COMMENCEMENT

One Commencement is a good deal like another. If it were not, people would be disappointed. If changes occur, they must be so gradual as to be inperceptible. Once upon a time a governor of the Granite: State, with his council, journeyed to Hanover on horse back carrying a silver punch bowl for speeding the Commencement joys. Now a good many alumni whiz into town in motor-cars: the joy speeders having preceded them mainly by express and in glass containers. But there is less alcohol, if more gasolene, than there used to be. Dartmouth Commencement has become a good deal of a family party, with wives and children, about as much in evidence as graduates. The old time revelry is giving way to a pleasant and dignified sociability,—a change to be thankful for.

To be sure, the presence of so many ladies rather taxes the ingenuity of the urbane and resourceful Fairfield. It is no small job to turn a dormitory study to a boudoir over night, by the mere flicking of a dust mop and the hasty injection of a cot bed. But it has to be done. The imagination of the guests has to supply the deficiencies. Fortunately most of them are reasonably gifted with that blissful quality and bear no ill will if they have to climb on a chair to adjust their coiffures and are delayed in the completion of their toilettes by the necessity for sending a special mission across the campus in search of towels.

There are some, alas, men as well as women, who are bitterly disappointed that the hotel can not be suddenly expanded to supply room, parlor, and bath for two thousand, when its normal order for those commodities not infrequently drops pretty nearly to the zero mark, and who consider it unpardonable that a special reserve of French china is not kept on the shelves of the Commons to be used for the annual festive gathering. But these objectors are in a small minority. The great body of our visitors realize the difficulties under which their host must labor, and take what they can get in the way of food and lodging not merely uncomplainingly, but joyfully. The neighborly spirit flourishes when everybody is reasonably uncomfortable; and hence a Dartmouth Commencement is a very neighborly affair. Life centers at the corner of Main and Wheelock streets: here everybody meets everybody; here the band plays; here the uniformed reuners do their stunts; and here, at the end of the week's doings, gathers the heterogeneous collection of vehicles in which the parting guests are sped—not speeded—to the train.

SING-OUT AND WET-DOWN AND SENIOR DINNER

Commencement began, as usual, somewhat in advance of itself, with the Sing-Out and Wet-Down which occurred on the evening of June 14. The former event took place, according to custom, in Rollins Chapel. A very simple service,—a scripture reading, a prayer, an anthem by the choir, a hymn by the senior class,—this last chapel exercise, this final gathering -of the men as a single body, has a peculiar hold upon the affections of the students. Willing as they might be to forego the privilege of chapel attendance during their four years of undergraduate life, this farewell meeting is one of the things which they would be most reluctant to abolish from their Commencement customs.

The solemnity of Sing-Out found an echo in the Palseopitus initiation which was held at the Old Pine early in the evening; then it yielded to the more-boisterous performances accompanying the accepted parade about the campus and the cheering for the buildings. In course of the procession the home of President Nichols was visited and the President lustily greeted. Thence the men proceeded to the home of President-Emeritus Tucker, who rejoiced the hearts of the seniors by addressing them, the last class whom he had admitted into Dartmouth.

As the marching host returned to the campus they found awaiting them the historic protuberant lemonade barrel from which the seniors and juniors received refreshment and about which the sophomores and freshmen fought until they succeeded in overturning it and spilling its beneficent if innocuous contents upon the ground. After that, D. B. O'Connor, in behalf of the graduating class, presented the senior fence to the seniors to be. It was gratefully accepted by C. C. Meleney and was shortly thereafter heartily sat upon by its new guardians.

An innovation this year was the burning of the freshman caps; the said caps being likewise an innovation generously and unanimously voted to the freshmen by the upperclassmen. A freshman's head covering is now carefully prescribed for him: it is his badge of servitude and his emblem of meekness. He buys it, pays for it, and when his freshman year is done, he burns it. For the proper performance of this function there was prepared 'upon the campus a considerable bonfire. About this the freshmen gathered and, when the flames looked sufficiently hungry, fed thereto their caps with great gusto. With the consumption of the last cap the freshman naturally emerged into sophomoric dignity arid power.

One of the best customs instituted by Mr. Teague as director of the Dining Association was the senior dinner which is given each year by the trustees to the outgoing class. The men enjoy it not merely because it is generally a good dinner, but also because it seems to mark impressively the end of student irresponsibility and the beginning of alumni responsibility. This year, as in the past, the dinner was held in the Commons immediately after the close of the Wet-Down exercises. Those who spoke were: General F. S. Streeter of the trustees, President Nichols, Dean Emerson, Doctor Gile, Professor E. F. Clark, J. R. Erwin, class president, and C. E. Snow, class secretary.

Next morning most of the seniors left town for a brief vacation, leaving their brethren of the lower classes to toil yet a little while over examinations.

PRIZE SPEAKING

After a week's repose Commencement began in earnest with the annual prize speaking contest held in Dartmouth Hall on the evening of Saturday, June 22. There were two contests: that for the Barge medal, a gold medal of the value of $lOO offered annually for the best original oration delivered by a member of the senior class; and that for the Class of 1866 prizes, $25 and $15 respectively, offered for original orations delivered by members of the sophomore and junior classes. The judges for the occasion were: E. W. Knight '87 of Charleston, W. Va., E. K. Hall '92 of Boston, and R. L. Theller '09 of Lakeville, Conn. Professor L. S. Hastings presided. Their awards were as follows: Barge Medal, to H. L. Lena '12, who spoke on "The Lawrence Strike"; Class of 1866 prizes: first, to S. A. Stavrum '13, who delivered a nomination address presenting the candidacy of La Follette; second, to W. C. Gilbert '14, who spoke on "Present Day Ideals."

BACCALAUREATE SUNDAY

The College Church was well filled on Sunday morning by a congregation which had gathered to see the seniors attend service in a body, and to hear the sermon of the Reverend Charles R. Brown, D.D., Dean of the Yale Divinity School. Doctor Brown's sermon concerned itself with the proper uses of knowledge and the influence of learning in determining a man's outlook upon the world.

in the evening vesper services were held in the College Church under the auspices of the class of '97. The address was given by the Reverend Benjamin T. Marshall '97, whose recent appointment to the Dartmouth faculty has caused widespread satisfaction among the alumni.

CLASS DAY

Class Day is about the busiest day of Commencement Week. The morning is quiet, as it has to be in order to give preparation time for the continuous performance that begins at 2.30 in the afternoon and lasts until midnight. This morning quietude, is, it must be admitted, rather a theory than a fact. There were several baseball games on the campus this year, and so many processions that the Hanover youngsters were kept in constant quandary as to which one they should follow, and finally quite exhausted themselves by trying to follow all.

After this restful morning, the seniors, their friends, and everybody else in town gathered in the College Yard, or more specifically, on the green before Dartmouth Hall for the first stage in the proceedings of Class Day. Here James R. Erwin welcomed the assembled multitude; while Daniel B. O'Connor delivered the customary address to the President, to which President Nichols briefly responded. Thomas L. Brennock's oration on "The Other Eight Hours," followed. The Yard exercises closed with Henry K. Urion's address to the old chapel; which, curiously enough, is now Rollins Chapel, the old chapel having gone up in smoke when Dartmouth Hall was burned—before the memory of 1912.

From the Yard there was a scurrying to the Bema, where H. L. Armes delivered a really humorous sachem oration and W. W. Flint read an unusually meritorious poem. Then everybody scaled the heights to the stump of the Old Pine, where H. L. Lena spoke in commemoration of the venerable tree, and the class sang W. L. White's ode. Thereafter the long clay pipes were passed, puffed, and projected against the pine.

Next in order were the fraternity reunions, where returning alumni were regaled with Hanover punch and reports of indebtedness until supper time. That evening Webster Hall was crowded for the second performance of "The Green Parasol," the annual operetta, which was quite up to the usual average and kept everybody wide awake until after eleven o'clock, when there began a band concert in the Yard. Thus the day ended shortly after the next began.

TUESDAY

Tuesday opened learnedly with the Phi Beta Kappa meeting at 8.30 A. M.

At 10 o'clock everybody adjourned to. the Oval for the Amherst ball game. The game amounted to very little; for a torrid sun baked players and spectators alike; but the alumni procession, which took place before the onslaughts of heat exhaustion, was a great success. The class of 1907, gaily clad as Highland laddies, and led by two bagpipers, took the honors for picturesqueness, though the men of 1909 as man-o'-warsmen tripping along in hornpipe measure and dragging along a fearsome wooden cannon were a close second. The two classes had a bloody encounter in that most dangerous form—a political convention—which threatened the overthrow of the Highlanders, until a canny member of the class requisitioned the village steam roller and flattened all opposition. Meanwhile the ball game continued spasmodically until Amherst carried off what few honors there were; by that time the concourse of spectators had largely melted away.

At 2 o'clock in the afternoon, the annual meeting of the Alumni Association was held in Dartmouth Hall. One of the most interesting matters of business was the report of the vote on the establishing of the Alumni Council. H. G. Pender '97, reporting for the chairman of the Executive Committee gave out the figures as follows: for, 1132; against, 33. By this vote the long mooted Alumni Council becomes an established fact, though its activities do not begin until 1913. The other work of the meeting consisted mainly of the election of officers and appointment of committees, which, during the coming year, will be made up as follows:

Officers: President, Joseph F. Moore '87; vice-presidents, Frank E. Gove '88, Guy W. Cox '93; secretary, Homer E. Keyes '00; treasurer, Perley R. Bugbee '97; statistical secretary, John M. Comstock '77.

Executive Committee: Chairman, Horace G. Pender '97; secretary, James P. Richardson '99 ; Thomas W. D. Worthen '72, Edwin F. Jones 'BO, George H. Bingham '87, E. S. Gile '95, Ralph E. Lewers '03.

Committee on the Tucker Fund: Chairman, H. H. Hilton '90; secretary, H. G. Pender '97; H. P. Blair '90, James P. Richardson '99, M. C. Tuttle '97.

Committee on Alumni Trustee: Chairman, L. H. Hudson '85; W. D. Ouint '87, D. B. Ruggles '90, M. C. Tuttle '97, G. S. Dow '02.

Athletic Council: Faculty, Professors Bolser, Proctor, and Lingley; alumni, Messrs. I. J. French '01, J. W. Gannon '99, H. R. Lane '07.

The presence of Isaac. F. Paul '78, long-time chairman of the Executive Committee of the Association was sorely missed at the meeting, and the secretary was instructed to express to Mr. Paul the sympathy of his fellow graduates, in his illness, and their appreciation of his unfailing and loyal service to the Association and . the College. In compliance with his instructions, the secretary wrote Mr. Paul a letter which reached him not long before his death.

The Association further instructed the secretary to extend its thanks to Doctor Herbert L. Smith '82 for his generous labors in restoring and preserving the stump of the Old Pine.

Following the alumni meeting the annual reception of President and Mrs. Nichols was held in Parkhurst Hall. A large number of alumni, friends, and guests of the College availed themselves of the opportunity to meet the President and his wife, who received in the trustee room. Down stairs, in the Dean's offices, ladies of the faculty served light refreshments.

The evening was largely musical. There was a band concert on College Hall terrace at 6.45 o'clock. At 8.30 the College musical clubs rendered an excellent concert in Webster Hall. After this the Commencement band once more played numerous selections on the terrace.

WEDNESDAY

After early morning prayers on Wednesday, the procession formed for the Commencement exercises, which began at 10 o'clock in Webster Hall. The traditional order of exercises was followed. After the opening prayer the audience rose and joined in singing Milton's paraphrase of Psalm CXXXVI. Then followed six senior orations: Henry B. McElwain speaking on "The Courts and Democracy"; Cleon B. White on "The Moral Message of English Novelists"; Roy J. Deferrari on "The Dream of United Italy"; Charles R. Cabot on "Poetry in Life"; Conrad E. Snow on "Democracy or Dynamite"; William W. Flint, Jr., on "Fragments of Heraclitus."

Hovey's "Men of Dartmouth" was then sung, and degrees were conferred: 105 men receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts, 102 the degree of Bachelor of Science. The degree of Master of Arts, as in course, was conferred upon six men; that of Master of Science upon one.

Honorary degrees were conferred as follows:

Master of Science: James Moody Willard '87, professor of mathematics in Pennsylvania State College; Masterof Arts: Arthur Chase, Trinity College '89, rector of Trinity Church, Ware, Mass.; Frederick Augustus Vogt, principal Buffalo Central High School ; Charles Sumner Ward '81, financial secretary of the International Committee of the Young Men's Christian Association; Doctor of Divinity: William Ellsworth Strong '82, editorial secretary of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions; Doctor of Science: Lewis Boss '70, director of Dudley Observatory; Doctor of Letters: Alfred Ernest Stearns, Amherst '94, principal Phillips Academy; Doctor ofLaws: Melvin 0. Adams '71, lawyer and administrator.

The singing of the Doxology and the bestowal of the benediction brought the exercises to a close. The academic procession formed once more and proceeded to the new gymnasium where, for the first time, the alumni luncheon was served. The great drill hall proved more than adequate for all the guests of the day and was a great improvement over the crowded quarters of the Commons.

Charles R. Webster '82, president of the Alumni Association, presided, and after the luncheon had been disposed of, introduced the following speakers: For the College, President Nichols; for the trustees, the Reverend Francis Brown; for the class of '62, Luther W. Emerson; for the class of 'B7, Frank P. Brackett; for the seniors, James R. Erwin; for the alumni, Melvin O. Adams '71; for the faculty, Professor Charles Darwin Adams; for the recipients of honorary degrees, Principal Alfred E. Stearns. The Reverend Arthur Little '60 closed the speaking.

Thus ended the one hundred and forty-third Commencement of Dartmouth. A large proportion of the alumni departed on the afternoon train. Some remained for the ball, which was held in the gymnasium, which was prettily decorated for the event. Dancing began presumably about 9 o'clock in the evening and continued until dawn of the day-after began to peer across the hills.

TRUSTEE ELECTION

Doctor John M. Gile '87, of Hanover, was this year elected alumni trustee to serve for a term of five years. The recorded alumni vote for the various candidates is as follows: E. L. Silver, 87 ; E. J. Rundlett, 126; J. W. Staples, 220; H. C. Morrison, 279; J. M. Gile, 582. In addition to being the most widely known surgeon in northern New Hampshire, Doctor Gile has long been prominent as a citizen and man of affairs. He has, for the past two years, been a member of the Governor's Council, and has frequently been mentioned as candidate for chief executive of the state. His intimate acquaintance with conditions in all parts of New Hampshire and with the affairs of Dartmouth should make him a valuable addition to the board of trustees.

CLASS CUP AWARD

The trophy cup presented by the class of 1894 and annually awarded to the class having the largest percentage of living graduates returning at Commencement was won this year by the class of 1887, of whom 60 per cent were present for the twenty-fifth reunion of the class.