Hamilton College

“ Upon their view had burst the wide, gently undulating green slopes of Hamilton Campus. While the grounds surrounding the majority of institutions of learning are laid out with an eye to the decorative, Hamilton campus has a peculiar, living charm of its own that perhaps none other has ever possessed. It is not that its thick short grass grows any greener than that of other campuses. Still it is more pleasing to the eye. The noble growth of elm, beech and maple, shading the lawns at graceful distances apart carries a personality that one feels but can hardly express by description. ”

“ Leslie spoke with faint satire. “You will hear a great deal about Brooke Hamilton on the campus, and see the result of his steadfast work and genius at every turn.”
“I shall let it go in one ear and out the other,” Miss Ogden waved a dismissing hand. “I’m not interested in the historical side of Hamilton College. It’s the social side that appeals to me. I’ve heard there were more millionaires’ daughters enrolled at Hamilton than at any other college for girls in the United States. Is that true?” The bright black eyes of the freshman 111fastened themselves eagerly upon Leslie. ”

“ CLASS CAP. At Hamilton College, it is customary for the Sophomores to appear in a class cap on the Junior Exhibition day, which is worn generally during part of the third term.
In American colleges, students frequently endeavor to adopt distinctive dresses, but the attempt is usually followed by failure. One of these attempts is pleasantly alluded to in the Williams Monthly Miscellany. "In a late number, the ambition for whiskers was made the subject of a remark. The ambition of college has since taken a somewhat different turn. ”

“ I had supposed Hamilton to be very smart and exclusive, or I wouldn't have chosen to come here."
"It is a very fine college. There is no better faculty in the country, and the college itself is ideally located. You cannot help but love the campus. At which house are you to live?" Marjorie chose not to discuss Hamilton from the freshman's point of view.
"Alston Terrace. Is it an interesting house to live in? Where do you live? Are the garage accommodations good? I shall have my own car here; perhaps two. How far is it from the station to the campus?" ”

“ Hamilton has a number of educational institutions, chief among which are the Hamilton and Western District College, one of the finest buildings of its kind in Victoria, the Hamilton Academy, and the Alexandra ladies’ college, a state school, and a Catholic college. ”

“ Ronny assured. “It is one square from the west wall of the campus. Just how much of a walk that means, we shall see. It may be anywhere from a quarter to three-quarters of a mile to the west wall. We turn to our right as we go through the gateway.”
“We will have to walk it, even if it is a mile,” decreed Muriel. “I’d walk two miles for something to eat. I am about as hungry as I can ever remember of being. Our introduction to Hamilton! Good night!”
“I can’t get it through my head that we are actually students at Hamilton College,” declared Muriel. ”

“ Never allow the Board to intimidate you or beat you down. It is the old story of the man who took home the frozen viper and warmed it, only to find that when life returned to it it had no will save to sting. So it is with the very men I have helped to present membership of the Board. There will one day be bitter resentment when these same men learn that I have protected Hamilton College against their vandalism. Remember, Susanna, resentment can break no bones ”

“ He entered the sophomore class of Hamilton college in 1847, and was graduated in 1850, when he took charge of Manlius academy, New York. He was elected professor of mathematics, astronomy, and civil engineering in Antioch college, Ohio, in 1851; took an extra course in mathematics at Hamilton and Harvard colleges and studied in the Universities of Gottingen and Berlin. He also investigated the school systems while in Europe. On assuming his duties at Antioch college he found the financial affairs in poor condition. ”

“ REGULATORS. At Hamilton College, "a Junior Class affair," writes a correspondent, "consisting of fifteen or twenty members, whose object is to regulate college laws and customs according to their own way. They are known only by their deeds. Who the members are, no one out of the band knows. Their time for action is in the night."
RELEGATION. In German universities, the relegation is the punishment next in severity to the consilium abeundi. Howitt explains the term in these words: "It has two degrees. ”

“ Aside from Vera, Leila, Katherine and the Lookouts, no one present had an inkling of Miss Remson’s purpose in calling them together.
“I wish to introduce to you Miss Archer, principal of the Sanford High School for Girls, of Sanford, New York. She has come to Hamilton College to right a wrong that has been done a student here, a most estimable young woman who lives among you at Wayland Hall. Had Miss Archer been unable to leave her work to come here, I should have seen justice done. ”

“ We may not see much of them the rest of this year, but look out for them as juniors. The poor, simple earth will not hold them.”
“Really, I don’t know where the year has gone,” sighed Muriel Harding. “We are almost into the 274 spring term and it seems to me that I haven’t been here but a few weeks. We were going to try to find out a lot about the founder of this college, Brooke Hamilton. Have any of you ever looked up his history outside of what it says of him in the college bulletin?” ”

“ Those who keep house could use the money we offered to make things easier. Still they’d have the strain of housework on their minds. Those who board wouldn’t be benefited much unless they changed boarding places. There is only that one collection of boarding houses near the campus. One is about the same as another. Hamilton has been a rich girls’ college for a long time. The fine equipment and super-excellent faculty have filled it up with well-to-do and moneyed students. ”

“ Doubtless those who look back upon their college days through the luminous mist of years, see no gray walls or rough floors, and count it only less than sacrilege to find spot or wrinkle or any such thing on the garments of their alma mater. But awful is the gift of the gods that we can become used to things; awful, since, by becoming used to them, we become insensible to their faults and tolerant of their defects. Harvard is beloved of her sons: would she be any less beloved if she were also beautiful to outside barbarians? ”

“ Has any class any right to introduce in any College hall, or anywhere, as a College class, with the sanction of the Faculty, a custom which is entirely disconnected with either learning or piety, a custom of doubtful propriety, not to say morality inasmuch as many believe it to be wrong, and a custom, therefore, whose tendency is to weaken confidence in the College, and consequently to restrict its beneficence? ”

“ Funds were accordingly provided by undefined relatives and more distinct friends, and thus equipped, Hamilton sailed for Boston, Mass., where he arrived in October, 1772, and whence he proceeded to New York. Furnished by Dr. Knox with good letters, he speedily found friends and counsellors, and by their advice went to a school in Elizabethtown, N. J., where he studied with energy to prepare for college, and employed his pen in much writing, of both prose and poetry. He entered King's college, New York, now Columbia, and there with the aid of a tutor made remarkable progress. ”

“ During the century, Magdalene has had some reputation as a fashionable college; but the amusing American critic, Mr Everett, spoke of it somewhat unjustly when he said that [210] “it is a favourite home for young men who are of the opinion, either from conjecture or experience, that other colleges are too strict for them.” It has, like other small colleges, produced an excellent percentage of scholars and learned men. ”

“ He knew his capacity for conquering mental tasks, and having his own way to make in the world, had no mind to waste years and the substance of his relatives at college. Dr. Witherspoon, who had long been deeply interested in him, examined him privately and pronounced him equal to the heavy burden he had imposed upon himself, but feared that the board of trustees would not consent to so original a plan. They would not. Hamilton, nothing daunted, applied to King's College, and found no opposition there. ”

“ That minority of critics overlooked the fact that the world had set the seal of its favorable judgment upon Cromwell, Washington, Franklin, Napoleon, Hamilton and others who had not the advantages of university training. Napoleon in a military school and Hamilton in Columbia College for the term of a year, more or less, did not rank among university men.
That minority of critics did not realize the fact that colleges and universities cannot make great men. Great men are independent of colleges and universities. In truth, a really great man is supreme over college and universities. ”

“ Hamilton relocated with his family to Tennessee and then to Evansville, Indiana. Mr. Hamilton is a graduate of DePauw University and the Indiana University School of Law, and studied for a year at Goethe University in Germany. Before his election to Congress, he practiced law in Chicago and in Columbus, Indiana. A former high school and college basketball star, he has been inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.
Mr. Hamilton's distinguished service in government has been honored through numerous awards in public service and human rights as well as honorary degrees. ”

“ He was sent to school at the Royal Academical Institution, Belfast, and passed on to Queen's College, where he took first-class honours and two gold medals in science in the old queen's University. For some years he was minister of York-street Presbyterian Church, but in 1889 was appointed President of Queen's College, Belfast. Under his rule the college greatly developed, but it was not till the Irish Universities Act was passed in 1908 that his ideal of an autonomous University for Belfast was realized. ”

“ All the girls who are members were friends of mine before I entered Hamilton. We attended a very private preparatory school and entered college together. We call ourselves the San Soucians and our club is limited to eighteen members. We do not intend to pass it on after we are graduated from Hamilton. It is really only a little social club of our own. Of course, we try to be considerate toward the other students here, as in the case of welcoming the freshmen. ”

“ She looked up triumphantly from the book, then read, “‘Have decided to offer the fifty-thousand conditional gift to Hamilton through the medium of “the one who may arise” in my college. I shall ask Norris to handle the matter for me. I can rely upon him for integrity, and at the same time be of financial service to him since he is hard put at present in his law business. I shall go to his office to talk things over with him tomorrow.’”
“This little book is a precious find to me, girls.” Miss Hamilton’s hands were trembling with the excitement of what she had just read. ”

“ The loss of her father, whose ambition for his children was limitless, led her to make the attempt to carry out his oft-expressed wish that she should take a college course. To do so meant hard work and strenuous application, for every penny of the necessary expense had to be earned by herself. In the spring of 1878 she took the degree of B. A. in the State University of Iowa, and four years later she received the degree of M. A. After graduation Miss Hamilton accepted the principalship of the high school in Waterloo, Iowa, which she held for two years. ”

“ But with all Hamilton's splendid qualities, nothing about him is so remarkable as the early age at which these were developed. At the age of fifteen a brilliant newspaper article brought him into such repute in the little island of Nevis that he was sent to New York to avail himself of the best advantages afforded by the King's College, now known [Pg 126] as Columbia. He had at first no definite intention of becoming an American citizen, but the thrilling events of the time appealed strongly to the earnest heart and powerful intelligence of this wonderful boy. ”

“ A few more like it and Hamilton will lose its reputation as a really exclusive college.”
“What Hamilton ought to lose is some of its freshie freshmen,” retorted Leslie. “I have a friend who knows a lot about one of them, at least, and she probably knows enough about some others to queer them here. I mean those ninnies from that little one-horse town of Sanford. The whole five of them are an eyesore to me. The only one who hates ’em harder than I do, is Nat. She never will forgive that moon-eyed Miss Dean for putting it over her at the Beauty contest. Leila Harper was back of that. ”

“ Oxford led the way with University and Merton; Cambridge followed with Peterhouse. The college, as distinct from the monastery, was a place of retreat whose aim was learning; the aim of the monastery was self-discipline. It is needless to say that these colleges were established upon a clerical basis: each was a society consisting of a master and a certain number of fellows. Their constitution was that of a public School; the modern undergraduate system was a much later development. The early founders had no idea of a college in the modern sense ”

“ With many of these young persons—probably with most—a mere remission of instruction fees is utterly insufficient to enable them to secure advanced education. I have alluded to the case of President Cleveland, who, having been well fitted for the university, could not enter. His father being a country clergyman with a large family and small means, the future Chief Executive of the United States was obliged to turn aside to a teacher's place and a clerkship which afforded him a bare support. At the Hamilton College commencement a few years since, Mr. ”