1933-03-15 — Page 29

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HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 1933. HONG KONG UNIVERSITY SUPPLEMENT.

Reminiscences Of Varsity Days

RAGE, "ROMANCE, STUDIES IN THE HALLS OF LEARNING

(BY AN ARTS GRADUATE)

the

Ninotcen hundred and nineteen pay his footing But that was not Yes, I remember it quite well, it all; ho had to climb the pillar in a year of double nineteen the hall, which was no jesting mat- when, I found myself what is known ter. for the pillars were provoking Among the undergrads of that ly amooth. Then there was University of Hong Kong s a blind-folded boxing in which the "green-horn,"* They "nabbed "boxers struck the pillars in the hall me, those friends of mine, and be more often than they did their fofo I knew where I was they had ponents. It was at these times that mado me a Lagardite. In those our merriment reached its greatest days it was the greatest honour for heights. Then there were practical a.freshman to become a member of jokes and cracker fights between Lugard Hall. It was more or less Lugard and Eliot Halls when there a privileged hostel, meant only for was much fun and little harm. I sturdy young follows. I do not do not know shout it now, but we know what it is like now; it is ten certainly were jolly good fellows in yeurs since I left its doors to

those days. We never lost our launch myself upon the sea of life. zense of responsibility, and our Things may have changed. It was

wardens were always jolly good a proud moment for ind to find fellows too. myself among those fine fellows, for there were living within the walls of card Hall the neat specimens of scholars-King Ed ward VII. and President of China Echolar-and of athletes. that have ever passed through the portals of the University. Other hostels there were, but none ever dared to challenge the prowess of Lugardites in scholarship and in sports. There was the Acct- footed Shahabuddin whom none has surpassed on the track, and there was A. A. Rumjahn who was known to us as "Afghan," that doughts cricketer who led the University team to many a victory.

Early Glamour.

.}

There was for me in 1919 peculiar glamour about the Univer sity which attracted me bewitching- ly, and into that all of learning I entered, with a trembling heart full of expectations. It was tremendous change from the nar row school room with its severe discipline to the broad University lecture hall with its freedom and ita breadth of vision. No scowling schoolmaster was there with coun tenance austere; instead there was the Professor, with his expansive smile and sociable airs. The world was expanding before me; there was the joy of studies ahead, ard there was life. I had passed the infancy of learning and Was how entering up its adolescence.

Budding Carusoes,- Then there were our budding of whose instruments and voices Carusoes and Kreislera, the notes

were always heard in the morning and at night. Some of them were good, but others were comic, and tised their singing invariably in the even pathetic. The Carusoes prac bathrooms. This has often led me to think that there is some mys.. and the human vocal chords. terious connection between water-

play. We had our examinations to But our life was by no means all

think about. Whereas before the hostel

veritable

Was

some

used to hear tales of rendezvous in the tower of the Main Building, stalled a clock, it seems to me, where now the authorities have in-

One of these Romeos, who was a scare away the love-sick buffoons. friend of mine, took me into his confidence, and showed me class. They seemed to have some lines writ by a young lady in his mysterious import, and he was not sure what they meant. While look. ing over my diary a few days ago, Here they are. This is how they I came upon a record of these.

were inscribed:

1. Physically and 2. Mentally fit

The best undergrad in the 2nd year Arts (Hore, followed his initials),

On the side of this insoription were the words No more leg pulling,"

The ardent young man sought my advice and I played the wine man by him. I wrote the follow- ing lines for him to be placed in her book.

"I marvel at the lines you writ,

They are so very clever;

Don't forget, remember it, I'll treasure them for ever." Then fellow these records in my diary:-

November 31.-M. has tried, the trick and has succeeded. "So far an good," he said. pan.

happy.

He is very

feeling rather downcast to-day... November 14-M. seems to be He says he is feeling shaky.

гап

"Woman, they name is frailty.". The course of love never smooth. And I beat a hasty re tent. She is now married, and he Ieva! has still to hug a pillow. Such is

"Still Achievial.”

It was fourteen years ago I en- tered the University happy an a child upon its mother knees. For four years lived and learned at

demonium, two months prior to the commencement of this bete noire of a students' fo the singing and the violin playing ceased, and all was quiet, except. at meal times. All life is a tragic comedy; it has ile two aspects, the comic and the serious. Fun and jollity have their value in life, and so has business. Examinations must be passed, whe her they are good or bad is a moot point. They are ordnined and they must be gone through, willy nilly. At these times a solemn whole population of seriousness descended

upon the the place. There were asking of questions in Alam Mater's feet Then I left real earnest and the comparing of

her to seek for happiness without notes. Everybody wore a scholar her portals. Like many others of Carusors became silent, and in found it yet. Life has been unkind lv expression. Kreflaers and my fellow graduates I have not stead of their instruments and their

to them in general and to me in There lay row upon now of volumin. volumes with rulers and pencils.graduates. The lot of pioneers is looking glasses they wielded portly particular. We are the pioneers beoka upon the shelves of the meticulously marking their nages in

for the future generations Library what a thrill they gave nie! Could I ever read all those blue and ved To show how ardu-

no happy one, and they seldom live bookal In the enthusiasm of my should like to give an extract or ous were these times for us, I

to enjoy the fruits of their labours, youth I thought I could. But I

Ten years have passed since I ging, like many a fellow graduate of mine, for a future. The Univer sity looms tall against the hills. I wistfully, longingly, yearning to go look at its imposing structure, back to it to be among its books and on its playing fields once calls me there in front, beckon- more. But there is something that ing to lead me on, on. No one has yet been able to reach this Some- thing, for it is Life that is elusive; or shall I say illusive, and eternal.

of

soon discovered books were not two from my diary for my Finaleft the Varsity. I am still strug-

May 20-Slept at 4 this morning

everything in the life of a Univer year. sity student. "The proper study

May 19-Sept at 5 am and got of mankind is man." hall has its value, but no under-and got up about 7 a.m.

The lecture up at 7 a.m. graduate can expect to be a man unless mingles with his fellows May 22-Slept about 3 in the upon the playing fields and in the morning and got up about 8 am,. social activities of the University. there are fellows with grim faces When the day of ordeal arrives, There is nothing like it to broaden the soul, and there is ample mater. determined to go in and do their ial in the University to expand' an

best. Presently the first paper is undergraduates' mental horizon,

ever; now we see them coming out of the Great Hall, some with faces wreathed in broad smiles, others vehemently under their wreath.

Students from Many Lands,

Rocks of Reality.

At last it is all over.

At last

I found living in the same hostel with me studenta from many lands. Chinese there were of course in dergrads leave the hostels in little The un large numbers, but there were also Indians, Portuguese, Malays and a groups for a stroll or for the Burmese. We all had a jolly tine life coines back. But there is still cinema, and once more the old, old together Lugardites were always jolly, for Lugard Hall had no place the results are out, and there is

a great suspense, for moping bookworms and lugu- much congratulating and a little

rious, neaking fellows. None, who had not

sympathising too, to be sure, for ап open, BO- ciable soul.

these examinations are no jesting WRA ever allow- ed to become its inmate;

matter. Those of the Finalists who. its senior members saw to that. And They wear a different demeanour. have passed are now all miles. if one or two did get in, they had They do not seem to tread on the either to conform to the dictum ground they appear to walk in the that while at Rome live as the air. The world is too small to hold Romans do" or they had to quit.

The cosmopolitan nature of the and all the universe. They see them. Their souls seem to expand population of the hostel tended to have a most anlubrious influence visions before them visiona of

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upon its residents. The same may

great achievements and of fame. be, said of the other hostels to a

Vain imaginings Elated with sac certain extent; I say to a certain drop in the wide, wide ocean of cess, they forget they are but a extent because their were not of arch varied nation-

residents life. Doctors, teachers, engineers alities as thoas of Lugard Hall: ll have felt the anime, same in- There was often rivalry among these. Soon they experience the different hostels, but it was

disillusionment that every imaginn. rivalry which was conduge - ta

tive child of Adam must meet batter understanding and the And yet it is this very disillusion- on the bard rocks of reality. broadening of our outlook on life.ment which moulds our character Raids on "Greenhorns.”* and sublimates the grosser elements in our souls. Every graduate has There was always much fun in nation, has been thrown up on the passed through the mill of exami- tlie hostel. The beginning of a University year was a time of great other fellow man of lesser fortune tempestrous sea of life like every revelry, for it was then that the and must share alike Life's plea "green-horns" on coming into aures and its pains, for out of pain residence were submitted to certain and zorrow comes the refinement forms of initiation in order to test of our souls. their mettle. What we termned

raids" were the commonest

procedure. They were introduced

k.

Romance,

Generations of graduates wil! pass out of its portals, on through the consuming Aames of life, will dissolve into nothingness, but the

year, turning out graduates not University of Hong Kong will live on, gathering strength from year to only of learning but of character alone that are the backhone of a also, for it is men, of character

ecter is perils. nation, and learning without' char

FACULTY OF ARTS

(Continued From Page 7.)

BETTER EQUIPPED

the University nowadays are in the Many of the students who go to

they used to be. Teaching by ques above respects better equipped ther tion and answer, with the oppor tunities it provides for the prac dificult as it once was; and the tice of oral composition, is not so University does not now have so large a section of undergraduates to whom the ordinary ideas of the newspaper are utterly unfamiliar. average English novel, omay or

CHINESE LIBRARY

Shan made a donation to the Uni- versity of 8100,000 for the construc- In 1920 the late Mr. Fang Ping

tion of a building for use as a Chinese Library and added to his generosity by providing a further: sum of 950,000 for its endowment The library which was formally Governor in September 1909 wit opened by His Excellency the be open to the public. It contains boy, and on his appearance amount of comedy where young sisting of about 30,000 volumes in There must be certain over 900 sets of Chinese books cone

Pear after I bad entered the Gorechios on trecano a fenture Varsity The poor, unsuspecting of the University when I was in green-horn's room was entered any second year, We then had

by all the available residente of ahont half-a-dozen women under the hostel as if to welcome him, grades. To me it had its comic One of these rang the boll. for the side.

Bomecne houted. "Tea for all, men and women come together, all. It is confidently hoped that

toy," and of coutac there were cakes too. When all had had their All, they off the immate of the room to foot the bill-he had to

for the young men are bound to the public of Hong Kong will come make tools of themselves, and the forward. and present the Chinese young undergrads at the University Library with modern Chinese books were no exception to the rule. T and periodicals,"

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