Class of 1917
The Hudson river seems to be losing its grip of terror on you 'l7ers who live to the south and west of it. After Jim Rubel's courageous venture in sending a letter across the line last month, two other boys have become bold and broken through the barrier.
Captain Trenholm of the U. S. A. was one, and of course to him it was a mere matter of professional routine to "get a message through." He writes: "Have acquired a mare since last seeing you in June and expect to breed her next month. She's a thoroughbred jumper named Jidgie, and is a very sweet thing, albeit a trifle aged, (ten years young). The upkeep on a horse is much less than on a woman, child, or car."
There speaks a man of experience, who has tried out everything, and at last found the ideal companion for man. It isn't meant, however, that now that he has a horse, the Duke will throw over his wife, child, and automobile.
In September Trennie will be ordered to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for a nine months' course at the battery officers' school. This is considered a choice assignment, and only future generals are sent there. Among the graduates of this school in the past are such men as Pershing, Wood, U. S. Grant, Lee, George Washington, and Napoleon Bonaparte. That may be a mistake about Bonaparte, but anyway Trennie says it's a fine assignment.
Hal Tobin writes from Lausanne, Switzerland: "Here is a dull cloudy Sunday, a grey lake, some forbidding looking snow peaks, and an inhospitable amount of steam heat. A skin infection has put me to bed in a clinique here for a few days, where neither nurse nor doctor speaks English (a rare thing here), and I am getting what I came for,—a working knowledge of French. Cliniques are not so impersonal as hospitals (my room is acres, and has enormous closets and cupboards), but I prefer more personal freedom when traveling than a sick room allows. I expect to be out by to-morrow or Tuesday. Madame Bonjour (la directrice) says, 'I will breeng you the phonograph thees evening night, and my daughtaire will seeng for you weeth the piano.' The daughtaire is quite pretty, but the piano is terrible. The records of the phonograph are, 'Where did you get that hat?' 'Under the bamboo tree,' etc., and how any high pressure salesman gets an unsuspecting Swiss to buy such phonographs is something that our great American selling organizations may well investigate. The beer here is fair."
Tobe expects to be in Switzerland for some time, and his address is care of Banque Cantonale Vaudoise, Lausanne.
Stan Kingsbury sends in a card from Shrewsbury, Mass., announcing the arrival on February 26 of "Barbara," weighing nine and threequarters pounds. We announce that this is considerable daughter, and predict that she will be badly spoiled by her three older brothers.
Two 'l7ers who weren't with us over a year in Hanover have checked back in to the College at the following addresses : Hank Bomgardner, still dealing in Ford cars, is now in Scottsbluff, Neb., doing business at 20th St. and Broadway.
Leon Dutton is with the Childs Company, 200 Fifth Ave., New York, and living at 77 North Arlington Ave., East Orange, N. J.
"Skipper" Norwood has been reported as having deserted Gloucester, and is now with the Brown Company, Berlin, N. H., and living in Gorham.
A notice appeared in a recent issue of the Dartmouth to the effect that Mr. and Mrs. H. R. Barrett of White Plains, N. Y., have announced the engagement of their daughter Emily to Elmer Jamison Gray of Boston and nineteen seventeen. Miss Barrett is a graduate of Mount Holyoke and the Philadelphia School of Occupational Therapy.
Agent Hunk Stillman wrote in recently, and probably before this is printed his campaign for 1917's fund for this year will be under way. Next week there will be a meeting of all class officers, either in person or by proxy; so that all money collected under the '17 plan will be applied to a definite budget approved by all officers, and explained in detail in the next issue of the Sentry.
Gene Towler sent in a dozen photographs which he took at the Tenth. I am thinking of getting together with him in the effort to extort a small (or large) sum of money from some of the subjects of these photographs under penalty of having them publicly exhibited at some time. They offer a very tempting method of blackmail.
Who has some more good pictures of that reunion? Let's have them for the class filesright away, before they get lost.
Secretary, 90 Colony Road, Longmeadow, Mass.
