Through the school: The experiences of a mill boy in securing an educationBrown, Frederic Kenyon
Philosophy
Through the school: The experiences of a mill boy in securing an education
Brown, Frederic Kenyon
Education
At seven o’clock the students gather by classes at four different parts
of the campus: the seniors to sit on their double fence, the juniors to
sit on the steps of the recitation hall, the sophomores to occupy the
commodious steps of the Assembly Hall, and the freshmen to stand near
the library.
Silence!
Suddenly the low, vibrating voices of the seniors fill the air with,
“Harvest Moon.” On its completion, the three lower classes send
snapping hand claps over to the fence.
Silence!
The juniors send across to the seniors the melodious, sentimental song,
“Summer Days and Love, Love, Love!” over the triple trills of which
the high-pitched tenors linger as if they would stop there and sound
those musical half tones until out of breath. Led by the seniors, the
underclassmen repeat the hand-clapping.
Silence!
With a sudden, flank attack, the sophomores, directed by a
shirt-sleeved and very fat student fly into the midst of “Dolly Grey,”
a stirring war ballad, and from the pathos which wells out of the
sentimental passages, one can easily imagine those wild, irresponsible
sophomores crying in harmony with it. Once more the three classes snap
their applause.
Silence!
A longer silence this time, for the freshmen, making their first
appearance in the rôle of class singers--a thick mass of them--cannot
agree with their director as to what the premiere shall be. Soon the
matter is settled. An arm is raised and then--a low rumble that dies
down, followed by three giant laughs from three different points of the
campus. The freshman leader has pitched the tune too low.
“Out with it, Freshies!” comes a mocking, cutting call across from the
sophomores--traditional enemies of the freshmen.
One more try, and with the effect of an aeroplane getting its flight
slowly, hesitatingly, the freshman song at last rises to a mighty,
boyish, exultant rendering of “Old Black Joe!” for they dare not trust
themselves with a recent melody.
After the songs, the cheers! the class cheers!
The seniors give one for the juniors, and the juniors applaud it.
The seniors give one for the sophomores, and the sophomores applaud it.
Then the seniors give a heartier one for the freshmen, and those boys
almost split the heavens with their yellings.
Next the juniors make the rounds of the classes, with the same response
of applause, save that their cheer for the seniors gets but scant and
dignified applause, for the seniors must not be too boyish!
Then the sophomores and the freshmen have their turn and the cheering
is over.
Silence. The night is deepening, and one hardly stirs. Four huge masses
of shadow move in the direction of the campus centre. Then one hears a
martial, drill-sergeant’s “Left, left, left!” as the classes catch the
step. It is so arranged that, without a halt, the four classes merge
into one mass in the middle of the green.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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