Gradus Ad Parnassum

"Where can we find Jake Bond? We want to see Old Jake, where is he now?" Reuning classes back for their Fifth or Twenty-Fifth always came to that point: they wanted to see Jake. Answering their demand for their old friend one could have said: "Well, right now Jake's probably eating supper. At 8 o'clock he starts his rounds, you can find him on his beat anytime during the night. He'll be mopping out Allen's at 6 and after that you'll locate him in Allen's basement grinding up ice for the fountain. Are you a Deke? Or an Alpha Delt? If you are, course he'll be around those houses all morning doing janitor work. You could catch him at Dave's about noontime when he gets his paper. He usually sleeps a while after dinner but to-day there's a ball game so he'll be down there taking tickets. You'll see Jake all right, somewhere. You can't miss him."

Jake died last month. Death came to take him mercifully away from terrible agonies brought on by Bright's Disease which followed a serious operation in November. To hundreds of Dartmouth men Jake has been a real, living part of the College. We'll all miss him. The ranks of the old timers on the College janitor force are thinning. Jerry Crowley has left Dartmouth Hall for keeps. Some of the other old fellows, still living, are on the pension list. And some of them are still going strong.

The familiar cry of "Oh, Aleck!" in Robinson needs now to be shouted in Reed to bring forth that popular old veteran of innumerable Little Theater dances and DartmouthJacko—D. O. C.complaints and celebrations. But forth he would come, a little slowly but ready to welcome an old student friend and ready to reminisce. Reed, in its brand new interior dress, is Aleck's new domain. Asked how he liked the change, he said "Well, I don't know. I'm not sure yet." Which probably means it isn't so bad.

George Clayton in the Ad Building is 77. He's been taking meticulous care of the building since the Parkhursts built it in 1911. And before that he was janitor in Sanborn. And before that he worked with old Charley Hall —when he first started in 1890. That makes a term of service to date for George of 42 years. He's on the job at 6 every morning and leaves at 5. Bill Gooding spends a lot of time planning ways of relieving him from heavy work and arduous duties. But he's there every day, doing a long day's work and a good one. There has always been something about George Clayton that is too dignified and respectful to invite familiarity. The younger administratives address him as Mr. Clayton. It may be the effect of his devotion to Dr. Tucker, many times expressed. Dr. Tucker was, and is, the idol of all those janitors who began their work when he began his. Something of his strength and dignity has come down through these old men.

Jeff Pennock was one of Jake Bond's best friends. He broke Jake in oyer in Wheeler in 1897. After a year or more Jake went to Reed, later to South Fayerweather, and when that burned, to his night watchman's job which he held for 25 years. Both Jeff and Jake were brought up in Norwich. When they worked in dormitories (Jeff has charge of airing out Steele now) the boys would send them down to the Harvard game. They went together and as Jeff says "Boy, we had a time!" Jake was one of Hanover's star ball players in his day. He and Will Smalley were the mainstays of the town team back in the days when Lon Gove had to give up baseball because of old age.

Charley Hall is Dean of the crowd. He has always supposed that he was born in 1851 but not long ago word came from Canada that it was 1850, which makes him 82 instead of the mere 81 he had been accepting. His job for Dartmouth dates back to 1888. There wasn't any sewerage system then, nor running water, central heating, nor lots of other things. Charley is up at dawn, hard at work in Webster, the chapel, or mowing lawns until quitting time. Then almost as often as not there's a concert or a shindig of some kind at night and he's there in Webster to put on the lights and open the doors—and he's the last one to leave when it's over. Never a sick day—think of it! Not so much as a toothache in his long life. Recommended: Come back to Hanover and be a janitor.

Some years ago Bill Gooding was cleaning all buildings thoroughly and in the process had an old cupboard taken out of the vestibule in the chapel. It was stored away in a basement with a resulting improvement in the appearance of the chapel entrance. Charley Hall came over to the Ad Building and asked where it had gone. Bill explained and asked why he was interested. Old Charley told him: "The first day Dr. Tucker came to chapel I took his coat and put it in that cupboard. Then I helped him put on his gown. I did that every day while Dr. Tucker was President of the College. Now I miss that cupboard." There was a rush of orders in the superintendent of buildings' office and "that cupboard" went back to Charley.

JAKE BOND "We'll all miss him"