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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 1915)
THE BATTALION Published Weekly by the Students’ Association of the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas VOL. XXII. COLLEGE STATION, TEXAS, FEBRUARY 24, 1915. NUMBER 20 TRICK PROSPECTS VERY PROMISING LUCID MUCH PLEASED WITH THE MANY CANDIDATES. T CONVENTION COMES TO CLOSE MANY PROMINENT SPEAKERS, THREE HUNDRED DELEGATES . SIN FRANCISCO EXPO WAS OPENED GREAT WORLD’S FAIR THROWN OPEN TO PUBLIC. LOCAL HISTORY OF A. & M. COLLEGE THE GATHRIGHT ADMINISTRA TION. COMPANY BASKETBALL GAMES VISITORS MUCH PLEASED 41 NATIONS REPRESENTED SELECTION OF A LOCATION A call was sent out last Sunday for trackmen, and the results were sur prising. About sixty men responded. Almost all the old men were out and a large number of Freshmen who have had a good deal of experience on high school track teams. The squad is the largest and choicest ever seen on Kyle Field. The chances for a State and Southwestern champion ship team are the brightest ever seen here. The track has been entirely worked over under the supervision of Dan Scott and Con Lucid and every body who has run on it agree that it is the best track they have ever run on. All the team needs is the united support of the whole corps, especially in a financial way. Dan Scott has to do all the financing on his own hook and that is no small undertaking. He has scheduled three big meets this year: The Texas intercollegiate meet at Waxahachie, the Southwestern Conference meet at Austin, and a tri angular meet with Rice and Texas University here at College Station. This will be the first big meet held at A. & M. since the present Seniors were Freshmen. If the corps will sup port the team there is no reason in the world why we cannot win all three meets. On the first day out Haines put the shot thirty-nine feet and six inches, and the State record is only a little over forty feet. The rest of the squad looks just as good. Every man is going to have to hurry to hold his place on the team. Con Lucid, who is known the world over as a trainer, has charge of the squad, so look out, State records. Lucid says it is the best track squad he has ever seen in the South. Every body get the pep and help the team bring home some more cups and ban ners. Company Basketball. The company basketball season opened Saturday afternoon with a rush. Three games were played in the gym. Every one of them was well played and in two of the games the result was in doubt until the whistle blew. There was a big im provement over last year’s company basketball games. Basketball was more in evidence and there was very little football playing, a common oc currence last year. The games played were: A-B-Band vs. E-F. I-K vs. C-D. L-M vs. G-H. The score in the first game was 18-4 in favor of the Band and A-B. Probably the greatest Y. M. C. A. convention ever held in this State was assembled at College Station in the latter par; of last week. In was great, in many respects, i. e., in the char acter and personality of the speakers, in the profound effect produced on the visiting delegates, and especially the lesson which it brought to the student body at A. & M. The speakers at this convention were men of the highest educational qualifications and possessed a broad, comprehensive and first-hand knowl edge of the world’s affairs. They were men at the very top in their profession and their speeches command the attention of the excep tionally well educated and highly cultured men in all parts of the globe. This conventioin just terminated probably did more to obtain the good will of our sister schools in the State and make our real worth known to city and railroad men than any other one thing could possibly have done. On every side we heard the re marks, “I never knew that A. & M. was like this before,” and “I am glad that my false impression of this school has been cleared up.” Every school in the State was looking at us through the eyes of 150 delegates in those four days. And we are thank ful that we had the opportunity to be host to them. But the one thing above all others about the convention that we are thankful for is that one hundred and eleven men from the student body at A. & M. exprest their determination to follow Christ and come into their Father’s house. Whenever that many men express their determination to make a change for the better is must mean something to the student body here. •» <3- -0- o o -a- -a- <0- •» o o •a- -a- •a- -a- -a- -a- -a- If I accomplish what today -a- -& sets before me, I shall be doing -s- ■» o & TODAY. Yesterday is gone forever. To morrow never comes. Today is in my own hands. If I shirk today’s task I shall he adding to my wasted yester days. my best to atone for yesterday’s failure and to prepare for tomor- -& -» row’s successes. Therefore, I will endeavor to use my time and opportunities that today shall leave me a little wiser and abler than it found Exposition Grounds, San Francisco, Calif., Feb. 20.—The Panama-Pacific International Exposition was formally opened at noon today, Pacific Coast time. Forty-one foreign nations and 43 States and three Territories of the American Union are participating. ‘‘This is the world in epitome,” said Dr. Frederick J. V. Skiff, the director in chief, in a brief introductory ad dress. “Within the inclosure of this exposition grounds there are no for eigners. All may stand and stop upon this soil as if it were their native land.” All records for opening day attend ance at world’s fairs were broken by the exposition. Less than two hours after the gates had been opened and while the crowds were still streaming in, the turn-stiles showed 180,000 ad missions as against 137,567 for the Chicago fair in 1893 and 176,453 for the St. Louis fair in 1904. President Opened Big Exposition. President Wilson, in the White House, by touching a button, com pleted a telegraph circuit which auto matically worked a relay key in the wireless station at Tuckerton, N. J. Instantly powerful electric waves leap ed out across the continent. A frac tion of a second later they were re ceived on aerial strung wires from the Tower of Jewels in the exposition grounds. Another relay instrument transmitted them to apparatus which swung open the doors of the Palace of Machinery, unloosed the waters of the fountain of energy, and detonated signal bombs in token of receipt. President Moore of the exposition immediately sent back word that the flash had come thru and that the ex position was formally opened. The president used a telegraph key studded with gold nuggets which was used by President Taft in opening the Alaska-Yukon Exposition. — Houston post. HEARD ON THE CAMPUS DURING THE CONVENTION “You fellows certainly have some system about doing things.” “There will never be another reso lution No. 18.” “This is the best convention we have ever attended/’ “I never knew before that the Y. M. C. A. had so much for men.” “Religious work at A. & M. has been given a tremendous impetus.” “They feed us better here than at the college where I come from.” “I am glad that my impression of A. & M. has been changed for the better.” By A. E. Burges, ’15. A. & M. College formally opened its doors for the admission of students October 4th, 1876. . Governor E. J. Davis, acting on authority given him by the Legislature, had appointed a commission of three men who were invested with full authority to locate the college where, in their opinion, the most favorable inducements (lo cality, bonuses, etc., considered) were offered. The citizens of Bryan in vited the commission to visit Brazos County among other localities. They did so, and were shown various de sirable sites for the college, among them being the present one. In spite of the fact that Brazos County was considered one of the poorest in the State, the commissioners were pleased with the centrally located and well- drained position and with the fact that a railroad (the H. & T. C.) already ran by the site. Consequently, when the bid of $22,000 and 2,600 acres of land, offered by Brazos County, thru the agency of Col. Harvey Mitchell of Bryan, was opened, the commission awarded the location of the college to Brazos County. Construction of Buildings. The Legislature in April and May of 1871 had appropriated $75,000 for the erection of necessary college build ings, and the work on these buildings was begun shortly after the site was chosen. When the foundation of the Main Building had been completed to the grade line and one cistern fin ished, about $38,000 had been used. The commission then made application for the balance of the appropriation. The Governor appointed a board to in spect the work done up to that time. This board condemned everything that had been done. The $38,00 was thus wasted. A new commission was ap pointed, new plans were drawn, fur ther appropriations were made, and the work began anew. The first two buildings constructed were the Main Building and Gathright Hall, and it was with this equipment that the col lege opened. The Faculty and Equipment. The presidency of the college was offered to Jefferson Davis, but he de clined. Thomas S. Gathright, a na tive of Monroe County Ga., was then elected president, upon the nomina tion of ex-President Davis. Prof. Gathright was a Confederate soldier and an educator of note, and resigned the position of superintendent of edu cation in Mississippi in order to ac cept the position offered him in Texas. Along with the president were elect ed four professors, a physician and a steward of the mess hall. These men were: Alexander Hogg, pure (Continued on Page 3.)