The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-10-05
A New High Water Mark
of Attendance in Sight.
HE TOWN AND PEOPLE
A DAY AMONG THE BOYS AND
THE PROFESSORS.
A LIVE BUSINESS COMMUNITY
And Live and Progressive University Town
The New Alumni Hall and Other Hill
Items of Interest.

Items OF Interest.
Chanel Hill, Oct. 1.-(Staff Cores
~cndence-A very prominent and
much.vrayeled gentleman said to me
uome DAYS ago that if some benevolent
friend should offer him two palatinl
Aomes in towns of his own selection. he
vould take one of them IN Washington
CITY and the other in Chapel Hill.
At Washington City more than four
Hundred Congressman meet every year
10 make laws aud to make life and nc
siyity for the nations capital. AT Chapel
Hill more than four hundred young
gentlemen meet to learn how TO make
laws and to add life and activity to the
venerable old university town. These
htter are not Congressman, but about
two-thirds of them expect to be. aud
some of them will be.
These Congressman that go annually
20 Washington come from every section
of this great Republic, and they carry
to Washington a great volume OF social,
intellectual and political significance tha.
is at all times interesting. These four
Aundred and sixty boys that are COM
ing annually to Chapel Hill come from
every section of our great State and
from adjoining States, and they bring
to the University town a volume of So
cial and intellectual excellence that
makes the old Hill a charming place to
visit or to live in. If Benjamin II. An
drews Of Brown University; Theo. f..
Dwight, of Yale; Chas. ID. Elliott. of
Princeton; Dr. e. A. Alderman, of
Chapel Hill. and Paul Barringer, of the
University of Virginia, had been living
at the time and had been constituted a.
a committee to select a site for the Uni
versity of North Carolina, they would
very likely have recommended the very
spot on which it stands. and has stood
for these hundred years and more. In
all the broad area Of this grand old
Commonwealth with its valleys and
mountains and picturesque plains and
plateaux, there is not spot upon which
nature has layished greater advantages.
Chapel Hell: Named for the old gather
ing place of god.y men and women be-
fore the Republic was born: set upon n
high plateau in the midst of a splendid
forest of majestic trees, overlooking
rolling, rollicking landscape. gorgeansly
robed in the tangled green of field
and wildwood, famed by vernal winds
and drained by creeks that smile and
Eavines along the banks Of which bloom.
IS sweet flowers as were ever tinted by
sunshine and showers.
Chapel Hill-the dream Of Mitchell,
Swain, Hooper, Philips-the realization
Of Battle. Winston. Manning. Alderman
1.-The hope and inspiration Of tie
heroes of old, the heritage Of the youth
Of today.
II was student at the University
today / would insist upon a college
Yell that had Chapel Hill in it. or
course, it's the University-our Univer-
Gity. but it is Chapel Hill ALSO And this
dear old name has been immortalized in
nnusic in the stirring old chapel Hill
serenade," and played on ten thousand
fddles in ten thousand Tar Heel homes.
Last week / spent two days at Chapel
Hill. The boys had arrived--four hun
bred and sixty of them. The col |
lege was theirs, the campus was theirs,
the town was theirs. the libraries, the
society halls, the recitation halls. the
professors-were all theirs. and best /
Of all the opportunity is theirs
to gather at the alma mater Of their !
Gires, and learn Of men who are in
touch and in accord with the scholarly
requisites of the day and the tine. The
University of North Carolina in 1857
registered 461 students. This was high. ?
water mark and the record has re-
NAMED unbroken until this year. 1t now
has, l am told, more than AGO students
registered, and the indications are that
enough others will soon appear to break
the record Of 80 and pave the way for
. new high-water mark celebration.
] heard a prominent educator say a
few days ago that If he was the prcsi-
dent Of the University of North Caro-
lima and a man came to him with an
argument against the aid that is pro-
vided by the State he would simply
point to these 400 North Carolina boys
and say, There is my answer to your
argument Until you have answered this
volume of testimony to the value of the
University to the youth of our State, /
have nothing else to say"
There are many reasons why the
fathers of North Carolina send the boys
to Chapel Hill, the first and foremost
reason IS because they have got them
to send. Another reason is because
Chapel Hill is their own institution. Still
another and a paramount reason is that
the thoughtful trustees of the Uniyer-
sity have placed here a faculty equal to
any in the land, and still another and
q good reason is that the local advan-
tages and healthful environment are con.
ductiye to the moral, physical and IN
tellectual growth of the student, and
then, too, thsre is a deep and abiding
love and veneration for the old instit,l-
ton. 1t took root in the minds of North
Carolnians in the infancy of the com
monwealth and has increased and
grown stronger as the wears
have gone by. The love that the former
students bear to this institution is as
Beautiful and as lasting as the affection
of fhe famous class, of which Oliver
Wendell Holmes was q member. bore to
Harvard. If you meet a man, no matter
his age anywhere whose good fortune
classic halls, you VIII find that his love
Is as fresh and as strong as the love
the young men here bear to their alma
mater. There is only this difference: it
rs mingled with tenderness and warmth
III the old alumni that manifests itself
In generation and pride in the young
matriculates.
There are no prettier grounds any,
-Xllere for great school than VEN find |
at Chapel Hill. The old oaks that M
ture planted. the old elms thnt the pow
ers planted are still here. The old halls
that the fathers built. the old stone
walls that the lamented Mitchell con-
sfrncf4d-these together with the new
Dnildings that have gone mp during re-
cent years. the new walks and drives
that hive been laid ont and graded and