10
THE BATTALION.
the best drilled company in the Lone
Star State.
, Boys, it takes interest, determination,
and the co-operative work of each and
every man in the company to make it
what the name—“Foster Guards”—calls
for.
In years gone by, interest has fallen
so far below what it should have been
that it has been hard to find the re
quired number of boys with the proper
interest to form and hold together a first
class company.
It should be considered—if it is not—
such an honor to become a member of
this organization, that when a man is
elected a member he would stay with
the company as long as he remains at
College, and after he has gone, show that
he is still in sympathy with and loyal to
the Foster Guards, by doing anything
and everything he can for the advance
ment of the company.
Last year the Foster Guards did not
commence drilling as they should have
done until a week or two before com
mencement, not expecting to give an ex
hibition drill at any time before then.
This year let us get down to drilling
at once; then if we learn the company
movements and bayonet exercises per-
feotij and put these into execution as
we should do, we could take up some
thing else of interest to ourselves and
others.
I can’t see why the Foster Guards
shouldn’t put up an exhibition drill m
Houston or somewhere else on San Ja
cinto day next spring.
On the 21st of April, 1897, when the
corps went to Houston, it was said, and
by prominent men, that the drill of the
Ross Volunteers was by far superior to
that of the Houston Light Guards. Then
each man took a deep interest in his
company.
With Armstrong as our captain, the
only thing that we will have to face to
make ours the best drilled company in
the State will be in getting every man
to take an interest, and all to “pull
together,” then when “retreat” sounds
on June 11, 1901, it will be said by old
A. and M. College boys and others, “That
drill by the Foster Guards was the best
I ever saw executed by any volunteer
company.”
MECHANICAL
“If it be the object of education to lead
out and develop the God-given capacities
of a man, to give him a kit of sharpened
tools and a trained capacity to use them
to make him more the master of un
friendly environment, to make him more
capable of lending a hand to help upward
those about him less favored than he,
to teach him the basis on which to de
cide between that which is wise and un
wise, between right and wrong, then
there is no training in education superior
to engineering, when properly carried out,
to produce self-reliant, independent, creat-
ENGINEERING.
ive thinkers—to produce God-like men.”
-—F. R. Hutton.
It has been said that “A man without
a purpose is like a ship without a rud
der.” Then also a man knowing naught
but theories may be compared to an en
gine without steam, so useless would
they be to him.
Theory in itself is the foundation of
practice, but in laying such a foundation,
of what use will it be if the proper build
ing—practice—is not put on it.
On the other hand practice, by itself,