YALE ALUMNI WHREEKLY
YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY
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PAYABLE IN ADVANCE,
Checks, drafts and orders should be made payable to
the Yale Alumni Weekly.
All correspondence should be addressed,—
Yale Alumni Weekly, New Hayen, Conn,
The office is at Room 6, White Hall.
ADVISORY BOARD.
H. C, Roprnson, 53. J. R. SHEFFIELD, ’87.
W. W. Skippy, 65S. J. A. HARTWELL, ’89 S.
C. P. LINDSLEY, 75S. L.S. WELCH, ’89.
W. Camp, ’80, E. VAN INGEN, ’91 8S.
W.G. Daaextrt, ’80. P. Jay, 92.
EDITOR.
Lewis S. WELCH, ’89.
ASSOCIATE EDITOR.
WALTER Camp, ’80,
ASSISTANT EDITOR,
E. J. THompson, Sp.
NEWS EDITOR.
FRED. M, Davizs, 99.
PRESTON KuMuER, 1900, Athletic Department.
Davyip D. TENNEY, 1900, Special.
Entered as second class matter at New Haven P. 0.
NEW HAVEN, Conn., JAN. 27, 1898.
OUR JANUARY VISITOR,
Mr. Bromley has written wondrous
things—all true—about the “Girls in
Blue.” The closing sentences of his
toast are frequent and always welcome
guests at the hour of reflection. They
people the smoke clouds with visions
the former Laureate should have seen
before he wrote sundry lines. At their
bidding forms of loveliness appear in
the embers’ glow.in the costly. untaxed
palaces of modern Yale, while under
the roofs of the humbler student homes
of primitive days their influence pre-
vails to make the thumping radiator (at
the cooling-off hour) a thing melodi-
ous, a kind of curfew, or a sweet-toned
call to silent worship of that which is
divine.
But why think of them now? How
can one not think of them now?
Would not Mr. Bromley’s own lips
move again unconsciously in the ren-
dering of them, if he had moved across
the Campus on one of these snapping
January afternoons of the first half of
the second week after the first Tuesday
in term time? Perhaps he would write
another “Girls in Blue,—Years After,”
with some particular paragraph for the
“Prom. Girl,” which would forever
after be the classic of the second term
for all that part of Yale which was
in any way susceptible and had there-
fore gone into debt.
But we have no Prom. Girl in litera-
ture yet, unless we have overlooked her
in some of those alleged portrayals of
Campus life which sometimes sell well
and which we don’t read. It makes not
much difference whether or no she ever
comes upon our shelves, as long as she
comes before our eyes every year,—
that is, it makes little difference to
those of us whom the gods favor with
abiding places near the fountain of
youth. To you who go from mother
Yale to a mother lode in Klondike, or
to the peculiar pursuits of* “Greater”
cities, it may seem different, and to you
it might be very pleasant to behold a
word picture of this one challenger by
whom alone Yale is ever and consist-
ently overcome.
Weare not going to giveone. There
is no genius in our ranks. Nor is it
possible at such a time to take up the
task. It calls for freedom and cheer
and inspiration. And now we are
hanging our harps upon the willows.
For while we write, she goes, and the
heart of Yale is sad. And all the
University is in thrall—to her, and—to
others. To landlords and landladies;
to tailors; to them also that deal in fine
linen and in kidskins and dogskins; to
violet-mongers; to the monopolist who
works the endless chain of hacks, and
to many others. And the committee
treasurer, as such, alone has left a bank
account worth the book-keeping and
knows not how he may properly anni-
hilate it. And at this in soberer
moments you and I grieve and we will
grieve again. We have some things to
say in time. Sir Elihu’s treasury de-
partment needs a permanent secretary,
and all these various occasions of in-
comes and outgoes may yet harmoni-
ously—
Please forgive us. .To-morrow is
soon enough for reform. Yale is not
yet herself. In twenty-four hours
more her sons will shade their classic
brows with those bandless and bacterial
slouch hats and be ready for the serious
business of life. To-day is the day of
sad and sleepy good-byes and sweet
reflections.
SEND NEWS HERE DIRECTLY.
A request is again very earnestly
made of all secretaries of classes and of
alumni associations, who are in pos-
session of facts suitable for publication
in the WEEKLY, that they communi-
cate with this office directly. As we
have said before, the transmission of
this information through a third party
not only endangers its proper presenta-
tion, but is exceedingly embarrassing
to us. If this paper is to do its best
work with the classes and the associa-
tions, the officers of these classes and
associations must work directly with
us. We will do anything in our power
to facilitate direct ‘communication. |
The mistake of sending to some third
person is due to a desire on the part
of some class or association officer ‘to
-aid some person in an editorial ambi-
tion. We wish to say that this con-
fuses the scheme of competition, and
does not allow it to rest always on a
perfectly equitable basis. Such a sharp
lookout is kept in the News office
against anything which gives one com-
petitor any especial advantage over
another, that such an act is quite apt to
fail in accomplishing its purpose. The
News, and the WEEKLY in its under-
graduate department, furnish plenty of
opportunity for work, and give a wide
enough field for a man to show his
industry and originality. If they are
allowed to carry out their system, a
final result as nearly equitable as possi-
ble will be reached.
After all, the principal thing, as far
as this paper is concerned, is to get the
news and get it correctly, and let us say
again that the only way to do it is to
have direct communication with all
those who. have that news. We hope
this will be very carefully considered
in the future.
oe —_——_——_-
New Derby Avenue Bridge.
The city engineer has completed
plans for a new steel bridge, to be
built on Derby avenue across West
river. According to the city’s new
charter, before the construction is be-
gun a hearing must be held of all who
are interested in the question of dam-
ages and benefits due to the construc-
tion of the bridge, and the necessary
changes in the grade of the approaches.
The issue of bonds by the city will be
determined before long at a meeting of
the Council, and preparations will soon
be made for the beginning of the work.
The proposed bridge will be of suffi-
cient width to accommodate teams,
foot passengers and electric cars, and
the street railway company has an-
nounced its intention of extending its
car tracks to the entrance of Yale Field
as soon as the bridge is completed.
ww
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G. M. Clark, 1901, has been elected
captain of the Freshman basket-ball
team.
“THE GIRLS IN BLUE”:
A Famous Response to this Toast
Recalled.
A graduate who has returned to New
Haven for the Promenade season has
been reminded by the gathering of the
Girls in Blue of the response made to
this toast by Mr. Isaac Bromley, 753,
at the New York Yale dinner to Mr.
Robert J. Cook. With great pleasure
does the WEEKLY comply with the
request to reproduce the closing pas-
sages of that response:—
“If I were to violate custom by al-
luding to the toast, I should try to say
something about those unnamed and
unnumbered “Girls in Blue,”’—Yale’s
sweethearts, wives and mothers. We
are mistaken if we think we read all of
history in books, or that we can see
through any printed records the real
springs of the world’s movements. It
is not statecraft, or commerce, or trade,
or steam, or lightning, ‘but love that
makes the world go round. On a
public occasion like this it is upon the
altar of friendship, of College friend-
ship, deepest of all, that we lay our of-
ferings. But none of us forgets that
there is still a holier shrine, to which
we come unsandalled and alone.
there that we get our truest inspirations,
our highest purposes, our best resolves.
“If we think we see all there is of this
great drama in the movement of Kings,
Presidents, Cabinets, Parliaments and
Senates, or in the march of armies
across the stage, we deceive ourselves.
The “Girls” are there at the wings. It
is for the gentle flutter of their approval
and not for the hoarse applause of the
world in front, that the actors work
and the play goes on. Once in a while
a “Girl” comes out and speaks her lines
—Miriam takes up her timbrel; Deborah
marches against Sisera; the Queen of
Sheba parades before ‘Solomon; a
swarthy Egyptian Queen paralyzes
Rome; Joan of Arc saves France;
Elizabeth leads England to the highest
places among the nations; Victoria
comes to her jubilee year no less loved
by her own people than honored by
all the world. .
“But the part of these and their like
in making history is infinitesimal com-
pared with the countless army of girls
in all colors, of all ages and all climes,
who walk invisible between the lines
with fingers on their lips. I turn the
leaves of my Triennial, and forth there
issues a long procession of heroes,
statesmen, sages, poets, philosophers.
divines, who have helped to make the
world wiser and all life sweeter. They
are Yale’s “Boys in Blue’—all honor
to them!
“Is it idle fancy that I catch the
rustle of muslin and lace and hear the
flutter of wings invisible, as a great
host of unnamed “Girls in Blue’ float
out from between the Triennial’s lines,
making the air fragrant with tender in-
fluences and pure examples. ‘Girls in
Blue!” Our color! Color of the star-
lit vault above us and the deep sea
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that wraps us round. Color in which
Bob Cook first dipped his dripping oar;
color that fluttered in ribbon and scarf,
when he first crossed the line. They
are “Our Girls’ who wear it, sweet-
hearts, wives and mothers; forever
sweet, forever young, forever ours.”
‘‘The College Idea.”
At the Dartmouth alumni dinner on
Jan. 20, at Delmonico’s, New York,
William J. Tucker, President of the
College, spoke as follows, according to
the press report, on the subject of “The
College Idea’’ :— |
The college idea is coming into con-
flict with one or two forces which are
naturally. opposed -to it. I have won-
dered that the college idea has not
long before this come into conflict with
the American spirit of impatience. We
are told that men enter into business
and the professions too old; that the
colleges must curtail their courses so
as to turn out the product earlier in life.
I take exception to that. Nowhere else
are men delivered to the world fitted
for work earlier. Another force with
which the college idea finds itself con-
fronted is premature specialization.
The elective system has come in as one
of the greatest and most timely fea-
tures in our scheme of education, but
this is not premature specialization.
This system simply turns a man around
before the fire of learning, until his
ambition is set ablaze at some point.
Then he goes on with his life work.
“The college idea means, if it means
anything, that a man shall have breadth
enough to understand men of various
other kinds before he takes up that
specialization that shall make him un-
derstand best the men of his own kind.
The danger now is that men do not
understand each other enough. Men
of one locality think along different
lines on important subjects from men
of another. If we are to do our full
duty in the colleges, it must be by such
training as shall make us understand
our fellow men. The man who goes
direct from his high schoool into a
specialty, be it law, medicine, or theol-
ogy, has not that basis of common un-
derstanding with his fellow men that
he should have. It is the duty of the
old-established colleges and universi-
ties to cross the lines of North and
South, East and West, and bring men
of various localities and various be-
liefs together in a bond of common
acquaintanceship and fellowship.”
a
Kent Club Elections.
A meeting of the Kent Club of the
Yale Law School was held on Monday,
January 17. The following officers
were elected for the ensuing term:
President, D. V. McNamee, ’08 L. S.;
Vice-President, E. W. Sherman, ’99 L.
3.3 oecretary, H. B. Agard, 1900 L.. S.;
areasurery A. 5; Pratt, ’08 -L. S.; Crit-
ics, E. W. Beattie, Jr., 98 L. S., and
Wei. eOlark;.99...L....8.>. Executive
Committee, C. H.. Studinski, 1900 L.
§., atid EB. C.:Simpson,.’o9..L._S.
