University of Virginia Library

XXII. Publications

On the 21st of October, 1865, just three weeks after
the opening of the first session that followed the war,
a committee of the Jefferson Society, with all the formality
that marks the admission of a petitioner to the
bar of the House of Commons, appeared on the floor
of the Washington Hall, and delivered a resolution
which had been adopted by their own members asking
the sister body to consider at once the advisability of
cooperating in the revival of the magazine. In compliance

with this request, a committee was promptly appointed
to confer with the visiting committee on the
subject. But it was not until November 4 that their
joint report was submitted. It declared that the time
was not yet ripe for the resuscitation of the periodical.
Notwithstanding this conclusion, two other committees
went through the same thoughtful deliberations in October,
1866; and again the same decision was reached.
In the spring of 1867, the Washington Society announced
that it would undertake to reestablish the magazine
should the Jefferson Society consent to share the expense.
It was determined, however, to postpone the
issuance of the first number to the autumn; but, in the
meanwhile, a committee was named, with the power
to arrange for all the practical details of the printing.
It was not until December (1867), that the magazine
was actually revived. The editors then chosen to supervise
its preparation and publication were W. O. Harris
and Joseph Bryan. Bryan had been a member of Mosby's
partisan troop, and was destined in after-life to
become a citizen of conspicuous usefulness.

The delay in restoring the magazine was principally
attributable to the fact that the students, during the sessions
of 1865–66 and 1866–67, were too much employed
in equipping themselves for the impending task of
earning a livelihood to be willing to turn aside and devote
a portion of their invaluable time to the byplay of a periodical.
Nor were these men in a pecuniary condition
to contribute the very respectable amount that would
be required for its support. By the autumn of 1867–
68, a younger set of students were beginning to matriculate,
and it was through them that the normal college
spirit was to be again established, and the old interests
brought back to their regular channels. "Although the

magazine comes," said the editors of the first issue in
their somewhat florid salutatory, "when the convulsive
throes of a great revolution have left society lacerated
and torn and even almost deaf to everything save the
tale of their own woes, it is both the cause and effect
of brighter days. Its once familiar face reminds a
stricken people that the noblest institution of a once
proud commonwealth has girded up her loins to undertake
afresh the duties of peace." Not only did the
magazine have a literary duty to perform, they declared,
by offering an opportunity to the young men to acquire
the art of composition, through the use of its pages,—
it had also a political duty to perform. "It is beyond
question," they continued, "that we are held mildly, it
may be yet firmly, in the talons of the American Eagle.
We wish to counsel the students lest any offense thoughtlessly
or even unintentionally given by them to any agent
or officer of the United States Government may result
seriously to the institution."

Not long after the reestablishment of the magazine,
the Young Men's Christian Association requested that
they should be permitted to contribute to its support to
the extent of one-third of its expenses; and in return, they
asked for the right to share in its management. This
offer was accepted, and the privilege allowed. It was the
anticipation of the association that the influence of their
own body would be increased among the students by
participation in the publication of the only college organ
then in existence at the University. But notwithstanding
this new buttress to its resources, the magazine soon
began to languish. "We venture to assert," said the
editors somewhat acidly, in the number for November,
1870, "that we are the only college periodical in the
country that is not self-supporting. In spite of all our

efforts, we have succeeded in getting but two hundred
subscribers out of four hundred and thirty-six students
at college." But an unexpected improvement in income
occurred before the end of the session (1870–71), and
the scholastic year closed in prosperity.

At this time, there was a different group of editors
for the autumn term and the Easter term. It was
supposed that this was a cause of weakness, for one set
had hardly acquired experience of their duties before they
were called upon to retire from the sanctum, and give
room for another set, who were acknowledged to be entirely
raw. As a means of improving the quality of this
changing board, a scholarship was granted annually to
the group which had shown the greatest capacity in editing
the magazine. As a further means of raising its
character, there was a proposal that a business manager
should be selected to take charge of its practical interests.
But a more useful provision consisted of the appointment,
about 1871, of a board of six editors, who were to continue
in office through all the terms. Hitherto, as already
mentioned, only three had been chosen for each
term, at the end of which they retired. The new board
was composed of five literary editors and one managing
editor. The right of election was enjoyed alternately
by the two societies. "It is evident," remarks a writer
in the number of the magazine announcing this change,
"that five men can do the work much better than two.
The division of the labor gives a variety not possible
under the old system. As the editors are elected for
such a long time, they will have an opportunity for improvement,
and the advantage of experience."

In 1881, the two societies entered into an agreement
that the entire control of the magazine, in its literary
and business interests alike, should be centered in the

ed tor-in-chief. To him was to be reserved the duty of
allotting the tasks of his associates; and he alone was
to be responsible for the acceptance and rejection of
contributions. An assistant manager was now added,
in order, by more active canvassing, to increase the circulation
of the magazine, and to swell the number of advertisements
printed in its pages. Notwithstanding these
practical measures, its income, during the session of
1882–3, fell short of the outlay by the sum of three hundred
dollars. It required nine hundred at least to maintain
the solvency of the periodical. Its income at this
time was derived from two hundred subscribers who paid
two dollars apiece, and from advertisements to the value
of two hundred dollars.

Not long after the magazine was revived, a medal was
decided upon, by the joint action of both societies, as
the award for the most meritorious prose article that
should appear in the numbers for each session. In June,
1888, it was announced that J. J. McCaleb had instituted
a prize of fifty dollars for bestowal on the student who
should contribute the most remarkable poem during the
same period; and, in the like spirit, a similar prize was
established in 1891 to go to the author of the most
excellent story to be printed in the same pages in the
course of each year. The object of this prize was to
stimulate the production of imaginative writing by the
young men. It was hoped that these different awards
would arrest the decline in interest in the magazine
which had set in so soon as enthusiasm for the sports
of the athletic field had begun to cast a shadow over every
form of intellectual recreation. The founding of Corks
and Curls and College Topics made it still more necessary
that all available means should be employed to
maintain the position which the magazine had won, and

which, in these years, it only retained through the support
of a few faithful students. The editors for the session
1894–5 were very much in favor of introducing
college news in its columns in order to revive its popularity.

If we examine critically the general contents of the
magazine throughout the Seventh Period, 1865–1895,
it will be perceived that they varied very radically in
merit, not only from year to year, but also from month
to month. A single number always touched both extremes.
In one of the earliest reports drafted after the
war by the committee appointed to award the medal,
which was composed of Professors Gildersleeve, Holmes,
and Schele, they dwell upon the absence of "serious
effort," on the one hand, and on the other, of "definite
thought." They said very frankly that the pages reflected
a spirit of indolence and vacuity, and that even
the graver articles were disfigured "by high-flown rhetoric,
false syntax, mixed metaphors, and college slang."
The most remarkable contributor at this time was Alamby
M. Miller, who died prematurely. His articles alone
seem to have won an unreserved commendation. The
report for the session of 1868–9 was equally disheartening.
Only two articles in the issues for this year impressed
the accomplished and fastidious committee favorably;
and these apparently only because they were not
tainted by "feverish fancies, misplaced metaphors, and
other rhetorical extravagances." "What was needed,"
they declared, "was more resolute effort, more patient,
and more persevering labor, a clearer and more cordial
communion with classic models, more regard for clearness,
precision, and neatness of language, for logical
perspicuity and coherence, for comprehension, for more

sedate habits of reflection, and more subdued modes of
exposition."

This somewhat drastic criticism seems to have had a
stimulating, not a debilitating, influence upon the ambition
of those who were looked to for the improvement
of the magazine, for, at the end of the following session,
the committee of professors for that year, with
palpable satisfaction, declared in their report that the
merit of the periodical, during the previous nine months,
had been quite equal to the high quality of the numbers
issued before the war, when the larger attendance of students
had allowed a wider latitude as to literary ability
in the choice of the editorial staff. The report of the
committee for 1877–78, which was less encouraging, was
written by Professor Price, whose classical taste must
have been shocked by many of the pages which he was
conscientiously called upon to read. "The chief fault
of the poorer pieces," he asserted, "seems to have arisen
from either triteness of subject or bigness of subject.
When the subject matter is too large for magazine treatment,
the effort to deal with it leads either to dreary
generalities and platitudes, or else to disproportion or
mutilation of argument. When the subject matter is
too old, it is impossible to avoid commonplace. Many
of the articles have failed for the one cause or the other."

However just these comments may have been, this
can be undeniably affirmed of the magazine of that day:
that previous to 1894–95 not a single session went by
without the contribution of at least one article of such
conspicuous merit,—whether from a sentimental or a
critical point of view,—as to deserve the gold medal
which was annually awarded by the two societies. What
was said of one of these articles by the committee of the

year in which it appeared, may be quoted as substantially
pertinent to them all: "There was a perfect balance
between its substance and its style. The words were of
the heart as well as the mind. There was the ardor of
feeling tempered by the coolness of the reason. The
style was simple, unaffected, smooth, and harmonious."
Among the prize articles that fulfilled all these searching
requirements were Old Letters, by R. T. W. Duke, Jr.,
Marlow, by W. W. Thum, The Ancient Mariner, by
Thomas A. Seddon, and an extended list of companion
pieces of the same quality which might be mentioned.

During the Seventh Period, as the Arcade Echoes so
brilliantly discloses, there were numerous poems of very
unusual merit contributed to the pages of the magazine.
The principal writers in this department during that interval
were R. T. W. Duke, Jr., Armistead C. Gordon,
James L. Gordon, Howard Morton, Charles W. Coleman,
Francis R. Lassiter, and T. L. Wood. Among the
members of the editorial board were men who were destined
to rise in after-life to positions of usefulness and
influence in their several callings by the force of their
talents. Such,—to bring up only a few representative
names,—were Lyon G. Tyler, Robert M. Hughes,
William P. Trent, Walter S. Lefevre, E. W. Saunders,
James C. Lamb, Linden Kent, E. H. Farrer, A. T.
Strode, J. W. Wayland, Stuart McGuire, L. M. Machen,
L. P. Chamberlayne, J. Allen Watts, R. Walton Moore,
F. R. Lassiter, R. H. Dabney, Walter E. Addison, P.
F. DuPont, J. B. Henneman, Oscar W. Underwood,
George Gordon Battle, and H. Snowden Marshall.

The number of members contributed by Virginia to
the editorial board was one hundred and fifty-two, and
by the other States, one hundred and fifty,—an almost
equal division. The largest proportion, omitting Virginia's

from view, was from the State of Maryland,
which was represented by twenty-three at the editorial
table. Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas followed with
eighteen respectively.

Anterior to 1887, the magazine was without a rival to
compete with it for the patronage of the University's
readers; but in the course of that year, the periodical
known by the highly original title of Corks and Curls was
launched.[13] During a subsequent session, the first copy
of College Topics was published. These two organs
limited the province of the magazine more strictly than
ever to pure literature.

The scheme of College Topics had its origin in the
inability of the magazine, owing to its more or less
special character, to take in every one of the subjects
which made a crying appeal to the tastes and aspirations
of the students. All genuine collegiana, it was not incorrectly
said, was out of place in the latter's pages.
The founders of College Topics had first suggested that
the Jefferson Society, and afterwards, that the University
at large, should establish a racy local college journal;
but a majority of the students were of the opinion that
such a project would, if attempted, end in financial failure,
and quietly refused to support it. It was finally
undertaken by five young men of talent and energy, who
were willing to make the venture at their own risk.
These were Legh R. Page, S. M. Beard, A. C. Carson,
Hunt Chipley, and John G. Tilton, and they formed the

first board of editors. The earliest issue appeared on
January 8, 1890, and the periodical was successful fromthe
start,—in no small degree, because it always proved
itself to be a steadfast defender of the rights of the students,
and an intelligent promoter of their best interests
in the mass. During the session of 1890–91, the General
Athletic Association took over its proprietorship,
and it thus became the organ of that influential body.
Its aims, under the changed ownership, were to nourish
the healthy growth of athletic sports; to arouse enthusiasm
in the annual events; to act as the watchful friend
of the young men; and, finally, to serve as their mouthpiece,
should they fall into disputes with the Faculty and
the Visitors. One set of editors was elected for the
autumn term, and another for the spring. Virginia contributed
forty-nine members to these boards previous to
1894, and the other States,—fourteen in all,—forty-five
members.