CLASS OF 1899
Joe Hobbs and his wife give such a stirring account of their summer in England that it's hard to be really severe about their skipping the Thirtieth, especially since their absence did not prevent '99 from winning its first Commencement Cup. Joe hired an old Buick in London with an antique "standard" shift which led to a bit of stalling his first time in traffic. With this perilous equipment, however, he toured all southern England. What time he didn't spend in the Hardy country and with the relics of ancient coronations at Winchester, he spent in a desperate effort to feel natural driving on the left-hand side of the road. Elsie insisted on his showing her Dartmouth Castle and the original six-form Latin grammar school in old Boston, while he insisted on driving her up all the steepest, crookedest hills in Cornwall. Courteous innkeepers, gracious Cambridge dons, and the King and Queen themselves (in a parade fifteen feet away) vied with each other successfully in keeping this '99 couple away from the Continent all summer long. The Lake country, Scotland, the Hebrides, Canterbury with its boy-scout jamboree, Abbotsford with the graves of Sir Walter, his biographer Lockhart, and the great Sir Douglas Haig,—it's no use to try to tell it. Go see Joe and Elsie in Belmont at their new Pine St. address. Maps, snaps, and chat will warrant you a delightful evening.
Louis Benezet, secretary for the five years just past, is as faithful as ever in contacts with Dartmouth men in general, and '99 men in particular. He reports the recent purchase and fitting up of a fine new residence for the president of the Plymouth Normal School. The house was originally built by the father of D. B. Keniston 'O2. And the present president, though you can't have forgotten, is Ernest Silver. He occupies it with his father and sister.
Benny also made several visits to the New Hampshire State Park near the Old Man of the Mountain. Ten Dartmouth boys and two Harvard boys were caretakers up there. They included Andrew Rankin '27 as leader, son of Walter 'OO. John Kenerson '2B, son of E. H. Kenerson 'O3, was first assistant. Among the other boys there were sons of Cummings 'O4, of Butterfield '97, and of Benny himself.
Golf! Look in the next issue for full details of the grand trophy chase precipitated by Tim Lynch's presentation of that handsome silver cup. From Hanover to Honolulu, the scores come pouring in. The challenges of Dave Storrs, Mushy, Rab Abbott of Manchester, Dan Ford, Benny, Nelson Brown, Guy Speare, Rodney Sanborn, and others at Hanover are being taken up all over the country, and indeed around the world. Tim has apparently found the greatest common denominator for the sporting fraction of Ninety-Nine.
Speaking of golf, young '99 takes no mere gallery position. Instead, he—and she— are right on the green getting their share of birdies and eagles. Here's young John Abbott, son of A. J., who won the golf tournament of the '99 children at Hanover. At the end of July, he beat 1900's best bet in the formidable state junior golf championship by upsetting "Buster" Fairfield, Perry's boy. And it took P. S. Carlisle of Exeter nineteen holes to down him in the finals. Then there's Willis Hodgkins' daughter Barbara, now Mrs. John Williams of Phoenix, Arizona, who won the Southwest Women's Golf Championship on the Phoenix course last spring.
Good news from Jim Richardson. He's definitely on the upgrade after his long siege since May, 1928. He's had various sessions in the Mary Hitchcock Hospital and the Dick Hall House, and at Stockbridge and Pittsfield, Mass. In the late summer he went to the Massachusetts General Hospital. There, Dr. M. N. Smith-Petersen, famous orthopedic specialist, is giving him personal, expert attention. Mrs. Richardson's unflagging devotion has been the admiration of all their friends. Jim Barney, George Clark, Charlie Donahue, Owen Hoban, Herb Rogers, and others have sprung several informal reunions on Long Jim at the Phillips House, 265 Charles St., Boston.
Kit Carson recently walked in on Pap Abbott; he admitted that he was three months late for the Thirtieth, but said that he will be the original pioneer in person at the Thirty-Fifth.
Pap, by the way, has bought a new home in Plainfield, N. J. Just note the "99" in his address: 1299 Denmark Road. His firm of Paine, Webber, and Company has also moved, from South Nassau St. to 11 Wall St.
Fod Martin and his wife were in Maine during the summer vacation. They, too, were much disappointed not to be in Hanover for the Thirtieth.
Like Fod, Percy Drake missed out last June. But he made a gesture in the way of penance when he turned up at the TwentyFifth Reunion of his Harvard Medical class in July. Sure-fire training, he insists, for the next Big Time in June, 1934.
Your class news will appear regularly in the Alumni Magazine. Have you renewed your subscription?
Secretary, 4lWest Kirke St., Chevy Chase, Md.
