Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1897-11-26
A COLLEGE HISTORY.
"OLD MlDOLEBURY" AND HER LONG
YEARS OF SERVICE.

Iromise-ManN advantages OHefeu the
Prospective Student-A Pleasant Home
Life and Thorough Instruction.
The following article on Mddlebury
college is extracted from the Chicago
Inter. Ocean of Aug. %, 1897:
1t was away back in 1900 that the
legislature of Vermont gave the desired
charter of incorporation to certain petit
tioners and Middlebury college entered
on its work. The site chosen could
hardly have been more delightful. From
a rise of ground in the village whose
name it bears and whose chief attraction
it has been through all the years, the
college looks out on landscape of ex-
ceptional beauty. "The little college
among the mountains" it was called by
ex-Minister Z. j. Phelps in speech at
Harvard dinner; it was happy phrase,
for mountains are the background both
east and west. At the foot of the hill
flows the Otter, its shaded waters for
miles above cut for generations by the
prows Of undergraduate boats. Four
miles eastward across the rolling valley
rise the first of the Green Mountains,
with peaks of the farther ranges lifted
here and there above them. Westward
beyond Lake Champlain the Adirondacks
make a noble barrier; the highest noun
tains of the group are almost opposite,
Marcy, thirty-seven miles in an airline
from the college belfry, pushing up its
perfect cone beyond the shoulder of Dix.
The air gives evidence of where it comes
from: it is full of the vigor it imparts.
Visitors grow ashamed of ravenous APP
petites and gain in weight with the days,
while student capacity, everywhere
great, rises permanently to the phenom-
enal. Surely, as far as location goes
there is little left to desire.
But surroundings do not make col
lege. Output is, of course, the supreme
test, and it is on output that Middlebury
has ever, and with reason, felicitated
herself. 1t is matter for congratula-
ton that in the collegiate data published
in The Forum a while ago by President
Thwing of Western Reserve University,
she ranks among the leaders in the per
centum of graduates who have attained
distinction. Her "bead roll is indeed
proud one. TO Silas Wright among
statesmen, Henry n. Hudson among
men of letters, John G.. SAKE among
poets, Edward j. Phelps among jurists,
and Truman NJ. Post among pulpit
orators, could be added many another,
did space permit, to illustrate her dis
tinctive product, "the Middlebury man."
The century has not gone by without
vscssitudes, but the high reputation of
the college was early established. 1t is
a current story that when Mark Hop
klns assumed the presidency of Williams
he declared that if he could bring the
institution up to the standard of Middle
bury he would be abundantly satisfied;
and one year in the later '30's the grad
uating class of Middlebury is said to
have outnumbered that of Harvard. The
war, however, made inroads on the col
lege directly proportoned to undergrad
uate loyalty. To many students their
country seemed a "dearer mother" anI
how they responded to her call has been
shown in recently published article by
Colonel A. f. Walker. Colonel Walker
himself enlisted before graduation and
on commencement day rode in from
where his company was stationed, de-
liyered his Grafton in soldiers dress, and
returned directly afterward to camp.
The damaging effects of the war,
though, have gradually been overcome
and prosperity is again apparent. The
work done within the college walls was
never so substantial and progressive as
it is today. The courses of study COM
bine the required and the elective in a
way productive of gratifying results.
The faculty contains able and energetic
men, in the prime of life, and devoted to
the welfare of the institution. Year by
year the wooded campus gains in beauty
and the returning alumnus finds min
gled with the old familiar landmarks the
abundant evidence of growth. Best of
all, for by it the rest is rendered posi-
BILE, the endowment steadily increases.
1t is the firm belief of those who know
the situation best that no other college
in the country can equal Middlebury's
record of achievement, when the small
ness of her income is taken into account.
1t is a record of whole-hearted devotion
and business sagacity, of which her
friends may well be proud.
Middlebury lives up to the limit of her
income; unlike great numbers of them,
though, especially in these troubled
times, she does not live beyond it, and
the past three years have seen additions
of some S300000 to her productive
funds. The latest is one of $37 800 for
the department of political science, a
bequest from the late James B. Jermain
of Albany, whose will has during the
past week been made public. Besides
the improvements already inaugurated
as a result of growing means, others are
confidently anticipated. 1t is hoped that
the coming centennial will see the dedica-
tion of a new library building. Plans
for it have already been prepared under
the direction of DR.. IL. II. Vail of New
York, a member of the class of go and
an official of the American Book COM
DanV: If theV matprIalize in stona Mid