CLASS of 1897
There was a class dinner at the University Club, Boston, Friday evening, November 6, with the following attendance: Appleton, Balch, Boyd, Maurice Brown, Chase, Chesley, Christophe, Drew, Holt, Maloney, McEee, Morse, Noyes, Poor, Rowe, Sanborn, Tuttle, Ward, Woodworth.
There was a limited discussion in regard to the reunion at Hanover next June. The sentiment was apparently in favor of organizing a day's outing, having a class dinner at Hanover, securing as good accommodations as possible for the class, making ourselves as comfortable as may be, but keeping the expenses of the reunion low.
Your Secretary w-as particularly impressed by two members of the class. Billy Balch breezed into the Club without a hat. This lack of hat is apparently a boyish custom acquired through living Out of doors, and made possible by a crop of hair which creates envy in all other members of the class, saving perhaps Joe Ryan. A compensating addition to his dress, however, was a ribbon of the French Decoration given him for services during the war.
What he fails to show, and what he mentions with hesitation, is the American citation given him during the Mexican campaign. Without talk, without fuss, but moving directly into the positions where such things are to be found, Billy has had the most exciting life perhaps of any member of the class. He has just naturally moved where life, to our point of view, is extraordinary, as illustrated by his service in Santo Domingo and his getting into the Mexican campaign. Characteristically he was the first Dartmouth man I saw in uniform at that time.
Few people have faced life more bravely, more cheerfully, accepting the price which the brave and adventurous pay for moving through life as they choose. It is good to see Billy, under full steam, enjoying life thoroughly, full of life, and full of hearty enjoyment not only of memories, but of his everyday existence. I judge that thoughts of Africa, China, the mountains of India, and the interior of Tibet still make Billy feel nervous.
John Poor showed up unexpectedly at the dinner, explaining that he had an emotional urge early in the day which indicated the desirability of moving into Boston.
Billy Balch visited John some weeks ago at Hanover. They were years behind on matters needing discussion. It is my understanding that the laws of the firmament proceeded to function unsupervised by John, apparently for many days, while Billy and he discussed fully matters that undoubtedly needed discussion. In any case, for the first time since the observatory has been under John's charge, the sidereal clock was allowed to run down. This to me is the most significant indication of the profundity of the discussion which took place under the movable dome of the observatory.
John lias a coffee pot up there at the observatory which he fills and empties whenever there is company. Under the stimulus of this coffee a discussion can run right through the night, with no one feeling sleepy. I judge the coffee pot was worked hard the night Billy called.
John's serious reading consists of books and magazines revealing in quotations that run to paragraph length. For lighter reading John has taken to Grote's "History of Greece." He has completed the first ten volumes, and regrets that the complete series runs to only twelve volumes. When he learns in the last chapter just what happens to the hero and heroine he will have the problem of getting hold of some more equally satisfying literature.
Secretary, Park Square Bldg., Boston
