The San Francisco call., 1904-03-01

BERKELEY, Feb. 29.-Student La
Dor day has come and gone and there
are more blistered hands and aching
backs and creaking limbs in Berkeley
tonight than ever were dreamed of
within the precincts of a Sunderland
disturbed by a stampede of Nightmares.
The whole student body is suffering
and the plague that poor Job suffered
in the ancient days is as nothing to the
visitation that has swept over the
campus of the University of California.
Primarily, it was the picks and shov
els and wheelbarrows that induced all
this physical discomfort. With these
humble instruments of progress did
these intellectual laborerS of the uni
versitye wound themselves Nand all for
the glory of serving their alma mater
and absorbing a "hand-out" with pie as
an entree from the fingers of some fair
coed.
Altogether the thing was more of a
success than the heads of affairs had
bargained for. There were predictions
that it would all be more or less a
farce Some estimated that there
would be more shirkers and skulkers
than shovelers and wheelbarrowers,
and bets were laid that the work would
have TO be done all over again.
But nothing of the kind for when the
bugIe sent it's clear, glad tones across
the campus at o'clock this morning
there were more student workmen on
hand than there were picks and shovels
for. The laborers outnumbered the i'm
plements, so that the bosses had to
make water carriers and horses and
more bosses out of the surplus. Even
the most conservative say that there
were 1900 men at work.
GAUNTLET FOR PICKMEN.
For all the fuming and sweating and
grunting that was made there might
have been 1900 workmen. At least,
that is the way it seemed to most of
the spectators. These men of much
brain and little Drawn were spread out
in three or four groups and the OBJ
server might not go anywhere hardly
without running a gauntlet of pickmen.
There was any amount of rough
housing" and rioting to give Zest to
the employment, and the wonder is
that it did not all wind up in one of
those old-time "rushes'' that the fac
ulty is so much set against: Every lit
tie while some student thieved away
with an emblem or implement of a
rival college and made for the high
ground with the whole of the outraged
pack of rivals after him. Away they
would go, their work all forgotten, to
remain until the chase ended in victory
lOoal
eye to business sent many gal
Ions of lemonade to wet the throats of
the workers, but this met an awful
fate when the crowd made rush for
it, most of it in the struggle going
down to swell the volume of Strawber-
ry Creek.
But in spite of the rough housing and
inattention to strict duty something
was accomplished. Twelve hundred
men can do lot in a day, even if some
Of them do soldier" and all that they
set out to do was done. For one thing.
there is good, new path on the south
side of East Hall and the Chemistry
building, leading from the Botany
building TO the College-avenue gate 1t
is now five feet wide, inlaid with yell
low gravel and fitted with cutters of
the proper depth.
PATH TO FACULTY CLUB.
Then leading from this is a new
path that connects the high road with
the Faculty Club. This path is sup
ported with stones that were dredged
from the bottom of the creek and piled
up in the proper order. A long line of
workmen passed these stones along
from one to another out of the creek
until they reached their destination on
the road, where they were finally fitted
into place.
Over on the Hillegass tract there are
two new paths, both of them very nee
essary to the students who pass from
the main buildings to Hearst Hall and
the physiological laboratory. One leads
from the creek bottom directly to
Hearst Hall and the other is a branch
from it to the laboratory.
The gravel for all these paths was
Dut through screening process before