Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-06-19
BelOit College.

Inc traveller on Jne y. ~ n. w.
railway, or on the c. Nj. q St z. rail-
way through the city of Beloit, sees at
distance a group of buildings not
specially noteworthy for architecture.
except one. the beautiful Memorial
Hall. The traveller who stops tn the
city and climbs the bluff overlooking
rock river, in which the college build
ings are located, sees beautiful park.
set with trees, without a fence, and
studded thick with Indian mounds. A
number of brick aud frame buildings,
intended for use more than beauty,
with the exception named above, are
scattered irregularly about the
twenty acres or Whereabouts. One of
these is the John f. Smith Observatory
which next to the Washburn Observa-
tory is the best in the state, the gift of
Mrs Herrick, of Madison, in memory
of her brother, whose property, ac-
quired IN Wisconsin iron mine She in
herited. The college has not been rich,
and has not been able to put much
money in the luxury of architecture.
The casual traveller would turn
away without any very strong impress
sion about the college. But to one who
knows that schools do not consist of
brick and mortar, but of men with
heads and hearts, the most important
inquiry would still remain: what has
Beloit college dore in the way of train
ing men? President Garfield said that
a wooden bench in log school house,
with Mark Hopkins at one end as teach
er, and himself at the other end as pu-
pill, would be better college for him
than all the wealth of Harvard college
with inferior teachers. 1t is the glory
and strength of Beloit college that its
managers have held firmly to this truth
Beginning when Wisconsin was yet
territory, there are still three men in its
teaching force who began with the col
lege. or just after its beginning Pres.
A. l.. Chaplin, Prof. Joseph Emerson
and Prof. VIM. Porter No such group
exists in any other western college.
President Chaplin is the senior college
president of this country, having been
much longer in service than any other,
east or west, and very few college pro-
fessors nave served as long as Prof En-
erson or Prof. Porter. To the faithful,
skillful service of these three men more
than to any other one cause. is due the
steady growth of the college. Others
have come and gone; some are there,
like Prof. Blaisdell, who have been
long in service and have endeared
themselves to several generations of
students. But these men have laid the
foundation, and what is not often given
to foundation builders, now enjoy the
fruit of th0r labors in their old age
In our restless age this is an instructive
and refreshing spectacle. 1t teaches
us the value and dignity of faithful
work in one place amid all temptations
to change. 1t is only parralelled in
this state dy the record of trustee of
Beloit college, Rev. DR., Eaton, of Lam
easter, who has been pastor of the Con-
gregational church in that place thirty
five years.
The college is endowed with a fair
property. about one hundred and fifty
thousand dollars, enough TO guarantee
its existence even with the greatly re-
ducded rates Of interest; but the college
needs u larger fund TO do its work to
the best advantage. Next to the state
university ii is the largest and best
equipped college in the state. A diff
erencc of opinion exists among the truS-
tees, the professors. and the graduates
upon the subject of admitting ladies
to the privilege of the college, mi
nority tayoring it but a majority oppos-
ing it, mainly upon the ground of the
friendly relations of the college with
Rockford Female Seminary, eighteen
Il So al. ~.
admission of ladies would increase the
number of students more than one half
at very little expense to the college.
AS the experiment of mixed colleges is
no longer an experiment, the old argu-
ments against admitting ladies are not
heard very much. But the feeling of
courtesy to Rockford Female College
at Fox Lake. will undoubtedly prevent
the admission Of ladies, at least in this
generation.
The curriculum of the college is re-
markable for one thing. There is a
thorough classical course, and phil
osophical course parallel to it. and re-
curing just as much study, though not
in the same line, to enter it, and to
graduate from it, The writer does not
know of college in this or any other
state where this is true. Everywhere
else even at Yale and HARVARD the
scientific or literary or modern CLASH
cal courses are letting down of the
standards required for admission or
graduation, or both. BelOit college has
set nm example. without making any
parade about il, that viii have to be
initiated sometime by other colleges
One principal cause, if not the only
cause of the superiority of the classi-
cal courses generally TO those other
courses, is that they are longer, harder.
training his mind better, because of the
longer and harder exercise. The cur
ricuum of Beloit thus presents the first
example of course, of study in col
legc requiring as much time and labor
rs the classical course, and free from
the objection SO prevalent now to the
study of Greek. 1t answers the de
mands of the earnest student, who does
not want Greek, without letting down
the course of study to satisfy those
who wish college diploma on easier
terms.
The objection is sometimes made that
the small colleges of the west, because
OF their poverty, cannot do as good
work as Weather and larger institu-
tons In fact, however, where wes-
tern college is so well manned as Beloit,
the advantage is in its favor. In Il
large college the teaching is half of it
done by teachers who are young men,
serving their apprenticeship. In Beloit
the teaching is actually all done by
skillful professors. \ large college is
apt to be filled up with rich men sons,
who have not the incentive to study
that those have who know that their
future depends upon their college
teachings, and who have many tempta-
tons to dissipation, which the posses
/ sion Of money often brings, and who
thus lower the intellectual and moral
tone of the college The bulk of the
/ students at Beloit have been poor, or of
moderate means The writer could tell
stories of how he and friends of his
worked and economical T. get an edu-
! cation at Beloit, that would sound in
4 credible. even To Beloit students, to-day,
/ He has since had occasion to compare
+ the work done in professional schools
/ by eastern and western students, with a
+ result not unfavorable to the students
/ from Beloit and other western colleges.
i In all tests of scholarship or OF mental
/ vigor, they more than held their own.
In another way this may be shown,
\ by the work done by the students Of Be
/ lott. The college is hardly old enough
4 vet to make this quite a fair comparl-
II.