34 RECORD OF THE ALUMNI 



Alpha Beta Literary Societies, which met Saturday evening and 

 Friday afternoon, respectively, and a prayer meeting maintained by 

 Professor Platt, which met Friday evening. There was no theater, 

 opera house, or picture show in Manhattan. The largest assembly 

 room in the town was the Presbyterian Ghurch, and hence Com- 

 mencement exercises of the College and other largely-attended 

 meetings were held there. There was no such thing as organized 

 College athletics of any kind, the nearest approach being occasional 

 matched games of baseball between the patrons of different boarding 

 houses. College classes all met before luncheon, there being five 

 recitation periods of fifty minutes each. There was afternoon work 

 on the farm, and in the orchards and shops, and before long some 

 of this was regularly scheduled for students. 



It will be seen that there was not much to encroach upon trie 

 student's time in the way of temptations to social dissipation, and 

 that there was a good deal of time in the afternoon as well as the 

 evening for study. Saturday was a complete holiday, no classes of 

 any kind being held on that day. With the winter term, 1896, the 

 holiday was changed from Saturday to Monday. Thus a student 

 had one free day for special College tasks, for working to earn 

 money toward paying his way, or for picnic trips to Dripping 

 Springs, Rocky Ford, or any of the places that are well known at 

 the present time. A good many of the old-timers believe that, in 

 consequence of this lack of opportunity for doing anything else, the 

 students of those days devoted much more time to study, and 

 actually obtained a firmer grasp of the work assigned them. It is 

 difficult to decide a question of this kind. The financial resources 

 of the people of the State were very meager compared with those 

 of the present, and very few students were sent to College. Nearly 

 all of them went because of an intense desire for knowledge, and 

 thus possibly a larger percentage were of superior intellectual 

 capacity. At the present time, when it is the fashion for every one 

 to go to college, and the wealth of the people permits so many more 

 to keep up with the fashion in this respect, there are naturally 

 many more students who have limited ability to carry college work, 

 and this tends to reduce the average accomplishment. 



Occasionally a noted man was secured to deliver a lectnre. 

 lecture was stigmatized as "dry" by those who attend lectures in 

 The Science Club at one time obtained Alfred Russel Wallace. His 

 order to be amused. In the early days, as now, a speaker to be 

 popular had to be funny at least part of the time, and fluency of 

 speech much more than offset depth of thought. It was a 

 great advance when the people of the town, with the support of 

 those of the College, inaugurated a series of lectures which were 

 given in the opera house along in the eighties. Joseph Cook, then 

 at the height of his fame as a lecturer, was one of the attractions. 



