Page 13 - 1911 November - To Dragma

12 TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI

STANFORD BEAUTIFUL

The stranger with a preconceived notion of the appearance of
Stanford University is apt to have his impression utterly destroyed
for Stanford in its exterior aspect is unique in the university world.
When one steps off the train at Palo Alto and starts to walk the
short mile to the campus he enters upon a broad avenue straight
as an arrow through a thick wood—the Arboretum, as we call it.
This Arboretum is semi-tropical, many date and palm trees alter-
nating with the twisted oaks and long trunked eucalyptus. Straight
ahead on the distant ridge is a fringe of tall trees. I f soon our
visitor turns to the right he finds himself in a cactus garden at one
end of which, but set in the sanctuary of lawn and flowers, is a
mausoleum where the bodies of Senator Stanford, his wife and son,
Leland, repose; i f to the left, his road would lead past the faculty
lodge, rustic and vine-covered, to the college playground, cinder
track and rugby turf, tennis courts and training quarters.

At the end of the avenue our friend emerges from the woody
stretch and directly before him lies the huge green oval with its
border of red flowers that does so much toward giving Stanford its
striking setting. On one side of this are the chemistry and museum
buildings, the latter with its costly mosaics, while to the other
side are the ruins of the beautiful library and gymnasium which
were totally demolished by the earthquake of 1906.

Beyond the oval stands the main part of the college in the form
of a quadrangle, a quarter mile in each direction—composed of an
inner and outer "quad" built around a great court in the midst of
which are many tropical palms and trees. The quadrangle is a low
arcade, a line of buff sandstone buildings, surmounted by red tiled
roofing, bronze and marble statuary, modern and ancient, realistic
and symbolic. Facades covered with mosiac glowing in the sun
in accord with the colors of the plants, the foot-hills, lake and sky—
all these combine in giving an indescribable air of peace, of spacious-
ness, of leisure, of freedom, an air of the farm and the frontier.

RUTH CRIPPEN, A , '12.