Williams College

“ So far as I know, the Society of the Alumni of Williams College was the first association of the kind in this country, certainly the first which acted efficiently, and called forth literary addresses. It was formed September 5, 1821, and the preamble to the constitution then adopted was as follows: 'For the promotion of literature and good fellowship among ourselves, and the better to advance the reputation and interests of our Alma Mater, we the subscribers, graduates of Williams College, form ourselves into a Society.' The first president was Dr. ”

“ Poem before Y.H., 1849, p. 14.
GRUB. A hard student. Used at Williams College, and synonymous with DIG at other colleges. A correspondent says, writing from Williams: "Our real delvers, midnight students, are familiarly called Grubs. This is a very expressive name."
A man must not be ashamed to be called a grub in college, if he would shine in the world.—Sketches of Williams College, p. 76.
Some there are who, though never known to read or study, are ever ready to debate,—not "grubs" or "reading men," only "wordy men."—Williams Quarterly, Vol. ”

“ No Williams contemporary of Walter Bullard Street can forget two outstanding facts of his college career: his immaculate personal character and his undisputed title to first rank among the football men whom Williams has developed. He was idolized because of his athletic prowess; he was loved because he was every inch a man. His personality lifted his game from the level of an intercollegiate contest to the plane of a man's expression of loyalty to his college, and his supremacy on the football field gave a new dignity to the undergraduate's ideals of true manhood. ”

“ The first attempt at a general alumni organization seems to have been a meeting of the alumni at Williams College at Commencement time, in 1821, to organize a Society of [329] Alumni. The purpose of the proposed association was set forth in the following words:
The meeting is notified at the request of a number of gentlemen, educated at this institution, who are desirous that the true state of the college be known to the alumni, and that the influence and patronage of those it has educated may be united for its support, protection, and improvement. ”

“ There may be more of it or less of it, even though you are a Hamilton of Virginia, or wherever it is, and Williams, the grandson of a negro slave. As a matter of fact, Williams is probably as well educated as any of us. We’re all college graduates—McCall, you and I. Well, Williams is a Harvard graduate. It doesn’t mean much, if you or I are college men. Probably couldn’t help it. Our parents mapped out our educational program for us, but do you realize what it means to win a college education, with the whole white world sneering at you and offering obstacles to your path? ”

“ Williams was the first to claim him, as professor of French and Latin till 1868 and then as Massachusetts Professor of Latin until 1872, when Yale drew him to a professorship of German, to relinquish him in 1881 when he succeeded Dr. Chadbourne as president of Williams. For twenty years, the third longest administration in the history of the college, he stood at the head of her interests.
The history of education can show fewer periods more critical or more rapid in change than the last quarter of the nineteenth century in this country. Williams was in her own crisis when Dr. ”

“ One of the greatest teachers, Mark Hopkins, on the fiftieth anniversary of his connection with Williams College, said: "Christianity is the greatest civilizing, molding, uplifting power on this globe, and it is a sad defect in any institution of higher learning if it does not bring those under its care intoPage 121 the closest possible relation to it." The profound French philosopher, Victor Cousin, declares that "any system of school training which sharpens and strengthens the intellectual powers without supplying moral culture and religious principle is a curse rather than a blessing." ”

“ The facts of his life and of his achievements require volumes for the telling. They speak of his genius-like career at Williams, of his keen philosophical insight, and of how, after being graduated in 1849, he tried the law and theology before accepting a tutorship in his alma mater. A score of years from 1855 to 1874, he served the college as professor of rhetoric, although his desire was to give his attention to philosophy. ”

“ On 30 May 1831 Williams obtained a fellowship at Trinity College, took priest's orders, and went into residence as tutor in 1832. He was made dean of the college in 1833, and philosophy lecturer in 1832. From 1834 to 1840 he was rhetoric lecturer, and vice-president in 1841 and 1842, when he ceased to be tutor and left Oxford. ”

“ It ought to require something more robust than you to kill Princeton spirit. For, after all, you are, I venture to say, merely a type—not a very numerous one at that—of one phase of modern Princeton life brought about by the transition from college to university.
"Now run along, little boy," the old graduate concluded, "you can strut for a while longer. The social system hasn't yet digested you—maybe it will refuse to do so; make the most of your opportunities while they last. ”

“ Now at Princeton, what there is of a town is little more than a setting for the University. There are no outside distractions, such as theatres and the like, as at most large institutions of learning. The campus life is the only life, and the college students are dependent upon the college world for all their amusements and between-hour interests. Everyone keeps in touch with everything that is going on. ”

“ He has sought to lead the young men of his classes to look within, to study and know themselves. For text-book he has used now one and now another. The book has been of secondary importance. The familiar, free discussions of the class-room have [Pg 498] been the most effective means of instruction, and many are the graduates of Williams who look back upon their studies in philosophy as the most interesting and valuable of their college course. ”

“ It seems rather absurd sometimes to people outside, and so it is, but there is bound to be some kind of ranking here as there is all over the world, even in America where we are supposed to be free and equal, but never were nor shall be, and certainly the best class distinction for a college is the distinction of classes—academic seniority. With human nature as it is there is bound to be some kind, and if not this kind there might be distinctions that harked back to money or social position. ”

“ James Williams, D.C.L., Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, and All Souls Reader in Roman Law, died in his rooms at Lincoln, yesterday, after several years of declining health.
Dr. Williams was born in Liverpool in 1851, and gained an open classical scholarship at Lincoln from Liverpool College in 1869. He was placed in the first class in Moderations in 1871 and in the school of Lit. Hum. in 1873. As a young man he was a great athlete, and rowed in the University Eight in 1874. ”

“ The college has indeed much to be proud of in its literature and journalism—for it has been enriched with names like Bryant, Prime, Franklin Carter, Mabie, Stoddard, Scudder, Alden, Gladden, G.L. Raymond, L.W. Spring, G. Stanley Hall, H.L. Nelson, G.E. MacLean, Cuthbert Hall, Isaac Henderson, Bliss Perry, F.J. Mather, Rollo Ogden: many of them are represented here; and we are glad for the college that their fame had its beginnings, even if often modest, in our student publications. ”

“ This is no mild college prank ahead of us. Among those coming to this town to-morrow are some of the wildest types our country produces. They will certainly carry arms; they will probably use them. There will be serious trouble—a riot—bloodshed—perhaps death. Think of what that means, Mr. Stehman—bloodshed, perhaps death. Think what it means to the parents of those hurt. Think what it means to all of us—to the fair name of the University for whose honor you and I are both supposed to be working in our different ways. ”

“ I make no insinuations—with cowards and Gospel sharks; but let all who are true sons of their glorious Alma Mater, all who would live up to her past record of bravery—not alone in athletic contests, but in every war of our country's history—come forth and avenge the honor of our college. [Applause. He had them on the run now.] Who dares say we shall not? ["No one!"] Who will stay at home like a coward? ["No one!"] We must teach these ruffians their place! ["Right!"] We must teach the Faculty that there be limits to their powers. ”

“ It is certain that the government of colleges, like that of states, must from time to time undergo marked modifications if it is to remain vitally representative of, and harmonious with, the growing and changing life of the college. In healthy institutional life there is free play and interaction of all the forces that go to make up the organic life, and a certain flexibility is involved in all growth. The student community, is, after all, in most institutions the prime object of interest. ”

“ He had made up his mind to get a university education.
It was out of the question now to study all summer and enter the next fall, but the [Pg 12] minister told him he was still young; he could enter the following year.
"Your boy Will's catching on quicker than Henry Johnson or any of the young men that ever worked under me yet." That's what the cashier said to Mr. Young.
"That means he's getting over his fool notions," thought Mr. Young. Really it meant that he still had them. Will never mentioned the word college to his father again ”

“ Alden's day the opportunities at Williams in the way of preparation for an editorial career were very slender. The only student publication was a quarterly magazine of less than a hundred pages, and by some oversight his class-mates failed to elect him as one of the five editors. At Andover Theological Seminary, where he was a student from 1857 to 1860, the opportunities for 'prentice work as an editor were wholly wanting. Hence the preparation which the college and seminary afforded for his life-work was of a very general and indirect sort. ”

“ Scenery will not make scholars, though it may be desirable and helpful, and is likely to impress itself upon the habitual beholder with life-long influence. The college is [Pg 492] where the teachers are. It is also what they are. Plato made the Academy. And judged by this standard Williams has not been deficient. From its beginning it has had able instructors, men of sound learning, of exemplary character, and "apt to teach." Among the earliest was Jeremiah Day, afterwards, and for so long a time, serving as the president of Yale College. ”

“ It is with extreme pain that I write to inform you, that I have lately received from his Grace the Visitor an intimation that, in his judgment, "my continuing to preside over this College would not conduce to its interests," and calling upon me "to withdraw from the office which I now fill," as the only mode "by which he can free the College from the imputation of being an Institution in which views which he disapproves of are inculcated." ”

“ So, altogether, with the new term staring him in the face, and room-rent to pay, and books—though that was a small item compared to what he had "blown in" foolishly—it was beginning to look as if Deacon Young would have to hustle if he meant to stay in college much longer. "We'll see how long you stay there," his father had said.
"All right," thought Will, "we'll see! More fellows earn their way through college than the people out home have any idea of, and I think I'm as good as the next man. I'll talk to Barrows and Wilson and some of those quiet fellows about it." ”

“ When you stop to think of it, you are pretty insignificant, to be sure, but you don't see why you shouldn't be allowed on the street after nine o'clock, and you no doubt think you'd feel a lot more like a real college man if they'd let you smoke a pipe. You don't fancy making way, and even stepping off the walk at times, for every one on the campus except other Freshmen. You think it rather absurd that in a college which has grown up into a university and is supposed to have put away childish things you can wear no other style of head covering than a mild form of black cap. ”

“ There are but few stories told of Garfield’s life at Williams, and there is a reason behind the fact. The college “yarn” is generally a tradition of some shrewd trick, some insubordination to discipline, or some famous practical joke. Every college has a constantly growing treasury of such legend lore. ”

“ Once upon a time during the old days of free, untrammelled hazing—real hazing, I mean, not mere persiflage and pamphlets containing formal Freshman-year restrictions—there was a certain professor's son. And he thought his father was a greater man than the President—the President of the college, I mean, for the president of the country was a mere Philistine and did not count. The son should not be blamed for this, because the father would have been inclined to agree with him. I should add that not all professors take themselves so hard. ”

“ A proposal for a nonconformist academy at Hoxton was discountenanced by Williams, who was in favour of sending divinity students to Scotland for their education. He was anxious for the establishment of a residential college at Edinburgh, and offered 500l. towards the estimated cost.
Williams had long been intimate with Robert Harley, first earl of Oxford [q. v.] , who, soon after his accession to power (1710) , offered Williams 1,000l. for distribution among dissenting ministers as royal bounty. He declined the boon (Calamy, Own Life, ii. 471) . ”