The University of Michigan Part 11

Blue are the billows that bow to the sun When yellow-robed morning is due; Blue are the curtains that evening has spun, The slumbers of Phoebus to woo; Blue are the blossoms to memory dear, And blue is the sapphire, and gleams like a tear;-- Hail!

Hail to the ribbons that nature has spun; Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue!

Here's to the college whose colors we wear; Here's to the hearts that are true!

Here's to the maid of the golden hair, And eyes that are br.i.m.m.i.n.g with blue!

Garlands of blue-bells and maize intertwine; And hearts that are true and voices combine;-- Hail!

Hail to the college whose colors we wear; Hurrah for the Yellow and Blue!

The popularity of the old song to Dr. Tappan and the other members of the early Faculty, adapted from the old church tune: "Where, Oh Where, are the Hebrew Children?" has been suggested. It is probably one of the oldest of Michigan songs, and has survived through a succession of student and faculty generations; though now it is one of the least of many, and is only heard in the variation,--

Where, Oh where, are the verdant freshmen?

They've gone out from their prescribed English, Safe now in the Soph.o.m.ore cla.s.s,

and so on.

Most of the songs of earlier days are now forgotten. In 1864-65 the _Palladium_ offered a prize of $10 for the best original song, and of the two which were considered of equal merit, one at least survived for many years and was sung at all great University occasions. It was set to the air of the Ma.r.s.eillaise, and the first stanza is as follows:

Come, jolly boys, and lift your voices, Ring out, ring out, one hearty song; Praise her in whom each son rejoices, And let the notes be loud and long.

'Tis Alma Mater wakes the spirit, And prompts the strain of harmony-- Oh, sing to her triumphantly!

The glorious theme--do ye not hear it?

Hurrah! Hurrah! ye sons By Alma Mater blest!

All hail! All hail! her honored name, The pride of all the West!

Professor Gayley wrote several other songs which have long been deservedly popular. One of them, "Birds of a Feather," arranged by Professor Stanley to the "Eton Boating Song," is as follows:

O whiles we tell of rushes,-- O whiles we sing and sup,-- And sip the wine that flushes, In Hebe's amber cup, And toast the maid that blushes And smiles, and then looks up, And toast the maid that blushes, And smiles, and then looks up!

In sad or singing weather, In hours of gloom or glee; Birds of a feather We haunt the same old tree,-- And sing, sing together, O Michigan, of thee!

Another song by Professor Fred N. Scott which was popular for many years, usually known as "Ann Arbor, 'tis of thee we sing," has fallen from its former esteem, because it was sung to the tune of "The Watch on the Rhine." The words of the first verse are as follows:

Ann Arbor, 'tis of thee we sing, From thee our choicest blessings spring; Accept the tribute of our song, O Alma Mater, wise and strong.

We love thy cla.s.sic shades and shrines, We love thy murm'ring elms and pines; Where'er our future homes shall be, Our hearts, our hopes are all with thee.

Two of Michigan's most beautiful anthems, it must be confessed with regret, have come of late upon somewhat evil days. The reason probably lies in the smaller proportion of students of cla.s.sical training. Yet "Laudes Atque Carmina" cannot be surpa.s.sed in the sonorous beauty of Professor Gayley's words and the majestic exaltation of the air, written by Dr. Stanley.

Laudes atque carmina, Nec hodie nes cras, Sed omnia per tempora,-- Dum loc.u.m habeas, Tibi sint dulcissima, O Universitas; At hostes, Pol, perniciter Eant _eis korakas_.

Chorus: O Gloria, Victoria, O Decus omnium, O salve Universitas, Michiganensium, Michiganensium.

O clara Universitas,-- Nec merum Caecub.u.m, Nec flores nimium breves, Nec nard' a.s.syrium,-- At gloriam, victoriam, Vovemus merito; Nos tui cives, juvenes, Tui perpetuo!

Scarcely less beautiful though apparently somewhat too full of cla.s.sical allusions for the taste of the modern undergraduate is the "G.o.ddess of the Inland Seas," the words of which, by Professor Gayley, are set to an old air by Joh. Peters.

Sing no more the fair Aegean, Where the floating Cyclads shine, Nor the honey'd slopes Hyblaean, Nor the blue Sicilian brine, Sing no storied realms of morning Rob'd in twilight memories,-- Sing the land beyond adorning, With her zone of inland seas.

Lo, the sacred fires of knowledge In thy temple are enshrined,-- Through the cloisters of thy college Choruses eternal wind!

And all other incense scorning, Michigan, they bring thee these Hearts of ours, and songs of morning, G.o.ddess of the inland seas.

The foregoing songs are all of a somewhat earlier generation. To these one more should be added. "The Friar's Song," sung for many years by "The Friars," a convivial student club which was eventually suppressed.

The organization has lived, however, in the memories of many graduates and in the words and music of this song which was composed and written by the members as they drank and sang around their long table. The words are credited to Harold M. Bowman, '00.

Where no one asks the "who" or "why"; Where no one doth the sinner ply With his embarra.s.sments of guile; Where's ne'er a frown but brings a smile, And cares are crimes,--'tis sin to sigh, 'Tis wrong to let a jest go by, And hope is truth, and life is nigh, The bourns of the Enchanted Isle-- In College Days.

Then raise the rosy goblet high,-- The singer's chalice,--and belie The tongues that trouble and defile; For we have yet a little while To linger,--You and Youth and I, At Michigan.

Many beautiful songs have been added to the University treasury by the various Michigan Union Operas, of which not a few have survived the ephemeral popularity of the generations which witnessed the performances. These include, "When Night Falls, Dear," from "Michigenda," by Roy d.i.c.kinson Welch, '09, who also furnished the music for "A Faithful Pipe to Smoke," from "Culture," the words for which were written by Donal Hamilton Haines, '09. The opera "Koanzaland," by Donald A. Kahn, '07-'10, with the music by Earl V. Moore, '12, furnished two good songs, "In College Days" and "Michigan, Good-Bye" (with the collaboration of J. Fred Lawton, '11), while "Contrarie Mary" furnished a second "Friar's Song," by Robert G. Beck, 13_l_, and Willis A.

Diekema, '14. All these songs, and many others, are now collected in a song-book.

Two ever-popular marches celebrate Michigan's prowess in athletics. "The Victors," by Louis Elbel, '96-'99, never fails to thrill a Michigan man when the band comes on the field, ushering in the team to its great strain:

Hail! to the victors valiant, Hail! to the conq'ring heroes, hail!

Hail! to Michigan, The champions of the West.

Though these words are somewhat too grandiloquent for all occasions, the same spirit which inspires the students to bare their heads and sing "The Yellow and the Blue" at all the great football games, whether in victory or defeat, prompts the band to head the students' march back from the field to the stirring strains of this University march, whether its sentiment is justified or not. Hardly less popular is the football song, "Varsity," written by Professor Earl V. Moore, '12, for which the words were furnished by J. Fred Lawton, '11.

Varsity, Down the field, never yield, Raise high your shield!

March on to victory For Michigan, And the Maize and Blue.

Oh, Varsity, we're for you, Here for you, to cheer for you,-- We have no fear for you, Oh, Varsity.

Nor should another exceedingly popular song of the present time be overlooked:

I want to go back to Michigan, To dear Ann Arbor town, Back to Joe's and the Orient, Back to some of the money I spent.

I want to go back to Michigan To dear Ann Arbor town,-- I want to go back; I've got to go back,-- To Michigan.

This song has also been popular at Minnesota, it is said, where, during the long period of Michigan victories in football which was at last broken in 1919, it was sung with the same words but in a somewhat different spirit.

The official colors of the University are maize and azure blue. Blue was used officially by the University from early days; but it was not until the cla.s.s of 1867 chose the maize and azure blue as emblematic of the University that the names of the colors were definitely fixed. As for the colors themselves, they have varied widely, and it was not until 1912 that the exact shades were determined by a committee appointed by the University Senate.

There is little doubt but that originally the colors were a deep blue and the accepted color of Indian corn or maize, as is shown in the ribbons on old diplomas and dance programmes. But gradually the colors faded; the blue particularly, from almost a navy blue to a "baby blue,"

while the maize became an expressionless pale yellow. These colors were entirely ineffective for decorations, and made it necessary for the Athletic a.s.sociation to employ shades entirely different from those generally regarded as the true University colors. It is quite possible that a misinterpretation of the words of the song "The Yellow and the Blue" had something to do with the alteration from the original brighter colors.

An inquiry into what "azure blue" really was, soon revealed the fact that it was generally defined as the clear blue color of the sky or of the sea reflecting it, and was further described as that of the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli. Cobalt and prussian blue were also given as synonyms. With this clear definition in mind, the committee was able to fix the colors, and Michigan now has a clear deep blue and the yellow of Indian corn, with the exact shades officially fixed by samples preserved among the University's records.

CHAPTER X

FRATERNITIES AND STUDENT ACTIVITIES

Clubs and societies, organized for almost every conceivable purpose, lay and academic, have always played an important role in undergraduate affairs and have formed the most characteristic avenue for self-expression outside the cla.s.s room. Many, if not most, of these organizations have had only a brief existence. Others, in one form or another, have continued through long periods, and have often exercised a strong, though not always an obvious, influence in the whole fabric of university life. Within the last twenty-five years, too, athletics have come to have a predominant interest, but this aspect of student life at Michigan will be discussed in a separate chapter. Aside from the organizations which have accompanied this overwhelming preoccupation of the masculine student, probably the most conspicuous evidence of the gregarious tendencies of the undergraduate have been the fraternities, and following the introduction of co-education, the sororities, as they soon came to be called. After the great struggle between the Faculty and the fraternities which culminated in 1850, the fraternities came to have an acknowledged place in undergraduate affairs. New chapters soon followed after the first three had made their place secure and within thirty years or so several of the older societies had grown sufficiently in prestige, and particularly in alumni support, to begin the practice of owning their own fraternity houses that has now become the rule. The first thought, nowadays, of any newly established fraternity is to find ways and means for building or buying a chapter house.

At first, nearly two-thirds of the students were fraternity members; but the extraordinary growth of the University soon reduced the proportion of fraternity men. This came partly as a result of the relative slowness of the national bodies to establish new chapters in compet.i.tion with the societies already on the ground, and partly because of the reluctance of the fraternities themselves to increase the size of their chapters or to take in students from the purely professional schools. For these reasons the percentage of fraternity men was reduced to about one-third the total number of students, a proportion which remained fairly constant for many years. The rise of fraternities in the professional schools and the comparatively recent establishment of many new fraternities, however, has brought the percentage up somewhat, though the growth in general attendance during the same period has prevented any marked increase in the relative numbers of fraternity members over the "independents."

Following the establishment of the first three fraternities, Chi Psi and Beta Theta Pi in 1845 and Alpha Delta Phi in 1846, whose early adventures have been noted, some twenty-eight other general fraternities have been established. Among the first of these were Delta Kappa Epsilon, 1855; Sigma Phi, 1858; Zeta Psi, 1858; Psi Upsilon, 1865; Beta Theta Pi, which had lapsed and was re-established in 1867; Delta Tau Delta, 1874, re-established 1900; Phi Kappa Psi, 1875; Delta Upsilon, 1876; Sigma Chi, 1877; Phi Delta Theta, 1864, re-established in 1887; Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 1888, and Theta Delta Chi in 1889. Since 1890 this list has been more than doubled and includes the re-establishment in 1902 of Phi Gamma Delta originally established in 1885, and Alpha Tau Omega first established in 1888 and re-established in 1904.