Repository: UIHistories Project: Illio - 1896 [PAGE 23]

EXTRACTED TEXT FROM PAGE:

ID t h e Mini, but in all the various college publications in t h e r e an iiid;< ation of increasing advantages ami change in the right direction. Since istrj the character of the graduating c x c n i h e s has been very different from what it previoUHly was. I'p t<» that time each senior was r. quired t«» p r e p a n a graduating oration of suitable length, and from thin aggregation twelve were selected, t h e writers of which were accorded the privilege of giving t h e m on < om m e n c c m e n t Day. The p r o g r a m m e s were sometimes a little tedioiin b u t t l i e oerasion brought a good deal of glory to the orators and was the source of considerable pleasure to their friends, and while we would not restore the old custom wc i-till miss it. In this connection it may be said that t h e senior was, in those days, much of an orator, for lie was required also to deliver an oration in chapel—and various and excruciating were the agonies which his tortured soul e n d u r e d before it was over. But not wholly, possibly not chiefly, has t h e I'niversity progressed in t h e increased n u m b e r of courses, students and instructors, or in the addition of so much that is material and e x t e r n a l ; but an equally great change has been m a d e in recent years in Tniversity policy. T h e r e is, e v e r y w h e r e , more freedom of thought and action, more liberty to develop individual taste and talent, more that is broad a n d cosmopolitan and that promises for the future a still more satisfactory progress. THOMAS A K K L E C L A R K , '90.

^etenabe.

WITH GUITAR ACCOMPANIMENT

Fly softly, birdlings, lest your wings Brush sleep from off h e r drooping e y e s ; Fly softly, till the dawning brings The blush again to eastern skies. Breathe gently, zephyr, lest your breath Might float away her happy dreams; Breathe gently—stillness as of death Be o'er h e r till the morning beams.