CLASS OF 1898
Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Bartlett are motoring among the mountains of Virginia.
Israel Aubey is slowly recovering from a serious heart attack, but, with his usual fine courage, he is keeping at his important work in the office of the Metropolitan Water System at Framingham.
From a paper published in far Saskatoon, I note the following news from Zealandia: "An event of historical significance took place on Monday, when Mr. and Mrs. A. S. Worthen celebrated the 21st anniversary of the establishment of their hardware business in Zealandia. Afternoon tea was served at the store, and bags of candy were distributed to the children. Many friends and customers from the district attended, congratulating Mr. and Mrs. Worthen on the success of their business, 125 adults and 140 children signing the register. Since coming to Zealandia in 1909, Mr. and Mrs. Worthen have taken an active part in community life. Mr. Worthen has served the community in many ways—as president of the board of trade, school trustee, mayor of the town for four consecutive years, in church life as superintendent of the Sunday school, trustee, and chairman of the board of managers. Mrs. Worthen has been equally active as president of the W. M. S., and as organist of the church she has rendered efficient service." What a fine record for good old "Toot" Worthen and his faithful wife! May he inspire us all to do our part wherever we may be.
I received a letter from President Goodall the other day, in which he writes as follows:
"One of my friends who knows that during moments of relaxation I am inclined to read dime novels and detective stories recently gave me a book entitled Dime Novels, by Edmund Pearson. This book proved to be a very interesting story of the dime novel, and one that I would recommend to almost anyone.
"My point in writing to you is that on page 244 I found that Pete Adams had related his experience with the dime novel. While I, personally, was quite familiar with the fact that Pete was a dime novel fiend, yet the class as a whole may not know it. I quote Pete's experience:
'"I did read dime novels as a boy, and usually kept them carefully concealed in the attic. This was not absolutely essential, because my father, although disapproving of them in a general way, did not really consider them as works of the "Evil One," to use the current New England expression. At the same time, I think there is little doubt that he would have consigned to the fire any copies he had come across. I do not know from personal knowledge of any boy who was whipped for reading dime novels, but I think it may well have happened in Derry, N. H., in the eighteen-nineties. I know of boys who were obliged to read the Bible (almost invariably the Old Testament) for as much as three hours at a time because of having been caught reading secular books on Sunday afternoon. This was one of the great problems of my boyhood—what constituted "Sunday reading"—and the answers to it were very interesting. Apparently, for example, the religious wars of Europe after the Reformation were suitable, but the Napoleonic campaigns were outside the pale.
" 'I wish I could tell you more of interest, but apparently the dime novel did not affect either my brother or me to the same extent that they did many boys. Our heroes were much more likely to be historical characters, and I can still remember my enthusiasm over Hannibal when I.was ten. There was one person in the town of Derry whose opinion on the dime novel I wish I had. He was a little old man with a white beard, a pillar in the church, and at prayer meetings he always closed his prayer with a request to the Lord to have mercy upon "the great and wicked city of New York." This expression became a byword with some of us, but what experience on his part lay back of it I never knew. Every morning when he got out of bed he used to look out over the meadows east of his house to see if the second coming of the Lord was at hand.' "
The Secretary had the very sad duty to announce to the class the death by pneumonia on Thursday, April 3, at Gardner, Mass., of Herbert W. Blake. There were present at the funeral from the class, John R. Spring, Clarence E. Sibley, Archie Kendall, Joseph Carney, Henry Crowley, Ernest Seelman, Ernest Gleason, and the Secretary. An account of his career, death, and funeral appears in the obituary section of this MAGAZINE.
Secretary, 57 Grove Hill Ave., Newtonville, Mass.
