Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Peddler Yearbook (Worcester, MA)

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N IN E T E E N HUNDREDS- T W () 7 acquainted only in our own course or department or division. Whether these meetings should assume the form of chapel exercises, or lectures on current topics and matters of scientific interest by outside speakers, or some other form, we are not prepared to say ; but we hope that some such course will be adopted in the near future. We commend the opening of Newton Hall as an Institute dormitory. The Hall has filled a long-felt want in the student life of the Polytechnic, and we hope that it will be continued. We express our approval of the efforts of certain professors in arranging inspection trips. Although financial reasons sometimes inter¬ fere with our unlimited participation in the trips, we enjoy them when we do go, and derive much profit therefrom. In the middle of our course we advocated an “open-door policy ” in regard to the Boynton Hall Library, and we hereby express our thanks and appreciation of the change. We recommend that the policy be extended, at least during certain hours or on stated afternoons, to the geological, domical, and other museums. We denounce cribbing as dishonorable. We stand for clean, honest examinations, and are proud of the statement made to us by Prof. Haynes at the conclusion of our course with him. We regard with disfavor the new ruling which the Shops have been obliged to make in regard to permit and extra work. We believe in the shop work, and we regret to see it cut down. A man is naturally more interested in that which he does for his friends or himself, which he is to use or see used, than in work which is cast aside or burned up, or put into the regular stock of the erecting department. Therefore any attempt to discourage the making of book-cases and desks, of picture frames and window-seats, of Morris chairs and wrought-iron lampstands by the students on extra time we view with disapproval and disap¬ pointment. Our course has brought 11s varied experiences, and we have learned many lessons not found in books. We have come to understand human nature somewhat, and have lost much of the conceit that we carried away from our prep, schools. We realize that the world stands not in need of more men but of more man.

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NINETEEN HUNDRED 6° TWO 19 jRtnftmt Huntmti anti jftlic EPI EMBER 18, 1901 ! It was an eventful day for about a hundred young fellows who gathered in old Boynton Hall, where many other classes have assembled, and awaited their fate. The new president, Dr. Engler, gave us the usual warnings and instructions and then Prof. Coombs read the assignments. It will not be necessary to recount the experiences of our first week or two. We managed to find out where “ we were at ” in a short time, and soon discovered how to behave like real Tech students ; that is, to look as wise and sleepy and tired as possible. (We’ve noticed it. — Editors.) But we had not been on the Hill very long before we found out that we were expected to destroy a certain amount of wood and glass during the year. Hence, under the kind instruction of two gentlemen whom we have learned to call “ Hink ” and “ Danny,” we have been taught how to saw wood and smash chemical apparatus (at our own expense). Dr. Conant has given 11s enough practice in series so that we can tell at a glance whether a series of “flunks ” is divergent or convergent. Some of us wonder if Prof. Cutler was not once a crack shot with the revolver, for the way in which he levels and aims his index finger at some poor fellow who was out to see his girl the night before would lead one to that opinion. Everyone has to have an “ideah ” when we see that weapon pointed at us. In the foundry we have learned how to make a concoction which is called a core after being baked. In the blacksmith shop we have learned that iron becomes hot when it is heated (witness our burned and blis¬ tered hands), and that this is a good place to do your “sparking” as well as in the electrical lab.— and sometimes in the library.