Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Peddler Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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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

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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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29 and portentious events which occurred during this span of our existence. We had our troubles right from the start, and they continued coming in bunches all through the year. When we finished the freshman agony, we had flattered ourselves that thereafter the sound of the grinding would be low and sweet, but alas ! In¬ stead of becoming a whisper, it developed into a most appalling roar, and we found that to do the work required a large expenditure of time and much agony of mind was necessary. One of the biggest burdens that we had to buck against was that paralyzer of the jaw—Sci. Dutch. What a lovely mental stimulus” it was ! And how hard the Recording Angel must have worked to keep track on what must certainly be a very dark and dingy page of the remarks we were wont to make during our two-hour struggles with four- hour stunts in this Rhombendodekaederdampfhulichnizt! To intensify our sufferings, we were also given regular doses of Classical Dutch, under Prof. Haynes, but this was not without its redeeming features, because the authors studied had kindly sprinkled a few expressive swear words through their text, thus giving us a chance publicly to express some of our innermost thoughts on the dreary grind. During the first term we encountered Johnny, in Descrip., and at once grew to enjoy his recitations. His homely illustrations and attempts to stretch our imaginations beyond the yield point by the use of transparent quadrants made out of my old corn-popper,” will never be forgotten, and his cheerful smile as he rejected a problem or made one of his copyrighted remarks on shoe leather and lead pencils, is stamped indelibly upon our minds. Of our enjoyment of Mechanical Drawing, which claimed a share of our attention at this time, much might be said on both sides,” a la Sir Roger De Coverley. True it is that our ink seances in the top of the Mechanical Labs did not prove to all to be Edens upon earth. Here much of our time was spent in finding out from our neighbors how to do this or that, and in erasing and doing over the work, which the Wanderer kindly informed us after we had it all inked in, was wrong. To form an adequate idea of the beauties of this work, one should inter¬ view the ’99 Chemists, who never tire of delivering eulogies in its memory and in honor of the Man with the Hat.