Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1898-03-03
CHAPTER L

Commencement day Is, so to speak,
resurrection day In the good old college
town Of Shingleton, set among the red
clay hills and the sweet smelling pines
that belong to one Of the oldest coun-
ties In the state Of Mississippi.
On commencement day there is a
general uprising Of the population,
sparse and scattered as it is, to SEQ that
Shingleton does credit to itself and hon
or to the college
Poor and rich, humble and haughty,
from the bakers baby burdened wife up
to the presidents childless "lady," ev-
cry one makes common cnr.9 1T the an
nual and stirring climax to year of
somewhat languid intellectual exertion.
Local pride and feminine ingenuity
are evoked confidently and exercised
without stint 1t is only once year
that Shingleton challenges public atten-
tion. and it strenuously endeavors to
pose respectfully on that one important
date, putting out Of sight, as far as pos
sible, every indication Of its ordinary
out at heelnesa
Shingleton frankly admits that its
everyday methods may be open to crit
icism and is mildly convinced that In q
hand to hand contest for municipal lau-
rels with any one Of the half dozen
plebeian little towns that have sprung
up since it reached its majority 1t
would very likely come of second If
not third best
But the staid old college town does
not mediate any such unseemly contest
with the villages whose mushroom ao-
tivities are an offense in its nostrila
Shingleton stands upon its dignity in
an attitude Of perpetual aloofness from
Its neighbora
Marks Of age and Of pinching poverty
pit its venerable face deeply. Its paint
less fences, its crumbling brick houses,
its weather stained frame buildings, its
patched and peeling stuoco facades. are
drearily suggestive Of badly pock-
marked old face
II it we're not for the college, Shingle-
ton might have dropped out of the
memory Of every one but the mapmak-
ers long ago But the college is. has
been and will be thing Of today, yes
terday and tomorrow, linking Shingle-
TOM pathetic present with splendid
past and problematical future.
Local pride clusters with considerable
confidence about the two solemn eyed
dingy red brick houses that are set
squarely in the middle Of vast acres Of
untitled and untillable ground in tho
suburbs of the town These houses are
brick and mortar twins The same num-
bei of broad. squat windows in each,
duplicate front doors, clumsy and pom
derous, gloomy suggestions Of Jail facil-
tiles The same number Of blunt top
ped chimneys, whose growth might have
been arrested by cyclones, or whose
stunted proportions might have been
the exponents of the mason's groveling
spirit The same description of low cell
ed. white finished, rectangular apart
ments in each.
One of these time defying creations
is the college proper, the other shelters
the professors families and the board
ing students No ornamental vine or
officious fig tree filings superfluous pro-
lection over the stern fronts Of the two
college houses They rise superior to
all such effete requirements, and all
day long the squat, square window
panes, with their heavy green blinds
plastered against the brick walls. stare
unblinking at the sun.
Equldistant between these two self
sufficient structures Is a small oval In
closure known as "the garden" The
gate to it is always locked and the
whereabouts of the key always an in
scrutable mystery The designer of this
solitary decorative touch evidently had
leanings toward the enduring.
Some unperishing box trees, few
long lived arbor vitns, large laura
mundi or two, tangle Of pink and
white azaleas, long since grown to the
dimensions of trees. all clustered ir-
regularly about the stem Of century
plant whose blossom tide had occurred
but once within the memory Of Shin
gleton. but furnished then n sort Of fio-
raj calendar back to which any event Of
local importance might be referred as
having happened before or after the col
lege century plant had blossomed.
Occasionally gardeners who have been
hired to nip any desultory tendencies on
the part of the rigid shrubs and bushes
within this rigid inclosure have brought
to light specimens Of petrifled wood,
which seem, curiously enough, to be
the most natural product Of the petrified
garden.
These specimens, duly classified and
labeled, have been honored with CON-
Bpicuous places in the rather meager
geological collection which finds ample
accommodation in q small showcase
purchased at milliner' g bankrupt sale.
This collection Of minerals in the show
rase is called the college museum and is
an object Of respectful awe to the viii
lage urchins
Nothing but a barbed wire fence is be-
tween this arid nursery Of learning and
nature in her sweetest, widest, most
riotous mood. Close about the college
grounds great forest trees crowd and
fling soft. thick, soothing shadows far
out over the bare. hot sod of the college
inclosure Wild grapevines and fam
ing "trumpeters' Chamber tumultuous-
ly over the sharp barbs of the fence,
adorning the rain washed gullies about
them with delicate, lacelike tracery Of
green Into the very presence Of the