Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-07
SINGING At AMHERST
More Attention Given to 1t There
Than at Most Colleges.
CONTESTS HELD EVERY MAY
Prize Awarded by a Committee of
Alumni.
PURSUING THE STATUE SABRINA
Efagy Weighing $50 Pounds the Butt
of Ridicule and Subject Of
Student Mischief.
CONTESTS HELD EVERY MAY
THE STATUE sABRINA
BY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence of The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.

Record Herald
AMHERST, Mass, July 2. 1907.
More attention is given to singing at Am
herst than at any other college except. per-
haps. Yale and Oberlin. Besides the regu-
lar department of music under Prof. Bige-
low. of whom 1 spoke the other day. in
which the students are trained individually
and as a chorus, each class has its own
musical organization and regular rehear-
sals and in May every year there Is a
saengerfest, a singing tournament, be-
tween the four classes for a prize of $50
offered by the class of 1884. The rivalry
is very keen. The singing men in all the
classes rehearse continuously during the
winter to prepare themselves for this trial,
which takes place on a beautiful evening
in May, under the trees upon the campus,
with the audience. composed of the faculty
and their families, the village people and
the non-singng undergraduates, seated
around upo nthe grass. The contest is con-
Quoted under the supervision of COM
mittee of the alumni who award the prize,
and original compositions of merit sung
by any of the classes bring them extra
credit. The best of the Amherst songs.
both words and music, have been written
by undergraduates, many of them for these
occasions.
Each class sings twice. The seniors have
the first and the last turns; the Juniors
the second and the next to the last; and
the sophomores and freshmen come in be-
tween them.
There is a good deal Of rivalry among
the fraternities in singing and the MEM
bers practice great deal.
Prize College Song.
The class of "a recently offered prize
l. for the best college song, which was
awarded to James Shelley Hamilton of
the class of 1906. who is now taking post
graduate course and expects to become
teacher. He wrote both the music and
words, which are as follows:
Oh, Lord Godfrey Amherst was soldier Of the
And he came from across the sea.
To the Frenchmen and the Indians he didn't do
thing,
In the W Wiids Of Of this this wild wild Country
And for His Royal Majesty he fought with all his
For be was soldier loyal and true.
And he CONQUERED all the enemies that came within
| And he looked around for when he was
through.
CHORUS
Twas a name known to fame In days of yore;
MAY 1t ever be glorious tn
Oh. Lord Godfrey Amherst was the man who gave
To our college upon the hill,
Abides here among STILL
Abides here among still.
You may talk about your Johnnies and your Ellis
For they are names that time will never dim.
But give US our only Godfrey, he's the nobest and
the best
To the end we will stand fast for him.
Hamilton's song is being quite widely
circulated and Is sung in the neighboring
colleges.
Statue of Sabr1na.
The Amherst students have a curious
mascot unlike that of any other college. In
1857 Joel Hayden Of Haydenville presented
the college with a bronze statue of the god
dess Sabrina, which was erected upon a
low stone pedestal upon the campus mid
way between North College and the Octa-
gon, and formed centerpfece OF a beauti-
full botanical garden then maintained by
the department of botany.
Sabrina was an ancient goddess in Brit
ain, who presided over the River Severn In
which she found her death According to
the legends told by Godfrey Of Monmouth
In his Historic Britonum.' a band of
Trojans, led by Brutus. great-grandson of
Aeneas. came to England and founded the
city of London. Brutus was succeeded in
command by his son Locrne. who divorced
his wife Gwendolen, and she. In revenge,
drowned her daughter, the beautiful Sa-
brina The latter was def1ed and became
the Goddess of the Silver Lake Milton, in
Comus. refers to her:
'.Sabrina fair,
Listen where thou art sitting
Under the CLASSY, cool, translucent wave
In twisted braids of lilies knitting
The loose train OF thy amber dropping hair;
Listen for dear honor's sake,
Goddess Of the Silver Lake.
Listen and saver.