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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 5, 1970)
Pagre 4 College Station, Texas Wednesday, August 5, 1970 THE BATTALION THE A&M has long past-bright future Texas A&M’s history began in the fall of 1876 when 40 students attended the school’s first classes. A&M, the state’s oldest insti tution of higher learning, has grown to house a student body of over 12,000 and an academic structure of more than 60 depart ments. In July of 1862 President Abra ham Lincoln authorized the Mor rill Act permitting the Federal government to offer each state a grant of public lands which could be used to raise funds for estab lishing colleges specializing in ag riculture and the mechanical arts. In the first year of its exist ence, A&M’s enrollment jumped from 40 on Oct. 4, to 100 in Jan uary and 331 in the spring. In these early years, accom modations were insufficient for anything like this number. The second and third floors of Gath- right Hall and the second, third and part of the fourth floor of the Main Building were used for barracks. During cold winter months, students kept these rooms warm with fire wood. Each student had his own axe, cut his own wood at the common wood pile and carried it to his room in his arms. Wood piles were kept outside each building with the owner’s name above each, roughly on this order, "This is John Jones’ wood pile. Keep your hands off of it!” The first floor of Gathright Hall was used as a dining hall with classes held on the first floor of the Main Building. As for the actual campus in these early days, one professor said: “The campus was such a wild waste that it was not considered safe for children to be out at night. The howling of wolves pro vided nightly serenades. On one occasion a wild animal wandering over the campus threw the whole community in a frenzy of excite ment. An alarm was given and the whole battalion of students and some professors turned out to kill it but in the high weeds of the campus it easily escaped.” The conduct of the professors also left room for improvement during the memorial ’76. Follow ing complaints from throughout the state the Board of Directors fired the entire faculty. A mathematics professor show ed his contempt for being fired by going fishing. “I can’t be both ered,” he said. In the late ’70’s the mid ’80’s, Garland Jones succeeded Gath right as president, four buildings were constructed and the entire curriculum was revised. The school slumped badly in the 80’s until Lawrence Sullivan Ross was named president in 1890. Once the state legislature even considered abandoning the college, with the buildings to be used as a Negro insane asylum. Ross literally saved the school from destruction. During his eight-year reign, enrollment in creased tremendously, the first Corps trip was held in Houston, property value reached $389,- 502.64 and most of all, the college for the first time acquired a good ^ name among citizens of the state. During the first years of the century such events as a cane rush between freshmen and soph omores caused quite a stir. One morning mysterious notices had been tacked up at various places forbidding any freshmen to carry a cane past the bandstand between 4:30 and 4:45 p.m. At the blast of a bugle, at the proper hour, groups of freshmen and sophomores emerged from every hall, clad in old clothes. A freshman, attended by a bodyguard, attempted the feat and the struggle was on. Reinforcements arrived and the battle raged for two hours, but without success on either side. President H. H. Harrington’s administration was rocked by a student strike. After several days, most of the students went home. One student, crossing the Brazos, was met by his father with a shotgun. He returned. Harring ton resigned. The same fate be fell the administration of Ct R. T. Milner, and he resign Two tragedies enabled the w pus to first take on its preti appearance. In 1911 the mess la burned and in 1912 Old Mainw gutted by fire. Soon afterwards Sbisa Dim| Hall and the Academic Buili) sprang up. Also, not long ate ward, Guion Hall was built o ^ u £ G E SK'JMVE.n p R es' oENT Dear Class o£ '13, Choosing a university is a choice oi ^ c'Ule* meet tYve ever increasing, demands placed p V society in vlrvicVi "you live. The Directors, Officers and Staff of University "National "Bank extend to each of you a warm welcome to College Station. University "National, the only lull Service hank in College Station, has been serving Texas Aggies for over a quarter century. Vie are conveniently located just across the street from the campus, at North Gate, within easy walking distance from the dorms. University "National stands ready to assist you in all your hanking needs. The first days on campus are hectic to say the least, and we thought perhaps we might make things somewhat easier for you by inviting you to open your checking account before your arrival. Should you desire this service, simply clip the application provided below and mail it to us. Vie hope this will help in getting "one more thing out of the way". Again, welcome to Texas A & "Ml University and College Station. Vie are looking forward to meeting you personally upon your arrival and if we might he of assistance prior or after your arrival please contact us. Very truly yours. doe k. Sawyer / "President P. s - , . v mai l service to parents. oiier tree bank by ma . c- c, 8c M c oF TEXAS A -rwE S\OE ° ON UNIVERSITY NATIONAL BANK P. 0. Box 2680 College Station, Texas Gentlemen: I will be a student at Texas A&M this fall and would like to open my checking account with the University National Bank early. Signature Name (print) ~ Home Address BEFORE MY ARRIVAL: (check one) □ send statement to my home address □ hold statements at bank University Address Initial deposit $ Upon my arrival in College Station I will notify you of my mailing address if not listed above. I will also stop by and sign a regular signature card. Fish put the polish to statue of Lawrence Sullivan Ross Polishing ‘Sully’ one of many traditions at Texas A&M INVESTIGATE BEFORE YOU BUY!! Insurance Policy Made To Appear As Investment .... Beware of those salesmen who come to you with a letter of recommendation from one of your friends and try to get you “in on the ground floor” of his fabulous company. It is bad enough that he has probably already take your friend for a commitment of a lot of money he could invest to much greater advantage elsewhere. company grows and makes better profits, but it will, in nearly every case, take years to ever recover the original investments. What the salesman is attempting to do is to get you to make what he represents as a highly profitable investment which turns out to be an extremely expensive and highly concealed series of premium payments on a very limited insurance policy. By its very nature the special policy is dif ficult to understand, lends itself to misrepresenta tion, and defies comparison with other insurance policies which the laymen may understand. More often than not they are sold in high promotional manner, represented as a one-time-only-opportu- nity for a person to get in on the ground floor. Most of the “deals” include a profit sharing- dividend feature with the implication that these dividends will continually increase in size as the Highly polished, canned sales presentations with exaggerated emphasis on the themes w profit, investment, dividends and the like often leave buyers unaware that they have merely bought an insurance policy. The above article recently appeared in the monthly publication printed by the Better Business Bureau of Arkansas, Inc. (Little Rock, Ark.) This message brought to you as a public service by: Central Texas Association of Life Underwriters mi m ; . •••>v..v...■ H9BEBSSSBB8H