Class of 1902
How time does fly! Here it is March already, and time to be figuring on the spring plowing. By stretching my imagination a little I can see Joe Holmes putting in his first planting of peas, and in numerous quarters the rust is being rubbed off the golf sticks. Of course most of you get the connection between peas and plowing, but as to getting golf and plowing related some will need to watch a little more closely.
Percy Dorr seems to have represented the class very effectively at quite a few of the football games last fall, but he didn't find the New York crowd very numerous at the Princeton game. That's too bad, but you see some of our Gothamites are getting to be such cave-dwellers that they can't go anywhere except by subway. You get more for a nickel there than anywhere else in the world. But Percy did see quite a number of the class in his rambles, Louis Dow, Hoss Munroe, Phil Thompson, and even his next-door neighbor.
Arthur Chivers is building a new high school for Hanover, or probably more accurately he is chairman of the committee in charge. Anyway any man who has such a house full of active boys as you find at the Chivers' ought to be able to give a whole lot of advice on all kinds of schools from kindergarten to university.
And while we are up north let's go still further. Louis Kimball admits that he has been going through a real "old-fashioned" winter, but he hints that any man who has experienced four winters in Hanover ought not to object to cold weather. Kimmie is a philosopher, too, and I am impelled to enlarge upon one of his remarks about life, "this everlasting struggle which, after all,is worth combating."
Sometimes I seem to read between the lines in some of my letters a far different thought, and I wonder if too many of us are not being overawed by the "everlasting" part of it, far more than being inspired by the "work" of it. Of course it is a struggle, and a continual one at that, but who wants it otherwise? What is the joy of a combat (?) against a set-up? What if we all are striving under a repeated challenge? That is the game, and may we ever find with all the kicks and smarts a satisfaction in meeting an opposition that tries our mettle.
We are not all alike, our "struggles" are not the same, but it is a waste of good imagination to picture other fellows in the class as free from responsibility. I deplore this talk of success, as if there were only one measure of success. Instead of looking about to laud or to criticise our most "successful" classmate, why not consider all those of whom the class may justly feel proud? Whatever his circumstance, what man of our group cannot win our admiration and our praise for his active part in the game! High position is not to be attained by all men, however much we need competent leadership there is fully as much of a requirement for intelligent active men to carry out the work. It is not so much the part you play, as the way in which you play it.
And then the "worth" of it. I often think that we ourselves are quite unable to see things as they are, because we are still too near. Our own deeds are apt to appear either too small or too large. Yet there isn't a man in the group who doesn't hope that in some small measure at least the world is better for his existence, or that his children can contribute more than he has been able to do, or that no charge can be laid against him that he has put shackles on all the forward striving men. No, we all want the world to go on, and we want to go with it as far as we may.
The changing scene and the march of time are emphasized to us in various ways. Some years ago Roy Hatch and I were commenting on the peculiar way in which the class of 1902 was moving toward the early pages of the volume known as the "Register of Living Alumni." In the 1930 edition the class lists occupied 222 pages, and the 1902 list began on page 32. The way in which the same thing was more recently brought out made quite an impression on our good friend Edson. Eddy, always loyal, attended the recent alumni dinner in New York. Not only did he regret to find that only he and Arthur Tozzer represented 1902, but he was astonished to find that he was placed at one of the three tables down front directly in front of the speakers' table. That is, there were only two tables of men who preceded our class, and Eddy was perforce an old-timer.
However Eddy didn't get lugubrious about it, though he was worried a little about some of the fellows not showing up.
"I always get a great kick out of thesedinners. I feel rather proud to be in sucha gathering. I enjoy seeing the men oncea year in this way, renewing friendshipsand strengthening a continued growingaffection for the College, things we cannotmeasure in dollars and cents. All membersof our class would feel the same way aboutit if they would make the effort and planahead a little, if necessary, to attend thisone annual affair."
That's one hit square on the head of the nail, Eddy, and I hope that next year you won't feel so lonesome. If these Gothamites of ours can't do it on any other basis, at least they can undertake the job of helping to move P. P. a little farther away from the speeches, although he says that even those were worth hearing.
I am now about to quote one of the most welcome sentences a class secretary ever read. It is so neatly phrased and so sincere that I must have a special frame for it.
"Your letter reached my desk two minutesago, and I am replying immediately." Talk about immortal phrases. "Don't give up the ship," and "Lafayette, nous sommesici," are well enough in their way, even singularly appropriate for the circumstances, but in situations like this tell me what master of rhetoric can speak more eloquently. Arba, you have coined an epigram, which should be written in golden letters upon the desk of every man in the class.
Without doubt you will find the rest of the letter more interesting, but if you are going to forget any of the communication, don't let it be the superb sentence above.
"I was in Tulsa all summer. A pleurisygerm, or whatever it is that gives onepleurisy, attacked me in the middle ofJune and I was in the hospital for a week,then home for several weeks recuperating.My daughter with her two children visitedthe old home for about two months, andthis was a great tonic for me. Now feelingfine, and my advice to classmates on pleurisy is: Don't get it.
"Saw Tom Hubbard last spring, and hadlunch with Ducky Drake when he was herein May.
"My son Jim entered Dartmouth with theclass of '35, but last year attended theUniversity of Oklahoma. He has returnedto Hanover and I hope he will remainthere and get his degree with this class."
Incidentally this whole letter emphasizes one of the points that I have been trying to make during the march of the months. Let us suppose that you and I are lunching together, at your expense, and that during the course of the chatter I ask you if you have seen Arba Irvin lately. Which of these pictures comes into your mind: A well-filled-out business man, well known over a wide territory; the business manager of an important newspaper in one of America's active centers; a community man of influence and well-deserved reputation; a member of the Alumni Council of the College; a family man with a home he prizes, a son in college, and a daughter with two active children; in short a fine type of American college man in service. Or do you see a straight, rather slender youth, wearing probably a blue jersey which closely fits his frame, his striped trousers adding to the impression of longitudinal rather than transverse dimensions, and there is a combined air of Chicago and Crosby Hall which gives a suggestion of the happy-go-lucky. There's no doubt in my mind about what you will see, and in spite of my efforts to have you think of Arba as he is, you will persist in your idea of Arba as he was.
No, I am not singling out one individual for undue prominence, because the same thing is true of any one of us. If you would only go down the list with proper insight you will realize just how it goes. And I don't know that it is to be regretted, only I wish that we could better appreciate our men as they are now, give them some honor for the fine work they have done and are doing in this complex world of ours. I don t want to forget them as they were, by and large those relatively care-free boys made a happy life for us back in impressionable days. Yet what a mistake to overlook all that has taken place since, to recount always the number of talents possessed by each, and never to consider what he has done with them.
Secretary, 130 Woodridge Place, Leonia, N. J
