THE OSWEGO STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 73 



toric associations. As one of the gateways to central New York, 

 its old fort was the prize of battle between Indian, French, Eng- 

 lish, and Continentals during colonial and Revolutionary days. 

 To one who has stood on the bluffs to the west of the old har- 

 bor, with the lake outspread as a shining mirror, and listened to 

 the soft lapping of the waters on the shelving rocks below ; or 

 from the crumbling ramparts of the old fort on the eastern side 

 has watched the sun like a burnished, golden shield slowly sink 

 into the western waters, sending a flaming track across the wave- 

 lets, the soothing and restful influences were of unspeakable 

 value. For a time the fret and fever of ignoble strife departed, 

 and in the saner hour the spirit was open to better impulses. 

 When the waters were lashed into fury by storms and hurled in 

 fierce onset against the rocky shores, not less useful inspiration 

 came from wind and wave exultation in strength and courage 

 for conflict. Nor did these influences altogether perish with the 

 hour. What Oswego pupil, susceptible at all to Nature's influ- 

 ence, did not feel the power of those scenes and does not cherish 

 their memory ? 



The social and religious influences of Oswego have been favor- 

 able to the Normal pupils. The city is not so large as to cause the 

 Normal School factor to be ignored, nor so small as to cause it to 

 have undue prominence. In churches, Sunday schools, and other 

 societies pupils have been welcomed as guests and kept as valued 

 helpers. A more important social influence has been the free 

 mingling in work and recreations of the young men and women 

 composing the school. In the recitation rooms and laboratories, 

 this influence has produced wholesome rivalry and respect for one 

 another's powers ; at social gatherings and merrymakings, it has 

 been refining and ennobling. For many a bashful boy and shy 

 maiden, excursions on the lake and rambles in woods and fields 

 have replaced awkwardness and constraint by the easy, natural 

 manners of comradeship, and given insight into each other's na- 

 tures and characters. Such introductions into the kingdoms of 

 true manhood and womanhood are not the least among the 

 school's gifts to her children. Social intercourse has always been 

 left as free as the ordinary rules of propriety admit. Rarely has 

 this freedom been misused, and the good arising from it has out- 

 weighed a thousandfold the evil. An important center of the 

 school's social life is the Welland, the girl's boarding hall, whose 

 parlors have so often echoed to the pleasures of the Friday even- 

 ing socials. 



Dr. Sheldon's home has been the chief center and source of 

 social influences. This home is situated on a high, wooded point 

 of the lake shore, a mile west of the city a very paradise for 

 quiet beauty. On the spacious grounds, beneath the shadow of 



