first experience with semi-annuals we breathed freer. Good skating soon eased our minds, so sorely tried by the exams. Again we were ready to get down to work; ready to strive on with Trig, and to puzzle out Invent. Then we tried to jabber Dutch, but no ! Zelotes objects to that, so we must say Deutsch, for There is sometimes method in his madness.” Our officers for this half were : H. E. Scott, President; A. F. Husse} r , Vice-President; E. E. Rich, Secretary; S. T. Willis, Treasurer. At times we wandered up into the Free Drawing Room, at least enough of us to remove all drawing boards from the rack. There Gladdy taught us how to draw a tree, and gave us instructions as to our sketch books. Warm weather arrived, down into the park we went to sketch the beautiful objects to be seen there. Of course we never made any acquaintances while out sketching, but at times a little coaxing was necessary to get a suitable subject. Put took the Liberty to get some very good sketches of Clark University

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26 ton invented the art of thought. Dr. Conant’s favorite trick was to assume a balancing position perched on the arm of one of the class-room chairs, and with his hands clasped tenderly around one knee attempt to bluff us into be¬ lieving that he didn’t understand a blackboard demonstration, with his inno¬ cent Well,—now,—let—me—see, just how is that?” I must now touch upon a tender chord,—it is Rhetoric and Composition. It has ever been a sad subject with us, and sorrowfully do I mention it now. It brings up memories of gallons of ink and reams of essay paper utilized in agonized attempts to construct a tale of a Humorous Incident.” It conjures up phantoms of gigantic bluffs, and recalls Kinney’s celebrated progressive arrangements of the largest words in the dictionary in essay form. We shall never forget the quiz-ahs ”—but we are glad they exist with us now only as memories of the past. Across the corridor from the quizah torture chamber we read several in¬ teresting French dreams, under the direction of Professor Coombs; Le Pacte de Famine and Le Pecheur D’Islande,—which latter someone translated The Sinner of the Island ”—being thoroughly chewed (about) and digested by us. The remaining subjects which we enjoyed during this springtime of our existence were Free-hand Drawing, Elementary Mechanics, and Ethics and Hygiene. The latter was the most enjoyable, because we never had any. Elementary Mechanics used to amuse us muchly, especially Joseph’s efforts to explain that second per second per second business, while the beautiful little experiments” and earth-weighing acts, introduced on the side by Doc, did much toward keeping us from falling into a somnambulistic state. Of our initiation into the mysterious and gas-tly rights of Free-hand Drawing, much might be written. We were the last class to come under the direction of Professor Gladwin, and we did him proud.” We drew on the blackboards, on paper, and on the models, the latter not being appreciated by our instructor. We investigated the laws of gravitation with respect to the fall of pipe fittings, old valves and scrap iron through space, and pinched the vanishing point in the act of vanishing. Much of the remainder of our time was spent in shop, sleep, and socia¬ bles at some of the Worcester churches. Early in the term we organized as a class, electing the following officers : President, C. W. Kinney ; Vice- President, F. W. Putnam ; Secretary, A. C. Vinal; Treasurer, A. A. Kent.

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28 and other sights in the neighborhood of Beaver Street. May took less Lib¬ erty , so he was obliged to do his own sketching. At an early date the class organized a base-ball team, under the leader¬ ship of Reb. The team was successful in games played with Hinman’s and with Becker’s Business College. Then came the game with Ninety- Eight. Our team so completely outclassed its opponents that the game was not very interesting. The night following the game a huge monument was erected to’98. This monument was appropriately adorned and then dedi¬ cated to the defeated Sophs. In the morning, black figures announced from M. P’s barn the official score. And then—well, a newspaper article, a lec¬ ture from the Doc, resolutions by the class, and the barn was ready for the next game. Speaking of resolutions, that reminds us that in the secretary’s book we saw something about some resolutions in regard to certain requests from headquarters. From a note we learn that these resolutions were of the na¬ ture of a promise not to give H. C. S. any more free rides, or something of that sort; memory fails us here. With Sir Roger we visited Pero’s foundry, saw the flasks filled, and got a few pointers in the art of shoveling sand. Then we wandered through several of the neighboring shops. When the athletic meet came off Ninety-Nine won many a point. Then came the relay race with M. I. T. With Scott on the team, M. I. T. was beaten in much better time than that in which she defeated us in Philadelphia. That night M. P ' s wagon, wandered down into Salisbury’s Pond. With Ikie’s advice and nine or ten hour’s labor, the wagon was again put back into the barn. Our annuals through with, many of us were so elated that we did not stop to finish Summer Practice, but set out at once for our vacation. Sopbomore H?ear. The laying of the corner-stone of the second year of our incarceration took place in the September of ’96. We had learned a trick or two in our one year’s sojourn at the Institute, and we started in with a pessimistic view of the catalogue and a belief that there are .times when things are not what they seem. Many were the strange