Letters to the Editor
THE KING OF FRANCE AGAIN
Dear Prof. Kelly: I have been very much interested in the two or three articles you have written for the ALUMNI MAGAZINE in which you have had something to say about the Rev. Eleazar Williams. In the last Bulletin of the Dartmouth Club of New York I notice you are aiding an undergraduate in trying to connect Williams with the lost Dauphin of France.
My interest in this historical enigma is due to the fact that I was born and raised in Northern New York where Williams was well known. He was buried in Hogansburg and I am enclosing a picture of his tombstone, as well as one of the church where he used to preach and one of the rectory where he used to live. They were taken last summer. You will note that the stone is leaning over; I reported this fact to a member of the local D. A. R. at Malone and she signified her intention of having it straightened.
No doubt you are familiar with the book: "Prince or Creole, the Mystery of Louis XVII" by P. B. Lawson published about 25 years ago.
I expect to be in Malone this summer and if I can do any research work around there that would be of assistance to you, I shall be only too glad to do it.
Please let me know when your book is published as I am anxious to obtain a copy.
In closing I might say that we people of Northern New York are positive that Williams was the Lost Dauphin.
Yours truly,
79 North William St., Bergenfield, N. J.
DARTMOUTH SONGS
Dear Editor: The article "Old-Time Music" by Louis S. Cox '96 in the May issue of the ALXJMNI MAGAZINE, with its reference to Bill Segur's "Dartmouth Song," recalled certain memories and incidents that may be worth recording as a matter of history.
While there was plenty of Dartmouth spirit during the early 90's which expressed itself in vigorous cheering, there was a pathetic lack of Dartmouth singing. This was felt by many Dartmouth men.
In writing about "Dartmouth Songs" some years ago in the ALUMNI MAGAZINE, George G. Clark '99 said, "There is no Registry of Births for college songs, and most of them seem to arrive as Topsy did. The occasion arises and they spring up. In former times the best of them somehow fell under the wing of the Glee Club, which acted like a foster parent and saw them properly introduced. I think most of Hovey's were thus introduced."
Fortunately the record of the birth of most of our Dartmouth songs is beyond dispute. During the winter of 1894, which was my senior year, I corresponded with several alumni, particularly the late Ozora S. Davis, urging him to undertake the compiling of a collection of Dartmouth songs, but "Ozie" was too busy preaching.
At that time there was only one distinctively Dartmouth song in existence which was written two years before by William B. Segur, Medical '92, who was I believe leader of the Dartmouth Glee Club during '9l and '92. In collaboration with Guy W. Cox '93, the pianist for the Glee Club, the simple score of the music was worked out and the song was sung by rote for seven or eight years without having been harmonized or published.
Four years after graduation, finding that I could get no one else to undertake the compilation of a book of Dartmouth songs, I decided to do so. At that time I was traveling for Ginn & Company and living in Minneapolis. My first step was to arrange with Addison F. Andrews '78, who was the organist for one of the large New York churches and the author of a number of published songs, to edit the book musically for me. I had come to know Mr. and Mrs. Hovey very pleasantly during a two months' stay in London in January and February, 1895, and I naturally turned to Hovey for help with words for the songs. He was enthusiastic over the idea.
Richard Hovey was then, as now, our outstanding Dartmouth poet, so I asked for poems by him to be set to music for the book. We drew up a contract which gave me the exclusive right to use any of Hovey's lyrics in a Dartmouth Song Book. As a part of the contract he wrote for me the "Hanover Winter Song" and the famous "Eleazar Wheelock" especially for this book, and he arranged with his friend Frederick Field Bullard to set them to music for me on very reasonable terms. I was to pay Hovey $100 for these two poems on publication, but some months before the book was out I received an urgent letter from him saying that he had been called to Washington by the illness of his father, General Hovey, and that Mrs. Hovey was "broke" in New York City, and would I anticipate the payment and send the $100 to her at once, which I was glad to do.
I also paid both Hovey and Bullard for the right to print "Barney McGee" and "Here's a Health to the Roberts" in "unlimited editions" of the "Dartmouth Song Book." In writing me on April 16, 1898, regarding the "Hanover Winter Song" and "Eleazar Wheelock," Bullard said, "The fact is that these compositions have turned out so well that I have taken unusual pains with them, and have tried them a number of times in public, and altered them accordingly until I am sure I have them in the best possible form." Again he wrote, "I am happy to say that the songs have proved very successful wherever given. The Apollo Club of Boston have said that they will sing the 'Winter Song' next season, and the Papyrus Club of Boston were very enthusiastic over 'Barney McGee,' which was well sung to them by Mr. Arthur W. Wellington a week ago."
These were undoubtedly the first public performances of these two famous songs.
The story of the origin of the song "Men of Dartmouth" ought also to be recorded. The poem was written at the suggestion of a member of the Dartmouth Lunch Club of Boston, which offered a prize for the best poem about Dartmouth. Some months later the poem won a $100 prize offered by Henry M. Baker of Bowe, N. H., for the best poem suitable for a Dartmouth song. I had the pleasure of first publishing "Men of Dartmouth" in the June 1894 issue of the Dartmouth Literary Monthly, of which I was editor. I accompanied the poem with Hovey's portrait and an extended appreciation of Hovey's work (the first, so he wrote me) under the title "Dartmouth's Laureate." Both Hovey and the College attempted to get the words set to music, for which Mr. Baker offered a second prize of $100, but after four years no acceptable setting had been produced. While Addison F. Andrews '78 was musically editing "Dartmouth Songs" for me, I called his attention to Hovey's poem and the $100 prize. He soon made a setting which when submitted to the Com- mittee of Judges, of which Mr. Chadwick, the distinguished composer, was a member, won the Baker prize of $100. The Andrews prize setting of "Men of Dartmouth" was first published in the first "Dartmouth Songs," issued by me in the fall of 1898. The book was handled locally by "Grover & Graham," the latter being Charles Pratt Graham '99, then a junior at Dartmouth, a member of the Glee Club, and later to become my brother-in-law.
This book of "Dartmouth Songs" contained 120 pages and was printed for me by Henry H. Hilton '9O, at the Athenaeum Press in Cambridge. It was bound in green deckle-edge paper, with a cover design by Louis Rhead, the well-known artist. It is worth mentioning that a cut of the coat of arms of the Earl of Dartmouth was used on the cover, the first time I believe that it had been associated with the college. I secured this coat of arms from an official document which I purchased in London, signed by Lord Dartmouth, May 2d, 1778, to which was affixed his seal bearing the Dartmouth coat of arms. I wonder if our "Dartmouth green" is due to the fact that Lord Dartmouth used green wax for affixing his seal, as on this official document, which I presented to the Dartmouth College Library some years ago.
It is not commonly known that Frederick Field Bullard made two settings for "Men of Dartmouth." He wrote me on April 16, 1898: "Herewith the MSS of 'Barney McGee' and 'Hanover Winter Song.' After mature deliberation I have come to think that it would not be desirable to include my setting of 'Men of Dartmouth,' especially as you have one (Andrews) already. Mr. Chadwick has written to me that he does not yet know whether he is to be one of the judges this year.—Moreover, Mr. Hovey himself has not the new (and I think the best) setting of the song."
On December 26, 1898, he wrote again: "I may have another try at 'Men of Dartmouth,' but I am quite disgusted with the judges, for one of the two settings submitted by me was much better than anything I can do in the future, I fear."
It would be interesting to know what has become of the two—possibly three—settings of "Men of Dartmouth" by Frederick Field Bullard.
Some years later, Harry R. Wellman 'O7, made another setting for the poem, which was used in the musical comedy "The Promenaders" (1909), and when in the same year I arranged with him to edit future editions of the Song Book, his setting was included in place of that of Andrews, as it seemed more singable.
Hovey's poem, "Our Liege Lady Dartmouth," was written in 1891, but was never published until it appeared in my "Dartmouth Songs" published in 1898.
In view of the fact that it was Dartmouth that produced Richard Hovey, who came to college as a boy of seventeen, and since Dartmouth first brought out such songs as the "Hanover Winter Song" (written to order), the "Stein Song," and "Barney McGee," it seems to me that Dartmouth should not lightly let go her claim that these are distinctively Dartmouth songs. I understand that at least two other colleges now claim them as their own, owing to the fact that Mr. Bullard attended both Tufts and M. I. T.
Altogether, I put $l6OO into the first and second editions of "Dartmouth Songs," and it has been a satisfaction to think that this may have had some slight influence during the past thirty-three years in stimulating college singing at Dartmouth.
The original edition of the book was dedicated to "William Jewett Tucker, for FifteenYears the President and Quickening Spirit ofDartmouth College," and it has seemed appropriate to let this stand in all subsequent editions. Certainly to the College and to every one who came in contact with him, he was indeed a quickening spirit.
RESUBSCRIPTION
Dear Editors: I am enclosing check for two dollars ($2.00) in payment of Father's (B. C. Brett's) sub- scription to the ALUMNI MAGAZINE. He passed his ninety-eighth birthday Aug. 23rd and is still able to be up in his chair every day for a few hours.
According to his diploma he is a graduate of your Medical School, Class of '59. I believe he is listed as '6O. He takes an interest in all that pertains to the welfare of Dartmouth.
TRAIN SERVICE
Dear Editor: The Boston & Maine is making an experiment this fall with a special sleeper out of New York Friday nights only and lay over in White River Junction until 8:00 A.M. Saturday morning. The same sleeper will run back Sunday night.
October 2 to November 13, inclusive, car will leave New York at 9:05 P.M., New Haven at 10:58 P.M. arriving White River Junction at 3:45 A.M. where car will be placed for occupancy until 8:00 A.M. Saturday morning. On the return the Washingtonian will leave White River Junction at 1:13 A.M. and this car will be placed every Sunday night at 10:00 P.M. at White River Junction arriving in New Haven at 5:51 A.M., New York 7:55 A.M.
Manager, Hanover Inn
Picture by B. B. Dudley Church in Hogansburg, Franklin County, New York, where Rev. Eleazar Williams used to preach
Picture by B. B. Dudley Tombstone of Rev. Eleazar Williams, Hogansburg, Franklin County, New York
Picture by B. H. Dudley Rectory in Hogansburg, Franklin County, New York, that was occupied at one time by Rev. Eleazar Williams
