XIII. Publications and Debating Societies
The first number of the Alumni Bulletin to be printed
was issued in May, 1894. The second series began in
April, 1901 and the third in 1908. The Visitors gave
their emphatic approval to this publication, as it was expected
to be an important channel of official communication
between themselves and the Faculty, on the one hand,
and the alumni and public at large on the other. The
Annals of Mathematics was also coming out during the
same interval.
The principal innovation in the management of the
magazine between 1895 and 1904 was the attachment to
the different articles appearing in its pages of the names
of their authors. Three prizes were now awarded for
contributions to this periodical. One of these was for
the most meritorious translation written by any matriculate
of the current year,—such translation to be of a
poem or prose article belonging to any of the languages
taught in the University. The purpose which it had in
view was to foster grace of style and stimulate a taste
for letters. The donor of this prize was Professor
James A. Harrison. The second prize,—which was
also presented by Professor Harrison,—was for the most
excellent poem; and the third,—the gift of Professor
Harrison again,—was for the most admirable prose article.
The magazine medal awarded by the two societies,
and valued at fifty dollars, was still annually conferred.
There were many persons who thought that now, as formerly,
this medal alone should be given as a reward for
the production of highest merit printed in the pages of
the college's only literary organ. The Harrison prizes,
—which were valued at but twenty dollars apiece,—
were considered by those who held this opinion as more
suitable for a high school, or even for a kindergarten,
than for a university.
There were now two terms, the autumn and the spring,
for each of which a separate group of editors for the magazine
were chosen; but the members of this board, during
the first term of the year, were eligible to reelection
to the same body during the second. Of the new set of
constitutional rules adopted by the two societies in the
course of the Eighth Period, one of importance related
to this periodical,—instead of those bodies offering one
medal, of the value of fifty dollars, for the most meritorious
prose article printed in its pages during the session,
two medals, of the value of twenty-five dollars each,
were to be conferred by them,—the one for the most admirable
story, the other for the most excellent prose piece.
This change followed the spirit of Professor Harrison's
annual gifts for the same purpose, which had, as we have
seen, been a ground for criticism. Unlike the Harrison
prizes, however, these medals could only be won by members
of the societies and subscribers to the magazine. In
addition to these two medals, two were still presented by
Professor Harrison, one of which was now awarded for
the most excellent poem, and the other for the best translation
of a prose article written in some foreign language.
These two last prizes were thrown open to the competition
of all the matriculates.
After delivering an address at the University before
the literary societies, William Jennings Bryan offered
them the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars, on condition
that the annual income accruing from it should be
awarded to the author of the most thoughtful essay on
government printed in the magazine for each year.
In 1898, the editors complained that they had to support
the burden, not only of managing the business affairs
of this periodical, but also of writing the larger proportion
of its contents; and as a possible remedy for the lack
of interest in its welfare exhibited by the students as a
body, they proposed that all literary work of merit done
for its pages by any matriculate should be credited to his
standing in his classes. It seems that this rule had been
adopted in many of the Northern colleges.
By 1900, the magazine had shed some of its conventional,
classical, and imitative spirit, and had become
more distinctly reflective of the social characteristics of
the South,—more racy, in short, of the soil. It had, by
this time, begun to publish dialect stories and poems drawn
from the inexhaustible fund of negro lore, or the traditions
of the plain white folks of the back regions cut off
from intimate touch with the modern currents of thought
and speech. Miss Murfree and Page and Harris were
now the beckoning stars rather than Poe and Tennyson,
Bulwer and Addison, as in former years. This new disposition
was directly traceable to the influences created
by the award of the Harrison prizes. The tendency was
now to nurse the imaginative sense as contradistinguished
from the purely descriptive, critical, or historical sense.
While the imitative spirit which is always bobbing up in
college literature, was still far from being exorcised, it
had taken a direction in which it was liable to develop
more vigor of thought and skill in treatment. By 1900,
enough stories of merit had been printed in the magazine
to justify the publication of a separate volume; the Idyls
of the Lawn contained six tales which were of remarkable
talent by whatever standard they might be tested; and
their charm was enhanced by the decorative designs from
the graceful pencil of Duncan Smith.
In 1902, the prize offered by Professor Harrison for
the most meritorious poem was divided into two prizes,
one of fifteen dollars and one of five,—the first of which
was to be awarded for the authorship of the best poem,
the second for that of the next best, printed in the magazine
during each year. These prizes had a tendency to
encourage the production of verse, a form of composition
well adapted to improve the student's power of verbal expression,
but also perhaps promotive of a spirit of youthful
literary dilettantism. On top of these two prizes,
there was still open to competition the prize bestowed for
the most excellent translation in prose, the two societies'
medal conferred for the best essay, their additional medal
awarded for the best story, and the Bryan prize granted
for the most thoughtful dissertation on civil government.
Besides these numerous agencies for arousing interest in
English composition in its different forms, the department
of English announced, during the session of 1901–02,
that it would give a prize annually for the most admirable
original poem which should be printed in the pages of the
magazine. This prize was open to the competition of
every student in the University. The practical result of
this additional, perhaps imprudent, stimulant to the poetical
fecundity of the young men was a shining multitude
of poems of every variety. Not less than forty poetical
pieces,—some of them translations from foreign
tongues,—were published in the numbers for 1902–3
alone.
The condescending, not to say impartial, verdict of
other institutions of learning was highly favorable to the
merits of the University magazine during these years,
when so many prizes were sharply pricking the students
on to extraordinary volubility of prose and poetical utterance.
In 1904, the editors of the Harvard magazine
placed the periodicals of the principal colleges in the following
order of proportionate merit: Princeton, Harvard,
Columbia, Williams, and the University of Virginia.
In such a shining company, it was presumed to be
an honor even to bring up the rear.
A trophy, consisting of a gold and silver wreath encircling
a scroll of copper, was offered by Professor James A.
Harrison, in 1895, as a prize to be contested for by the
debaters of the two societies. Each of these bodies was
to be represented by its own group of selected champions,
the names of whom, in case of victory, were to be
engraved upon the face of the trophy, and the trophy itself
placed in the possession of that society, until it should
be won by the champions of its rival. There had been
such a decline in the interest which had been once shown
in the discussions in the two halls that the Visitors, in the
course of the following session (1895–96), appropriated
one hundred dollars for the purchase of medals to be
awarded by the societies themselves to their two most
skilful speakers. These were to be known as the "Rector
and Visitors' debating medals." In April of this
year, there was a public test of oratorical ability between
the recipients of the two society medals, and the
representative of the Washington having been declared
to be the victor, he was appointed to speak for the two
societies in the State oratorical contest, which was to take
place at the College of William and Mary, and also in the
similar contest of the Southern Intercollegiate Association,
which was to come off at Centre College.
The energy displayed by the students towards the acquisition
of these medals was so feeble that the Faculty
requested the Board to abolish their award; and in June,
1899, this was done. But it was afterwards perceived by
the Visitors that it was not entirely becoming for them
to show indifference to what had once been such an important
feature of the University's activities, and in
November, 1901, they appropriated fifty dollars to be
bestowed annually upon the best debater of the two societies.
At this time, each of the societies conferred a
medal costing twenty-five dollars on its ablest argumentative
speaker; and a medal of the same value was presented
to its most eloquent orator. The two bodies still
contested each session for the Harrison trophy. The debate
for this trophy seems to have been held, occasionally
at least, in the public hall, while the separate oratorical
tussles of the Washington Society champions not infrequently
took place in the chapel,—perhaps because that
apartment offered more spacious seating for the persons
who wished to be present.
In 1901, there was a State Oratorical Association in
existence composed of the eight most conspicuous institutions
of learning in Virginia. These contested for a
gold medal valued at forty dollars. During the same
year, the Johns Hopkins University invited the Universities
of Virginia, Princeton, Yale, Harvard, and Pennsylvania,
to organize, along with itself, an oratorical league;
but the proposal, in spite of its practicability, appears to
have fallen to the ground. The debaters of the University
of Virginia, selected by the test of inter-society discussions,
frequently struggled for the palm of victory with
representatives of the Northern colleges. In the spring
of 1902, a debate was arranged with the champions of
Columbia University; and for this occasion, four speakers
were chosen by the Faculty, one of whom was to
serve as a substitute only. A joint discussion was held
with the debaters of the University of Pennsylvania in
March, 1904. It was thought at the time that these intercollegiate
contests sensibly stimulated the interest of
the students in the Washington and Jefferson Societies;
and as an additional influence for increasing this interest
and directing it into the most productive channel, the Faculty,
in 1902, recommended that a special instructor in
the art of speech should be employed; that he should be
attached to the School of English; and that he should be
subject to the control of the professor in charge of that
school. This recommendation was adopted, and during
the session of 1903–4 the position was filled by N. L.
South, one of the licentiates.
