THE BATTALION,
3
can do so by giving in their names to
the captain of the company when the
school starts. When he starts in he
must keep on until the end of the ses
sion. An enlisted man is detailed as in
structor an 1 receives extra pay for it.
about $15.00 per month ; he is under
the instruction of a commissioned officer
who looks after the whole.
[ To be continued. ]
College Improvements.
On the 4th of October, 1876, the Agri
cultural and Mechanical College of
Texas held its reception for students. It
has now celebrated its 17th birth year,
and with each year it has steadily im
proved until now it stands a college
well worthy of this, our Lone Star State.
Parents of Texas who have never vis
ited the A. and M. can form no concep
tion, howe/er great, that will do it jus-
dice. As a College of its kind, it has no
superiors. It is fully equipped in all
that its name implies. Its beauty is
•marvelous. The student sees before him
handsome brick buildings three and
four stories high, covering thousands of
feet of ground, large machine shops,
immense barns furnished with all of the
modern conveniences and inhabited by
registered stock, in fact he sees every
thing that becomes an agricultural and
mechanical college and that would en
lighten the student as an agriculturist or
mechanic. Besides these he breathes
the pure fresh air fragrant with the
perfume of scented flowers. He is sur
rounded by beautiful drives and walks,
inlaid on either side with flowers and
shrubs of the rarest varieties. He gazes
.around with wonder until finally his
gaze rests upon the campus, for there he
sees floating gracefully on high the en
sign of his native land. He is interested
and returns to his room and begins his
duties with new vigor.
Various appropriations have been
made for improvements of the college,
and at the last session of the State Leg
islature the following were added : For
an electric light plant, ice factory and
laundry, $10,000; for student’s labor
fund $10,000; for stand pipe, bath
house, etc, $15,000, a total of $35,000.
And accordingly the following im-
jwovements were added to the Colleger
1st. The electric light plant. This
plant is a great addition to the College.
Before the lights were furnished from the
plant at Bryan, and often it was the
case that the students were awaked from
hard study to find themselves in fotal
darkness, something having happened
to the lights. This condition of the
lights meant a great deal to him as his
next day’s recitation depended upon his
studying at night, and consequently
with no lights, except the dim candles,
he would be sure to make a low grade,
and besides this the College grounds
wereahvays as dark as the night and on
rxiny and muddy nights the reliefs
marching from one building to another
would walk into puddles of water, and
many were the sentinels whose ill fortune
it w T as to slip and fall on the muddy
path. But now we are bothered with no
such troubles. Our lights rarely go out
and when such is the case it takes but a
few minutes to adjust them. And as
for the grounds, well “they’ve dug a pole
and set a hole andnow|’tis light as day.”
The machinery ranks with the best of its
kind, being from the Westinghouse Man
ufacturing company. The plant has a