The Dartmouth Carnival
With this number Mr. Syvertsen completes his story ofthe origin of Carnival. Its later history as told in the newspapers and spread in pictures through the whole Americanpress is well known to us all. And those of us interested inone of the most colorful pageants of Dartmouth life fervently hope that the future will bring as much credit to theOuting Club and glory to the College as these past Carnivalshave brought.
In 1914 carnival opened with the senior reception in the Trophy room of the new gymnasium. Moose Cabin received at an open house on Thursday afternoon requiring a trip which seemed, on the hard crust, like crossing Hudson's Bay with a wind straight from the polar ice cap. "The Misleading Lady" borrowed from the New York boards was a distinctly successful venture. The sports contests on Friday were well entered, but almost impossible snow conditions prevented any display of technique. The carnival dance which had expanded into the College Club from the Commons was again set in a bit of Outing Club forest domain moved under a roof where the house parties of Psi Upsilon, Tri Kap, Deke, Beta, Sigma Chi, and Phi Gam were represented by appropriate shelters. While stereopticon views of the afternoon's contests showed skiers skidding on the frozen crust, a blizzard swept into the town, imprisoned King Carnival in snowy gyves, answering a two year's accumulation of prayers for snow. The tobogganing, promised as a novel feature which had given new features, in fact, new faces to several including Professor Fay, became safe. Contestants who proved to be snowdivers or somersaulters disappeared from sight to the great delight of the spectators who expected such snow as Dartmouth's birthright. E. P. Hayden '16, J. Bache-Wiig '15, J. P. Bowler '15, A. W. Bingham '16, Dabney Horton '15, C. B. Thompson '17 arose from the snow dubbed true Knights of Winter Sport. As the final event on the program, the first of its kind ever held here, The Harvard-Dartmouth Musical Clubs concert gave satisfying evidence that each new committee was adding to the substance of its inheritance.
FIRST INTERCOLLEGIATE SKI MEET
The expected dual meet with McGill could not be arranged but the first intercollegiate winter-sports contest came that same year when Dartmouth sent a team to meet McGill under the auspices of the Montreal Ski Club. On the CÔte de Neige Hill, Richard Bowler won third place in the point jumping and John P. Bowler '15 won second place in the longest standing jump. The next day at Shawbridge, the Outing Club team defeated McGill in a very closely contested eight-mile relay race. J. P. Bowler starred for Dartmouth by coming up from behind to turn a substantial lead over to Bache-Wiig who came across the line a few feet the victor. Dabney Horton '15 and F. H. Weed '14 carried the Dartmouth colors for the first four miles in this contest which was the forerunner of the present Intercollegiate Winter Sports Union meet.
In 1915, Winter Carnival already the undisputed event of the year was enhanced tremendously in its reputation abroad when the first intercollegiate wintersports meet was announced. Rev. John E. Johnson '66 who watched over his godchild, the Outing Club, with a provident eye had given a new ski-jump and toboggan slide during the year and later had provided means for building a kiosk in the Vale and for clearing Occom Pond. The officers of the Club were Ben W. Grills '15 president, Philip D. Smith 'l5 vice-president, Chauncey P. Hulbert '15 secretary, Edwin P. Hayden '16 treasurer, and Elwood L. Mack '16 fifth member of the executive committee. Encouraged to make further expansion of the program by this new inspiration to competition and entertainment the committee welcomed entries from eight colleges for the intercollegiate winter sports. A return dual meet with McGill to be a simultaneous part of the general contest was assured.
The fifth carnival opened on Wednesday February 10 with the senior reception in College Hall. There President and Mrs. Ernest Fox Nichols assisted by Professor and Mrs. Charles D. Adams received the seniors and their guests. A representative from each graduate school together with the members of Palaeopitus served as ushers. An informal program of dancing followed. On Thursday morning the visitors attended classes with their hosts or skied out to watch the contestants practice. Some tried the toboggan slide while others rode around town in the few high-backed sleighs which the town could offer.
Bishops College vs. Dartmouth College at Alumni Oval began the official sports program. Ringed around by a wall of enthusiastic spectators these two fast teams played one of the best hockey matches ever seen in Hanover. Dartmouth was playing its last home game, with Capt. Leon Tuck throughout the furious mêlée displaying a brilliance which made him a great hockey player for all time. Straight from the home of the sport came this Canadian team to test the speed and skill of these icemen who proved 4-2 times too strong for the testing machinery. The throng then trooped into the trophy room for the first the dansant. There Mesdames Nichols, C. D. Adams, Bill, Bugbee, Burton, Keyes, Laycock, Phillips, W. M. Ross, Tibbetts and Updyke poured tea while the College orchestra played for an hour of informal dancing.
"Under Cover" by the Dartmouth Dramatic Association was the fifth of a series of excellent carnival productions and packed Webster Hall with an enthusiastic crowd of pilgrims to winter's shrine. Borrowed from the Cort Theatre, New York (where it was studied at intervals for a month by the cast) and assisted by Megrue himself, the show set a standard of excellence that would be hard to maintain. The orbit of Walt Wanger '15 soon swept him out into other realms, but his influence on the dramatics of the College was profound. After the Webster Hall performance ended, a number of fraternities held informal dances at their houses while Psi Upsilon and Delta Kappa Epsilon united in a buffet supper dance in Robinson Hall.
A PICTURESQUE CONTEST
On Friday morning the contestants from McGill, Vermont, Williams, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Yale, Technology and Colgate had all arrived. Their brilliant costumes, new to snow-sports in New England, caught the eye on every hill and distant prospect. The scarlet of McGill with its coat of arms in white aroused the envy of feminine eyes. At three o'clock a thousand spectators were gathered in the wet snow on the Golf Links to watch this first intercollegiate meet. The realization that here were contestants from another nation lining up under the American and Canadian flags brought a spontaneous roar of welcome from the crowd.
The cross-country snowshoers were soon away on a three-mile course out through the Vale in deep snow that made it a real snowshoe contest. Trick racingshoes were barred and all runners wore a 12-inch practical shoe. Three Dartmouth men came back first, W. D. Kipp '17, C. B. Thompson '17, and M. G. Sherburne '17. The cross-country ski race over a short course was won by C. H. Paulsen, New Hampshire State '15, who romped in minutes ahead of Birks of McGill and Bowler of Dartmouth. He followed this success by an exhibition of somersaults from a jump on the links which thrilled the crowd and threw the movie men into a frenzy of attempts to follow through with the camera without forgetting to crank. Dick Bowler and Johnny Carleton of Hanover High School startled the crowd with their nonchalant leaps into space from the new jump. The small size of these younger lads compared to the length of their jumps seemed impossible to be true to those not accustomed to the prowess of sons of the faculty. A comical stuntrace down slides, through barrels and amongst potatoes from the foot of the take-off gave B. N. Davis, W. D. Kipp '17, R. H. Anderson '16 prizes in what was called an Obstacle Race and entertained the crowd while the Dartmouth-McGill relayers were out of the picture. This relay race, begun too late to be finished the same day, was the second dual meet of a series begun at Shawbridge the year before. N. Williams of McGill came in 100 yards ahead of E. L. Mack '16 D. O. C. But C. P. Hulbert '15 and O. J. Frederiksen '16 were able to overhaul W. I. Rutherford and G. Thompson of McGill for a substantial lead. The darkness ended the race at that point and it was postponed until Saturday.
In an Alumni Gymnasium transformed into a shadowy evergreen wood the Outing Club dance became the Carnival Ball. Foresters for the moment, members of the club had worked their magic to produce a fairy glade. Hidden by interlacing fir trees were the brick walls and chest weights; gone were the steel girders, lost in the forest night. The mad revelers wove their complicated intricacies of one step, hesitation, and maxixe around the giant symbolic pine which from the center of the scene dominated the glade. More than 100 couples were presented to the patronesses, who were the wives of the officers and faculty of the College. The officers of the club were the ushers. In a beautiful setting carnival had danced in celebration of its new proportions.
A day of Hanover weather ushered in the second part of the competition and made fast going for all races. During the morning Bache-Wiig starting with a lead of 2.43 minutes over McLeod of McGill won the dual eight-mile ski-relay. The dashes on skiis were won by Dartmouth with five out of six places. In the hundred N. Williamson, McGill, C. D. Horton '15 and J. P. Bowler '15 placed In the furlong Opie Horton was first followed by the Hulberts, C. P. '15 and W. C. '18. In the snowshoeing L. D. Pelton '18, W. D. Kipp '17, and M. G. Sherburne '17 in the first race, with Kipp, Sherburne and D. H. Norton '17 in the second, shut out all of the Vermont runners. The crowd, now doubled in numbers, adjourned to the then new ski jump for what was considered the cream of the sport. The dual meet between Dartmouth and McGill was the bone of contention, for no other team could even threaten that pair save the lone star from New Hampshire. In this contest McGill won the distance jumps by 219-214.5, although Bache-Wiig jumped 63 feet, King 62 feet and McLeod, McGill, 58 feet in individual jumps. In the style jumping Dartmouth won 556.3-492, with individual high ratings of 161.3 for W. T. King '17, 149.3 for G. Birks, McGill, and Bache-Wiig '15 145. In the distance open, Fisher of McGill was first with 61 feet, Bache-Wiig 59.8 and Paulsen of New Hampshire 58. In the style open, C. E. Frost '18, W. T. King '17 and J. Bache-Wiig '15 took all places for Dartmouth. Reddie of McGill received a special prize from Rev. John E. Johnson for the longest jump of 87 feet which was off the slope and beyond the landing hill. At the conclusion of the contest, Paulsen made a perfect somersault from the ski jump in the Vale, and landed successfully. This was the crowning event of the day for the onlookers and served as the goal for many subsequent strivings on the part of many ski jumpers, little and big. Dartmouth had won the dual meet with McGill, and the intercollegiate meet. McGill was second and New Hampshire with her one man team was third.
In the evening the league basketball game with Yale was played in the Alumni Gymnasium to be followed by the Musical Clubs concert in Webster Hall. Ben W. Grills' 15, president of the Outing Club, announced during intermission that Reverend J. E. Johnson '66 had presented the club with one thousand dollars as an expression of his pleasure in the success of the carnival and of his desire that the activities of the club continue. This gift was the culmination of a year of generosity during which he had given the ski jump, toboggan chute, kiosk, funds for the pond work, and prizes for carnival.
Thus in five steps the Winter Carnival of the Dartmouth Outing Club had grown from a very small intramural contest to an occasion which was the social climax of the year, and which included an intercollegiate meet involving New England and Canada. It had drawn into its train all of the winter activities of the College and had become the pattern for many other carnivals in both the collegiate and civic world.
FRED HARRIS, '11, FIRST PRESIDENT OF DARTMOUTH OUTING CLUB, TAKING OFF FROM OLD JUMP
