Class of 1899
Peddy Miller is again in the limelight. On February 5 he lectured before the Open Forum of the Philadelphia Young Democracy, at the Broad Street Theatre. His topic was "Religion in Politics," with a subtitle, "A 1 Smith and the Klan." Peddy is in congenial company, for the other speakers for the Forum during the month are Max Eastman, formerly editor of the Liberator, Judge Florence E. Allen, Oswald Garrison Villard, and Alexander Meiklejohn.
At the recent annual dinner of the Manchester Alumni Association, there were present four '99ers, Rab Abbott, Hale Dearborn, Dave Parker, and the Secretary. It seemed to be a gathering largely of the odd classes, for '93, '97, '99, 1901, and 1903 were all well represented, while '96, '9B, 1900, and 1902 had no member present.
Bobby Rowe writes that he fears he will be unable to make the Boston round-up. However, he is sure to be with us in Hanover in June, 1929. He attended the Allegheny game at Hanover last fall, but did not meet any classmates. His address is 544 Middle Road, Portsmouth.
Mot Sargeant's son, Howland, who will not be seventeen years old until next summer, was graduated from the New Bedford High School on February 1, with valedictory honors in a class of sixty-eight graduates. Howland is one of seven sons of '99 who will enter Dartmouth next fall.
Robert Dickey, Maurice's son, spent the short vacation between semesters at the home of his father's uncle, G. A. Dickey, class of 1880, in Manchester. He visited the Benezets, and got acquainted with the young folks. Robert made the freshman soccer team, but says that the flood robbed the team of two outside games and denied him a chance to make his numerals.
Timmy Lynch forwards a Florida post-card from Bill Eaton. Bill is loafing at West Palm Beach for six weeks or so. He regrets the fact that as soon as he left Boston the weather took on a springlike complexion. According to the post-card, he is consorting with Seminoles.
On Friday, the 13th of January, Owen Hoban summoned a group of the executive committee to meet him and Warren Kendall at the University Club in Boston for dinner. It seems that Warren had just had a conference with George Morris, 1911, who pointed out that for three years out of the last four, the class of '99 had failed to come up to her quota in the Alumni Fund drive. The group who met with Owen and Warren included Jim Barney, the Secretary, and the Honorable Justice Donahue. George Clark was expected, but failed to show up. He wrote later that he had misread Owen's letter and thought that the date was Friday the twentieth. Pitt Drew was also expected, but important business called him out of town. The quintette went over Hobe's books carefully, and discussed ways and means of raising money, for three solid hours. They are hopeful of results in the next drive.
Warren had received a letter from Tedo, telling what the flood had done to him. Several pictures were enclosed, which told an eloquent story of the destruction. The total losses to Tedo's mill were in the neighborhood of $50,000. One picture showed a stream bigger than the Merrimack, tearing across the highway close by Tedo's plant. Tedo's winter supply of coal, just to begin on, was entirely washed away. Two wooden houses were torn from their foundations, and carried in wreckage down the stream, while a third building was so damaged as to be practically a wreck. The water poured eight feet deep through the main floor of the mill, leaving destruction in its wake. The railroad bridge nearby is gone, and the track for several miles near the mill is twisted and torn or completely washed out. On the back of one of the pictures there is the comment that it took 800 truckloads to refill the crossing, besides what the railroad put in to raise the track. A whole volume could be written about the various details of the catastrophe, but Tedo has gritted his teeth and gone to work like the other Vermonters, determined to come back.
A letter addressed to Joe Hartley at Lawrence followed him down to Manhattan. Joe writes that he has taken a new position down there, and that he is well pleased with his situation. His new address is 438 South 4th Ave., Mt. Vernon, N. Y.
Plans for the round-up are going ahead. It is quite possible that Pap Abbott will run up, and Ikey Leavitt may also make the trip. Franko French has hinted that he might be expected. Bill Wiggin, Hale Dearborn, Hopkins, Charlie Adams, Bob Johnson, Jim Richardson, and the Manchester crowd will comprise the New Hampshire delegation.
The Secretary recently had a good letter from old Herbert Rice. Herbert believes that it will be impossible for hirn to get down for the round-up, but he promises faithfully to be on hand for the Thirtieth next year.
One important bit of news in Herbert's letter dealt with Montie John Baker Fuller. It seems that Montie has changed his location. He is now pastor of the only church in Torrington, Conn., according to Herbert's story. We presume that Montie fits his sermons to the various groups which worship before him, and that he preaches Fundamentalism to the Calvinists on the first Sunday of each month, Modernism to the Unitarians on the second Sunday, total immersion to the Baptists on the third Sunday, and light sprinkling to the others on the fourth Sunday. Perhaps Montie manages to get in a mass occasionally. At any rate, it is up to him to explain how he manages to reconcile all the warring denominations under one all-embracing roof. Herbert writes that Montie had a trip to Hanover last fall. The Secretary happens to know that a church not very far from Dartmouth tried to secure Montie's services, and perhaps it was in this connection that he visited the old college. Montie's loyalty to Dartmouth is second to no one else's. His annual gift to the Alumni Fund is an example which many others might follow with profit.
The Secretary has just come across an old letter from C. Henry Donahue, giving the list of '99ers who reuned at the Cornell game last November. For the sake of our permanent record, it is inserted here: Pap Abbott, Charlie Adams, George Clark, Hale Dearborn, Charles Donahue, Owen Hoban, Joe Gannon, Frank Musgrove, Dave Parker, Jim Richardson, Dave Storrs, Bill Wiggin. There may have been others, but these are all that Donahue saw.
Rab Abbott of Manchester, like many other millionaires, is spending a few weeks away from New England winter, in the sunny southland.
Raymond Pearl's latest book, which he dedicates to H. L. Mencken, has never been mentioned in these columns. The doctor is more frequently quoted than any other member of the class. The Literary Digest recently prophesied the future growth of the population of the United States, quoting old "John Philip Sousa" Pearl as its authority.
Frank Cavanaugh did not have a very successful season at Fordham from the standpoint of winning games, but he developed the greatest freshman football team in the East, and the critics are full of predictions that Cav's next year's team will make them all go.
Maurice Dickey, editor of the SpringfieldUnion, has been suffering for the last few weeks with an attack of neuritis in his right arm. Anyone who has had this painful disease can sympathize with Maurice. At last reports he was improving.
The Secretary recently gave a talk before the Women's Club at Raymond, N. H. At the conclusion of the program he was delighted to renew acquaintance with Mun Folsom's sister-in-law and his sister, Mrs. E. S. Folsom and Mrs. E. G. Blair of Epping.
Bill Hutchinson, Jr., is a freshman in Pennsylvania State College, and according to all reports is making an excellent record.
President Ernest Silver of the Plymouth Normal School was the Commencement speaker at the West High graduation at Manchester on January 25. He gave an excellent address on "Sixty Miles per Hour and Four Wheel Brakes."
According to Ernest, Guy Speare is making a name for himself as president of the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce.
As announced in a previous issue of the MAGAZINE, the Secretary proposes from time to time to deal with "Forgotten Chapters of our History."
One of the incidents which had remained obscure throughout our whole course was the question of what happened to the '99 class baseball suits, and who finally paid for them.
G. Edwin Speare had been elected treasurer of the class for the first term of freshman year. Just why Piley accepted the job is not clear, for there certainly was no treasure for the treasurer to guard. It so chanced that the present secretary was appointed by Tedo chairman of a committee to select the class cut to appear opposite our roster in the '97 Aegis. When the Aegis was almost ready to be printed, the cut duly arrived, and with it a bill for some $50.00. There was no treasure in the treasury, and no way of collecting any, so to save the class honor, Benny went to the bank and drew out two thirds of his capital and paid the bill. The Aegis appeared in due time, and the class cut was favorably commented upon.
Meanwhile Benny demanded his money. At a class meeting held just before Christmas, it was decided to elect him treasurer for the winter term, and assess a fifty cent tax upon the class, so that, if Benny finally succeeded in getting one hundred men to pay it, he would not be the loser. Strange as it may seem to Hobe and Tim, 102 men actually paid the assessment, and Benny had a dollar left to turn over to Willis Hodgkins, or whoever it was that was elected class treasurer for the spring term.
At the April meeting of the class, when the new officers were elected, Long Jim called for a report of the treasurer, which was given. The class was so surprised to find itself solvent that it voted unanimously to accept the report (and the dollar), and Hodge was left in possession of the same.
Now of course all well regulated classes had to have a class baseball team, and class baseball teams were disgraced if they did not wear uniforms decorated by the class colors. H2S, who had been the class "'Oder" when the class of '95 graduated from Hyde Park High School, was the duly elected manager of the baseball team. At the end of the year someone asked why the baseball uniforms had not been paid for. It had been understood that the men who made the team were to assist the class in paying for these, since they were the ones who were to benefit by them. But Willie Sears pointed out that no captain or coach had decided who was entitled to wear the suits, and that he officially had never received them. There were rumors of graft, and the disappearance of class funds, but the best evidence is that there were no class funds to disappear. Let Horace tell the story in his own inimitable style: . < < I*l. T
"As manager of the class baseball team, I asked for bids from various firms for uniforms and other necessary equipment. These bids were submitted to the class at a regular meeting. and the budget submitted by a Boston firm, Horace Partridge and Company, was accepted.
"Fred Crolius was the local agent for this firm's goods at Hanover. There is no question but that they supplied goods of excellent qualitv, and the prices paid for equipment were in every respect fair. Criticism, if any, might have been directed to the fact that a much better quality was purchased than was necessary.
The class acted after much argument, lull and free. The decision seemed to be that these suits were for use spring and fall by the class representatives, and would see four years of service.
"When the suits were ready for delivery, I was notified by Partridge, as I had signed the original order, and they were shipped by express to Partridge's local agent, Fred Crolius, who presumably would deliver them to the class manager.
"It is the unexpected that always happens. Here was Fred rooming with Buck Burns, and Squaw Kirk not far distant. I am not sure that Fred was the first to don a suit; perhaps it was Buck. We were pleasantly surprised one afternoon to see Squaw, Buck, and other Reed Hall neighbors, clad in the suits, engaged in baseball practice on the campus. Not to be left in the lurch, certain of Sanborn Hall classmates quickly got inside of uniforms. Then there was a great noise from Bill Fraser and Jack Sanbornthey got their suits, and the noise stopped!
"Then the strangest thing happened. Partridge and Company wrote me asking for a settlement of their account for the baseball suits. Wise ones said that the money for the suits should have been collected before the said suits were distributed. Now certain of the class (and friends and well-wishers) felt that the suits had not been wisely distributed. RIGHT-OH! ! So it was up to Buck or Fred, but they tammanyized and put it over onto Wheeley Sears, and with Bill Fraser and Joe Gannon consenting, it was so recorded.
"Being merely the freshest of freshmen, knowing only how to earn a paltry living shooting buns, I only could advise Partridge and Company that the class of '99 had never received their suits as ordered by their class manager. The suits had been delivered to their local Hanover agent, and had been distributed from his room before any acceptance or inspection by Bobby Fletcher's engineers or other authorized agent.
"Thus the matter hung fire until the graduation days of June, '99, when Partridge and Company insisted on payment for property delivered and made use of by the class as class suits. Q.E.D.
"Thus endeth the explanation of the "HOLDUP" in the payment of '99 baseball suits."
Secretary, 88 Lowell St., Manchester, N. H.
