The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1876-06-21
ONE OF THE OLD BOYS.
He Attends Commencement at
the State University.
HIS OBSERVATIONS.

SOME DELIGHTFUL REMNIsCENCEs OF THE
OLD BOYS AND OLD TIMES AT BLOOMING
ToN-soMETHING ABOUT THE TOWN, THE
COLLEGE, STUDIES, LOAFERs, GIRLS AND
PROFESSORS.
To the Editor OF the Sentinel:
Sir-HersI am again in this gay little
Indiana hub, going through the festivi-
ties of commencement week. AS the door
of the court room closed behind me ] shut
out all thought of interpleaders and null
tiel corporations, of general denisls and
demurrers, and nimble-footed memory
carried me back twenty syears ago and
more, when you and were school-boys
in Bloomington. A vision OF glory arose
before my eyes. I saw a hundred or
more bright, vivscious, witty, intelligent,
learned youths gathered in the Old college
campus, and l was OF the number. AS
the train, with its ceaseless clacA, c'ack,
clsck; clack, clsck, clsck, carried
me along, kept company with these
" uths, recited with them, L debated with
| them, quarreled with them, 1 cracked
Jokes with them. dreamed OF the future
with them. Ahi what glorious time i
| did have with themi You were OF the
tbrong, Mr.. Editor. with your fair hair,
| brown ewes and white hat; John Foster,
with bis fair hair and his smart dress, was
feat the rival fraternity rs in the "long
ago." Lint Taylor, with his white head,
| playing bis practical Jokes, was there; and
so was "Big Miller" q sort OF mastif on
whom no one dared play q practical joke
after Lint bad once tried it with no boast
and MAT" with their eyes all black
and blue. Don't you remember
the fight? and oh, so many more. "Bob L."
"HaI Bal, !" "Giant," Greasy" "OId He
die, ""Rssh," Little Miller, ""O'd Much"
''Lyte," "Jsck, Jake" "Tom," "Dick,"
"Bob," ct id omne genus. AS the train
slowed up in reaching the depot here, j
locked out OF the window, and somehow
I expected to see the same boyish faces,
the same ''iDgenious youths, !" and receive
the same bo sterously cordial welcome
that saw and received at the same place
over twenty years ago. But alas!
MY DREAM WAS BROKEN
The opal tinted clouds in my vision van
ished, and as L stepped upon the platform,
a stripling grssped me hand, and in an
eager, respectful tone, said, "Why, father,
am so glad to see you." Father! To be
sure. am no boy, no college student
sm father, and have come to see aud hear
my boy as he spouts his drivel-
ing nonsense on commencement day,
like / did more than twenty years
before him. Somehow, Mr.. Editor, feel
that Bloomineton has driited far away
from me since the time when we bid fare
we'll to the academic sbades." A good Y
number of the same houses are still stanO-
| ing. / wonder if the present generation OF
students call those where the students
lodge "forIs," as we did. Let me SEE, there
| was Fort BstttrtoD," "Fort Williams"
"ForE Moore," Fort Benedict" "Fort
Wsus," Fort Christian" that 1 now re-
member aud / see few of the old faces
yet, but the promising young men, the
young men of genius, b b, and ths beau
| ful girls-I tell you they are not there;
ley are all gone. Bloomington is not the
same dear old Bloomington 1t was, and as
walk the broad and we'll paved street
they now call college avenue" but
which we csllad "the street, in the OLD
days, 1 see it all plainly enough
Do you remember the tannery al
street" to the college, anu don'G you re-
member the Whit of bad air" from the de-
caying hides, the lime and the tsn-bsrk
| which always greeted your nostrils as you
passed? Well, the tsnnery is zone and q
| large and elegantly finished public school
building stands in it's place, aud the odor
| from the tsnnery, to which from it's sur
roundings we attributed a sort of classical
smell, is thing OF the past. "Old Unkey"
is gone, too; be who was a sort OF a town
Stentor, who would have been impudent
IL he had not been old, and who, as IL was,
barely g. cspsd being called by some, an
"old fool," he too is gone. / remember
| seeing MIN about the court house acting as
q bsilff, ard can hear bis "Walk light,
gentlemenl" now. / think the sound OF
his voice must be lingering in the air here
yet. 1t was more like
THE BLAST FROM TROMBONE
than anything 1 know of, only it lacked
the music that the trombone blast is sup
posed to contain. With the disappearance
oil "Old Uokty" the infinite bumor that
was supposed by the Bloomingtonisns OF
his day to be wrapped up In his my thicsl
"Jake Sourrright," is altogether forgot
ten. "JaKe S.uI bright" was q creature oi
''Old Uokey's" creation and be became a
sort of local Tom Collins, but j IKE Sour
bright's name Is never mt re heard, unless
IL be in the still hours of the night when
the few old people lett can hear, IN imsgi-
nation pos siDly, the voice of "OId Unkey"
blurtiDg 1t out In the mid night air.
suppose you RENE mber the Bloomington
loaiers of our day? No man who ever
saw them come out In iull force and take
pos 'ession of Tarkipgton's corner, their
isvorite stam ping ground. could ever for
get them. There they coDgregste daily,
and there they spit and Whitfield and leered
at tie women wno passed, aud ke' t sbarn
look out for the occasional treats that II
to L1eir lot. They were as princ-Iy set OF
dead beats as any town ever produced, but
th' y too have vanished. 1 lock in vain
for a single lace tnat used tn be seen In
their crowd on TarkiDgton's corner, and as
/ walk the rounds OF the public square and
look into the old familiar door-wsss, some
of which used to stand so invitingly open
to Us young fellows, aud see Dsught but
strange faces. and then look over at the
little Old-fashioned court house W hich
has rec. ntly bseu surm0unted by great
overs ID modsrn spre,
| Il feel like one who treads alone
/ Some banquet NJ II deserted;
Who~e lights are fed, whose garlands desd
| And all but me departed."
Bot this II all a secret, Mr.. Z iitoT-a Sc
xuh II a 10 frafr