Yale University - Sheffield Scientific School Yearbook (New Haven, CT)

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80 CLASS OF NINETEEN THIRTY-FIVE S. AND E. winter vacation. We found it not much different from the previous ones. There was, of course, the usual Christmas, with the usual parties and the usual return to New Haven for rest. Many of us found the rigors of the winter to be quite severe. Old, battle-scarred coon-skins began to appear and all manner of queer hats were no- ticeable, but the strangest device of its kind was that of Senior Balbo', Brown who appeared one morning wearing on his chin the first downy harbingers of a wool tie and vest. We spent a week or so sympathetically scratching our own faces, wondering when it would stop itching and become a beard. Although the interrelation of the two events is doubtful, it was about this time that the Supreme Court of the U.S. began its own little reign of terror, thus tending to considerably complicate matters in the Business Operations classes. The excitement once over, we turned our attention to the rapidly approaching Iunior Prom, resented the new plan Qthus showing our usual conservatismj, and made arrangements. The cry of False Alarmn was soon audible, and inquiry disclosed the fact that the de- lay was caused by the fact that two fairly well-known womenis col- leges were having festivities on the week-end selected. Feeling the desirability of having a few of the weaker sex present, the committee, meekly subservient to the demands of Vassar, quietly relinquished their masculine individuality and postponed the Prom. When it finally did arrive there was the usual merriment in Woolsey, with the traditional parties in the various houses. Spring or Easter vacation arrived in due timeg and with the real- ization that this would probably be our last vacation for some few days and that there were to be no Derby Day parties to which to look forward this year, we saw the necessity of capitalizing on op- portunity and many departed for the South to verify the reports brought back last year. There on the beaches of Miami, or Bermuda, or on the links at Pinehurst the history of this Class became hope- lessly entangled with that of Smith 1935 and to attempt to unravel the tangle would take more time than permitted. And now passing on through the gates to find our niche in the outer world we leave behind us the unsullied reputation of the Class of 1935 and pass on to the succeeding classes the care of the rapidly metamorphosing traditions of Yale.

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CLASS HISTORY 79 Senior Year. Our return in the fall was attended by a feeling of actual achieve- ment, not because of any untold happenings during the summer, but rather because at last we felt ourselves to be getting out of the baby class. Freshman year we had been the little tots of the Univer- sity, as Sophomores we were the fledglings of Sheff, while this stigma carried over even into Iunior year when we were the young- sters about the house. Now we had attained our majority, and well might we look down on the world for one brief year until it became aware of our existence. Now we looked about us to find something upon which we could discourse authoritatively, and noting Berkeley College on the site of the old Oval, snatched at the subject of the New Yale. I-larking back to the days when we were Freshman, we recalled the old order and grumblingly wondered just what the world was coming to anyway. Stoics that we were, we accepted the change and went over to eat in the new units, where we sometimes met the most ardent of the old-timers contentedly grumbling over the food. Particularly sad were the faces of the men from Colony, Cloister, and Sachem, who, having deserted the haunts of Sheff- town, were now to be found swallowed up in the new colleges scarcely knowing in what category to class themselves. The football season carne as such seasons will and found us waiting expectantly. This year we firmly resolved to see the cadets march, for it would be our last opportunity, but something or other managed to block the way and we arrived just in time to see the parade break ranks. Very resonant was the gnashing of teeth over this disappointment, but the sadness was only momentary, for those of us who journeyed to Princeton soon lost all interest in past games. Amid a record crowd at Palmer Stadium we watched eleven men put on the best exhibition of gridiron technique that it had ever befallen our lot to behold. If it could be said that we got nothing else from our four years, we could certainly say that we saw football at its best. Forsaking the traditional Held of Van-Sheff, the inter-house touch players met this year on the University fields. The friendly rivalry was carried on up until Rush Week, when all amicable pursuits were dropped and the smoke was again seen to rise over the envi- rons of our fair town. When the price war was over we found that, despite the efforts of the News, there were a few socially minded Sophomores left and that general chaos was not yet to be the gen- eral order of the day. With this observation we set out on our last

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CLASS ORATION As a'eZz'1ferea' on Class Day by Max F. Millilqan. RADITION dictates on this occasion that I be dull and pom- pous. I shall not depart from custom here. In one other respect, however, I find it somewhat more difficult to follow the procedure expected of Class Orators. I am supposed to stand here and explain with a perfectly straight face what we, the graduating Class, think- or more generally, what Youth thinks-about college, about the worlcl, about Life. I-Iaving been given this solemn assignment by my fellows, I find myself a trifle embarrassed. For the question, What does Youth think? implies two things. It implies that there is a category of beings having enough in common so that we may col- lectively label them Youth, and it implies that one of the character- istics of this group is that it thinks. Since both of these assumptions seem to me patently absurd, I find myself, as I say, somewhat baf- fled as to how to answer the question What does Youth think? There is, of course, a formula for the solution of this problem. It has come to the aid of countless Class Orators in the past, and it is the particular delight of those professional Youths, most of them past forty, whose gushings on the New Generation help to fill the pages of our more respectable periodicals. The essence of the for- mula is somewhat as follows: The world is in chaos. Our predeces- sors, especially the generation immediately before us, are responsible for this sorry state of affairs. They have made a mess of things. But we, Youth, are not dismayed by this spectacle of stupidity. We re- fuse to accept either the indifference of the mad twenties or the hopeless pessimism of the late great commercial distress. We look upon the world with clear and eager eyes, understanding the hor- rible mistakes our foolish forebears have made. Let us at it, and we will build a new civilization out of the shattered remnants of the old. As one of Yale's 1'1l0St prominent Youths put it recently, We have stopped saying inclifferently, :What the helll, and are saying impatiently, 'What the devill, H I wish I could subscribe to this comforting and inspiring formula. Unfortunately, I see little in myself or my fellow fledgelings to sub- stantiate it. It is true that undergraduates are in general taking less English and more economics and government and that there is to-