Davidson College Yearbook, Quips and Cranks, 1935
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QUIPS AND CRANK n QUIPS Ci^rvcL CRANKS ® COPYRIGHT 1935 Robert H. Smith, Jr. Editor-in-Chief Benjamin L. Rose Business Manager QUIPS CRAN KS 1935 PUBLISHED BY THE SENIOR. CLASS OF DAVIDSON COLLEGE DEDICATION ry^^HE Class of '35 respectfully dedicates ^ this Quips and Cranks to Dr. Caleb Richmond Harding. Throughout his forty- seven years as a professor, Dr. Harding has served Davidson men zealously and ably. In his classroom, they have come to have a genuine appreciation for and love of the classics and beauty. Personal contact with him has ever been a source of inspiration to higher purposes and purer motives, and he will long be remem- bered by the Class of '35 as an example of how much learning can be made both useful and graceful. THEME EXPLANATION IN SELECTING the theme for the 1935 Quips and * Cranks, its authors have been guided by the desire to perpetuate in these pages—inter-twined with the personal story of our college years—that which seems to us Davidson's most valued contribution. We believe this is that by its activities, its ideals, and its personalities, it has been the medium through which those who have shared unstinttngly in its being have found reflected in their own lives the fundamental elements of genuine happiness. There has been much curiosity as to the signifi- cance of the name "Quips and Cranks"—perhaps even doubt as to whether or not such existed—but we be- lieve that its originators did have regard for its appro- priateness, and the theme of this book attempts its interpretation. The phrase "Quips and Cranks" is a quotation from Milton's poem, "L' Allegro," (The Happy Man) which describes the life of an English gentleman of the 16th century. We have followed "L'Allegro" in tracing his activities through a complete day, and have paralleled it with the every-day life of the student at Davidson. ^^K^ CONTENTS THE COLLEGE THE CLASSES ACTIVITI ES AT H LETI C S FRATERNITIES cr^/^/I y V LCM^atLaHt Davidson College sustained a great loss when Dr. J. M. McConnell, Dean of the Faculty, and Professor for the past thirty- three years, died on May 16, 1935. Dr. McConnell's inestimable qualities of leadership, kindliness, and love for Davidson and her students, as well as his unusual ability as a scholar will long be remembered. Few students did not feel that in losing Dr. J. M. McConnell, they had lost a dear personal friend. It will be difficult to carry on in his absence, yet his life has been a challenge to strive for a better Davidson which cannot be neglected. * * * * * THF^ COL" ^GE * ^ "Hence, loathed Melancholy. Of Cerberus and blackest Midnight born. In Stygian cave forlorn. Mongst horrid shapes and shrieks and sights unholy. Find out some uncouth cell "In dark Cimmerian desert ever dwell." Chambers. Administration Building Oak Row, Part of the Original guADRANcLL ,-";•. .J-'j „!'''; F' , , ;','S'*''i" Thy: Alumni Gymnasium Old Shearer EuMENEAN Literary Society Hall Martin Chemistry Laboratory I'Hii Library Dormitory Row 4- (i r w i ADMIKISTRATIO^ QUIP AND R A K IC S Da\ idson Chronicles GENESIS The foundation of Davidson College uas effected only after a bitter strug- ^,'Ie against great difficulties. To es- talilish an institution of learning many ci'istacles had to be overcome: finances. liication, building program, faculty, and administrative leaders. But the people (if Concord Presbytery displayed defi- nite qualities of courage, wisdom and 'letermination in disposing of the ob- stacles which stood in their way. After many meetings and discussions, it \\ as decided to purchase a tract of land about equi-distant from Charlotte, Salisbury, Concord, and Statesville. Sub- scriptions amounting to $30,000 were collected and the foundation of David- son College was in view. The land was bought cheaply from William Lee David- son early in the year 1836. Building and other committees were appointed, ;ind the actual work of construction was III tiitiute to the memory of that dis- 1 1 11!^ ui shed and excellent man, General Wiliiam Davidson, who in the ardor of patriotism, fearlessly contending for the liberty of his country, fell in the battle of Cowan's Ford.' was given the name of Davidson College. Rev. Robert Hall Morrison served the school as sident and his Christian influence in its formative years has produced an unending effect on tliL is successors have all carried with noble pride the banner that was first held in the hand of si> - Icman and scholar. Classes began on March 12, 1837, with sixty-H\< irolled and a total paid tuition of $820. Elm Row and Oak Row are two of the surviving durniit. iliat early period by the undergraduates. In 1838 seven students were suspended for "im- i; i : -.sion." One was expelled for striking . one of his fellows across the head, nearly killii.: i . onduct of the early student groups was commendable, and the fruition of early eilm nplished. For about four years during the earlv iii-i ; > i .1 "manual labor pla used which required all students to perform certain tfuties reyula college Constitution, as adopted on March 11. 1839, contained this section: "Each student who enters this institution shall perform manual labor and to the extent determined by the Board of Trustees. There shall be a steward whose duty it shall be to manage the farm and boarding house and direct the students during labor hours. The proceeds of the labor of the students shall belong to the institution and shall be disposed of by the Board of Trustees." The manual lal plan 1 ndoned in 1841; it had been in existence since the beginning of liege but had inuvet I entirely nsatisfactory due largely to the irresponsibility of a fev students. EXODUS the administration and the stii dent tjotly r inished in numbers, either thr ough expuls by wilful desertion. Early in 1855. the Davi me stmlent threw a stoi NINETEEK THIRTY FIVE QUIP AND R A K K, S several other professors, when they ar- rived at the Hormitories, found all the hoys in their rooms, studyinR attentively for the next day's lessons, or sleepinK innocently in their hcds. Xo individual culprit could he found until one hoy from Arkansas refused the professor ad- mittance to his room, rndaunted. the investiKating professor prrxrured an axe and heat down the door; inside they found a student fully dressed with his hoots still on and he was later susjiended from college on circumstantial evidence. This action so angered the remainder of the student hody. that all quietly left school and returned to their homes, leav- ing two hoys to c<institute the Davidson student hody on the campus. It should l)c added that most of the students were reinstated several weeks later. And thereafter college discipline grew steadily hetter. PROGRESS r ^ A member of the class of 1859 has M ma<Ie the following interesting comment: "Student life was primitive, as viewed from the comforts nf a later time. We [;TJ^<.tP y/f LL • chopped most of the wood we used. We drew water from a well and brought it to our rooms. These exercises took the i.iact- ..i atiucii.^. I ru- iiiMrnuii; h. il r.u.u sunrise. Then five minutes before sunrise it rang again, sounding its last stroke at ising of the When it ceased to ring every student was exl)ected to be in his place in the chapel." The $200,000 legacy of Mr. Maxwell Chambers, of Salisbury, started the first real progress at Davidson. The Chambers building was erected and Davidsoni soon came into state-wide prominence as an institution of learning. It was the Chambers building, erected at a cost of $81,000, that built the Davidson tradition which we know to<lay. It was the focus of college life for sixty years until it burned in 1921. During the Civil War |>eriod, most of the students withdrew from school and patriotically supported the South. .Many sons of Davidson were lost in the conflict and for a while it was doubtful whether the Presbyterian institution could successfully sustain all its losses. At the close of the Civil War, a period of slow reconstruction set in at Davidson as well as over the entire South, EXPANSION At the turn of the century came a turn in the development of Davidson. Under the aggressive Presi- dent Henry I. Smith, the student body was enlarged, the faculty increased, the grounds and buildings improved, and the curriculum made more adequate. The undergraduate hotly came consistently over the two hundred mark after 1900. Several years later, the increasing importance and influence of the coUese necessitated the building of the Martin Chemical Laboratory, Shearer Hall, Rumple an<l Watts dormitories, and the heating plant. The Student Council was inaugurated in 1910 and still exists as the most powerful undergraduate group on the campus. Davidson is among the oldest schools in the country to adopt a system of self- government for its scholars. The Y. M. C. A. probably came into being as a religious organization on the campus in 1878 an<l is today a great Christian influence at the college. The Davidson Monihiy was the first publication relascd by the students of the college and it proved to be a short-lived magazine, its last issue being in 1S72, just two years after its initial edition. The Pavidsonian was founded by the class of 1915 and has exerted an increasingly strong eHect on student life since its fir.st issue in April, 1914.