Academy student, demonstrated his ability at illustration and caricature which were later to win him wide acclaim.
Colgate achieved notice and commendation as a “singing college”
in the 1900’s. Among a freshman’s first obligations was to learn the growing number of Colgate songs. Village merchants, the Madisonensis, and the student bookstore distributed song sheets, especially during the football season when classrooms often rang with singing before the business of the day started. Several students tried their hand at producing new songs. None was as successful as Lindol E. French, ’02, who had in mind the music of the popular ballad “Juanita”
as he wrote the words “When through thy valley…”
in 1904. He knew nothing of their enthusiastic acceptance until he discovered at a football game some time later the students were singing them as the “Alma Mater”
and as such they have remained.Conversation, Lindol E. French, ’04, and H.D.W., June 12, 1937.
The YMCA program attracted considerable support. It included: publishing the Student’s Handbook, i.e. Frosh Bible; the annual reception for freshmen in September; prayer meetings; and Bible study classes. Attendance at chapel was required but Sunday church services in the village had long since become voluntary. In the spring of 1908 student religious interest was quickened by a series of meetings held in the Baptist Church by a traveling evangelist.
Public speaking contests inspired a great deal of enthusiasm. Inter-class debates were encouraged, particularly as training grounds for intercollegiate rivalry. The first intercollegiate debate seems to have been with Cornell in 1904. Colgate, represented by members of its first debating club, won the decision. The Lewis, Rowland and Grout oratorical prizes were eagerly sought after. The chief public speaking contests received as detailed and enthusiastic reporting in the Madisonensis as the major games on the gridiron, diamond, or court.
For about a decade after the middle 90’s student efforts at play production seem to have been nonexistent. Whether their interests were diverted in other directions or whether James B. Colgate’s hostility to the stage thwarted them is not known. In 1905, about a year after his death, they produced a comedy and a few months later organized a dramatic club which gave new life to this activity.
Several of the theologues organized the Jonathan Wade Union about