Class of 1898
On October 28 Joe Bartlett was on the radio in behalf of Charles F. Hurley, democratic candidate for governor of Massachusetts. The next morning the Boston Herald came out with a verbatim report of Joe's very interesting speech.
In the Christian Science Monitor under date of October 29 there was a most interesting article entitled "President learns secrets of Smithsonian Research." There was a very good picture of "Pete" Adams that went with the article, and what he said was so interesting that I am copying it verbatim:
"Dr. Walter S. Adams of Mount Wilson Observatory presents a summary of present knowledge regarding a 'rather mediocre dwarf star, our sun,' explaining that astronomical discovery during the recent past has tended to minimize the importance of the sun in the cosmic scheme, however important it might be from the human viewpoint. It is but one star in a galaxy of 200,000,000,000 other suns, he says, and that galaxy itself is only one of many thousands of similar stellar systems. In fact, our sun belongs to the class of dwarf stars so faint that they can be seen from earth only when in the immediate celestial neighborhood, "that is, within a few light years. Big as the sun may be to earthly eyes, the total mass of our own galaxy, the Milky Way, exceeds it 160,000,000,000 times."
Continues Dr. Adams, "If the sun were ten times as distant we would receive only 100th part of the present amount of light and heat. At present the average distance of the sun is about 92,000,000 miles, and the distance of an average nearby star is at least 33 light years. Roughly, a light year is 6,000,000,000,000 miles. If we carry through the arithmetic, we find that at a distance of 33 light years the sun would be among the fainter stars barely seen with the naked eye."
A very attractive looking envelope came to the Secretary by air-mail the other day, and when he opened it the following very interesting information was revealed: "Mr.and Mrs. A. R. Kendall announce the arrival of a boy named Warren Archibald,born October 17, 1936, weight 6 lbs. IIoz." The Joneses may have the first baby, but the Kendalls have evidently "kept up with the Joneses" by having what may be the last baby in the class.
There has just come to the Secretary's desk this morning the announcement of the passing of our classmate of freshman year, Dr. James P. Leahy of New Bedford, Mass. Further notice of his death will appear in another column of the MAGAZINE.
The Secretary saw Buck Chandler and Mrs. Chandler and numerous others of the Chandler family at the Harvard-Dartmouth game, also Denis Crowley wreathed in smiles, with his attractive bride by his side. Joe Bartlett was also present and Mrs. Joe Carney with one of her daughters. The Secretary was present with Mrs. Patey, and so far as he could see a good time was had by all the Dartmouth crowd.
The United States District Court appointed Joe Carney one of the trustees to liquidate the Amoskeag Manufacturing Company, Manchester, N. H., which was formerly the largest cotton mill in the world. Joe was the only one of the three trustees against whose appointment there was no contest or opposition. It must have been appreciated that with Joe as trustee a good job would be done, and stockholders and creditors receive a square deal.
In view of the publicity given to the Social Security Law in the closing days of the recent presidential campaign, it is of interest to know that one of our class will occupy a prominent position in the administration of this popular law.
The Collector of Internal Revenue of the Massachusetts District has chosen Denis Crowley to see that the taxes under this law are collected in that district, and to do this gave Denis a well deserved promotion, and made him assistant chief of the New Social Security Division, which has been created in the Boston office to collect this tax.
Members of the class are now in a fortunate position, because they may go to Joe Carney to borrow from the R. F. S., and to Denis to get their Old Age Pension.
NINETY-NINERS WERE AMONG 65,000 IN THE BOWL Reading, left to right, Prof. J. P. (Big Jim) Richardson '99, of Hanover; and Hon. JoeGannon '99 of New York, during the half, when the Big Green beat Yale 11-7.
Secretary, 57 Grove Hill Ave., Newtonville, Mass
