Thursday, September 28, 1916
The Russell Sage College of Practical Arts welcomes its first class, consisting of more than 100 students, to the former campus of the Emma Willard School in downtown Troy today.
Opening ceremonies are held at the extensively renovated Gurley Memorial Hall. The Record reports that Gurley has been “transformed and rehabilitated so that those who built and first occupied it would scarcely recognize the interior.”
After opening prayers asking special blessings for Mrs. Russell Sage, the new school’s founder, the students are addressed by Dean Eliza Kellas, who is also headmistress of Emma Willard.
“Each of the more than one hundred girls, the speaker said, has a part in the world’s work, to be accomplished only by herself,” our reporter writes.
“The spirit of work is here, work which is the noblest thing which women can do,” Kellas continues, “Women must accomplish their tasks in a proper spirit which shall make for success. Our hearts are full of desire, we shall think of no such thing as failure.”
BACK HOME. The Troy troops of the Second New York Infantry regiment, who returned home yesterday from border-patrol duty in Texas, will be allowed to sleep in their homes, but for the next two weeks they’ll have to report for duty every morning at 8 a.m. at the Troy Armory.
“In view of the fact that the Troy companies of the Second Regiment are more heavily recruited than the government generally looks forward to in regard to the general run of companies, it was the belief this morning of officers at the armory that it would be perhaps fifteen days, instead of ten, before the muster rolls are signed, each soldier examined physically, property accounts checked and the payrolls audited – in short, before the guardsmen are given absolute freedom,” The Record reports.
The troops don’t have to report until 9 a.m. today, in consideration of their first night home in three months. Most of them take part in a short march through the streets of Troy, while a detachment of 96 men continues to unload their gear from the Adams Street railyard.
Major H. Judson Lipes receives an ovation from the troops this morning. Lipes commands the hospital corps and is given credit for “bringing back in good health practically every guardsman who went away.”
While the troops are glad to be back in Troy, many tell our reporters that they’re glad to have served their country. “I would not forfeit what it has gained me in experience and health for a thousand dollars,” one says, while another simply says, “I’m a man now.”