Stanford Stories: Tales of a Young University

These are stories of the University as it was before the era of new buildings. While the attempt has been made to create, in character, incident and atmosphere, a picture of Stanford life, the stories, as stories, are fiction, with the exception of "Pocahontas, Freshman," and "Boggs' Election Feed," which were suggested by local occurrences, and "One Commencement," which is mainly fact. The original draft of "His Uncle's Will" was printed in The Sequoia with the title "The Fate of Freshman Hatch." It may be necessary to add that, in the endeavor to present the actual life of the University, it has seemed quite inadvisable to edit the conversation of the characters from the standpoint of the English purist. Since, however, those readers who boggle over slang could hardly be much interested in the Undergraduate, it is sufficient merely to call attention to the point. CONTENTS. PAGE A Midwinter Madness, 3 Pocahontas, Freshman, 29 His Uncle's Will, 55 The Initiation of Dromio, 77 The Substituted Fullback, 91 Two Pioneers and an Audience, 119 For the Sake of Argument, 135 An Alumni Dinner, 171 Boggs' Election Feed, 185 In the Dark Days, 207 Crossroads, 223 A Song Cycle and a Puncture, 249 One Commencement, 265 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE Past the Lonely Redwood Tree to the University, Frontispiece ... Toward the La Honda Redwoods , Facing page 148 A Stroll in the Moonlit Quad, Planned to Interest the Crowd at the Tuesday Evening Lecture , Facing page 154 ... Then the Lull During Class, Facing page 200 A MIDWINTER MADNESS. STANFORD STORIES. A Midwinter Madness. Genius has been defined as a capacity for taking pains. When a college man's good fairy makes her first call at his cradle, she may bestow upon him the football instinct, with muscles to match; no fairy could do more. But if she bumps up against Heredity, and is powerless to give him the supreme gift, she may compensate for it in a degree by leaving the kind of larynx and tympanum used in the Glee Club. Failing this, she may render next best service by throwing a mandolin in his way and bewitching his parents into paying for lessons. Some twenty years later, behind the enchanted scenes of a specially hired theater, or on the polished floor of society's inner temple, he may think of the fairy kindly. Doubtless, all theatrical life means drudgery, but…