Yale University - Banner / Pot Pourri Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

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Some of Yale ' s fighting men posed jor this picture in 1916 Blount Avenue, about 1920. The present Commons is in the background

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A Bit of G Gi AMPUS characters of all sorts have made Yale their base of opera- tions for many generations. Most colorful of all Yale ' s characters was the late nineteenth century ' s George Joseph Hannibal, L. W. Silliman, Es- quire, whose object in life was to deliver his stock of molasses candy into the inouths of Yale men, while delivering his own brand of native humor. His age: I ' m getting so old that I can re- member when East Rock, sah, was a mere pebble. Not wishing, even under the most superlative temptation, to interrupt the gentlemen in their studies, I beg to ask whether they are not moved to purchase a package of my old-fashioned, home- made molasses candy, Hannibal, as he was more simply called, would begin. Very often he would sell his candy, too, and then occasionally make a little extra something by betting an inexperienced freshman that the latter could not name the middle letter of the alphabet, or by arranging some other similar, safe wager. Candy Sam, another character of the later 1800 ' s, was a totally blind colored man who, in the days of paper currency, could feel the difference be- tween a fifty- and a five-cent note. He never forgave the Yale Conrant . . . for admitting to its columns a playful skit alleging his arrest for peeping into dormitory Avindows at night. There were others, but these are the men Avho were remembered longest. Academic Yale (J7 ' HE FIRST SCHOLARSHIP at Yale was founded in 1733 by Rev. George Berkeley, later Bishop of Cloyne. It was almost a century before another scholar- ship arrived on the scene, but after that time they were established in great num- bers. Applicants for admission to the fresh- man class were once far better grounded in the classics than they are today. The would-be freshman, less than fifty years ago, was expected to be examined on such subjects or books as the first three books of Xenophon ' s Anabasis, seven orations of Cicero, and the first twelve chapters (to the Passive Voice) of Arnold ' s Latin Prose Composition. On the graduate level, Yale was the first American university to confer the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. V ' 1 kX r v.. ■• i ' s V Ml ' - ' P 1 %v »■ • Wm W ' ' Bicentennial procession, featuring Theodore Roosevelt and Yale ' s President Hadley

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Military Training (j7 URiNG WORLD WAR I, Yale partially became a training camp for the armed services. Again, during World War II, Yale contributed its facilities and personnel to the war effort, so that over 20,000 men were trained. Military training in the Reserve Offi- cers Training Corps was first made pos- sible to Yale undergraduates in the 1860 ' s when Sheff received a land grant from the state of Connecticut, in return for which a professor of military science was permitted to join the Yale faculty. The ROTC program still exists at Yak- today, and its Naval counterpart is now also an active organization. University Expansion (j7 EVELOPMENT of the University ' s ex- ternal featiues has been pheno- menal throughout the past half-century, and only sizable gifts from generous philanthropists in addition to the faith- ful donations of coimtless aliniini have allowed many expansive changes. Frederick W. Vanderbilt, 1876, Ed- ward Harkness, 1897, and John Ster- ling, 1864, are the names of only a few of the men Avho have provided vast sums of money in order to perpetuate and improve this center of learning. The Coat of Arms (jT ' nY. ARMS of Yale University come from the design at the center of the seal which has been used since the early days of the college. The characters on the book form the words Urim and Thiunmin, names of an ancient de- vice used to ascertain the divine will. Written across an open book they sug- gest that the book contains divine oracles or revelations. In the Latin Old Testament they are translated doctrina et Veritas. For the Yale seal-legend the deviser of the seal retained the Veritas (truth), but substituted lux (light) for doctrina (learning). The seal is the property of the Presi- dent and Fellows of the University. It is used by them to authenticate signa- tures on documents and for other offi- cial purposes of the university as the Corporation ' s symbol of authority. The distinctive Yale decoration used by mem- bers and graduates of the university is not the seal but the coat of arms. , ' n Memory of Iril ,M£Nof YalE who. true l.o Her fradilions vo Their i.ivf5 ihai Freedom miOhl nol perish fr(im ihe Earth ■iomanno DoMiNrigis- Alumni War Memorial Alumni Organizations N ALUMNI BOARD was formed in 1904, its original adherents claim- ing that annual elections would provide a group representative of the alumni ' s true feelings. The Alumni Association, a separate organization, was first formed in 1827, though the first alumni reimion was probably that of the Class of 1821, held in 1824. The Cincinnati Yale Club, founded in 1864, is the oldest alumni organization extant, not only among Yale giaduates, but of any college or