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About Yale Alumni Magazine | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 1899)
68 eA ALUMNI SV ee Se YALE ALUMNI WEEKLY SUBSCRIPTION, - $3.00 PER YEAR. Foreign Postage, 40 cents per year. PAYABLE IN ADVANCE. For rates for papers All orders for papers Single copies, ten cents each. in quantity, address the office. should be paid for in advance. Checks, drafts and orders should be made payable to the Yale Alumni Weekly. All correspondence. should be addressed,— PYale Alumni Weekly, New Haven, Conn. The office is at Room 6, White Hall, ADVISORY BOARD. H. C. Rosrnson, 58. J.R.SHEFFIELD, "87. W.W.Sxrppy,’65S. J.A.HaRTWELL, *89 S. C. P. LInpsLey, 75S. L.S. WELCH, 89. W. Camp, ’89. E. Van IncGen, 91S. W.G. DacGeETT, 80. P. Jay, '9%. EDITOR. Lewis 8. WELCH, ’89. ASSOCIATE EDITOR. WALTER Camp, ’80. ASSISTANT EDITOR. E. J. THOMPSON, Sp. ASSISTANT ADVERTISING MANAGER BURNETT GOODWIN, 7995. Entered as second class matter at New Haven P. O. New HaAveEN, Conn., NOVEMBER 8, 1899. FOOTBALL TICKETS. Alumni in New Haven and those who may desire to communicate by telephone in regard to tickets will learn in another column, of the opening of a separate office for the Ticket Department of the WEEELY. And this warning is here given of the closing promptly at noon, November 15, of the application for seats at the Princeton game. —___—__+e¢—____—_ THE FOOTBALL SITUATION. The West Point game,. with its ex- cellent record in the second half, shows Yale turning into the right road, and no Yale man will have any other ex- pectation than that she will travel here- after directly on it and with increas- ing speed. The green men have begun to wear off their nervousness, and there begins to appear an element of team work. We are looking for great im- provement daily, and our joy in the stuff of the eleven and the spirit of Yale grows hourly. —____$_$-<¢—__— THE UNIVERSITY CLUB. The last WEEKLY told the story of the very admirable development of the Uni- versity Club and the plans for its still greater development as a center of Yale life and as a means of holding together the undergraduate interests of the dif- ferent branches of the University. Every move in that direction is to be commended and encouraged. The greater Yale becomes, the more a central social institution is needed. The last week brings the news from Harvard that the long cherished plans for a University club on a very broad and democratic plan are now to be made possible of early execution by the gift of $150,000, by Mr. Higginson, the donor of Soldier’s Field. Harvard has felt very keenly the disadvantages of size and has suffered from them in a Way apparent to outsiders as well as to Harvard men. Those dangers are no less real here. They have been threaten- ing for some time. The situation should not become too acute before the steps are taken to preserve in institutions adapted to the new conditions, the spirit and character of the student life of Yale —the University’s greatest treasures. - @-s er. et A PRACTICAL JOKE. The practical joke, described in the last issue, in the letter from the Class Secretary of Ninety-Nine, will appear to most men as something quite impossible. How anyone can be that kind of a rascal at the expense of a friend or an acquaintance, passes one’s comprehension. It does, however, ap- peal to a certain type of man to make trouble in this way. Once or twice before the WEEKLY has been imposed upon in just such a way. Probably its readers wondered what carelessness could have caused such an error. We give notice that if this thing hap- pens again, we shall be ready to spend a great deal of time and money in secur- ing legal evidence as to who was re- sponsible for it, and will then print, very conspicuously, the name of the man who was willing to publish to the world at large a false statement about an acquaintance, or classmate, or fellow alumnus, on a matter of such a personal nature as this. The incident emphasizes a point which it is well to repeat for the benefit of some who are careless in that matter,—that the WEEKLY cannot print alumni notes from any information or communication that is unsigned. CHAPEL SERVICE. Undergraduates Object to Changes— Wradition Preserved. The character of the week-day ser- vice in Battell Chapel has been the source of considerable discussion among the undergraduates of the College dur- ing the past few weeks. This year a prayer read by the College Chaplain and followed by the Lord’s Prayer in uni- son has been necessarily substituted for the extemporaneous prayer delivered by | the President during previous adminis- trations. Other changes, made more recently, are noted in the following communication advocating a return to the order of service followed during the opening weeks of College, which ap- peared in the Yale News on Nov. 2: To the Editor of the News: The selection of a layman as Presi- dent of Yale made it apparent last Spring that certain changés in the method of conducting the weekday Chapel exercises would be tecessary at the opening of the present college year. No one regretted the innovations which would have to be made because they were involved in the choice of the man best qualified to assume the responsibilities of the office, a more im- pu.tant consideration. Many plans for the new service were suggested, during the Summer, which finally resulted in the appointment of six College Chap- lains, to conduct the Chapel exercises. The returning students felt, to say the least, considerable curiosity as to how the new system would work. It is safe to say that the great majority were gratified to find that the new service conformed so closely to the long-estab- lished forms of the College Chapel and the expression of approval published in the editorial columns of the News on September 30th voiced the sentiment of the student body. Some ten days ago, however, we were surprised to find that we were expected to stand. at the close of the usual hymn, and chant an “Amen.” Few regarded the addition of importance; on the con- trary, it was generally supposed that it was made simply at the suggestion of the organist. This morning we were again surprised when instead of the usual scriptural reading, an Episcopal form was substituted, the Chaplain read- ing the Commandments in order and the choir chanting at the close of each. I have been informed that it is the plan to thus vary the usual service on Wednesday morning of each week. The writer begs to make a plea for a continuation of the plan of service followed during the opening weeks of College. The circumstances attending the foundation of Yale made the College essentially sectarian in spirit during its early history. Yale is still a Congrega- tional institution, although the most binding ties which have connected the College to that church have been severed as a natural outcome of her develop- . ment. There is basis for opposition to the introduction of new forms simply on the grounds of Yale’s present rela- tions to the Congregational Church. But your correspondent prefers to take ‘a more liberal attitude. As Yale grew and the spirit of sec- tarianism waned, the week-day Chapel exercises have come to be regarded as a Yale service, not as a Congregational service, and men of all faiths have been numbered on her rolls. Hence I argue for the continuation of the old order of worship, not because it is Congrega- tional, but because it is in accordance with one of the oldest and most valued of all Yale traditions. Yale’s relations with the Church in recent years have been most satisfactory. The strict churchmen among the alumni have realized that the connection be- tween Church and College could not re- main the same and have not been dis- pleased with the course the changes have taken. On the other hand, those who do not approve of a church college, have found nothing objectionable in the simple Chapel exercises, which have been continued quite as much -for the traditions associated with them and their value in the social life of the University as for their religious influence. There was a time when Yale suffered greatly from disputes concerning her religious connections and Yale is treading on dangerous ground when she invites a return to the old state of affairs. The old Chapel exercises were uni- versally satisfactory. They included ‘no forms of a strictly sectarian nature. The services was not so distinctly Con- gregational as it was distinctly Yale. If the exercises are to. be varied by the introduction of Episcopal ritual, are not the Methodist, the Baptist and. the Catholic entitled to consideration in the re-arrangement of the service? The tendency of the change is rather towards narrowness than broadness. It is the plan to substitute for a uniform service which has proved acceptable to all through scores of years a variety of exercises pleasing, perhaps, each day to the few but decidedly distasteful to the many. 3 fixed in character by the traditions of Yale generations, we are to expect an assortment of forms limited only by the discretion of the occupants of the Col- lege pulpit. I, for one, most earnestly hope for a permanent return to the old Chapel ser- vice. TRADITION. Professor Perrin, who has performed the College Chaplain’s duties since the opening of the year, said last week, in commenting on “Tradition’s’” com- munication: “I was pleased to see the remonstrance in the News, for it indi- cates that there is at least some portion of the student bodv still actively in- terested in the Chanel service. The writer of the communication, however, has apparently over-estimated the im- portance of the more recent innovations and mistaken the spirit which suggested them. They were made solely for the purpose of rendering the exercises at- tractive by the introduction of more music. It was Doctor Munger who suggested the addition of the “Amen.” As to the so-called Episcopal ritual,— the reading of the Commandments in order followed by the chant, it is a. form at present employed in the Center Church and was the regular scriptural reading simply varied with music. Last Wednesday at the close of the Com- mandments I read a parallel selection from the New Testament, as has been my custom. All the churches through- out the country are enriching their ser- vices with borrowed forms, and it was merely for the purpose of securing the benefits resulting from this present tendency that the chant was introduced. Since Wednesday, however, members of the choir and some of the students have expressed dissatisfaction at the change, and I have abandoned my plan to repeat the reading of the Command- ments with the chant, on next Wednes- day.” a a cr Hotchkiss Club. The Hotchkiss Club, made up of men from the Hotchkiss School now in Col- lege, held a meeting, Wednesday, Nov. I, and elected officers for the year as follows; President, S. B. Camp, 1900; Vice-President, J. S. Eells, 1901; Secre- tary, C. H. Collins, 1902; Treasurer, H. S. Mead, 1902; Executive Committee, mG. Twichell, r9oo0%: 42a aarecics, ig00:S.;-C. P--Cook, 190t S;, ane J. Ta: McAlarney, 1903. Instead of a Chapel service | Pencils without breaking off every minute. PRESERVATIVES. In one of those scholarly and wholly delightful essays that we find to-day in James Russell Lowell’s “Among My Books,” our American humorist says, that the great antiseptic or preservative force in literature is humor. He points to the bright touches that have relieved even the world’s greatest tragedies, to the humor of Plato and even Aeschylus, and, coming down through the ages, show us the latent humor that exists to the making of much that would other- wise have fallen into the dusty limbo of the forgotten. Issue may be taken with the decision the Professor has announced in favor of humor, but no just issue can be taken on the point of the existence of some preservative. Such a force is an abso- lute necessity everywhere, or growth would cease from yery lack of soil. In life, for instance, in human society, where would we be were the preserva- tive of self-respect to be eliminated? When a man has lost this birthright his whole character crumbles away. When a man has lost this he ceases to hold up his head and to look his fellow in the eyes. Perhaps the poet sang true when he told us the birth of self-respect “preceded duty’s by so much That in the younger’s arms The older grew to strength.”’ Sure it is that nothing strengthens self-respect as does the prompt doing of a prime duty. It may be truism,—but if one call for proof he has only to turn and look at those great ones who do the world’s work, steadily and simply, for there he will see self-respect shine out most clearly. With duty to be considered, then (considered and done) the question is inevitable: “Is there any social duty that outranks insurance properly ac- complished?” Sound insurance lightens the burden of the state and community in that it lightens the heart (and so the burdens) of the individual. Sound in- surance promotes peace in that it kills care and worry; it provides for the future, and so brightens the present; it stimulates thrift and prudent action, and so betters the condition of all its followers. Is it not a duty to one’s self, to one’s family, to one’s country, that is far too important to neglect another hour? A policy secured in the Mutual Life of New York warrants any man the fair right to hold up his head among his fellows. The self-respect he himself will justly feel will call forth an answering respect from all thinking men about him. One final word: the day to attain to this is the day that antedates to-mor- row. In doing business with advertisers, please mention the WEEKLY. Yare Law SCHOOL For circulars and other information apply to Prof. FRANCIS WAYLAND, Dean. In doing business with advertisers, please mention the WEEKLY. THE WHITE CANOE AN INDIAN LEGEND OF NIAGARA By WILLIAM TRUMBULL. Holiday Edition, magnificently illustrated, By F. V. DUMOND. Price, $2.50. G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS, 27 WEST 23D STREET, New York. In doing business with advertisers, please mention the WEEKLY. ; “A SHARP POINT can be kept on Dixon’s American Graphite They come in 11 degrees of hardness a for uniformity of grading. rps eabaitease ares Can be bought at the Yale Co-op. and al stationers. JOSEPH DIXON CRUCIBLE CO., Jersey City, N. J
