Semper Victurus
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The student body
of 1893, in front of the Main Building steps, with the youngest, the
minins, in front. |
"Disce Quasi Semper
Victurus Vive Quasi Cras Moriturus"
("Study like you will live forever; live like you will die
tomorrow".)
Starting in the late 1870's, this rather intimidating phrase was the
Scholastic Magazine credo. Ironically, the Scholastic
proved to be the vehicle which has allowed the daily experiences of Notre
Dame
students during the past 150 years to truly "live forever".
Scholastics
are a virtual gold mine of Notre Dame history, and more importantly, of
insight
into the daily lives of its students. These first hand reports of campus
life,
written by student reporters, give a candid and personal view of important
(and trivial) events on the Notre Dame campus. Joe Madonia, an '82 alum
and partner in the Chicago law firm of Wildman, Harrold, Allen & Dixon,
will edit a monthly column of excerpts from his rare and wonderful
collection of
original Scholastic Magazines spanning the period from 1869 - 1931.
Semper Victurus - This edition will feature excerpts taken from the
archives of Notre Dame's campus magazine, The Scholastic, about Notre
Dame student life in the 1870s.
Student life may not have changed over the years as much as we might
imagine. While some of the excerpts from the September, 1873 Scholastic
obviously are somewhat unique, many of them sound as if they could have been
written last week. Many however, are truly historic:
- Very Reverend Father Sorin arrived by the lake shore road
Wednesday morning, in apparently excellent health, and we hope, as glad to
see us as we are rejoiced to have him again amongst us. The sea voyage was
long and tedious, constant head winds lengthening out the trip to twelve
days and a half, but fortunately he escaped the terrible storms that wrecked
so many vessels on the coast of New Foundland.
- Our thanks to Rev. Father Corby for the invitation to the laying of
the cornerstone of the new church. We hope the Rock of Cashel may bring
cash sufficient to finish the edifice from the foundation to the top of the
steeple.
- Great slaughter is being made of the rats. Their ranks are
already quite thinned, and they cannot bring forth the extensive armies they
could some months ago, before Bros. Wilfred and Augustus undertook the
command of their enemies and commenced planning ambushes.
- The question of whether smokers have any rights which the rest of
the world are bound to respect has never been entirely settled since tobacco
first became known to the civilized world. One would think they had not, by
the cooly contemptuous way they are treated by the public.
- We are not sure, but we think that by their licence saloon
keepers or bartenders are explicitly forbidden to sell liquor to
minors...selling liquor to young boys is a crime and an abomination, and the
heartless knaves who do it should be publicly exposed and meet their due.
- Some folks whose bump of destructiveness seems extraordinarily
developed, have maliciously destroyed several of the young trees around St.
Joseph's Lake.
- Heavy winds continue to whistle about us. They have delayed the
baseball season (and the croquet season too, we presume) to some extent.
- Long walks and omnibus rides are much in vogue. The French classes
and the Botany classes have had their excursions during the past
week...these little picnic's promote a healthy appetite and impart increased
vivacity to our mirth loving girls, whose studies and duties compel them to
be quiet during so many hours of their daily routine.
- A game of baseball was played on Wednesday between the Star of the
East and the Juanita baseball clubs in which the latter came out victorious
by a score of 53 to 32.
- After much forbearance, the President of the University had to
resort to the protection of the law against those unprincipled individuals
who, with full knowledge of the law and its penalties, do not scruple to
serve drink to our students who may be allowed to go into the city. It is
always with reluctance that we give any student permission to go to town.
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