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In the early DePauw period campus publications continued to serve as an outlet for the expression of student opinion and literary creativity. The Asbury Monthly became the DePauw Monthly in 1884 and lasted four more years under the sponsorship of the fading literary societies. Its successor was the biweekly Adz, published by the short-lived DePauw Literary Society from 1888 to 1890, when factionalism brought about a split in the editorial staff resulting in two separate papers, both called the Adz. These soon became the Bema and the Record, each controlled by a combination of social fraternities and published weekly. Finally in the fall of 1893 they were replaced by a single DePauw Weekly. When Charles A. Beard became editor in 1897 he changed its name to the Palladium, which continued until 1904, becoming then simply The DePauw. Three years later, under the auspices of the newly organized DePauw Press Club and its sponsor, Professor Nathaniel W. Barnes, appeared the DePauw Daily, an ambitious enterprise that endured until 1920.

 

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The DePauw Daily began publication in
October 1907 and continued until 1920. 
DePauw was the smallest college in the country
to have a daily newspaper.  This picture
shows the editorial staff in 1908, which
includes men who founded the Sigma Delta Chi
journalism fraternity in 1909.

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This cartoon, from the 1907 Mirage, recalled
the day when Senator Albert J. Beveridge, class
of 1884, passed through Greencastle and
addressed the students.
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These student papers were generally four-page sheets each printed in four columns, with a great deal of space devoted to local advertisements to help pay the printer. Printed on the press of the Greencastle Herald or another local daily, with headlines set by hand, the papers frequently contained typographical and other errors. A limited number of photographs and line drawings were employed. Particularly outstanding were the drawings of Paul "Pete" Willis, later a cartoonist for the Indianapolis Star, whose work also appeared in the college yearbook. Under the guidance of Professor Barnes, who taught a course on reporting and editorial work, student journalism at DePauw became more and more professional. Among the staff on the DePauw Daily were such men as Kenneth C. Hogate, W. Don Maxwell, and Eugene C. Pulliam, who later headed the mastheads of the Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, and the Indianapolis Star, respectively.

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The editorial staff of the Bema, a weekly school
newspaper published between 1890 and 1893.  It was
controlled by Sigma Chi, Beta, Phi Psi, Phi Delt, Sigma Nu,
and non-fraternity men.  The women in the photo were
the literary editor and the poetry editor.  A rival paper,
The Record
, was published by other Greek organizations. 
After 1893 they were combined into the
Weekly.
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Successor to the Press Club was Sigma Delta Chi, organized in 1909 as a journalistic honorary fraternity by DePauw students Gilbert C. Clippinger, Charles A. Fisher, William M. Glenn, Marion H. Hedges, L. Aldis Hutchens, Edward H. Lockwood, LeRoy H. Millikan, Eugene B. Pulliam, Paul M. Riddick, and Lawrence H. Sloan. Within a few years it had spread to a dozen other campuses and eventually became a national institution and an influential voice in American journalism.

Two yearbooks called the Mirror were published by the social fraternities during the Asbury era. Their successors in the DePauw period were the annual Mirages put out by the junior class, the first of which appeared in 1886. Several times during the next decade and a half the junior class failed to produce a yearbook, however, and the 1908 publication was given the name Sombrero, from the hat worn with a red neckerchief as the class garb of that year. From 1909 on the Mirage made an annual appearance. The early yearbooks contain not only the names and sometimes the pictures of faculty and students but also literary pieces, including humor, verse, essays, songs, and occasionally even plays. Later they concentrated on portraying campus life and student activities by photographs, sketches, and words, providing this volume with many of its best illustrations.

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