University of Virginia Library

XXXV. Student Life—Intellectual Side

In the closing issue of the magazine for the session
of 1905–06, the announcement appeared that, in the
future, that periodical would be under the general guidance
of the School of English. The reason for the
transfer was set forth at some length, and not without a
touch of pathetic protest: "We cannot refrain from a
feeling of sadness," remarked the editors, with obvious
sincerity, "when we consider the causes which have made
such a change necessary. As the athletic teams represent
the prowess of a university, so its magazine brings
before the world its intellectual qualities. The mental
achievements of a great university do not depend on athletics,
and the quality of the degrees is not judged by
football victories. We would urge our college men to

spare a little time from the present pursuit of athletics
and social glory for the cultivation of higher ideals."

The magazine had, during several preceding sessions,
been showing a succession of deficits. Indeed, such a
formidable debt had been piled up, in consequence of
the steady shrinkage of patronage, that the alternative
was presented to the two literary societies for decision:
should the manner of publication be altered? or should
the periodical be discontinued? The Kent Memorial
School of English now offered to pay off its accumulated
obligations, and assume all financial responsibility
for its management during a period of three years,
provided that the school was allowed an advisory supervision
of its contents from number to number. When
this period ended, the original contracting parties
promptly agreed to continue the same arrangement for
another session.

The magazine was now edited by a board which had
been chosen by the entire body of subscribers, who
numbered several hundred in all. The other officers
consisted of a treasurer and a manager. No student
was eligible to election on this board, unless he had contributed
two acceptable articles to the pages of that
periodical. Of the staff for 1907–08, only one member
belonged to the School of English,—a proof that the
magazine was really the organ of the whole University,
and not of a single department. From 1908–09 to
1917–18, the editor-in-chief seems to have been a student
from Virginia each year. Seventeen natives of that
State occupied the post of associate editor during this interval,
while the remaining fourteen were from other
commonwealths, with Alabama slightly preponderating.
One of these associate editors had matriculated as from
Minnesota and another as from New Mexico.

The contents of the magazine, during the Ninth Period,
ranged, with a wide flight, through the separate
provinces of fiction, poetry, and essay. How multitudinous
for any single year were the ventures in these
different literary areas may be perceived from an enumeration
for 1908–09,—in the pages of the magazine
for that session, there were printed twenty-three compositions
in fiction, thirty-four in verse, and nineteen in essays.
The corresponding numbers for the following session
were eighteen, thirty-five, and fifteen. The confidence
of the authors in the excellence of their productions,
whether imaginative or didactic, is proven by the
frank attachment of their signatures to them. In
1910–11, the number of compositions in fiction were
twenty-eight, in poetry, thirty-six, and in essays, twelve;
in 1911–12, there were twenty-one pieces of fiction,
thirty-five of verse, and about the same number of
essays; in 1912–13, the corresponding figures were nineteen,
forty-four, and thirteen; in 1914–15, twenty-two,
thirty, and eleven. These enumerations were substantially
representative of the whole of the Ninth Period.

It is to be inferred from the preceding grouping of
facts that imaginative literature was, during this period,
the most popular form in which the creative literary instincts
of the students expressed themselves; and that,
of its several varieties, poetry was the one most frequently
chosen. The homely essay seems to have been
kept in the modest background. This kind of writing
had been supreme in the days of the Seventh Period,
1866–95, and had not lost all its primacy even
during the Eighth, 1895–1904; but, under the influence
of the stimulus which the supervision of the Memorial
School of English gave to the production of imaginative
articles, the essay appears, during the Ninth Period,

to have declined in importance. The poet and the
short-story writer did not entirely succeed in suffocating
the essayist, but, they certainly constrained him to
limit the number of his printed utterances. Excellence
in poetry and fiction demanded more orginality of mind
in a young writer than excellence in normal prose;
and it is possible that these essays of the Ninth Period
are, on the whole, more interesting and more valuable
than the specimens of poetical and fictional invention
preserved between the same covers. All verse, however,
—even that of moderate merit,—possesses, at least
the advantage of being a very good file for giving polish
and precision to style.

There is always an emotion of fascination, if not of
consolation, in discovering what our neighbors think of
us. The editors of the magazine were in an unexcelled
position to find out the precise value set upon
their efforts by their contemporaries,—they had only
to scan the pages of their college exchanges, for, with
the rash confidence of youth, the persons in charge of
these exchanges never shrank from recording, with engaging
candor, their impressions of that periodical. In
one of the numbers of the magazine for the session of
1912–13, the editor-in-chief, with the magnanimity of
conscious superiority, has reprinted some of these impressions.
To one admiring scholastic organ, issued in
far-off Texas, the University of Virginia magazine
seemed to be the "ideal college publication." The
Richmond College Messenger praised it as the "best
of all the exchanges" that came to the table of its sanctum.
The magazine of the University of Oklahoma,
with remarkable generosity, pronounced it to be without
an equal, while the University of Georgia magazine
asserted that its contents always "dispersed the melancholy,

and renewed the brightness, of the world for
its readers." Still another Southern college editor exclaimed
enthusiastically, in the words of Jaques,
"More, prithee more of it;" and a third cheerfully acknowledged
that he always missed his dinner in his eagerness
to read the contents of his copy so soon as it
arrived.

The tone of the foreign comments, however, was not
always laudatory. The editors suspected a touch of
condescension in the references of some of the Northern
periodicals. The Williams College Literary
Monthly, for instance, while refusing to admit its
Southern contemporary to the "ten foot shelf of the
seven magazines which it liked best," yet acknowledged
that that contemporary possessed "a certain standard
excellence." "It is a literary aristocrat that wears its
traditions grandly," said the magazine of the University
of Minnesota, "but it lacks real substance, and every-day
sturdiness." "Its pages," remarked the Carolinian,
"evidence a spirit of scornful dictatorship that is not
in the least pleasing. It suggests a blase, bored, and
condescending air." The Hollins Institute Monthly
and the Randolph-Macon Female College Tattler
united in expressing their disapproval of its short stories,
and when successfully answered, "took refuge,"
said the editors of the University of Virginia Magazine,
scornfully, "behind a chocolate ice-cream soda."

The editors asserted,—no doubt with a correctness
not open to dispute,—that the magazine faithfully reflected
the literary tastes of its patrons. "Every
article which goes into our pages," they remarked in
1915, "is carefully considered in reference to our subscribers,
whose likes and dislikes have been carefully
studied. Every man who can write is asked to hand

in matter. By making the contributor work this material
over and over, a story or essay can be converted
into good copy. We try to show the young writer
where he is going wrong from the view-point of the
public. In this way, the magazine has decided educational
value."

It is to be noticed that the editors did not even pretend
that they could improve the bad poetry which
they received. It was only the defective story or essay
which was sought to be recasted. As long as a medal
was awarded for the most meritorious verse, there was
little probability that the poets of the University would
be discouraged by editorial coldness and aloofness in
particular instances. A medal was also still bestowed
for the best short story; and one too for the most admirable
essay. These were granted by the decision of
committees which had no connection with the University.
Each prize could only be carried off by a student; and
he could win that special prize but once. These
medals were appraised at twenty-five dollars.

In 1907–08, a prize of five dollars was offered for
the best negro dialect poem; and in order to allow room
for the exercise of every sort of talent in this form of
production, it was announced that the lines might be
humorous or pathetic or descriptive or narrative as
preferred, or with all these qualities rolled into a complete
unity. As a means of giving more distinction to
the three principal prizes, the first, for the best short
story, was designated the "Edgar Allan Poe"; the second
for the best essay, the "Woodrow Wilson"; and the
third, for the best poem, the "John R. Thompson."
As the dialect prize was only temporary, it was not dignified
by a historic name.

College Topics was very correctly described as the

University newspaper, for it endeavored successfully to
gather up, from week to week all the items of the social
and athletic life of the academic community. In accord
with a rule adopted in 1917 by the General Athletic Association,
the staff of this periodical was limited to an
editor-in-chief and an assistant editor-in-chief, six associate
editors, a business manager, and an assistant
business manager,—all to continue in office throughout
the session. The editor-in-chief was picked out by the executive
committee of the association from among the
members of the board at large, on the strength of his
record in that position; the assistant editor might be
chosen from among the students as a body; while the
associate editors were always selected from a list of
candidates submitted by the editor-in-chief. The assistant
business manager, who was appointed on personal
application, was advanced in the second year of
his tenure to the office of manager. The editor-in-chief,
his assistant, and the business manager, received sixty-five
per cent, of the annual proceeds of the journal as
the remuneration for their labor in publishing it. The
gradually rising popularity of College Topics seems to
have led to an increase in the size of the editorial
board,—in 1910, there were seated around its table
as many as ten associate editors; in 1912, there were
twelve; but in 1912–15, the number fell back again to
the original ten. By 1913, however, a news editor had
been added, and by 1915, an assignment editor, an
athletic editor, and a reviewing editor. There were
two assistant business managers; and the reportorial
staff had expanded to seventeen. This staff was now
selected after the applicants had been subjected to a
seaching competitive test. A semi-weekly edition was
now issued.

In 1912, the first step was taken to divorce this
journal from the ownership of the General Athletic
Association. There had already been started a movement
among the students to establish a new and independent
newspaper. To forestall this movement, the
following changes in the regulations of College Topics
were adopted: (1) the share in the profits which had,
up to this time, been reserved for the use of the athletic
association, were, thereafter, to be allowed to accumulate
as a sinking fund, under the association's trusteeship,
—a provision which was expected to detach the
journal ultimately from the control of that body; (2)
the editor-in-chief henceforth was to be appointed, not
by the association as before, but by the outgoing board
each April; (3) the assistant editor-in-chief was to
serve as the news editor.

In October, 1907, the first number of the University
of Virginia Record was issued. It was published
monthly, with the exception of July and August. The
object which this new periodical had in view was to
offer for the convenience of the public press and the
alumni, official information touching the general progress
and plans of the University. It was intended to
supplement the Alumni Bulletin by printing facts that
were too small and too transient for the older, more
dignified, and more solid journal to insert in its pages.
The hand-book of the Young Men's Christian Association
contained the calendar for the year, the schedules
of lectures and examinations, the syllables of the college
yells, and the college songs. Madison Hall Notes
was issued every week of the session, and gave a summary
of the religious news.

In a previous chapter, we referred to the journal
issued by the students of the department of law. The

first number came from the press in October, 1913, and,
from that time forward, eight numbers were printed
annually. It was the earliest periodical of its kind to
appear in a Southern seat of learning, and took, from
the beginning, rank with the most respected periodicals
of that order published in Northern institutions.
Corks and Curls was, in 1913–14, incorporated for the
first time with a definite capital. In the course of the
first decade of its existence, it had been transformed
from a fraternity publication into a college annual. Its
initial volume was issued in May, 1888, under an editorial
board which is said to have been nominated by
Alfred H. Byrd and J. H. C. Bagby. Byrd was to
become a liberal benefactor of the University in later
years. Bagby was the son of the distinguished Virginian
litterateur, George W. Bagby, and a nephew of John
Hampden Chamberlayne, one of the most famous
journalists of his native State. The impression has always
prevailed that Ernest M. Stires, then a student of
the University, and now the rector of St. Thomas's
Church, in New York City, first suggested the establishment
of this periodical.

The Alumni News began publication during the
Ninth Period. Facts about its origin and scope will
be submitted in a later chapter, when we come to consider
the last phase in the history of the General Alumni
Association.