Revolt for Revolt's Sake

Things are a bit hazy in our minds just now. Sometimes we think that we are too liberal, and at other times we think that we're not liberal enough. We always thought that a spirit of unrest ought to accompany any A-one liberalism, an unrest which would pervade the campus and tint all its actions. We still seem pretty smug—it's a habit which we can't seem to break. We've felt all along that it was just about time for a first-class revolt, yet when it did come, it still left us slightly unsatisfied. The semi-riot itself was good—here's how it came off.

The School Board of the Town of Hanover proposed a new school tax, to be taken by raising the tax generally on assessed property throughout the town. (We aren't going to fuss with figures mostly because we can't remember what they were.) Fraternities, which pay a good proportion of such land taxes, and who, withal, have no vote in this affair, felt righteously indignant, and organized a public demonstration on the night the town meeting was to be held. So far, so good; the meeting was to be held in Webster, and after a march up and down Main Street, the mob filed in and filled the balcony and sides, waiting for the meeting to be held. In the meantime, the townspeople had convened in the grade-school, and the crowd, made aware of this, began to suspect that something was being put over on them. They chafed in their seats, and gave Spud Bray palsy with the reverberations they sent through the building. Palaeopitus used a few ancient expedients to hold them from rushing down Lebanon Street and botching everything. Finally, however, out they went, whooping it through the streets into the schoolhouse, where the meeting was just about to adjourn to mature its discussion in Webster. Quite unreasonably, with its bellowings, the crowd refused to let them do this, and so the meeting broke up, the bill to be voted upon at some date in Christmas recess. Nothing came of it, but the riot itself was at least a feeling which made us a little more conscious we were alive—and that's what we've needed.

Then there have been rallies before games, rallies with more spirit than we've ever noticed before. The Nugget has been stormed, the coaches and players have stood on the campus and told us that we'd be in there to win or die in the attempt, the band has tooted and the crowd has cheered—we're waking up again!

WILDER FALLS