| These were Alabama A&M cadets, or were they Alabama
Polytechnic Institute cadets? Depends on whether the picture was
taken before the name changed to API in 1899, and who knows? At any
rate, the cadets appeared on good behavior standing with two bearded men
at the Auburn depot. A seasoned conductor on the Atlanta & West
Point line might have doubted this picture. "I believe they is wuss
than Injuns!" such a conductor told Professor James P.C. Southall, who
was taking his first ride to Auburn and a teaching job there in 1901.
"They don't mean no harm, they's jes' full of life an' up to all kinds
of devilment from mornin' to night, and at night too. They never
wait for the train to stop, but climbs on board and jumps off again. .
. Folks say Auburn's the bes' all-'roun school in these parts, not excep'in
the University at Tuscaloosa or even Georgia Tech in Atlanta. . ."
(Quotation reprinted from Southall's Memoirs of The Abbots of Old Bellevue
with the permission of the University of Virginia.) -- Photo: AU Archives |
