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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 1983)
Shakespeare hits page 1 The leading "story" in the first issue of The Battalion, pub lished Oct. 1,1893, was an essay on Shakespeare's interpretation of King Lear. A feature on life in the U.S. Army composed a prominent ortion of six issues of The Batta- on. One early issue had a helpful entry concerning the art of growing hair. It read: 'To make hair grow, and to prevent its being gray: Bay rum, 1 quart; table salt, half a teacup; castor oil, one drachm; tincture of cantharides, one drachm. This tonic is very stimulative and not oily enough to be disagreeable." The Battalion replaced the College Journal, a literary maga zine published by the Austin Li terary Society, and the Callio- pean Literary Society. Camping out on campus Problems with student housing have plagued Texas A&M since its beginning. Students were housed in the upper floors of both the school Buildings and even in the administrative offices. Those students who lived in these dwellings had to do their own woodcutting and draw their own water. The housing problems sub sided only to crop up again in No snitching after snatching The first march to the Brazos was held after a bombing inci dent on campus. A large num ber of railroad torpedoes were snatched by freshmen from trains that would stop in College Station. After a sufficient number of the explosives were taken, they were dropped from the upper levels or the dorms and ex ploded on the ground. The stunt worked so well that the authorities couldn't find the culprits. Since no one would confess or point to who did it, the cadets were marched to the Brazos River in the rain. The lieutenant in charge of the march was so confident of an 1908 after a large increase in stu dent enrollment. The school was forced to temporarily house 300 students in large tents. Each tent had two students assigned to it and many students prefer red the tents to the dorm rooms in both summer and winter. The housing problem was solved by the construction of Milner and Legett Halls in 1913. early confession that he set out in a new pair of boots. The cadets had to borrow a horse for him before the march was; finished. Daddy's girls dutifully date deprived boys Not all of the students on the early campus were male. The "Campus Girls" as they were known were daughters of fa culty. The three females on campus in 1903 were so popular that their pictures and a brief history of their lives were included in the yearbook, accompanied by the quote," The campus girls have made the pleasures of cadet life all the brighter." Sophie Hutson, who was one of the courtesy students, stu died engineering from 1880 to 1884 here. Though she said her grades were good, she said that they would have been better if she had not had to make all of her own clothing and had so many boys to date. Wanna dance? Plagued by a lack of female companionship, Texas A&M students held "stag" dances in the 1890s and early 1900s. The "girls" were identified by handkerchieves tied to their arms. Other notable events of that time included the organization of a "Fat Man's Club" and a "Bowlegged Men's Club." Cadets frequently staged con tests between "fighting taran tulas." This sport apparently ceased abruptly one night when two "champions" got out of their box in a dormitory room and were never found again. Outhouses not safe during Bonfire building Aggie bonfires of the 1920s and 1930s were made of com munity trash, tree limbs, boxes, lumber scraps and debris. Among favorite materials for use in the bonfires were un tended, unwatched and, hope fully, unoccupied outhouses. On the morning after the 1935 bonfire, the Commandant of Cadets, Frank G. Anderson, re ported that an irate farmer came to his office to say that some cadets had carried off his log bam, "lock, stock and barrel." He demanded payment for his bam. The following year the Aggies had their first log — and their first "legal" — bonfire. Halftime violence Football and competitive school spirit reached an intense height during the 1920s, demon strated by a riot that attracted statewide attention at a football game between Baylor Universi ty and Texas A&M in 1926. During the halftime show, a cadet mistakenly assumed that an automobile being driven around the field was to be used in a derogatory demonstration against Texas A&M, as had been done the previous year. The cadet attacked the car of Baylor co-eds and began to "rock" it. Baylor students rushed to drive the student away; Texas A&M students rushed to protect him. During the riot that followed, a cadet was killed. Angry cadets decided to march on Baylor University and level it to the ground with their cannon. Administrators feared cadets would commandeer a train and "attack" Baylor, but the cadets were dissuaded from their plot. Athletic relations between Texas A&M and Baylor were suspended until 1931. Forbidden territory Recreation in the 1880s con sisted of keg-rollings, hauling kegs of beer in from Bryan and hiding them away in the woods for secret and prohibited beer- busts, free-for-all brawls, wreck ing outhouses, hiding liquor in dormitory rooms for an occa sional nip and swiping poultry from the backyards of profes sors' homes. As late as 1900, students were required to have special permis sion from the College president to go to Bryan because of its 14 or 15 saloons (an average of two per block), its public drunken ness, open gambling and brawls. Don't blame it on Mary During the early years of the Corps of Cadets it was a necessi ty for cadets to have well- creased pants. Since most of the students could only afford one good pair, they had to use a charcoal heated iron to press them for inspections. Because most students feared being "rammed," they did not want the messy charcoal in their rooms. They instead got char coal from the filters of cisterns. In 1907 the school was closed a month before finals because of a typhoid outbreak. The cadets had taken so much charcoal that the water was no longer safe. Contributing writers: Bonnie Langford, Lauri Reese, Angel Stokes Creative contributors: Peter Rocha, Dave Scott Artist: Scott McCullar
