from our main purpose by a multiplicity of social pleasures. My recollection is that "class receptions" given by hospitable members of the faculty constituted our major dissipations and were greatly valued by us. The president's annual Commencement receptions were in the early years held in the capitol. It was not one of my privileges to attend them and I always claimed that they were not very exclusive affairs, but the senior and faculty receptions at the president's house, with an abundance of food, were another matter; there was always enough forage for a friend and myself the next day. I cherish in tender memory the simplicity and unsophistication of those evenings. The relations between town and gown were close and cordial; many a shy student from the country recalls gratefully the hospitality of some delightful Madison home. The University also drew an exceptional number of distinguished visitors from New England and old England.

The women lacked gymnasium drill or any form of organized athletics, except that sometime in 1878 or 1879 at the instigation of Will Anderson, of grateful memory, and with him as instructor, the inadequate University gymnasium (by custom ceded to the men exclusively) was opened to the women a few hours every week. This was far from sufficient exercise, and the women suffered from lack of regular exercise unless they indulged individually in swimming, boating, or riding. There was little enough of this, but the feat of swimming from Picnic Point to our boat-house (a good seven-eighths of a mile) was accomplished by a woman in my class. It is an interesting manifestation of the attitude of certain public critics toward change, that when the collegiate training of women was first on trial there were clamorous complaints that the health of young women was being wrecked; now the same class of public critics are loudly complaining that college women are "Amazons."

Baseball was a great game among the men, and the women took a keen interest in watching the match games. There were no tennis courts, and though a football was occasionally kicked as a form of exercise the real game was still unknown.

Student conservatism was manifested in the expressed resentment of the student body to the introduction of the card catalogue system in the Library replacing the quite inadequate but endeared-by-familiar-use printed pamphlet catalogue.

Our student meetings were held at first in the chapel of University Hall and later in the assembly room of Library Hall, where also on Sunday afternoons we were addressed by the president on themes of ethical import with a vigor and potency which I am free to say kept one student in the path of rectitude. Our obligations to the state were made exceedingly plain, and the seed was sown which later fructified in the "Wisconsin Idea."

Secret societies among the women were not a dominant factor in University life. Until about 1881, I believe, when Delta Gamma gave us a shocking surprise, Kappa Kappa Gamma had no rivals and might be accused of displaying an arrogant spirit, but it by no means exerted the influence on the campus which was wielded by the literary societiesCastalia and Laurea. These societies drew their membership at that time from two rather different groups of women, and the rivalry between the two organizations was thoroughgoing and even regulated our social intercourse. The plays, the debates, and the character parties of one's literary society were the occasion of the most intense emotions of one's University life. Among the men there were several fraternities, but much the same rôle was played by the literary societies, and the forensic event of the year was then, as it is perhaps now, the public debate between Athena and Hesperia. The lights of Athena and Hesperia used always to be glowing in the low windows of the top floor of University Hall on my late return from the meeting of my society.

Our religious life was given expression in the University Christian Association, a vigorous and liberal body, and later by organizations cooperating with the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. of the state, by Saturday evening talks by the president, and by the churches of Madison. Dr. Charles H. Richards was during all these years and more (1867-1890) the pastor of the Congregational Church, and easily won and kept by his personality and his liberality a strong hold upon the students of the University. The Unitarian and Presbyterian churches also drew strongly the University element.

At this distance it seems an amazing fact that the illness excuses of the entire student body passed over the president's desk: a simple white card initialed with the cryptic “803.” When one recalls that in those days of a small University income, the president was provided with neither a University secretary nor a private secretary, that even the catalogues and Commencement programs were addressed by him, that he carried professorial work in addition to administrative duties, that he was producing speeches, articles, and books, it is not to be wondered that the information sent from his office to inquiring students often took the form of a laconic postcard; nor, I suppose, was it to be wondered at that occasionally the incoming freshman sent his luggage to the president's house pending a permanent location.

These old days have rapidly given place to better conditions, to increased efficiency, to larger opportunities, to larger numbers, and perhaps to a scattering of interests and a loosening of ties. That the graduates of today have a better training than those of our day cannot for a moment be doubted, but it is questionable whether they cherish so intimate an affection for their Alma Mater as we did when five dozen photographs (cabinet size, Curtiss Studio) were a sufficient number to affect an exchange with every member of one's class.

WARREN DOWNES PARKER

WILLARD N. PARKER

Warren Downes Parker was born at Bradford, Vermont, September 26, 1839. In 1855 he moved with his parents to Janesville, Wisconsin. From 1855 to 1908 he was a resident of Wisconsin, moving from place to place as he advanced in the teaching profession. His retirement from active work was on January 5, 1903. The succeeding four years were spent at his old home, River Falls, and then he and his wife took up residence in Pasadena, California, July 2, 1908, where he died March 21, 1920. His remains were cremated.

The father of Warren Downes Parker was J. W. D. Parker, who was born at Bradford, Vermont, March 22, 1808, and died October 2, 1865, at Janesville. He was a lawyer of considerable prominence, and judge of the county court in Vermont and later of the municipal court in Janesville. The mother was Amine C. Pratt, born in Bradford, Vermont, March 6, 1813, and died at River Falls, Wisconsin, January 31, 1883. She was buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Janesville. There was one sister in the family, by the name of Marion Amine, born at Bradford, Vermont, June 4, 1835, who became the wife of George R. Curtis of Janesville in 1864, and had two children who died young. Marion died at Janesville, August 10, 1875.

On August 26, 1869, Warren Downes Parker was married to Justine Bernice Hewes, formerly, from 1862 to 1865, a pupil of his in the Delavan high school. The marriage took place in Chicago, where the bride's parents had moved. This marriage was a most happy one, and throughout the life of Mr. Parker his good wife contributed much toward his advancement. She shared with him the trials and tribulations through which he passed, and as a helpmate was always a great asset in the administration of his official duties. Wherever they resided both contributed to the welfare of the community and made hosts of lasting friends. Mrs. Parker is now residing in Pasadena, California.

The only child born to Mr. and Mrs. Parker was Warren Downes Jr., June 2, 1873. The boy was the life and inspiration of the parents and was afforded every educational advantage possible in his preparation for the profession of mining engineer. He had a course at the University of Wisconsin, and three additional years in the College of Mines at Houghton, Michigan. Downes Jr. soon became an expert in his special line, receiving a high salary at a very young age in keeping with his efficiency. His last mining engineering labors were in Nicaragua, Central America, where he contracted some disease prevalent in that country from which he failed to rally, and died at New Orleans, Louisiana, on September 6, 1907. His remains were buried in Oak Hill Cemetery, Janesville. The death of Downes Jr. was a great shock to Mr. and Mrs. Parker, from which they never fully recovered.

Mr. Parker's elementary schooling was received in the district school and academy at Bradford, Vermont; his secondary education in the high school at Janesville, Wisconsin, from which he was graduated in 1859. From that day until death called him, Warren Downes Parker was a student, and through his own persistent efforts advanced in learning and understanding. So great was his progress in the world of letters and his success in his chosen profession, that the University of Wisconsin in 1874, on the recommendation of Dr. John Bascom, then president, conferred upon him the master of arts degree.

A few months after Mr. Parker's graduation from the Janesville high school, he did his first teaching in a district