36 EECOED OF THE ALUMNI 



kind then than now, when College classes are held six days oi r the 

 week without distinction, and eight hours per day. As the days and 

 the daytime have been appropriated for College work, evening- 

 student affairs have gained more and more in vogue. With this is 

 of course a larger temptation to expenditure, and a substitution of 

 art for nature, and sweets and ices for sandwiches and fried chicken. 



The development of College athletics has done much to knep 

 students together, and serves a valuable social purpose. It is the 

 chief agency through which solidarity of College spirit is created 

 and maintained. In the early days no one would have dreamed 

 that the time would come when classes would be dismissed for a 

 football game. But if classes are ordinarily in session forty-eight 

 hours per week, some innovations are necessary if the natural 

 instinct to play and to watch play is to be met with favor at all. 



Space limitations forbid further comparisons of the old arid 

 the present College life. Is the new better? Are the old means of 

 getting acquainted worn out? Judging by what may be seen on the 

 Wild Cat or Prospect or in Hackberry Glen or any of many attrac- 

 tive places, we conclude that the students of the present use all of 

 the means of enjoyment known to their predecessors, and then 

 some. However this may be, wherever Youth is, Pleasure always 

 comes, whether rowing on the river, tramping the fields, picnicing 

 in the woods, packing the Auditorium for the annual oratorical 

 contest, or banqueting the Junior-Senior four hundred. 



SOME OF THE FIRST THINGS 



The first building used by the Kansas State Agricultural 

 College was originally erected as Bluemont Central College, which 

 was the first college chartered in the territory, the date being 

 February 9, 1858. It was located on the old College farm near 

 the old site of the hog cholera serum plant. The corner-stone 

 was laid May 10, 1859. The building was ttiree stories high and 

 44x60 feet on the ground. It had a cupola in which hung the bell 

 which still calls the College to assembly. This bell was donated 

 by Joseph Ingalls, of Swampscott, Mass. 



The first building erected by the College on the present 

 campus was one wing of a stone barn. This is the building which 

 was so long used in part as the armory, and is now used for farm 

 mechanics. The oldest building on the campus was there when 

 the land was bought by the College, being one of the three farm- 

 houses included in that purchase. It was used by President Fair- 

 child as a residence, then by Professor Shelton, and is low 

 occupied by Custodian Lewis. 



The ivy on the College buildings is one of the striking features 



