Cbe Battalion
Vol. 68 No. 128 College Station, Texas Wednesday, July 23, 1975
Ross’ letters donated to TAMU
Letters of Lawrence Sullivan
Ross, TAMU president from 1891 to
1898, have been given to the uni
versity.
They are among a very lew items
of memorabilia ofTAMU’s seventh
president held in University Arc
hives, according to Dr. Charles
Schultz, archivist.
The letters reflect many facets of
Ross, whose statue stands in front of
the Academic Building at TAMU.
Mrs. Charles E. Coombes Jr. and
Mrs. IrlLarrimore Sr., sisters resid
ing in San Angelo, made the gift to
TAMU on the brink of its centen
nial. They are daughters of a Maj.
Holmes to whom Ross wrote the let
ters.
Holmes was private secretary to
Ross during his service as brigadier
general in the Confederate army.
Containing almost 1,900 words,
the letters are dated April 22, 1886;
July 23, 1887; Feb. 13, 1891, and
Dec. 20, 1891. An undated letter
was apparently written between the
last two.
The messages were posted from
Waco prior to Ross’ election as gov
ernor of Texas. Some are from Au
stin on Executive Office letterhead
and three are from College Station.
The latter three have Agricultural
and Mechanical College of Texas
letter heads.
The last two include “L. S. Ross,
President. W. L. Bringhurts,
Vice-President” and “A. J. Rose,
President Board of Directors,
Salado, Texas in the design.
Dr. Henry Alsmeyer, associate
director of TAMU Libraries, called
the letters “an excellent and espe
cially meaningful gift toTAMU as its
centennial approaches. ’’TAMU will
celebrate its 100th year in 1976 as
Texas’ first public institution of
higher learning.
Another Ross letter, written on
his first day in the presidency, was
previously acquired. It was deli
vered by recently retired English
professor Staley Creswell, a close
friend of the Holmes sisters and
Margaret Bierschwale. Her father
and Holmes were real-estate
partners in Mason.
dent noted “a fever (probably in
fluenza) broke out among the boys
in November and brought upon us
19 cases in all, two proving fatal after
the boys were carried home.
Schultz said contents of the Ross
letters will be of value in scholarly
research. They can cast light on
TAMU history, Texas politics and
education.
Gov. Ross handwriting was bol
dest in the second of the letters. It
was written while he was governor.
It averaged 61 words per page. The
others averaged 140.
Dr. Schultz said the letters make
regidar reference to politics, espe
cially to Gov. J. S. Hogg, Ross’ suc
cessor in Austin.
Ross served two terms as gover
nor. He was first elected in 1886 by
73 per cent of a 313,300 vote. His
opponents were Republican A. M.
Cochran and Prohibition candidate
E. L. Dohoney. As the Democratic
incumbent against Marion Martin
in 1888, he polled 72 per cent of
almost 349,000 ballots.
Gov. Ross was elected president
of TAMU July 1, 1890, “to take ef
fect at the end of his present term of
office as governor” Jan. 20, 1891,
according to data assembled by
former TAMU Archivist Ernest
Langford. President Ross died in of
fice here Jan. 3, 1898, at age 60.
His presidency marked a period
of rebirth for TAMU. Enrollments
climbed as Texans sent their sons
"not to Texas A&M, but to Gov.
Ross, George Sessions Perry’s
book on TAMU relates.
He is still honored at TAMU. The
Cadet Corps’ elite honor unit of
seniors and juniors, the Ross Volun
teers, bears his name. A campus
street was named for him. Ross
Hall, razed in 1955, stood across
Military Walk from the YMCA more
than 60 years.
“The Cadets are my friends,’’
Pres. Ross wrote Holmes in the
Heart attack
fells fireman
A Texas Firemen’s Training School participant was hos
pitalized Monday with an apparent heart attack.
Robert K. Evans, fire marshall and chief of police at Kaufman,
will be retained at St. Joseph’s Hospital for observation. An FTS
spokesman at TAMU said Evans “seemed to be all right.”
The fire official, known in the Kaufman and University Park
area as a dedicated public servant, was stricken while driving to
his campus dormitory room after lunch Monday.
Evans phoned for ambulance assistance himself.
FTS officials indicated Evans was not involved in training nor
instruction at Brayton Firemen’s Training Field. He was in class
at the TAMU campus, where many participants spend the entire
week.
The Municipal Firemen’s Training School began Monday and
continues through Friday.
i CS Council to discuss ordinances i
g $
| on electricity, water, animals
College Station City Councilmen
are scheduled to consider ordi
nances establishing new water and
electric rates at their 7 p.m. Thurs
day meeting.
The proposed ordinances are a
result of an interim utilities agree
ment entered into between Bryan
and College Station on July 10.
Ordinances regulating animals
and fowl running at-large and the
breeding and sale of animals and
fowl in commerce will also be consi
dered.
Under the proposed ordinances,
the police department can destroy
an at-large animal “in the event cap
ture cannot be effected promptly.”
Councilmen will also hold a dis
cussion concerning the drilling of
the water well test hole to the
Simsboro sand.
Requirements for installing
sidewalks in new subdivisions are
also scheduled for discussion.
Feb. 13 letter, “and the Board who
have just concluded their meeting
were much pleased with this fact.”
Ross wrote briefly on the begin
ning of his administration: “No
prancing or flourishes, but a com
plete acceptance of the situation,
and a determination to make the
most of it.”
in tne unuaieo next letter,
marked “confidential,” Ross relates
"I have had the Legislative Visiting
Committee here for several days”
and problems in connection with it.
The previous letter included “We
have not yet been hounded with the
Committee.”
Sickness ran wild on campus in
his first year. One of Ross’ own chil
dren was ill, at one point to “a very
dangerous” extent.
The sickness, he described, “con
tinues very great, but not serious.
From 30 to 60 in the hospital every
day. The measles took quite a run,
and is holding the fort with un
abated force yet. ”
The letters are sprinkled with
military metaphors, a reflection of
Ross’ Confederate States of America
service and tour as a Texas cavalry
officer and Indian fighter.
In the Dec. 20 letter, the presi-
“It was doubtless caused,” he
went on, “by the overcrowded con
ditions, and low seige of cistern
water in consequence thereof. ”
Assessing the difficulties. Presi
dent Ross informed Holmes that
“the college has a poor reputation
for health . . . and this will likely
prove detrimental for a time to its
prosperity.”
The president through TAMU’s
16th to 22nd years of existence
started the letter with a cheery out
look. “We are now in our new
house, ” he wrote, “which is in every
way more comfortable and conve
nient than the (Governor’s) Man
sion.”
Further along, Gov. Ross wrote,
“My affairs here are moving so very
harmonizingly and in such perfect
accord that we begin to feel much
attached to all hands.
“At times I have some petty an
noyances with the boys. But they
have conducted themselves splen
didly with very few exceptions.”
Later, he notes with apparent
pride, that an individual of unindi
cated relation “has been at work for
quite a time, getting $2.25 a day
The letters also reveal something
of Ross’ personal life even at casual
glance. He informed Maj. Holmes,
for instance, that “your kind letter
was like the invigoration of good
wine.”
TAMU conducts
shuttle research
After the current Apollo flight,
there will be no more Americans in
space until 1979. Then the next ph
ase, the shuttle, will begin and is
intended to turn space travel into
almost a routine flight.
The solution to a new technologi
cal problem will make the shuttle
possible. TAMU researchers are
contributing to the effort of getting
the craft into space.
Until now, men and instruments
inside a space capsule had to be pro
tected by a heat shield. The shuttle
will be a larger spacecraft that must
withstand temperatures ranging
above 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit,
more than 100 times.
NASA’s solution is to cover the
shuttle with silica tiles, six to eight
inches square. Dr. David J. Norton
and the Aerospace Engineering
Department at TAMU are wind
tunnel testing the flight characteris
tics of the tile.
“The space shuttle orbiter is
roughly the size of a Boeing 707 and
is to be reusable after a short turn
around period,” Norton said. “For
the difficult phase of the re-entry,
large areas of the orbiter are co
vered with tiles.
“Since the tiles are flat and the
vehicle surfaces are curved, there
are height mismatches between
tiles,” he said. “NASA is concerned
over the drag from the tile mis
matches and how it penalizes the
maneuverability of the shuttle as it
returns to earth.
“The craft, because it lands un
powered, is already operating near
the minimum possible lift-to-drag
ratio needed for good perfor
mance,” Norton said. “We’ve tested
out combinations of height mis
match of the tile and angles of laying
the tile. We give them estimates of
the penalties in drag that five diffe
rent configurations of the tiles will
produce.
“The tile will increase the skin
drag by about 50 per cent but this
only represents a small amount of
the total drag on the craft,” Norton
said. “Meanwhile the pilots will be
spreading out the peak heat load
with a leisurely glide path using
airplane-like controls to land on a
conventional runway. Although the
tiles will have to dissipate the same
amount of energy, it will have more
time to do so.
liiiHlIiliiwirfp*
Grove to present ‘Fail Safe’
Tonight’s movie in the Grove will be “Fail Safe” with Henry
Fonda. “Way Out West” will be Thursday night’s feature, and
“Paint Your Wagon will be shown Friday. Saturday night will
bring “The Greatest Show on Earth,” with “Double Trouble’
being shown Sunday. All of the movies will be shown outdoors
unless there is a heavy downpour immediately prior to show
time. In the case of inclement weather, the movie will be moved
to 701 of the Rudder Tower.
Board to meet Friday
The Board of Directors of the TAMU System will meet Friday
at 9:00 a.m. in the Board of Directors Wing of the MSG. The
Board will consider approving the 1975-76 operating budget and
the athletic council budgets. They will also consider establish
ment of a proposed Department of Anthropology. Board mem
bers will discuss giving the authorization for a Master of Science
Degree in Ecology, a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Ecology,
and a Master of Science Degree in Journalism.
Hartford, Lang to perform
Town Hall will present a summer concert with John Hartford
and Peter Lang on Monday, August 4 at 8: p.m. in the Rudder
Center Auditorium. Hartford was the originator of the hit,
“Gentle on My Mind,” while twelve-string guitarist Lang
should astound even the most sophisticated guitar buffs. A&M
students will be admitted free, while non-student dates will cost
$1 and the general public will be charged $2. Tickets are on sale
in the Rudder Center Box Office.
You’re a good man
An average day in the life of Charlie Brown will be presented
by the Aggie Players when the second MSG Dinner Theatre
production gets under way on July 31, August 1, 7 and 8. The
play “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” will be staged in the
MGS Ballroom in cooperation with the MSG Summer Directo
rate and Food Services Department. It will be accompanied by a
pre-show act consisting of music and dancing from “Pippin” and
“The Magic Show.” Tickets, at $4 per student and $7 for non
students, are on sale in the Rudder Center box office.
SG to sell discount tickets
Student Government has purchased 100 discount tickets from
the ABC Interstate Theaters. The tickets are being sold for
$1.50, which represents a $1 saving on each ticket purchased.
These tickets will be good from the time of purchase until May of
1976. The passes will admit one person to any regular feature at
Cinema I and II in College Station. Coming attractions include
“Funny Lady,” “Tommy,” and “Once is Not Enough.”
The tickets may be obtained from 1:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m.
Monday through Friday in the Student Government Office.
Additional information may be obtained by calling 845-3051.
Today.
Inside
Editorial Page 2
Batt Sports Page 7
Sportfolio Page 12
Weather
Partly cloudy, continued
warm and humid Wednes
day and Iliursday. High to
day 93; low tonight 74; high
Thursday 93.
TAMU school trains Texas firemen
Clouds of black smoke in the sky
signal that the annual fireman’s
training school is in session again.
Every summer hundreds of firemen
from all over Texas leave work
(many without pay) to instruct or
learn the latest techniques in
firefighting.
The men are taught how to repair
pumps and nozzles, care for hoses
and strangely enough, how to
breathe correctly.
Synthetic building materials used
in modern homes, produce many
toxic gases when burned. Of neces
sity firemen use oxygen tanks to
Photos and story
by Tom Kayser
protect themselves from the fumes.
Regulated breathing thus extends
their air supply.
The men also are shown the latest
products used to fight fires. Protein
foams, which, when mixed with wa
ter, reduce the extinguishing time
of a given fire, and “Light Water” an
aqueous film forming solution man
ufactured by 3M Company, are two
examples. “Light Water” combines
with water and enables it to float on
top of oil and other fuels.
From an environmental
standpoint, most Bryan-College
Station residents are angered a bit
by all the smoke. However, firemen
trained here are able to put out fires
more quickly, thus saving more
lives and cutting fire-caused air pol
lution.
The fuel used to ignite the train
ing fires is donated by many diffe
rent companies. It is slightly con
taminated, thus not fit for industrial
or commercial use.
Four days of the week-long ses
sion are spent in the classroom. The
fifth is spent on the field fighting
short but hot refinery-type fires,
apartment, commercial, and multi
story building blazes. Firemen also
extinguish flaming tank-trucks, cars
and natural-gas storage tanks.
The classes, offered through the
engineering extension service, are
the only ones like them in the coun
try. They have been conducted for
Texas firemen for several decades.
This school, located adjacent to Eas-
terwood Airport, is holding a public
demonstration tonight at 8 p.m.
Among the scheduled demonstra
tions are the Firebird, a firefighting
helicopter from Ft. Hood, a
rocket-propelled line thrower, and
an air rescue bag.