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Caption: Book - Banks of the Boneyard (Charles Kiler)
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2g On the Banks of the Boncyard that throwing the University cannon rcitv failed to watch its one ant loween, I don't know. For at least a dozen years in succession this stunt was pulled without opposition. Nothing could hurt that cannon anyway, as it was beyond further damage; of course it served its purpose in the efforts of the military commandant to teach artillery tactics. Sarcastic editorials and items in the Mini during my term as editor must have helped to quell this boyish prank; also that other one of ancient vintage, viz.—stealing outhouses and loading them on Illinois Central coal cars. Such pleasant pastimes died out along with dueling and the funny antics of King Dodo. Now I want to tell the stories of a few historic class fights; on the campus today as we approach the Illini Union Building from the northwest are two elm trees with markers telling that they were planted by '76 and 'yy, and at the southeast corner of the Union stands an unusually beautiful elm which was moved and placed at this point by the University. It represents the members of the class of '81 who fought, bled, and died to keep that tree alive ground. The first tree they planted was "tarred and and ridden on a rail" like the fellow with the hard heart; another anting was dug up by underclassmen, and then the he-men of '81 got organized, hid themselves in the bushes armed with shotguns, and the result is the unusually beautiful elm representing: their class today, henceforth, and forever, Amen! I realize that this is another digression from my story which I have tried to limit to the four years from '88 to '92, but in order to account for later happenings among the students I want to give this background. Please remember that the University provided no means whereby the boys could "blow off steam;" the spirit of youth and of mischief thus manifested itself in class fights, the first of which centered around the planting of class trees. In order to get a fair picture of this period in our history—for these fights continued up to President Draper's regime—I asked my good friend Judge Henry L. McCune '83, of Kansas City, to give me his recollection o f a typical tree fight. I knew he was an active participant in one of the best of them, and this is what the judge said: custom for a graduating tree on the University premises with appropriate ceremonies, with the 1 | ' 1 | | I t t I « I
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